Condé Nast plans to cut 5% of its workforce, acknowledging the toll of digital video’s shift toward short-form fare inspired by TikTok. The parent company of well-established media brands

Condé Nast Laying Off 5% Of Its Workforce, Citing “Volatile” Nature Of Digital Video Marketplace

Condé Nast will lay off more than 300 employees, 5% of its headcount, and take other cost-reduction steps as it looks to improve efficiency.

Condé Nast to Lay Off 5% of Employees, Close Offices in Bid to Cut Costs

Roger Lynch, the chief executive, said the company was grappling with digital advertising pressures, a decline in social media traffic and shifting audience behaviors.

Condé Nast, Publisher of Vogue, Will Cut 5% of Its Work Force

The feeling that there is more construction this year than in the past may be due to where the work is happening, says the head of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association. This year marks the ...

Heavy construction on Winnipeg regional streets a consequence of funding: MHCA head

Despite more people returning to work in the office, Naito is convinced that there remain enough “digital nomads” to give Anyplace plenty of business. “Big tech tend to get people back in ...

Anyplace, a startup aimed at giving “digital nomads” a comfortable place to work, says new round “nearly doubled” valuation

A 60fps performance mode was promised and five months later, it has finally arrived, but how well does it work, and what the rest of the game's issues? Before we dive into the new performance mode ...

Redfall's 60fps patch works - but this isn't the redemption story we were hoping for

The Telecoms Unit works closely with colleagues in Planning ... Telecoms Unit is to engage with and support industry to enable this.” Anne McLister, Head of Digital Economy, Glasgow City Council "Working with Glasgow City Council has been a prime ...

Dedicated Telecoms Unit works with industry to attract and accelerate digital infrastructure investment in Glasgow

As the head of IT solutions at a leading fintech provider ... Wei opened his OCBC account in just minutes via the OCBC Digital app – all from the comfort of his home after work. Reflecting on the smooth and streamlined onboarding experience, Wei ...

New digital account opening service helps meet growing relocation needs

“I think we need to talk about precise work programs ... bolstering Caribbean disaster resilience, and increasing digital access across Latin America. Another possible area of cooperation ...

IDB head’s big plan: Work with the World Bank, sweat the balance sheet

The “Army Blue Book and Digital Library,” as the program is ... was a finalist in the 2023 Livingston Awards for his work with The Texas Tribune investigating the National Guard's border ...

Army at work on a digital ‘blue book’ app, top enlisted soldier says

Get the most recent info and news about Head Digital Works on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

Head Digital Works

FTC v. Binance Court Filing, retrieved on March 27, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 21 of 31. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here L. Examples of Market Participants Currently Trading on Binance and Binance’s Efforts to Help Them Evade Its Compliance Controls Trading Firm B 162. Trading Firm B is a quantitative trading firm headquartered in New York and incorporated in Delaware. Trading Firm B has at all relevant times been ultimately majority-owned by U.S. residents. Numerous senior managers, including the individual who functions as Trading Firm B’s CEO, have worked from Trading Firm B’s New York headquarters. Trading Firm B also has offices in London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Trading Firm B uses “proxy servers” to access the internet. Like VPNs, proxy servers obscure an internet user’s true IP address. 163. Trading Firm B conducts its digital asset trading activity on Binance through a dedicated trading desk that utilizes automated trading strategies programmed into computer algorithms developed by personnel at Trading Firm B’s New York headquarters, among other locations. Trading Firm B’s algorithms determine whether to place or cancel any orders based on the instructions in their code. Trading Firm B’s algorithms are built using computer code that Trading Firm B considers to be valuable intellectual property. Trading Firm B’s computer code is owned, directly or by assignment from its various wholly-owned subsidiaries, by Trading Firm B. 164. The global head of Trading Firm B’s digital asset trading desk works from Trading Firm B’s New York headquarters. Other employees, including members of the business development team responsible for interacting with Binance, also work from Trading Firm B’s New York headquarters. 165. Trading Firm B has been among Binance’s largest customers and has consistently received reduced trading fees due to its status as a Binance VIP. Binance has also permitted Trading Firm B to exceed Binance’s default order-messaging limits and has “whitelisted” Trading Firm B’s API connections to the platform’s matching engines so Trading Firm B can “benefit from lower latency and stability” relative to customers that do not have “whitelisted” connections. Binance personnel explained to Trading Firm B that Binance’s: “low-latency futures api/fstream . . . carry a different domain than the public fapi/fstream . . . which will route to a more dedicated machine/gateway that open exclusively for MM and top tier VIP clients. So generally client can expect a slight 5-10ms latency reduction on roundtrip for normal trading environment and more normalized latency distribution (less extreme tail) in busy environment.” 166. Beginning in July 2018, prior to the Relevant Period, Trading Firm B began trading digital assets in Binance’s spot markets through an account held in the name of a whollyowned HongKong-incorporated subsidiary. 167. On February 13, 2020, Trading Firm B tried to “open a futures account” and received an “error message.” Senior Binance personnel then concluded this may have been due to “US ip” or that “the UBO would be a US person.” Binance employees chatted: “How annoying,” and surmised that Trading Firm B’s account was “[g]randfathered” from “back before [Binance] screened for” the location of its customers. After confirming that Trading Firm B was a “US entity in our system,” Binance employees conferred with Trading Firm B’s New York-based cryptocurrency business development personnel and “discussed with him (a) short term opening a personal account and (b) moving this personal account to their HK legal entity in medium term.” 168. The next day, February 14, 2020, a Trading Firm B employee who is a resident of the United Kingdom opened a personal account on Binance. Trading Firm B then began to conduct its digital asset derivative trading activity in that account and would ultimately conduct substantially all of its corporate trading activity through this “personal” account for several years. 169. In August and September 2020, Trading Firm B asked Binance “to transfer [its] VIP status from” the account held in the name of Trading Firm B’s Hong Kong-incorporated subsidiary to the “personal” account held in the name of their United Kingdom-based employee. In January 2021, Binance confirmed that it understood Trading Firm B was trading on Binance through a “personal” account and at all times applied the VIP benefits associated with Trading Firm B’s corporate trading activity to this “personal” account. 170. Trading Firm B continued to trade BTC perpetuals and other derivative products through its “personal” account until approximately October 2022. Binance routinely communicated with Trading Firm B about the activity in Trading Firm B’s “personal” account, including through email to addresses with the domain @[tradingfirmb].com, and interacted with Trading Firm B personnel in a Telegram chat group titled “Binance < > [Trading Firm B].” 171. On March 11, 2022, Trading Firm B submitted KYC documents to Binance concerning an application for a “new” Binance account to be held by a nominee shell company organized under the laws of Jersey. The shares of this new nominee entity are “owned” by a third party that has no affiliation with Trading Firm B and does not exercise any control over Trading Firm B’s trading activity on Binance. 172. Trading Firm B’s Jersey nominee does not have any employees and does not have any meaningful sources of capital, apart from Trading Firm B. Trading Firm B’s Jersey nominee has entered into at least two contracts with Trading Firm B subsidiaries. First, a “Services Agreement.” Under the terms of that agreement, a Trading Firm B subsidiary agrees to provide office space, personnel, technology, information technology support, including maintenance of all services and systems databases, and “any services as the parties may agree from time to time.” Second, a “Confirmatory Note.” Under the terms of that note, a Trading Firm B subsidiary agrees to transfer funds to Trading Firm B’s Jersey nominee for the purpose of engaging in “Nominee Trading Activities.” In return, Trading Firm B’s Jersey nominee agrees to provide Trading Firm B with the “Net Proceeds” of its nominee trading activity on Binance. 173. On March 17, 2022, a New York-based Trading Firm B employee wrote to Binance: “I’m currently trying to make sure we can get our account entity-verified before the May 15 deadline . . . . We’ve been trying to set up a new account . . . do you think you could help us get more color on what info [Binance is] looking for?” A Binance salesperson responded: I am channeling internally with the onboarding agent reviewing the case . . . . On the deadline [to open a new account], don’t worry, we will apply for a whitelisting for a couple of more weeks so there is no risk of trading disruption . . . . We cannot apply the new [KYC] documents to the existing account because it is a Personal Account. Once the corporate one is approved, we will help migrating with the ad hoc setups it might have. On April 7, 2022, Trading Firm B received an email from Binance concerning the contemplated “new” account that read: Corporate Verification Successful. 174. Despite the “successful” corporate verification, Trading Firm B continued to trade through its “personal” account and on July 5, 2022, asked Binance if “it [would] be possible to apply the limits and mm levels to the new account immediately?” Binance responded that it had “good news” that it could “migrate” Trading Firm B’s “personal account (the one you guys are currently using for trading)” to the new account held by Trading Firm B’s Jersey nominee following “exceptional approval.” Still trading through its “personal” account as of October 6, 2022, Trading Firm B sent a Telegram message to Binance outlining “some things . . . to make sure get reflected in the new account to match our existing account,” including “rate limits, fee tiers/mms status, [and] withdrawal limits.” Binance responded: “we can do all.” 175. Ultimately, Trading Firm B did not even need to migrate its trading activity despite applying for a “new” account and getting “exceptional approval” from Binance. Instead, Binance just swapped out the name on Trading Firm B’s “personal” account with the name of the Jersey nominee. Everything else—VIP benefits, preferential matching engine access, open positions, even the account number—stayed the same. Trading Firm B continues to trade on Binance, including in digital asset derivative products such as bitcoin perpetuals. 176. Trading Firm B has been the real economic party to Trading Firm B’s trading activity on Binance at all times no matter what the name on its account has been. Trading Firm B has at all times capitalized Trading Firm B’s trading activity on Binance and the net trading revenue derived from its trading activity on Binance has been consolidated into Trading Firm B’s financial statements. Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 1:23-cv-01887 retrieved on September 4, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. docdroid.net

Binance's Efforts to Help Select Market Participants Evade Its Compliance Controls  

E-commerce has seen an incredible boom in recent years due to COVID. But even as the pandemic restrictions were mostly lifted across the globe, the conveniences of online shopping are here to stay, and . Morgan Stanley predicts that the e-commerce market will grow . the sector continues growing from $3.3 trillion in early 2022 to $5.4 trillion in 2026 On the other hand, the banking sector is seeing a decline amid rising interest rates, high inflation, and uncertain perspectives for business activity. The red warning light flashed bright in March 2023, as the 16th largest bank in the US, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), after a bank run. Amid the rising panic, smaller players like Signature Bank . Even the biggest players cannot be regarded as safe anymore, as the Credit Suisse giant was recently taken over . The world’s banking majors like and report profits shrinking by as much as 20%. collapsed followed by its peer, UBS JP Morgan Citigroup At the crossroads of these two major trends, the e-commerce boom and the banking sector turmoil — lies an opportunity known as Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and Embedded Finance. Rising tech companies are creating innovative products, like marketplaces and aggregators that, at some point, can leverage financial services. Banks are seeking ways to boost their revenue and client base. Blending these needs is a win-win situation for both sides. According to McKinsey’s estimates, embedded finance market revenue reached $20 billion in the US alone in 2021 and could still . Another estimate by suggests that this segment would grow to over $187 billion globally by 2027, while BaaS platform revenues are set . double within the next three to five years Juniper Research to reach $38 billion, up from $11 billion in 2022 How it works Digital life is becoming more and more complicated, so it is no surprise that customers are increasingly looking for all-in-one solutions. Brought to the pinnacle, this logic leads us to giant ecosystems, combining goods, services, and finance in one seamless experience. As early as 2020, the world’s leading companies were ecosystems. The path to an ecosystem for the biggest players is obvious: acquiring their financial service providers and creating proprietary in-house solutions that would be tailored to the company’s internal systems and demands from the start. This was the strategy pursued by major retailers like and . In a lower league, the need for seamless solutions is satisfied by cooperation with BaaS providers to create an embedded finance experience for customers. Classic banks own and operate the entire value chain, from the banking license to engaging end-user B2B and B2C customers. In BaaS, the value chain is split between partnering companies, enabling them to focus on what they do best and make profits from it. There are (and an infinite number of blends between them) of BaaS services: Walmart IKEA four major models offer their banking licence and products, operations, and/or technology for use by aggregators, other banks, and non-financial companies. One example of this model is Uber, offering its proprietary debit card to new drivers and delivery partners. With this card, they can instantly use money paid for the journeys they performed. Also, they can benefit from cashbacks and incentives from Uber partnering vendors. Another example is SoFi which offers investment products as well as loans in one financial super app. Also, clients can opt for a debit card issued by Bancorp to complete their finance management package. Providers benefit from BaaS by offering banking services to customers of distributor partners, scaling existing assets, and generating incremental revenue at a minimal cost. Providers act like Providers, but also lend their capabilities to other vendors to compose a complete out-of-the-box solution. Shopify is one example of this model, integrating small businesses’ accounts held at Evolve Bank & Trust with an e-commerce platform. Clients are offered debit cards and tools for monitoring their finances. Cash App by Square is another example, offering peer-to-peer payments, investment and cryptocurrency trade. Cards are offered via Marqeta and its banking partner, Sutton Bank. By aggregating other providers, provider-aggregators can offer integrated financial products, which can deepen relationships with distributors. Providers-Aggregators leverage end-customer relationships to offer unique financial services propositions. This model is employed by global players like Facebook, Amazon, and eBay to integrate financial services into marketplaces and ecosystems; by Xero and Shopify to offer B2B services; by retail giants like IKEA, Macy’s and Walmart to offer point-of-sale lending, loyalty programs and co-branded financial services. Finally, it enables players like Wealthfront and Aspiration to offer digital banking and niche fintech services. In this model, providing banking services creates new value for customers, enabling distributor partners to strengthen their core business. Distributors enhance the propositions they distribute by adding new products or technology from multiple providers. For instance, Google Pay offers a digital wallet for conventional and online purchases as well as peer-to-peer payments. Also, it offers tools for finance monitoring and checking and saving accounts with several banking partners. The Lending Club enables small businesses to open and manage their accounts, including payment acceptance. Accounts are enabled by several fintech partners like Alloy for verification and KYC, Treasury Prime for lifecycle APIs and Marqeta for card issuance. By aggregating providers, these players offer the elevated experiences that customers are demanding; for non-financial companies this model enables them to distribute banking services without becoming a bank. Distributor-Aggregators Choosing the right model and partner The primary question is: how are you going to grow your business and what is the primary source of your income. Benefits do not distribute equally along the value chain, so it is important to find the right place in it. Most of it concentrates on the risk-bearing side of providers and on the customer-relationship side of distributors. According to , the majority of revenues from embedded-finance lending products, 55% of the $14 billion in the United States in 2021, accrued to the balance sheet provider, the firm bearing the risk of credit default. However, with payments and deposits, it was the distributors who owned the end-customer relationship who benefited most. In lending, for instance, they earned $4 billion of the remaining $6 billion revenue pool, equal to 30 percent of total revenues. McKinsey research Choosing the right partner among banks may point away from the biggest players. For banks with full-fledged proprietary delivery networks, embedded finance may pose a . However, banks with a smaller retail presence, such as community banks and regional banks, may see it as a good opportunity to grow without making hefty investments in building their own sales funnels. cannibalization risk Another thing to keep in mind is whether you should choose to partner with a BaaS platform provider directly or opt for cooperating with a fintech intermediary to offer embedded finance. Samuel Head, head of EMEA banking sales at Currencycloud, a provider of cross-border multi-currency transaction solutions, suggests a . simple rule of thumb “A company considering embedding financial services simply needs to consider how much ownership they wish to have. And what their end users’ needs are. In the main, if you are not in FinTech, find a FinTech company you can trust to embed a quality service that helps you sell more of your core product or service,’ Head told . “If you are a FinTech, think about using a BaaS supplier. It’s actually a good time to build in redundancy and to be very careful when selecting your partners.” Fintech Global

Enhancing Competitive Advantage in E-commerce Using BaaS and Embedded Finance

The Crypto Industry Needs to Solve Custody and UX Problems

This week anti-piracy company Rivendell made history by reporting its 500 millionth infringing URL to Google. Speaking with TorrentFreak, the founder of Rivendell and sister company LeakID says that his team works closely with Google and finds the search giant very cooperative and helpful. He credits pirates for being resourceful but loves finding ways to "outsmart" them. DMCA notices or their equivalents can be filed against websites, hosts, ISPs and other services almost anywhere in the world, with the majority of entities taking some action in response. At Google, for example, the company receives DMCA notices requesting that allegedly-infringing URLs are delisted from search results and at this company alone, the scale is astonishing. At the time of writing, Google has processed requests to remove 4.43 billion URLs from its indexes across 2.77 million domains. These were filed by more than 196,100 copyright holders and 186,100 reporting organizations, which includes anti-piracy groups. This week, one of those anti-piracy groups reached a historic milestone. French anti-piracy group sent its 500 millionth URL delisting request to Google, breaking the half-a-billion barrier for a single reporting entity for the first time Rivendell Hervé Lemaire is the owner of Rivendell’s sister company LeakID, a company he formed in 2006 after he left EMI/Virgin as Head of Digital. Speaking with TorrentFreak this week, he explained that Rivendell was launched in 2013 with a key focus to prevent unlicensed content appearing in Google’s indexes. Lemaire didn’t provide specific details on Rivendell’s top clients but a cursory view of Google’s report shows many familiar names from the world of entertainment, including what recently appears to be a strong focus on sports content owned by the Premier League and Italy’s Serie A. In common with all anti-piracy companies, Rivendell isn’t keen to give away its secrets. Lemaire did confirm however that patroling Google’s indexes is only part of the puzzle and that scanning piracy platforms to identify infringing material quickly plays a big part. When it comes to dealing with Google itself, Lemaire bucks the trend by complimenting (rather than criticizing) the company for its anti-piracy work. “We work closely with the Google team and we are very happy with them,” he told TF. “They are very cooperative and when we have a problem with a link we always have an answer and a solution from them.” Google doesn’t impose any reporting limits on Rivendell either, with Lemaire noting that all Google wants is to work with “serious companies doing a serious job.” While the sending of more than half-a-billion URL reports is certainly remarkable, it’s worth breaking down what type of action was taken in response to them. The image below shows what action Google took, with just under three-quarters of URL requests resulting in immediate removal That raises the question of why 25% of Rivendell’s URL reports failed to result in content being removed. The red category – almost 20% – indicates content that didn’t actually exist in Google’s indexes at the time it was detected by Rivendell. The company suggests that because it acts so quickly, it can detect content before it appears in Google’s results. “If you search the links only on Google, you have nothing to do with the protection of content,” Lemaire says. “We do not expect Google to show us the pirated links [immediately]. To be effective we must go to where content is found before it appears on the search engine, especially for live content.” This type of proactive takedown isn’t a problem for Google. As , the company is happy to receive the URLs for content it hasn’t yet indexed for action when they do eventually appear. previously revealed “We accept notices for URLs that are not even in our index in the first place. That way, we can collect information even about pages and domains we have not yet crawled,” Google copyright counsel Caleb Donaldson previously explained. “We process these URLs as we do the others. Once one of these not-in-index URLs is approved for takedown, we prophylactically block it from appearing in our Search results.” Lemaire also has straightforward explanations for the other categories too. Requests labeled as ‘duplicate’ by Google have already been targeted by other anti-piracy companies while the 1% marked “No Action” can be the result of several issues including a lack of evidence, a homepage delisting request, hidden content, or even a ‘fake’ pirate website. The big question, however, is whether all of these delisting efforts actually have any serious impact on the volumes of pirated content being consumed. Lemaire is clear: “It works.” “For live events like football we were the first to work on removing links before, during and after matches. This is why several European leagues trust us in particular on this subject,” he says. “In general, the removal of illegal links allows legal offers to occupy the top places in search results. There are still improvements to be made regarding the pagerank of illegal sites, however.” Lemaire is brief when questioned on what measures are taken to avoid erroneous takedowns, stating that all domains are validated before they are notified to Google. Finally, he also appears to recognize the resourcefulness of his adversaries but says that countering them is enjoyable. “Pirates are not stupid and are constantly finding new solutions. It’s up to us to work to outsmart them .. we love it,” he concludes. Originally published as “ Rivendell Has Now Sent Half a Billion DMCA Takedown Requests to Google ” with the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) license

Rivendell Makes History By Reporting 500 Millionth Infringing URL To Google

Users seem to better appreciate a local DNA for news and social media. Is global dead? As tech giants like Google and Facebook now focus on local — both news and more—platforms already born out of a local DNA, like , , , and even Ring Neighbors by Amazon, seem to be a more obvious choice for today’s digital users of all generations. On the news side, projects like Patch in the US and The Local in Europe are creating best practices. Nextdoor Yelp Foursquare body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;} The future is local, or rather glocal! As both Facebook and Google now focus on local (news and more), are social platforms like or even Neighbors a better choice? What about local or hyper-local news outlets like or ? @Nextdoor @Yelp @Foursquare @Ring @PatchTweet @TheLocalEurope https://t.co/LyAesULA8l — @andreas212nyc function notifyResize(height) {height = height ? height : document.documentElement.offsetHeight; var resized = false; if (window.donkey && donkey.resize) {donkey.resize(height); resized = true;}if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var obj = {iframe: window.frameElement, height: height}; parent._resizeIframe(obj); resized = true;}if (window.location && window.location.hash === "#amp=1" && window.parent && window.parent.postMessage) {window.parent.postMessage({sentinel: "amp", type: "embed-size", height: height}, "*");}if (window.webkit && window.webkit.messageHandlers && window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize) {window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize.postMessage(height); resized = true;}return resized;}twttr.events.bind('rendered', function (event) {notifyResize();}); twttr.events.bind('resize', function (event) {notifyResize();});if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var maxWidth = parseInt(window.frameElement.getAttribute("width")); if ( 500 < maxWidth) {window.frameElement.setAttribute("width", "500");}} Indeed, it looks like the desire to stay digitally local and to migrate from online to offline are key trends in this new phase of the digital age. And large digital platforms are certainly recalibrating their efforts. To put it in Mark Zuckerberg’s words, “people increasingly also want to connect privately in the digital equivalent of the living room.” This shift from global to local is not completely new, just like the desire for people to move from online to offline. These trends are strengthening probably more visible as digital platforms and the news industry are going through a major crisis due to a lack of trust from users and a need from more privacy and data security. “We are seeing a major attack on the trust and credibility of global media companies,” says , DC’s head of digital and integrated marketing, and digital transformation ( ). “When our political leaders constantly say ‘fake news’, people start believing it,” he adds. Tom Cochran Edelman thomascochran.com “That doesn’t diminish the need for authoritative and credible hubs for information,” he continues. “Maybe it’s the dawn of an age similar to over 100 years ago where every major and minor city had a series of newspapers representing a broad set of local views. It worked then because it was a viable business model built on advertising and classifieds revenue. The money follows consumer desires and if this trend is real, someone is going to figure out how to capitalize on it.” According to a recent of about 35,000 Americans, the digital era is making its mark on local news. Pew Research Center survey body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;} One of the things I love most about the thought process around this interactive by our superb digital team was that they released our entire data set in order to allow other researchers to work with our data. #transparency #transparency @pewresearch https://t.co/Xfes3cq6Gs — @DMediaguy function notifyResize(height) {height = height ? height : document.documentElement.offsetHeight; var resized = false; if (window.donkey && donkey.resize) {donkey.resize(height); resized = true;}if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var obj = {iframe: window.frameElement, height: height}; parent._resizeIframe(obj); resized = true;}if (window.location && window.location.hash === "#amp=1" && window.parent && window.parent.postMessage) {window.parent.postMessage({sentinel: "amp", type: "embed-size", height: height}, "*");}if (window.webkit && window.webkit.messageHandlers && window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize) {window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize.postMessage(height); resized = true;}return resized;}twttr.events.bind('rendered', function (event) {notifyResize();}); twttr.events.bind('resize', function (event) {notifyResize();});if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var maxWidth = parseInt(window.frameElement.getAttribute("width")); if ( 500 < maxWidth) {window.frameElement.setAttribute("width", "500");}} Nearly as many US adults today say they prefer to get their local news online as say they prefer to do so through the television set. The 41% of Americans who say they prefer getting their local news via TV and the 37% who prefer it online far outpace those who prefer a printed newspaper or the radio (13% and 8%, respectively). Pew underscores that local news consumers prize community connection. “The public also has high expectations for their area news providers when it comes to their capacity to be a genuine part of the community,” the study continues, while mentioning that an overwhelming majority of adults say it is at least somewhat important for journalists to understand their community’s history (85%) and to be personally engaged with their local area (81%), and at least four-in-ten deem each very important. As reported by Recode, a year ago, Facebook specifically for local news, now called . and Kurt Wagner explains that “the idea was that Facebook — which is flooded with all kinds of photos, videos, ads, and events from a wide range of people, publishers, and brands — wanted to create a special section where local news and events would stand out among the crowd.” built a new section of its app Today In Rani Molla However, to quote , co-founder of Axios, “It’s becoming harder to find the news that matters to you, your job, and your community.” Mike Allen This is true for Facebook too as the company is having trouble finding local news. That is why Facebook has recently announced a new pilot program, the , “to support projects aimed at building community through local news.” Facebook Journalism (FPJ) Project Community Network “Whether a publisher is trying to build a new business around memberships, report in an underserved community, or build a tool that helps local storytellers find and engage news audiences — we want to provide runway for them to serve their community,” Facebook’s Jimmy O’Keefe and writes. Josh Mabry Supporting Research on News Deserts - facebookjournalismproject.com Similarly, Google, through and the Google News Initiative, is about to fund dozens of new local news websites around the United States — and eventually around the world — according to an exclusive report by at . Google News Lab Sara Fischer Axios The goal of the program, named will be testing new approaches in local business models to help the industry as a whole learn what works and what doesn’t. Axios reports that “The tech giant says it will have no editorial control over the sites, which will be built by partners it selects with local news expertise.” GNI Local Experiments Project, The first effort to emerge is in partnership with , a leading local news and information provider in 30 markets across the US, and their newly-launched . McClatchy Compass Experiment McClatchy and Google partner on an experimental lab for local news “The Compass Experiment isn’t about making incremental improvement for local news,” says McClatchy President and CEO Craig Forman. “It’s about coming up with new approaches, and harnessing the expertise of both McClatchy and Google to create new models.” He continues: “Google will have no input or involvement in any editorial efforts or decision making.” For local news, however, it’s not easy. writes that “local media outlets — the ones that are supposed to tell you what’s happening at your kids’ school, or the zoning board, or the statehouse — are truly in trouble: They lost their most valuable revenue stream many years ago, and since then they have been shrinking, and shrinking, or folding altogether.” Peter Kafka In this environment, there are of course platforms that are doing better. “Against that backdrop, take a look at , the all-digital local news company you probably stopped paying attention to years ago, when AOL used to own the company,” Kafka says. “For better or worse, it may represent the future of local news.” Patch The alternative to your dying local paper is written by one person, a robot, and you He continued: “Here is the glass-half-full news about Patch: , the investor that has owned the company for the past five years, says his network of 1,200 sites are turning a profit, generated by more than $20 million in annual ad revenue, without a paywall. The company, led by former New York Times reporter Warren St. John, now employs about 110 journalists, who make an average base salary that ranges from $45,000 to $60,000, and a total of 150 employees. At its AOL-owned peak, Patch had close to 1,000 employees.” Charles Hale hyper-local In Europe, local communities have always been the focus of The Local, a Stockholm-based news publisher co-founded by Managing Director and Managing Editor James Savage, whose motto is “Authentic European News, locally sourced.” Paul Rapacioli “Our Local, niche audiences are an integral part of our readership community and in-turn we feel we provide an essential connection to The Local world around them,” explains on , social media manager at The Local. “Our Facebook Groups show this with so much localized discussion.” Matt Hope “The value we provide for our readers is that we give them local news in English — i.e. not the local native languages, e.g. Swedish, French or German — so the news we provide not only bridges a language gap but also a cultural gap and as such is an essential part of their relationship with the local community,” Matt explains. When it comes to social media platforms, some have always invested in the local fabric of communities and in a mix of online and offline, where users enjoy a digital presence only when it creates opportunities and benefit in their real lives. This is obviously the case for Nextdoor, the social network for neighborhoods launched in 2010 by , , and . Today the platform, whose notoriety rose exponentially in 2017 during the hurricane season on the Gulf Coast, is available in more than 200,000 neighborhoods in the US, as well as in many communities internationally, including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, with tens of millions of users. Nirav Tolia Sarah Leary Prakash Janakiraman “At Nextdoor, we know that when communities are stronger, neighbors are talking to each other, and good things happen,” said newly-appointed Chief Neighbor , the company’s CEO. “Our love for local expands beyond neighborhood boundaries, including local businesses and public partners. All weave into the fabric of community.” Sarah Friar Smart doorbell maker Ring, recently bought by Amazon, is building a similar platform for its users, called Neighbors. The app is a new neighborhood watch tool “that brings your community together to help create safer neighborhoods,” with real-time crime and safety alerts from neighbors, law enforcement, and the Ring team. Obviously platforms like Yelp and Foursquare, with their geo-localized services and check-in tools, have embedded a true local DNA in all their activity, although keeping their global footprint. body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;} A new social app that looks like a weird mix of early Foursquare and Snap Map, with Arianna Huffington on the board and DJ Khaled as a spokesperson https://t.co/igHwec0iDt — @alexeheath function notifyResize(height) {height = height ? height : document.documentElement.offsetHeight; var resized = false; if (window.donkey && donkey.resize) {donkey.resize(height); resized = true;}if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var obj = {iframe: window.frameElement, height: height}; parent._resizeIframe(obj); resized = true;}if (window.location && window.location.hash === "#amp=1" && window.parent && window.parent.postMessage) {window.parent.postMessage({sentinel: "amp", type: "embed-size", height: height}, "*");}if (window.webkit && window.webkit.messageHandlers && window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize) {window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize.postMessage(height); resized = true;}return resized;}twttr.events.bind('rendered', function (event) {notifyResize();}); twttr.events.bind('resize', function (event) {notifyResize();});if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var maxWidth = parseInt(window.frameElement.getAttribute("width")); if ( 500 < maxWidth) {window.frameElement.setAttribute("width", "500");}} And recently, a new app just launched, Twenty. that seamlessly allows users to see which of their friends are around and what they are doing later, discover nearby events and coordinate plans to meet up in real life. Most social networking products allow users to share highlights of experiences that have occurred in the past or present. It’s a new social media tool “There’s a tremendous amount of value derived from knowing where your friends are and what they are doing. Twenty has quietly built the best location-sharing product out there and we believe they have the opportunity to be the next breakthrough technology company,” said Mark Shapiro, President of Endeavor, one of the platform’s strategic partners. “Technology is just a tool. It can be used to enhance our lives by bringing us together, or it can diminish our lives by isolating us from one another,” said of , who’s joining Twenty’s Board of Directors. “Looking at the data and hearing from those who have used Twenty across the country, it’s clear that Twenty is proof that technology can truly be a force for good in our lives.” Arianna Huffington Thrive Global

Digital Content: The Technological Shift From Global to Local

Loathed by some, this asset is a consequential stepping stone Since the announcement of JPM Coin, I have seen the full spectrum of reactions. From comparing the coin to Schrute Bucks 💵 or V-Bucks (the Fortnite videogame currency) to claims that JPM Coin will become the “gold standard” of cryptocurrency because “The Man” has taken the best part of decentralized technologies and internalized it for their own gain. It quickly became challenging to discern facts from reactionary opinions meant to guard a previously held position, so I decided to go do some digging of my own. I’ve read through J.P. Morgan Chase’s statements on JPM Coin, dove into the Quorum Protocol Whitepaper (the blockchain protocol on which the JPM Coin will initially reside) and investigated the J.P. Morgan GitHub for clues on potential next steps. What is JPM Coin To start, let’s make sure we are clear on the type of digital asset JPM Coin represents. JPM Coin is known as a stablecoin, a digital coin which is pegged to the USD, 1:1. Most stablecoins, including JPM Coin, maintain their value based on the premise that for each stablecoin released, there is an associated USD collateralized. There are currently several such stablecoins in circulation (Tether, Gemini, Circle, etc). JPM Coin is an interesting new entrant because it is backed by the largest U.S. bank and a strong balance sheet, providing an unprecedented level of credibility to the USD-collateralized stablecoin. (Note: there are also stablecoins which are crypto-collateralized and non-collateralized.) A major point of contention surrounding JPM Coin is rooted in the definition of cryptocurrency. Some have called JPM Coin a cryptocurrency, which is incorrect… mostly. There is a lack of clarity around this point because “cryptocurrency” has many definitions. Looser definitions consider any digital representation of a tradeable asset a cryptocurrency (such as V-Bucks, the Fortnite digital videogame currency purchased with real fiat currency). Under this definition, JPM Coin is a cryptocurrency. , under the more specific definition, the one used by computer scientists, engineers, and experts in the DLT community, JPM Coin is a cryptocurrency. Under this definition, a cryptocurrency is a digital currency in which are used to regulate the generation of units of currency (e.g. via Proof of Work) and verify the transfer of funds of a central bank. They are integral to a system of gamified security on a public, distributed blockchain. But not decentralized encryption techniques independently Based on this definition, JPM Coin clearly a cryptocurrency, and that is OKAY. J.P. Morgan Chase has long held cryptocurrencies at arms-length while being optimistic about blockchain technology, and JPM Coin is no deviation from this stance. isn’t How it Works Simply because JPM Coin isn’t a traditional cryptocurrency, doesn’t mean it is void of interesting functionality and use cases within the J.P. Morgan environment. To start, JPM Coin will be trialed with their wholesale banking clients. Here is how JPM Coin works as a stablecoin at a high level. A client converts fiat currency (USD) to tokenized JPM Coins which reside on the Quorum blockchain. The JPM Coins are then transferred to another JPM Client at which point they are converted back into fiat currency, and the JPM Coins are destroyed. Source: JP Morgan JPM Coin Q&A JPM Coin enables real-time gross settlements (RTGS) between institutional clients. The current process for settling and clearing payments requires several transactions between a multitude of banking networks. This process is clearly inefficient and worse, is susceptible to fraud and risk of server outages or attacks which could cripple a bank’s clearing systems. By tokenizing fiat currency, JPM Coin cuts the wait time for finality of payment from approximately 2 days to mere seconds, doing so securely and confidentially. This was the goal of JPM Coin. To reducing clients’ counterparty and settlement risk, decreasing capital requirements and enable instant value transfer, and they chose JPM Coin and blockchain for the job. Several articles have called out JPM Coin and the use of blockchain as unnecessary. They argue that any protocol connecting internal databases could have done the job. These comments miss the nuance of the opportunity presented by private blockchains for large financial institutions. As Umar Farooq, the head of Digital Treasury Services and Blockchain for J.P. Morgan Chase stated: The applications are frankly quite endless; anything where you have a distributed ledger which involves corporations or institutions can use this… Looking further out, the JPM coin could be used for payments on internet-connected devices if that use for blockchain catches on. The Distributed Ledger JPM Coin wouldn’t be possible without a distributed ledger on which to transact and that ledger is called Quorum: J.P. Morgan’s project to create a private blockchain forked from the official Go-Ethereum blockchain, with additional data privacy and improved transactional efficiency. The below image provides some of the key aspects of the Quorum platform and architecture: Source: Quorum White Paper A public blockchain like Ethereum wouldn’t suffice for a few reasons: public chains don’t provide the level of data privacy required for wholesale banking and the transaction speeds on public chains are currently notoriously slow (although Ethereum is actively rolling out solutions to improve performance). Quorum was designed to address these key needs; however, the JP Morgan team decided to utilize Ethereum as the core architecture of the blockchain: The Quorum design outlined in this paper demonstrates how the seminal Ethereum platform can be extended to meet the key requirements of enterprise and in particular, financial institutions in preserving privacy in a distributed, decentralized blockchain consortium network. By building on Ethereum, Quorum inherits the maturity of the production hardened go-ethereum code base… Quorum has implemented some unique architecture to enable private transactions and ensure consensus is efficiently reached amongst the members of the private blockchain. Data Privacy On-Chain Quorum supports both public and private transactions. The public transactions are managed much as they would be on the Ethereum blockchain. Each Quorum node maintains the public state stored in a Patricia-Merkle tree to ensure that everyone is in agreement of the transactions which have occurred. When a private transaction occurs, every Quorum node receives a hash of the encrypted private transaction data, but only the parties involved in the private transaction can see the details of the transaction. As a result, the private state of each Quorum node may vary, and as such the private state is preserved in a separate Patricia-Merkle tree in each node. The validity of the private state of each node can be confirmed by running the storageRoot RPC API to reach private state consensus. This is, however, an additional feature since private consensus can be verified via public consensus as the hash of the encrypted private transaction is included in the public state hash. Any modification to private transactions would result in a different public state, placing the node out of consensus. Quorum has implemented private transactions by modifying the geth sendTransaction command which is part of the standard go-ethereum implementation. They have added a “privateFor” field which receives the address of the bank or institution which will be receiving the funds and makes the entirety of the transaction private. The sendTransaction command also has one additional field for the hash of the encrypted private transaction data (only for transactions which are private). The remainder of the sendTransaction command remains the same. If you want to dive into the details, which I won't cover in this article, I highly encourage you to read the Quorum WhitePaper . here Potential Next Steps J.P. Morgan’s Quorum team has built out a robust framework and made the project open source so that other developers can utilize and iterate upon the tool. Signature Bank, a smaller New York bank, has already been using Quorum for a similar live payment platform called Signet. J.P. Morgan is open to others utilizing their platform and they will benefit from the increased testing and development as a result. Additionally, the J.P. Morgan blockchain team has developed “Cakeshop”, an integrated development environment (IDE) and software development kit (SDK) for “Ethereum-like ledgers” (i.e. Quorum). As mentioned previously, Umar Farooq believes that this is just the starting point and that “The applications are frankly quite endless”. While JPM Coin and Quorum would need significant development to be utilized for “payments on inter-connected devices” the sentiment is significant. It shows that the J.P. Morgan team is looking into the future and potential applications for JPM Coin in markets which don’t yet exist. The J.P. Morgan GitHub has a repo titled “zsl-q” which holds the POC for a “zero-knowledge security layer” (ZSL) implementation on Quorum. In the documentation, they admit that Quorum’s “key limitation is that it does not support prevention of double-spending for digital assets that are exchanged within private contracts”. This is a serious admission and one which the Quorum team must be keen on rectifying. ZSL is a protocol designed by the team that engineered Zcash, leveraging zk-SNARKS to “enable the transfer of digital assets on a distributed ledger, without revealing any information about the Sender, Recipient, or the quantity of assets that are being transferred.” The POC with Quorum will allow prevention of double-spending of digital assets exchanged privately. It is interesting to note that they worked with the Zcash team, emphasizing the wide breadth of experts invested in the Quorum project, including the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance. Another interesting insight from J.P. Morgan’s GitHub is the development of Quorum for cloud services with repo’s titled “quorum-aws” and “quorum-cloud”. Such cloud tools could enable Quorum to rapidly scale to more customers and entice a wide variety of institutions to join the JPM Coin ecosystem. A Vote of Confidence There has been a divide in the distributed technologies community between those who support cryptocurrencies and those who support blockchain or distributed ledger technologies (DLT). In the past year, those who support blockchain have felt that the efficacy of DLT has been shrouded by the rise and pop of the cryptocurrency market. And while the success of public blockchains depends on cryptocurrencies as a means to create a game-theory model of security, this isn’t the case for permissioned (private) blockchains. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of J.P Morgan Chase, likely falls in the latter camp which supports blockchain technology and not crypto. He has been highly vocal about his distrust in cryptocurrencies but has asserted that blockchain technology holds promise, and his recent moves reflect this. Additionally, J.P. Morgan’s blockchain project, Quorum, is built on top of Ethereum, reusing the vast majority of Ethereum’s architecture in its design. This is an incredible vote of confidence in the Ethereum blockchain, both for its native public form and private iterations. Blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and digital assets are new to the world. Those yet to be initiated need time to test the waters, understand the technologies and the opportunities, and then adjust. Most often, progress occurs through iterations and not leaps and bounds. And no matter how frustrating the slow march of progress may be to some, attacking small incremental progress because we prefer grand leaps forward is a counterproductive measure. The development and implementation of JPM Coin provide valuable, worldwide exposure for Ethereum and blockchain technologies. Furthermore, JPM Coin is of no detriment to Ethereum or other public blockchain initiatives. If you aren’t convinced by the content above, reread this passage from the Ethereum Yellow Paper: There are many goals of this project; one key goal is to facilitate transactions be- tween consenting individuals who would otherwise have no means to trust one another. This may be due to geographical separation, interfacing difficulty, or perhaps the incompatibility, incompetence, unwillingness, expense, uncertainty, inconvenience or corruption of existing legal systems. By specifying a state-change system through a rich and unambiguous language, and furthermore archi- tecting a system such that we can reasonably expect that an agreement will be thus enforced autonomously, we can provide a means to this end. A lot of work is still to be done to achieve the above goal, and JPM Coin will prove to be a valuable stepping stone en route to a new world built upon public distributed ledger technologies. : This article is not intended to provide investment advice. Any investments should only be cautiously taken after the associated risk is understood. Disclaimer Have thoughts, opinions, or are simply excited about the distributed future??? Leave your comments below!

Breaking Down JPM Coin

PARIS, France, March 5th, 2024/Chainwire/--**Uniting Web3 Visionaries and Global Leaders. Following the success of its 2023 edition, the Proof of Talk summit, heralded as the Davos of Web3, is back for its second year and brings together thought leaders, investors, CEOs, founders, exchanges, digital asset managers, and regulatory authorities for networking and thought-provoking sessions. Held on 10 and 11 June at the historic Museum of Decorative Arts in the Louvre Palace at the heart of Paris, this summit has its sights on delivering a unique event with a highly-curated audience dedicated to shaping the future of blockchain and global policy. Last year, Proof of Talk welcomed over 1500 ecosystem participants, including key figures from Binance, VanEck, Ripple, and the World Economic Forum, alongside CEOs and founders of leading blockchain companies and government representatives. After the event distinguished investor, venture partner, and Proof of Talk attendee Leeor Groen, Managing Director, Spartan Group, aptly noted that it was “where Web3 meets the spirit of Davos.” The summit facilitated crucial discussions on rebuilding trust within Web3, reflecting the industry's need for a platform that encourages genuine engagement, meaningful connections, and strategic collaboration. With the SEC’s recent spot Bitcoin ETF approvals and the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation bringing more clarity to the space in Europe, the stage is truly set for widespread blockchain adoption and development of digital assets beyond cryptocurrency. This year’s conference harnesses and reflects this revitalization and will assemble blockchain and Web3 professionals from around the world to engage with C-level executives, explore partnerships, and generate investment opportunities that will reshape industries and create new paradigms. The highly-curated 2024 forum seeks to welcome over 2500 participants. Combined with a speaker lineup featuring CEOs, founders, and leaders of the Web3 and digital assets industry, the summit features impact-focused networking and a refined agenda. A few of the speakers include: ·     Joseph Lubin CEO and Founder at Consensys ·     Jenny Johnson, CEO, Franklin Templeton ·     Tim Draper, Founder, DFJ ·     Ophelia Snyder, Cofounder President, Ark 21 Shares ·     Mihailo Bjelic, Co-Founder, Polygon ·     Raoul Pal, Crypto Macro Economist ·     Yat Siu, Chairman, Animoca ·     John Wu, President, Ava Labs ·     Justin Sun, Founder, Tron ·     Marieke Flament, former CEO, Near Foundation ·     Dominic Williams, Founder, DFINITY ·     Björn Wagner, CEO, Parity technologies and Polkadot ·     Jon Fink Isaksen, Head of Policy, Uniswap ·     Matthew Siegel, Head of Digital Assets, Van Eck ·     Christopher Donovan, COO, NEAR Foundation ·     Lex Sokolin, Managing Partner, Generative Ventures ·     Digital asset leads from over 30 major TradFi banks ·     Partners from 100+ attending VCs The summit’s agenda also actively reflects Web3’s growing importance, with over 20 panels, 10+ workshops, and over five keynotes and firesides on key topics shaping Web3’s future. These include real world asset tokenization, AI-blockchain integration, gaming evolution, and smart contract security. Zohair Dehnadi, Co-Founder, Proof of Talk and Partner, X-Ventures: “We are overwhelmed by the positive feedback we received from our 2023 summit, with some attendees even sharing it reminded them of the World Economic Forum’s early days. We’re also delighted at all the interest from both speakers and potential sponsors for this year’s edition. “Right now, the industry is on the brink of a new era, and we’ve harnessed this enthusiasm to curate an event with the most influential people from Web3, digital assets, and traditional finance to shape the agenda of the future.” It’s important to provide an inspirational forum for these players, from founders and funds to legal experts and regulatory authorities, to engage in high-impact networking, share best practices, and have those necessary but tough discussions that will safely move the space forward. I’m proud to offer the industry such an exclusive experience at one of Paris’ most iconic locations, and am looking forward to seeing everyone in June!” About Proof of Talk Proof of Talk is setting a new standard in the Web3 conference landscape, positioning itself not just as another web3 conference but as a pivotal forum where the promise of decentralization comes to life. The summit uniquely combines the essence of traditional economic forums with the dynamic, decentralized Web3 community, fostering an innovative ecosystem of dialogue and action. It stands as a platform for change, where every voice, from the seasoned economist to the radical Web3 founder, contributes to a collective vision of a decentralized economic future. By facilitating engaging discussions and unparalleled networking, participants shape this new landscape. Learn more at www.proofoftalk.io About X Ventures X Ventures is a Germany-based digital assets investment fund dedicated to supporting and empowering entrepreneurs in the Web3 industry. Alongside its investment activities, X Ventures founded www.xschool.io, aiming to provide accessible education to future leaders worldwide. Contact Shanna Molina Cognito shanna.molina@cognitomedia.nl +31 6 18 72 87 55 This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here.

HEAD DIGITAL WORKS

hdworks.inhome

-- employees

Since n.d.

COMPANY RANKING

HEAD DIGITAL WORKS

EVERGREEN INDEX #5047

Representing this company? Click here to claim and customize this page!

Head Digital Works WIKI

Apply to get your Tech Company News Page live on HackerNoon.com today!

HEAD DIGITAL WORKS

hdworks.inhome

-- employees

Since n.d.

COMPANY RANKING

HEAD DIGITAL WORKS

EVERGREEN INDEX #5047

RELATED COMPANIESRANK

STORIES ABOUT HEAD DIGITAL WORKS

Representing this company? Click here to claim and customize this page!

Head Digital Works WIKI

Apply to get your Tech Company News Page live on HackerNoon.com today!