The Whitepaper for VIMWorld can be downloaded here, which includes the full details of our ecosystem.

In the previous article of the VIMWorld content economy, we elaborated on our visions for VIMWorld and EHrT ecosystem with the community. As we are approaching the first exchange listing of EHrT, we hope to shed some more light on the VIMWorld from the community developer’s perspective.

While VIMs will initially be minted and distributed by the 8Hours Foundation to be used in first-party games, VIMs are designed to be flexible. As explained in our previous article and in the whitepaper, Badges in S-tier VIMs, as well as other markers such as colored tokens, can be used to assign additional context and points to a VIM.

VIMs excel at accumulating user-generated content. As VIMWorld is designed as an open ecosystem, using examples cited earlier, VIMs can be created using user-generated content to give life to toys, cards or figurines of popular historical or branded characters. As long as they contain an approved colored token distributed by 8Hours or third-parties, they could be used in gameplay just like their mass-produced counterparts.

Imagine making a free IP toy of your favorite character from SanGuo (Three Kingdoms), Pokemon, or PlayTable’s Battlegrid, then being able to play with that toy on our platform, charting a unique story for your character that truly belongs to you.

It also opens up the possibilities of a vibrant secondary market that allows for the trading of both physical toys and the digital VIM (NFT).

...

More https://medium.com/8hours-foundation/user-generated-content-and-ever-expanding-8hours-ecosystem-e9c02f02be23

After improving the way that growing businesses can raise equity, WeOwn is now expanding our alternative business finance marketplace by launch a new peer-to-peer loans service.

WeOwn business users will now have the choice between whether they want to carry out an equity fundraise to generate capital or borrow money from suitable lenders.

Our new peer-to-peer loans service is completely digital, and has been designed to make accessing finance simpler, quicker and more cost-effective for SMEs – many of whom struggle to get funding from mainstream bank loans.

A better financing opportunity for businesses

Bank loans are supposed to help businesses grow, but the story is very different for SMEs in comparison to major enterprises. European Central Bank data has shown that while 45% of larger firms have applied for a bank loan, only 27% of smaller businesses have followed suit – and many of them face rejection.

Relatively high risk-levels and low borrowing amounts mean mainstream banks don't tend to see the value in lending to SMEs, as their cost structure and processes make small loans less profitable to them. Yet, 80% of European SMEs are "micro" businesses with less than 20 employees, seeking loans of €100,000 or less.

In contrast, many professional investors understand that lending to businesses at their highest stage of growth is very lucrative; the alternative lending market in Europe will surpass the €5 billion mark in 2020, and top €6.7 billion by 2024. That's why WeOwn has built a peer-to-peer loan marketplace: to bring dynamic businesses and ambitious lenders together.

....

https://weown.com/peer-to-peer-darlehen-marktplatz/

A massive $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package has been agreed by U.S. president Donald Trump and the Senate.

Bitcoin and crypto, as well as traditional markets, have already been significantly boosted by the historic economic relief package, with almost all assets climbing this week in anticipation of the deal.

The bitcoin price, which has climbed from lows of under $4,000 per bitcoin to around $7,000 in the past two weeks, remains highly volatile—but the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community is convinced the "largest rescue package in American history" will mean a surge in bitcoin and crypto interest.

Full details of the huge coronavirus stimulus package have yet to be released, with some early drafts including proposals for a hotly-anticipated so-called digital dollar, but $350 billion is expected to be set aside for small business loans, $250 billion in unemployment insurance benefits, and $500 billion in loans for distressed companies.

Senior lawmakers have indicated an initial proposal by Republicans for direct cash payments to the tune of $250 billion has been included.

"This legislation is urgently needed to bolster the economy, provide cash injections and liquidity and stabilize financial markets to get us through a difficult and challenging period in the economy facing us right now," said Larry Kudlow, chief economic adviser to the president, adding this is "the single largest main street assistance program in the history of the United States."

.....

https://bit.ly/3aDuuAQ

Coinsquare is engaging with Canadian regulators to establish industry standards for online platforms that offer trading in cryptoassets and related financial services. On March 10, 2020, together with four other Canadian-based platforms, we responded to Canadian Securities Administrators' (CSA) Staff Notice 21-327 Guidance on the Application of Securities Legislation to Entities Facilitating the Trading of Crypto Assets.

The Staff Notice sets out the position of CSA staff that a platform that does not immediately deliver cryptoassets purchased on the platform to its customers is likely dealing in securities or derivatives. In our view, this interpretation represents a significant departure from CSA Staff's earlier notices on cryptoassets. Coinsquare had expected, based on the CSA's consultation paper published in March 2019, that platforms would be regulated under a new legislative framework that would accommodate the differences between cryptoassets and securities and derivatives, while still protecting investors. Our industry is in a period of rapid change where international competition is fierce, and if Canada wants to be a leader, Canadian platforms need to work closely with regulators.

As Timothy Lane, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada, recognized in a recent speech, "innovation, competition and consumer choice are good, and… disruption is not the enemy". Mr. Lane acknowledged in the same speech that cryptocurrencies require a global effort to "understand the wide-ranging implications and ensure the regulatory framework is fit for purpose".

...

https://news.coinsquare.com/digital-currency/coinsquare-engaging-with-canadian-regulators/

There are the four essential pillars to a successful marketing campaign: Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Email Marketing, and Video Presentation.

This marketing package will get the word of your token sale project to the eyes of the crypto investors and enthusiasts.



1. Content Marketing
To get started we will write 10 articles about your business and distribute them on the following Crypto news sites:

-BitcoinMagazine.com
-Investing.com
-Forklog.com
-CoinTelegraph.com
-Bitcoin.com
-Bitcoinist.com
-NewsBTC.com
-CCN.com
-NullTX.com
-CryptoCoin.News
-LiveBitcoinNews.com
-TechBullion.com
-TheMerkle.com
-CoinSchedule.com
-CoinSpeaker.com
-Cryptopolitan.com
-UseTheBitcoin.com
-CryptoNews.com
-CryptoPotato.com
-InvestItIn.com



2. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a key part of a successful crypto marketing strategy. Tapping influencers as advocates for your project is a great way to leverage their audiences to grow awareness and build third-party validation among potential customers and investors.
Here is what we offer in this package:

-CEO interview on Crypto Love Youtube Channel
-2 minutes call to action on Ivan On Tech Channel by Ivan himself
-A link to your project on an episode of Crypto Daily Channel



3. Email Blast

In this package, we are offering a newsletter sponsorship in the major newsletters in the crypto industry. Our team of crypto journalists will write a call to action direct mail about your project in coordination with your team and distribute it to the subscribers of NewsBTC.com, CryptoCoin.News, NullTX, The Merkle, and InvestItIn.com reaching up to 200k readers.




4. Video Presentation

We will shoot a professional presentation about your project and feature it on CryptoCoin.News.

Three reasons why video is the marketing tool of 2019:
-Video boosts conversions by 80%. If you think about it, the effectiveness of video is not that surprising. After all, vision is our most dominant sense. And it’s easier to look at a short, entertaining video than to read through a 40-page whitepaper.
-Videos show great ROI. 100% of our advertisers say they found the best ROI with video advertising.
-Videos build trust. Trust is the foundation of conversions and investments.

Contact us for a quote: https://cryptocoin.news/

Today the Bitfury Group announced it has re-assigned computing power from its digital currency transaction processing operations to the Washington University "Folding at Home" project to help fight the novel coronavirus. Folding at Home is a distributed computing project which asks users to donate computing power in service of disease research.

Bitfury's collection of high-powered GPU-enabled computing nodes have been running COVID-19 calculations since March 20. To date these nodes have completed more than 1,300 calculations for the Folding at Home endeavor to analyze the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), and the company plans to scale-up its contribution significantly over time. The results from Folding at Home computations are publicly available, allowing any organization working on a vaccine, treatment or other research to use it in their work at no cost.

"At our core, our company mission is to do good," said Valery Vavilov, CEO of Bitfury. "Our contribution of highly efficient computing power pales next to the selflessness and sacrifice of our medical caregivers and essential staff on the front lines of this virus, but I am confident that this project from Folding at Home, alongside the work of many researchers and doctors, will significantly advance our understanding and treatment of this disease."

Bitfury is continuing to support and secure the Bitcoin Blockchain through its ASIC and BlockBox operations around the world. To learn more about Bitfury’s operations, visit our website.

.....

https://medium.com/meetbitfury/bitfury-donates-computing-power-to-covid-19-research-8c5d8015c64a

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), together with the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS), the Life Insurance Association (LIA), the General Insurance Association (GIA), and the Finance Houses Association of Singapore (FHAS), today announced a package of measures to help ease the financial strain on individuals and SMEs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The package of financial measures complements the initiatives in the Government's Unity Budget and Resilience Budget to preserve jobs and support enterprises and households.

The COVID-19 outbreak is now global, and increasing in intensity. Stringent measures are being adopted around the world to contain the virus, severely curtailing economic activity. Uncertainty about the trajectory of the pandemic and the depth and duration of an economic recession have also created strains in financial markets globally, which can in turn accentuate the economic crunch.

The Singapore economy contracted sharply in the first quarter of this year, faced with the sudden decline in external demand, disruption in supply chains, and reduced spending at home. MAS expects the economy to remain weak beyond the first half of the year.

In the months ahead, many individuals and SMEs in Singapore will continue to face challenges in managing their cash flows and meeting their financial obligations, such as loan repayments and insurance premiums.

MAS and the financial industry have collaborated on a package of measures to help individuals and SMEs facing temporary cashflow difficulties to ride through the storm. The package has three components:

1. Help individuals meet their loan and insurance commitments;
2. Support SMEs with continued access to bank credit and insurance cover; and
3. Ensure interbank funding markets remain liquid and well-functioning.

The relief for individuals and SMEs will be provided on an opt-in basis, as their cashflow circumstances will differ. Deferring payments increases future obligations and hence borrowers and policyholders should weigh their options carefully. Financial institutions will process all applications expeditiously.

.....

https://fintechnews.sg/38786/covid19/mas-and-financial-industry-to-support-individuals-and-smes-affected-by-the-covid-19-pandemic/

2019 has been called The Year of Decentralized Finance (“DeFi”), with the money locked up into decentralized finance protocols skyrocketing. In 2020, these protocols are starting to provide global access to financial services like savings and exchange.

To encourage growth in USDC and DeFi, Coinbase launched the USDC Bootstrap Fund last September with $2MM of initial funding. The USDC Bootstrap Fund invests directly into smart contract protocols, providing important, early liquidity for entrepreneurs and developers looking to grow their protocol.

With USDC, we hope to provide critical infrastructure that will enable DeFi to grow and increasingly compete with existing financial products. In addition to our publicly announced investments in Compound and dYdX, we are proud to announce further investments in Uniswap and PoolTogether.

Uniswap is emerging as one of the most liquid exchanges on Ethereum. Their constant market maker model makes it easy to launch a liquid exchange for any token, and is increasingly becoming critical infrastructure for tokens and applications that need liquidity. In a little over a year, Uniswap has grown from $0 to $31MM of liquidity, and now has exchanges (also known as “pools”) for well over 880 tokens. The USDC Bootstrap Fund has provided $1MM of liquidity to the USDC/ETH pool.

PoolTogether is a savings game built on Compound. Users deposit funds which earn interest, and are paid out to a winner chosen at random. So far, $19K of prizes have been awarded. The USDC Bootstrap Fund has provided $100K USDC as a pool sponsor, increasing the reward for USDC depositors.

We encourage DeFi developers and smart contract projects that want to integrate USDC to apply for the USDC Bootstrap Fund. We look for teams who build innovative products, leverage USDC, and effectively manage risks. To apply, please fill out this form.

https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-usdc-bootstrap-fund-invests-in-uniswap-and-pooltogether-9c847f0405dc

Binance widget integrated into the Brave browser puts cryptocurrency management and trading at users' fingertips in first exchange-browser integration of its kind.

San Francisco – March 24, 2020 – Brave Software, makers of the innovative Brave browser which combines privacy with a blockchain-based digital advertising platform, and Binance, the global blockchain company behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and users, today announced a partnership that enables Brave browser users to seamlessly trade cryptocurrency assets through Binance.

The new Binance widget in the new tab page of the Brave desktop browser makes Brave the only browser that offers integrated functionality for buying and trading cryptocurrency. With the Binance widget, Brave users can access the Binance.com and Binance.US (for US-based users) sites, buy and sell crypto assets, view asset balances, and obtain deposit addresses all without leaving the browser.

The Binance widget will give Brave users various options to manage cryptocurrencies, including buying, depositing, trading, and viewing summaries. Users will be able to trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and many others supported by Binance.

Additionally, the Binance widget is built into Brave and is not a loaded iframe (remotely embedded document), which preserves the user’s privacy. API calls will only be made into Binance if the user authenticates via OAuth and interacts with the widget.

"Cryptocurrency trading can be a daunting task for users not familiar with such assets, so integrating Binance into the Brave browser makes the process seamless and simple," said Brendan Eich, CEO and co-founder of Brave. "By bringing a leading exchange like Binance directly into the browser, Brave is taking cryptocurrency trading mainstream and enabling users to conduct transactions with ease."

"The Binance widget on Brave’s privacy-oriented browser instills a safer way to buy and sell crypto and also reduces user friction to onboard, trade and interact with the Binance ecosystem," said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao ('CZ'). "We are looking forward to our long-term partnership with Brave to make it even easier to interact with crypto and encourage more utility in the near future."

https://brave.com/binance/

Hitachi Solutions will work with ConsenSys to streamline the development of decentralized applications, enabling trustless and secure transactions with PegaSys Plus.

Tokyo, Japan — ConsenSys announced today a partnership with Hitachi Solutions, Hitachi’s systems integration, enterprise consulting, and core IT subsidiary. Starting April 1st, 2020, Hitachi will offer PegaSys Plus, the commercial implementation of the enterprise Ethereum client Hyperledger Besu, to the Japanese market through a reseller agreement.

Hitachi Solutions and ConsenSys will collaborate to provide comprehensive services and solutions for decentralized applications built on PegaSys Plus, from the introduction of PoCs to development, operation, and client education.

https://bit.ly/2JxCR5e
https://bit.ly/2Jx3TK9

-Binance announced on April 2, 2020 that it has reached an agreement to acquire CoinMarketCap. Together, they will pursue their common vision of making cryptoassets more accessible and useful to users around the world.

-CoinMarketCap will continue to be run as an independent entity.

-Brandon Chez, the founder of CoinMarketCap, will be stepping down to focus on his family. He will be passing the baton to Carylyne Chan, former Chief Strategy Officer, who is now the interim CEO.

The global blockchain company behind the world’s largest digital asset exchange by trading volume and users, Binance, today announced that it has acquired CoinMarketCap, the world’s most-referenced cryptoasset data tracking site, for an undisclosed sum. Binance and CoinMarketCap will together pursue their common vision of making cryptoassets more widely accessible and useful to users globally.

CoinMarketCap will continue to be run as an independent business entity. While the Binance cryptocurrency exchange and its native token BNB are listed on CoinMarketCap, CoinMarketCap and Binance are separate entities that maintain a strict policy of independence from one another: Binance has no bearing on CoinMarketCap rankings, while CoinMarketCap has no influence over Binance’s operations. CoinMarketCap stays committed to providing the most accurate, timely and quality cryptocurrency data in the industry while benefiting from Binance’s expertise, resources and scale.

Binance is widely recognized as the largest cryptocurrency exchange worldwide, providing the best liquidity, transaction execution and price discovery for the largest selection of cryptocurrencies. Binance is trusted in the industry for abiding by the ethos of cryptocurrency, doing right by its users, setting industry standards for transparency and spreading the freedom of money.

CoinMarketCap is known as the most-trafficked website to obtain cryptoasset and exchange information and rankings. It is one of the most-cited sources for cryptoasset prices and exchange trading volume, and has maintained independence from external stakeholders since inception.

Blog: https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/2020/04/02/binance-and-coinmarketcap-announce-acquisition-to-collectively-make-cryptocurrency-more-accessible-for-everyone/