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Number goes up: A third of Brits have bought crypto, says Coinbase report
JOSEPH HALL
14 HOURS AGO
A Qualtrics report carried out by Coinbase shows that the number of Brits who have bought crypto is up 4% to 33% since October 2021.
Bitcoin (BTC) number go up technology is boosting crypto adoption in the United Kingdom. More and more Brits are buying cryptocurrency, according to a Coinbase research piece carried out by Qualtrics.
The key takeaways indicate that 33% of British people own crypto, up from 29% in October 2021. Plus, over half, or 61%, of those surveyed intend to increase their holdings over the next 12 months.
For Danny Scott, CEO of the United Kingdom's leading Bitcoin exchange, CoinCorner, the statistics "seem incredibly high." Scott suggested that "we're seeing a quiet period from the retail market right now," adding that "when the price settles, so does the interest from newbies."
"Without knowing the source for this, I'd hazard a guess the survey size was small and fell luckily in the direction of more adoption than the reality."
Statistics from Statista suggest that crypto ownership in the United Kingdom is much lower—around the 7% mark, whereas previous Cointelegraph reporting suggested that U.K. crypto ownership was under 10%.
For Scott, "rather than look at this in a negative way, we should see this as an opportunity to take a breather and build out the infrastructure for the next wave, as we all know the industry continues to operate in the cycles." Indeed, Bitcoin recently crossed the halfway point on the way to its next halving.
The Coinbase report also highlighted that Bitcoin is the king of crypto among U.K. consumers as it is the most commonly owned cryptocurrency. Ethereum (ETH) is held by 52% of those surveyed with Dogecoin (DOGE) and Binance Coin (BNB) at 34% and 33%, respectively.
In the United Kingdom, it's not just the retail market that’s interested in crypto: Her Majesty’s Treasury also appears to be sticking through sluggish Bitcoin price action. HM Treasury’s decision to create a royal NFT by the summer caught the crypto community’s attention in April amid discussion surrounding stablecoin regulation in the U.K.
A Coinbase spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the population of 67 million Brits creates a “leading European hub of crypto investment,” highlight that there is a growing proportion of people engaging with these assets.
"Recent survey work suggests that the adoption trend may continue, with many sharing ambitions to expand the size and diversification of their portfolios."
Adding a note of caution, the spokesperson suggested that “it is clear that there is more work to be done around boosting understanding and awareness of these assets.” An experienced Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) employee recently took up a post at the digital assets department to support the government’s “vision for crypto.”
For Coincorner, it's about "actual real-world, everyday use case, rather than focus on customers who want to speculate on hundreds of different cryptocurrencies that don't offer anything of real world use."
Cointelegraph has compiled an analysis of changes to the U.K.’s financial and crypto landscape in light of the recent changes to the FCA’s crypto stance.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/number-goes-up-a-third-of-brits-have-bought-crypto-says-coinbase-report
Sen. Warren asks Fidelity to address the risks to put Bitcoin in 401(k)s
HELEN PARTZ
15 HOURS AGO
U.S. Senators requested Fidelity to explain how the firm is planning to address the risks of adding Bitcoin into retirement accounts by May 18.
The United States government is growing increasingly concerned about Bitcoin (BTC) in retirement savings, with two senators flagging some issues in Fidelity Investments’ plans to include Bitcoin (BTC) in 401(k) accounts.
Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tina Smith of Minnesota expressed concerns over Fidelity’s decision to add BTC to its 401(k) investment plan in a letter to Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson.
Dated May 4, the letter suggests that Fidelity’s latest Bitcoin plan has a potential conflict of interest, noting that Fidelity has been deeply involved in crypto since it began experimenting with BTC and Ether (ETH) mining operations and integrating Coinbase accounts back in 2017.
On April 26, Fidelity announced plans to allow retirement savers to allocate up to 20% of their portfolio in BTC, citing high client demand. Senators Warren and Smith, however, argued that there was not enough client demand for this opportunity, stating:
“Despite a lack of demand for this option — only 2% of employers expressed interest in adding cryptocurrency to their 401(k) menu — Fidelity has decided to move full speed ahead with supporting Bitcoin investments.”
The letter also mentioned “significant risks of fraud, theft and loss” associated with crypto assets. The senators referred to a statement by the Department of Labor (DOL), which warned in March that any significant crypto investments within company-sponsored retirement accounts may attract legal attention. The authority also pointed out risks related to cryptocurrencies’ “extreme volatility and high speculation,” custodial and recordkeeping concerns, and others.
“In short, investing in cryptocurrencies is a risky and speculative gamble, and we are concerned that Fidelity would take these risks with millions of Americans’ retirement savings,” the senators wrote in the letter.
To better understand Fidelity’s decision to adopt BTC for 401(k)s, the senators requested the firm to provide answers on how they are planning to address risks laid out by the DOL by May 18, 2022. They also asked for more information about Bitcoin investment fees and the amount of money generated from Fidelity’s crypto mining operations.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/sen-warren-asks-fidelity-to-address-the-risks-to-put-bitcoin-in-401-k-s
Texas Crowdfunding Platform Offers Investors Fractional Ownership in Bitcoin Mines
EnergyFunders will issue monthly payouts in Bitcoin or U.S. dollars, saying returns could top 100% if the Bitcoin price stays in the $45,000 range.
By Stacy Elliott
May 4, 2022
3 min read
Texas crowdfunding platform EnergyFunders has started selling equity shares of Bitcoin mining operations through its Bitcoin Discovery Fund.
According to an SEC filing submitted yesterday, the company will sell equity in Bitcoin mining operations attached to off-grid natural gas mining rigs for $5,000 per share. The company said in the filing it will sell up to $10 million worth of shares.
That means investors can fund the Bitcoin mining for a minimum $5,000 investment and receive monthly payouts.
If Bitcoin stays within the $45,000 price range, EnergyFunders estimates investors will see returns “above 100%.” The mined Bitcoin will be distributed among investors each month, in either U.S. dollars or Bitcoin.
The first Bitcoin miner, a 1-megawatt rig, got turned on yesterday in Bee County, Texas, EnergyFunders CEO Laura Pommer, told Decrypt. She pitched it to the team at EnergyFunders as a way to monetize stranded wells, which are not hooked up to the electrical grid.
“Of course, they’re like, ‘Hell yeah.’ So we started down that path and quickly discovered that mining Bitcoin is actually fairly complicated,” she said, “Which is fine, you know. Oil and gas people never shy away from complicated operations. It's sort of our bread and butter, actually.”
EnergyFunders launched in 2015 as a crowdfunding platform to match accredited investors with independent oil and gas producers. In 2018, the company became a FINRA-approved crowdfunding platform and was able to start allowing non-accredited investors to participate in funding opportunities.
Being a regulated crowdfunding platform is an important detail here, since the fractionalized Bitcoin mining operations might otherwise run afoul of the SEC’s “Howey Test.”
The test was established by a 1946 court ruling against a Florida farmer, William John Howey, who sold shares of his citrus grove with the promise of sharing future profits with investors. Since then, three main keys from the case have been used to determine what qualifies as a security. Generally, when money or some other property is being pooled with the expectation that it will generate profit for investors through no effort of their own, then it’s a security.
SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce has long said she thinks the Howey Test runs the risk of being too strict in how it’s applied to crypto projects.
“I think it’s really making it impossible for a project to get started without falling into that Howey definition,” she told Decrypt in 2020, adding that the test has “been a quite useful framework for us to think about whether an investment contract is, in fact, a security. But it does lead to some really interesting questions about whether things that none of us might have thought are securities actually are securities.”
But EnergyFunders was able to register its Bitcoin Discovery Fund under a Rule 506(c) exemption, which is specifically for crowdfunding.
It’s the same reason Republic, which is a registered crowdfunding platform, has been able to offer what it calls “Security NFTs” that entitle buyers to a portion of an artist’s song royalties. In that case, the music artists are funding their careers by sharing the profits with NFT owners.
Pommer said the same works for Bitcoin mining.
“We have a few SEC attorneys who helped set this up. The crowdfunding status has been around for years and it’s totally above board” Pommer said. “So changing from selling fractionalized ownership of an oil and gas well to a Bitcoin mine is really no difference.”
https://decrypt.co/99480/texas-crowdfunding-platform-offers-investors-fractional-ownership-bitcoin-mines
LUNA FOUNDATION SURPASSES TESLA AS SECOND LARGEST CORPORATE HOLDER OF BITCOIN
SHAWN AMICK 8 HOURS AGO
Luna Foundation Guard has acquired an additional $1.5 billion of BTC, surpassing Tesla as the second largest corporate holder of BTC valued over $3 billion.
* Luna Foundation Guard, the non-profit organization behind Terra’s UST Stablecoin,
has acquired $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin.
* This purchase makes LFG the second-largest corporate holder of bitcoin,
surpassing Tesla.
* The transaction was facilitated by cryptocurrency prime broker Genesis, and
cryptocurrency hedge fund 3AC.
Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), a non-profit organization focused on developing the Terra ecosystem, has closed a $1.5 billion over-the-counter (OTC) purchase of 37,863 bitcoin, surpassing Tesla as the second largest corporate holder of BTC, according to a press release.
Prior to this purchase, LFG held 42,530 BTC currently valued over $1.6 billion in this wallet. Tesla currently holds 43,200 BTC, currently valued close to $1.7 billion. This purchase of 37,863 BTC positions LFG almost one-third of the way through its initial plans to acquire $10 billion worth of bitcoin to strengthen the UST Forex Reserve backing the Terra ecosystem stablecoin.
“The LFG’s mission to support the stability and adoption of the UST stablecoin continues with the latest deal acquiring BTC from Genesis for the UST Forex Reserve,” said Do Kwon, LFG Governing Council member and Co-Founder and CEO of Terraform Labs.
The initial $1 billion worth of BTC acquired by LFG was facilitated by a prominent cryptocurrency prime broker, Genesis, through an OTC swap of UST Stablecoin for BTC. This OTC transaction was the first of its kind at the achieved magnitude. The remaining $500 million was obtained through Three Arrows Capital (3AC) which is a leading cryptocurrency hedge fund.
"Terra's remarkable growth has continuously reshaped crypto markets over the last two years,” said Joshua Lim, head of derivatives at Genesis. “Genesis is excited to be a liquidity partner to the Terra ecosystem, connecting it to a broader audience of institutional market participants."
With the bitcoin reserves of LFG totalling 80,394 BTC valued over $3.1 billion, this purchase places the foundation among the top 10 bitcoin holders in the world.
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/luna-foundation-now-holds-more-bitcoin-than-tesla
Apple moves $25 million of its cash mountain to community credit unions
Thursday, May 5, 2022 11:03 am
Apple, which has a mountainous $193 billion in cash, is now placing some of it in credit unions and minority depository institutions that work with underserved communities. Today, CNote, an Oakland-based fintech, announced that Apple will use the CNote platform to deploy $25 million into underserved communities across the country.
Apple’s $25 million commitment is part of its broader Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, an effort to expand opportunities for communities of color. The new funding builds on Apple’s previously announced commitments to expand economic empowerment and support entrepreneurs of color.
“We’re committed to helping ensure that everyone has access to the opportunity to pursue their dreams and create our shared future,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, in a statement. “By working with CNote to get funds directly to historically under-resourced communities through their local financial institutions, we can support equity, entrepreneurship and access.”
“Corporations have an enormous opportunity to help communities across the U.S. thrive by changing the way they manage their cash reserves, and we’re excited to see Apple at the forefront of this emerging trend,” said Catherine Berman, CEO of CNote, in a statement. “Through our platform, we have already started moving Apple deposits into low-income communities and communities of color.”
Initial deposits are already at work in communities
CNote has deployed an initial round of Apple deposits to mission-driven financial institutions, including ANECA Federal Credit Union in Louisiana; Bank of Cherokee County in Oklahoma; Carver State Bank in Georgia; Education Credit Union in Texas; First Southwest Bank in Colorado; Hope Credit Union, which serves Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee; Kaua’i Federal Credit Union in Hawai’i; Latino Community Credit Union in North Carolina; Legacy Bank in Missouri; Optus Bank in South Carolina; Self-Help Federal Credit Union, with locations in California, Illinois, Washington and Wisconsin; and VCC Bank in Virginia.
“Partnerships like the one we have with CNote and Apple are essential to our efforts to expand access to capital, as well as to financial products and services, in a historically underserved market,” said Susannah Plumb Scott, executive vice president at Bank of Cherokee County, in a statement. The bank, formed in 1907 by a group of prominent Cherokee Nation members, invests 95% of deposits back into Cherokee County.
Eric Jenkins, president and CEO of Education Credit Union, founded by Amarillo schoolteachers in 1935, said in a statement that deposits like Apple’s “allow ECU to serve more consumers and meet a broader range of needs.”
CNote’s platform provides insured deposits across a network of vetted mission-driven financial institutions
CNote’s platform fills a gap for corporate and other institutional investors that want to support financially underserved communities across the country while generating returns on cash allocations. CNote moves client deposits into FDIC- and NCUA-insured accounts across a wide network of mission-driven deposit institutions, including community development financial institutions (CDFIs), low-income designated (LID) credit unions, and minority depository institutions (MDIs).
Funds committed through the CNote platform increase the deposit base of mission-driven banks and credit unions that serve low- to moderate-income people as well as BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) communities. These types of deposits help fuel affordable housing and small business loans and provide a just alternative to predatory lending. Apple and other CNote clients — including Mastercard, Patagonia, PayPal and Netflix — receive quarterly impact reports that provide details on which institutions have received deposits and the populations benefiting from those investments.
MacDailyNews Note: More info about CNote here.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/05/05/apple-moves-25-million-of-its-cash-mountain-to-community-credit-unions/
Apple’s Self Repair Program tested with iPhone battery fix
Thursday, May 5, 2022 5:03 pm
Apple last week announced the launch of a new Self Repair program, which is designed to allow iPhone 12, iPhone 13, and iPhone SE owners to repair their devices on their own using manuals, tools, and replacement parts sourced directly from Apple. So, MacRumors tasked videographer Dan Barbera with ordering a repair kit to replace the battery of his iPhone 12 mini.
Juli Clover for MacRumors:
Dan describes himself as the opposite of a handyman and he’s never done an iPhone repair before, so we thought he’d be the perfect representation of the average consumer who just wants to save some money by doing DIY repairs.
The repair kit comes in two separate packages, and the two boxes weigh in at a whopping 79 pounds. You get it for a week before you need to send it back via UPS, or else Apple charges you $1300.
It’s inconvenient to have to deal with one 40 pound repair kit and a second 30 pound repair kit, so that’s a negative right off the bat. It costs $49 to get the kit and $70.99 for the ?iPhone 12 mini? battery bundle, though you get $24.15 back for sending in old parts.
Overall, for the layperson, it’s probably better to take your phone to a professional for repair rather than attempting to fix it yourself. This is especially true of repairs for things like the battery and the display, which are generally cheaper to have Apple replace.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last November:
And just like that, “Right to Repair” legislation dies on the vine.
And, we’re going to repeat, because there will be a lot of products destroyed by customers who quickly find they’re in way over their head: Self Service Repair is intended for individual technicians with the knowledge and experience to repair electronic devices. For the vast majority of customers, visiting a professional repair provider with certified technicians who use genuine Apple parts is the safest and most reliable way to get a repair.
*Yes, the threat of “Right to Repair” legislation is what caused Apple to debut Self Service Repair.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/05/05/apples-self-repair-program-tested-with-iphone-battery-fix/
Vitalik: L2 transaction fees need to be under 5c to be 'truly acceptable'
BRIAN QUARMBY
1 HOUR AGO
Despite Layer-2s offering relatively cheap transactions, Vitalik Buterin said that all transactions need to be under $0.05 to be truly acceptable.
Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes that Layer-2 transaction fees need to be under $0.05 to be “truly acceptable.”
Buterin made the latest comments in response to a Twitter post from the Bankless podcast host Ryan Sean Adams, who shared a screenshot of the average transaction fees for eight Ethereum Layer-2 platforms.
The data is from L2fees.info, a website that compares the cost of Ether’s Layer-1 network in comparison to Layer-2s built on top of it.
The only Layer-2 to meet Buterin’s desired transaction fee under $0.05 is the Metis Network at $0.02, however a token swap on the platform still costs $0.14. Fees sharply increase from there, at $0.12 per transaction on Loopring and going all the way to $1.98 per transaction on the Aztec Network.
Ethereum’s Layer-1 is relatively affordable at present at $3.26 per transaction and a whopping $16.31 per token swap, however that only lasts until Yuga Lab’s releases another collection of NFTs where fees can skyrocket to $14,000 per mint.
Adams emphasized the importance of Layer-2s for keeping Ethereum affordable, noting that “this is Ethereum and it's not expensive,” but Buterin suggested it wasn’t there yet:
“Needs to get under $0.05 to be truly acceptable imo. But we're definitely making great progress, and even proto-danksharding may be enough to get us there for a while!”
Needs to get under $0.05 to be truly acceptable imo. But we're definitely making great progress, and even proto-danksharding may be enough to get us there for a while!
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 3, 2022
Buterin’s affordable transaction goal is a long held one that he first stated during an interview in 2017 that “the internet of money should not cost more than 5 cents per transaction."
In January, Buterin said he still stood by this goal “100%” as part of a lengthy Twitter thread going over some of the key things he’s said or written over the past 10 years.
“That was the goal in 2017, and it's still the goal now. It's precisely why we're spending so much time working on scalability” Buterin said.
Short term gas fee reduction
The proto-danksharding or EIP-4844 that Buterin referred to as putting downward pressure on fees in his response to Adams, is a recently proposed upgrade to Ethereum that will see key elements of danksharding — a new and simplified design of previous sharding designs — implemented onto the network without any sharding upgrades being initiated.
Proto-danksharding will enable a new type of transaction dubbed the “blob-carrying transaction” that carries an extra 125KB worth of data (blob) that cannot be accessed by the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The general idea is that this will help the network scale significantly in the short term while reducing congestion and competition for gas usage, thus lowering gas fees.
“Because validators and clients still have to download full blob contents, data bandwidth in proto-danksharding is targeted to 1 MB per slot instead of the full 16 MB. However, there are nevertheless large scalability gains because this data is not competing with the gas usage of existing Ethereum transactions,” Buterin wrote in a blog post last month.
While Ethereum’s roadmap is notoriously flexible the shard chains upgrade is slated for sometime in 2023 well after the merge of the Mainnet with the Beacon Chain.
Shard chains provide avenues to horizontally and cheaply store data across the network, which in turn spreads the load, reduces congestion and increases transaction speeds. Both Ethereum and its Layer-2s are expected to benefit from this dramatically.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/vitalik-l2-transaction-fees-need-to-be-under-5c-to-be-truly-acceptable
Coinbase took out the first Bitcoin-backed loan from Goldman Sachs
BRIAN NEWAR
4 MINUTES AGO
The largest exchange in the U.S. has taken out a loan from Goldman collateralized in Bitcoin as a Wall Street first, paving the way for others to follow.
America’s largest crypto exchange Coinbase has been revealed as the mystery firm that took out Wall Street’s first Bitcoin-backed loan from Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs has $2.5 trillion assets under management as of 2021.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the Bitcoin-backed loan issued by Goldman had been taken out by Coinbase as a way to deepen ties between the crypto and tradfi world, with the head of Coinbase Institutional Brett Tejpaul stating that:
“Coinbase’s work with Goldman is a first step in the recognition of crypto as collateral which deepens the bridge between the fiat and crypto economies.”
The dollar value of the loan has not been disclosed, but it was collateralized by a portion of Coinbase’s total holdings of 4,487 Bitcoin, worth around $170 million today. The loan features 24-hour risk management, but requires Coinbase to top up its BTC collateral if prices fall too low.
While Bitcoin-backed and other crypto-backed loans are commonplace in the crypto industry, especially on decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, they are a curiosity in traditional finance where crypto is seen as too risky and volatile as collateral.
However, asset management firm Arca wrote in a May 2 blog post that potential borrowers are looking for more such options. It said, “[This loan] demonstrates the willingness of institutions to utilize new tools with old techniques.”
“It is far more likely that Goldman is seeing a lot of demand for this type of transaction and is just testing the waters before making a bigger splash.”
News of the Bitcoin-backed loan sparked commentary on Twitter. Regarding the loan, Bitcoin podcaster Preston Pysh tweeted Wednesday: “No wonder the SEC is hiring people.”
Armstrong on social media
Meanwhile, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, has laid out his vision for free speech being enabled through decentralized social media platforms. He told the Milken Institute on May 2 that under new owner Elon Musk, Twitter has an opportunity to “essentially embrace using a decentralized protocol” which the platform could operate on.
“I think freedom in all forms is worth defending and crypto, a lot of it, is about economic freedom. Freedom of speech is another version.”
Armstrong believes a decentralized social media platform would allow content creators to make their own moderation policies and thaaccess to all the content would be democratized rather than algorithmically ordained. This would prevent certain content streams from being stifled on a platform and allow users to see whatever they choose to.
If Twitter does not embrace the opportunity, Armstrong points out that there are teams working on decentralized social media platforms already, which he called DeSo, where users can own their own identity on the platform.
Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey has been working on a decentralized social media platform called Bluesky since 2019, which operates independently from Twitter. Bluesky aims to drive the adoption of technology where “creators have control over relationships with their audiences, and developers have the freedom to build.”
Given the surge of interest in Twitter's future, we thought this would be a good time to clarify the relationship between Bluesky and Twitter.
— bluesky (@bluesky) April 25, 2022
https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-took-out-the-first-bitcoin-backed-loan-from-goldman-sachs
Gatorade trademark applications hint at joining the metaverse
TURNER WRIGHT
8 HOURS AGO
Should Gatorade go meta, it may join a number of major food and drink brands exploring virtual offerings, including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Anheuser-Busch.
Stokely-Van Camp, the beverage company with the original rights to market and produce Gatorade, may be exploring releasing virtual sports drinks in the metaverse.
According to records submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, on Wednesday, Stokely-Van Camp filed two applications for the word Gatorade and the sports drink’s “G”-shaped orange, black and white logo to be used in connection with “virtual beverage products” and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. The filings suggest Gatorade may be preparing to introduce its branded products to the metaverse.
Stokely-Van Camp added that the Gatorade name and logo could be used in digital media artwork, text, audio and video. According to the USPTO status, the U.S. government agency could take roughly six months to examine the applications.
Now owned by multinational food corporation PepsiCo, Gatorade is a major sports drink consumed by people in more than 80 countries around the world. The company reportedly sold roughly $2.6 billion worth of products in U.S.-based convenience stores in 2021 and controlled 46% of the worldwide sports drink market.
Should Gatorade move into the metaverse, it may join a number of major food and drink brands exploring virtual offerings, including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Anheuser-Busch. Sports footwear and apparel manufacturer Nike also filed applications with the USPTO in November 2021 for its name, logo and slogan "for use online and in online virtual worlds."
https://cointelegraph.com/news/gatorade-trademark-applications-hint-at-joining-the-metaverse
Apple hires 31-Year Ford veteran to accelerate ‘Apple Car’ work
Tuesday, May 3, 2022 12:31 pm
Apple has hired a longtime Ford Motor Co. executive, Desi Ujkashevic, who helped lead safety efforts and vehicle engineering, a sign that Cupertino is again ramping up “Apple Car” development, Bloomberg News reports citing “people with knowledge of the matter.”
Mark Gurman and Keith Naughton for Bloomberg News:
Ujkashevic had worked at Ford since 1991, most recently serving as its global director of automotive safety engineering. Before that, she helped oversee engineering of interiors, exteriors, chassis and electrical components for many Ford models.
The executive worked on Ford’s Escape, Explorer, Fiesta and Focus models, as well as the Lincoln MKC and Aviator, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also helped develop new electric vehicles for the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker. And Ujkashevic has experience dealing with regulatory issues, something that will be key to Apple getting a car on the road.
Enlisting Ujkashevic suggests that Apple is continuing to push toward a self-driving car despite several high-profile departures over the past year. The project’s management team has been almost entirely replaced since it was run by Doug Field, an executive who left for Ford last year… After Field quit, the company appointed Apple Watch and health software head Kevin Lynch to oversee the project. Lynch is a well-regarded software engineering manager but hasn’t previously led the development of a vehicle. Still, the company has sought to accelerate the project under Lynch — with the goal of announcing a product by 2025.
An Apple car would put the company in competition with Tesla Inc. and Lucid Group Inc., as well as traditional automakers racing to introduce electric vehicles. Ford has been particularly aggressive in EVs lately with a push to electrify the best-selling vehicle in America: the F-150 pickup.
MacDailyNews Take: ?? On the road again… ??
https://macdailynews.com/2022/05/03/apple-hires-31-year-ford-veteran-to-accelerate-apple-car-work/
Researchers find minor flaw in Apple Silicon chips
Tuesday, May 3, 2022 2:03 pm
Security researchers have discovered a minor flaw in Apple Silicon chips that could lead to limited data leakage, however there is little cause for concern.
Mike Peterson for AplleInsider:
The so-called Augury flaw was discovered by a team of researchers led by Jose Rodrigo Sanchez Vicarte of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Michael Flanders of the University of Washington. Vicarte, Flanders, and other members of the team recently published details of the flaw in a new paper.
According to the researchers, the flaw exists in the Data-Memory Dependent Prefetcher (DMP) in Apple Silicon chips. DMPs, which decide what memory content to prefetch, are well-known in academic circles but have yet to be deployed in a commercial product.
Though the exact details are complicated, this essentially means that the chips can leak data that isn’t read by any instruction. Kohlbrenner noted, however, that this is “about the weakest DMP an attacker can get.”
The flaw isn’t “that bad” currently, since it can only leak data pointers and “likely only in the sandbox threat model.”
MacDailyNews Take: If this is Apple Silicon’s one “flaw,” then it’s pretty much perfect.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/05/03/researchers-find-minor-flaw-in-apple-silicon-chips/
WWDC 2022’s Apple Park viewing event lottery for developers opens May 9th
Tuesday, May 3, 2022 3:03 pm
Apple is hosting a special all-day experience at Apple Park on June 6th to kick off WWDC 2022. Gather with others in the developer community to watch the keynote and State of the Union videos live alongside Apple engineers and experts, explore the all-new Developer Center, and so much more.
This event marks the start of a week’s worth of online sessions, labs, and lounges.
Juli Clover for MacRumors:
Apple says that it will be an all-day experience at ?Apple Park?, including the keynote and State of the Union. Developers will also be invited to explore the Developer Center, among other activities. Apple last year said that it was building a dedicated Developer Center on the ?Apple Park? campus, though few details have been provided about it.
The ?Apple Park? event is free, and all members of the Apple Developer Program and Apple Developer Enterprise Program can apply to attend. Invitations will be allocated through a random selection process and cannot be transferred.
Submissions will be accepted from Monday, May 9 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time through Wednesday, May 11 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Developers will be notified of their status by Friday, May 12 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time.
MacDailyNews Take: More info via Apple’s developer website here.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/05/03/wwdc-2022s-apple-park-viewing-event-lottery-for-developers-opens-may-9th/
Ethereum burning spikes to new high on Yuga Labs’ NFT hype
BRIAN QUARMBY
20 HOURS AGO
Otherdeed NFTs top the “burn leaderboard” over the past seven days at roughly 55,816 ETH, or 56% of all burns during that period.
The burning rate of Ethereum has spiked to new all-time high (ATH) levels following the heavily anticipated sale of tokenized land plots in Yuga Labs’ upcoming Metaverse project the “Otherside.”
Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), sold 55,000 virtual land nonfungible tokens (NFTs) dubbed “Otherdeeds” on Sunday. The overwhelming demand for the tokens saw Ethereum gas fees shoot up so high that a handful of users paid as high as 2.6 Ether (ETH), or $7,400 at the time of writing, to 5 ETH, or $14,270, just to get their transactions through.
A base fee of ETH is burned during each transaction on the network following the implementation of the London hard fork, or EIP-1559 upgrade, last year.
According to data compiled from Glassnode and Data Always, nearly 70,000 ETH was burned on Sunday, which is more than triple the previous ATH of around 20,000 in mid-January.
Data from Ultrasound.Money shows that since the integration of EIP-1559 on August 5, 2021, the average burn rate has been 5.81 ETH per minute.
Amid the Otherdeed NFT sale, however, that figure jumped to 9.83 ETH per minute for a total of 99,084.65 ETH over the past seven days. Since then, the burn rate has dropped back down to around 3.9 ETH per minute.
While other platforms and projects accounted for this figure, it’s notable that Otherdeed NFTs top the “burn leaderboard” over the past seven days at roughly 55,817 ETH, or 56% of all burns during that period. This figure is significantly ahead of second-placed OpenSea at 7,152 ETH.
This may be the last time Yuga Labs clogs Ethereum
With the demand for the sale temporarily overwhelming the Ethereum network and many users losing funds on gas fees for failed ETH transactions, Yuga Labs has outlined intentions to build a blockchain and port its BAYC-affiliated ApeCoin over.
In a Sunday Twitter post, Yuga Labs stated that it will be refunding user’s gas fees, and noted that:
“We’re sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while. It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We’d like to encourage the DAO to start thinking in this direction.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-burning-spikes-to-new-high-on-yuga-labs-nft-hype
Bitcoin ATM installation slowdown continues for 4th month in 2022
ARIJIT SARKAR
18 HOURS AGO
The evident reduction in the installation of crypto ATMs could result from the regulators' hesitance to adopt the Bitcoin ecosystem.
April 2022 marked the fourth consecutive month of the slowdown in the installation of Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs, which began at the start of the year.
Bitcoin ATMs serve a crucial purpose for the Bitcoin economy, helping users physically retrieve or deposit holdings against the corresponding cash reserves.
Based on data provided by Coin ATM Radar, the year 2021 saw the highest global increase in Bitcoin ATM installations, with August witnessing a peak net change of 2,037 ATMs. In January 2022, the net change fell to 1,687 from December 2021’s high of 1,969 ATMs.
Ever since, the net change in crypto ATMs has maintained a downward trajectory, recording three-digit changes across the following months in February (970), March (757) and April (739).
Last year’s explosive growth in crypto ATMs was a direct result of jurisdictions like El Salvador, which currently hosts the third-largest network of Bitcoin ATMs after the United States and Canada, embracing Bitcoin as legal tender.
Highlighting the highly untapped market for crypto ATMs, El Salvador hosts 205 Chivo-branded machines, amounting to roughly 54% of all crypto ATMs in Latin America.
However, as previously pointed out by Cointelegraph, the evident reduction in the installations of crypto ATMs could be a result of the slowdown in newer jurisdictions willing to accept and adopt the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Genesis Coin maintains its long-standing dominance in the crypto ATM market, representing a 41.5% market share. Other prominent crypto ATM manufacturers include General Bytes (21.6%), BitAccess (15.2%) and Coinsource (5.3%).
On April 26, Mexico’s Senate building installed its 14th Bitcoin ATM, showcasing the country’s increasing interest in the crypto ecosystem.
Mexican Senator Indira Kempis, who recently proposed the legalization of Bitcoin, announced the launch of the new ATM in the Senate building while stating:
“For freedom, inclusion and financial education in Mexico.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-atm-installation-slowdown-continues-for-4th-month-in-2022
Rhode Island proposes crypto rewards for green home builders
BRIAN NEWAR
39 MINUTES AGO
The Ocean State’s legislature is looking to tackle the housing shortage and ensure new projects are going green by incentivizing builders with crypto rewards.
A bill was proposed in Rhode Island’s House of Representatives that would credit a house builder in a “green coin” cryptocurrency for reducing the project's carbon footprint.
The Green Housing Public-Private Partnership Act would oblige the state’s public utility commission to issue annual reports on the utility costs and carbon emissions of a housing project. If the project has been able to reduce its utility costs, the state will award a cryptocurrency credit to the property owner.
“Any reduction 24 amount of utility costs attributable to any housing construction project pursuant to this chapter shall 25 be assigned a credit amount which credit shall be eligible for redemption in a byway of cryptocurrency in the form of a green coin.”
Funds for the initiative would come from $500 million in donations from local private banks and $125 million from the state which would be known as the “Green Housing Fund.”
It is not clear what blockchain network the “green coin” would use, but it would likely be a less costly proof-of-stake (PoS) network favored by mainstream environmentalists these days.
The bill is designed to tackle both the sudden spike in housing demand in the Ocean State and to further incentivize home builders to stay in compliance with environmental standards. The proposal states:
“Immediate action to develop housing using green site standards is imperative to ensure 3 compliance with the goals established by the Act on Climate.”
The newly proposed bill is meant to stimulate new housing developments in the state that suffers from a housing shortage exacerbated by increased prices year-on-year according to a report from local news outlet The Providence Journal.
Housing data tracker Redfin confirms that Rhode Island’s housing supply has been on a steady decline over the past 5 years, with February 2022 marking a 5-year low.
While the Rhode Island legislature’s plan to reward environmentally conscientious builders with crypto is fairly novel, crypto in the housing market is not a new idea. It is becoming increasingly common to take out crypto mortgages to help pay for houses.
The USDC.homes program issued a loan to a new homeowner in Austin, Texas late last month denominated in USD Coin (USDC) on the Polygon (MATIC) network. The uncollateralized loan functions similarly to traditional loans, but the down payment, also made in crypto, is staked to earn the borrower interest which can be used to help pay down the principal.
Bacon Protocol has been issuing nonfungible token (NFT) mortgages since last November and features interest rates far below the national average of 5.5%.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/rhode-island-proposes-crypto-rewards-for-green-home-builders
Chinese Apple suppliers given priority for factory restarts in Shanghai
Saturday, April 30, 2022 10:42 am
As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) locked down Shanghai and nearby regions in its quixotic quest for “zero-COVID,” many suppliers halted production, with some shutdowns lasting weeks. As economic pains from the draconian policies grew, China has been pushing to resume factory operations, with Apple suppliers given priority for factory restarts.
Yang Jie for The Wall Street Journal:
In Kunshan, a city in Jiangsu about 30 miles west of Shanghai, the local government released a list last week that designated several major Apple suppliers, including Luxshare Precision Industry Co. and Wistron Corp., as “Covid-free” enterprises, granting them priority to resume production.
China’s central government has vowed to help restart factories, including Taiwan-based manufacturers. “We will continue to work with relevant authorities to actively assist Taiwanese companies to overcome the impact caused by the pandemic and help them resume production and operation as soon as possible,” said Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, on Wednesday. Many Apple suppliers are based in Taiwan.
MacDailyNews Take: The impact isn’t from the “pandemic,” the impact is from some countries’ and people’s overreaction to what was a bad flu that’s long since morphed into a bad cold, if that.
Chief Executive Tim Cook said Thursday that Apple’s constraints were mainly centered around the Shanghai corridor. The company’s estimate for as much as $8 billion in affected sales reflects the various ramp-ups necessary to get production back up and running, he said.
“On a positive front, almost all of the affected final-assembly factories have now restarted,” Mr. Cook said.
Quanta Computer Inc., a top assembler of MacBooks that is also Taiwan-based, has resumed some of its production at its Shanghai plant on April 15, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported last week. There, some 2,000 workers out of more than 40,000 returned to make products including laptops for Apple. That number was set to rise to around 6,000 workers by late April, according to Xinhua, which quoted a factory director.
MacDailyNews Take: For the amount of business Apple delivers to China, the company and its suppliers/assemblers deserve top priority.
Hopefully, the CCP is finally figuring out that “zero-COVID” is a pipe dream and will soon adopt reasonable, rational measures that do not violate its citizens’ basic human rights.
As we wrote over four months ago:
In general, human-transmissible coronaviruses do not disappear. There is no such thing as zero-COVID.
COVID-19 is here to stay. It will very likely become endemic, yet pose less danger over time. People will acquire immunity via vaccines (effectiveness TDB) and naturally as they contract and recover from variants like omicron since the partially-effective vaccines permit not only transmissibility, but also breakthrough infections. Influenza and the four human coronaviruses that cause common colds (OC43, 229E, NL63 and HKU1) are, of course, also endemic, but a combination of annual flu vaccines and acquired immunity means that sane societies tolerate the unavoidable seasonal deaths and illnesses they bring without requiring lockdowns, masks, social distancing, indefinite return-to-work delays, etc.
At which point, if ever, will some people decide that wasting away their short lives in abject fear of a bad flu, very likely engineered by China and partially funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is a hysterical self-defeating overreaction?
The real virus is the panic. – MacDailyNews, March 9, 2020
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/30/chinese-apple-suppliers-given-priority-for-factory-restarts-in-shanghai/
Warren Buffett bought $600 million worth of Apple shares last quarter
Monday, May 2, 2022 8:57 am
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett bought even more of Apple, far and away his No.1 stock, on the dip during the Cupertino Colossus’ first quarter sell-off.
Berkshire Hathaway averages some $775 million annually from Apple dividends alone.
Yun Li for CNBC:
Berkshire Hathaway’s Chairman and CEO told CNBC’s Becky Quick that he scooped up $600 million worth of Apple shares following a three-day decline in the stock last quarter. Apple is the conglomerate’s single largest stock holding with a value of $159.1 billion at the end of March, taking up about 40% of its equity portfolio.
“Unfortunately the stock went back up, so I stopped. Otherwise who knows how much we would have bought?” the 91-year-old investor told Quick on Sunday after Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting.
Berkshire began buying Apple stock in 2016 under the influence of Buffett’s investing deputies Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. Berkshire is now Apple’s largest shareholder, outside of index and exchange-traded fund providers.
The “Oracle of Omaha” said he is a fan of [CEO Tim] Cook’s stock repurchase strategy, and how it gives the conglomerate increased ownership of each dollar of the iPhone maker’s earnings without the investor having to lift a finger.
Apple said last week it authorized $90 billion in share buybacks, maintaining its pace as the public company that spends the most buying its own shares. It spent $88.3 billion on buybacks in 2021.
Cook was in attendance at Berkshire’s annual meeting last weekend.
MacDailyNews Take: Smart investor.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/05/02/warren-buffett-bought-600-million-worth-of-apple-shares-last-quarter/
Apple is poised to take another chunk of the microchip market
Saturday, April 30, 2022 10:23 am
A series of moves and acquisitions by Apple, as well as signals from its suppliers, make clear that the company – already known for its powerful and efficient Apple Silicon chips – aims to start designing its own modems for the world-beating iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and, possibly, finally for Macs, smartglasses, and beyond.
Christopher Mims for The Wall Street Journal:
Doing so could enable a future of always-on smart glasses and augmented reality, more wearables with their own independent connection to cellular networks, Mac laptops with 5G connectivity, and faster-than-ever downloads and streaming on its flagship iPhones.
But first, the company must accomplish something that has defeated other tech giants, including Intel: It must show that not only can it design its own wireless modems, but that it can make them good enough to justify switching away from the ones Apple now uses, which are made by Qualcomm, for decades the world’s dominant modem-chip maker.
Apple keeps details of its chip operation, like much of the rest of its business, closely guarded secrets… There are, however, plenty of signposts showing where Apple is headed on modem chips. The company agreed in 2019 to acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone-modem business, including 2,200 employees, and since then has continued hiring engineers with related expertise, often at satellite offices in the same cities as its sometime-partners and possible future competitors in wireless technology.
MacDailyNews Take: Last November, Qualcomm said that the company believes it will supply only 20% of the modem chips in Apple iPhones as of Apple’s 2023 launch. Qualcomm did not say whether it believes Apple will self-supply all of the share that Qualcomm expects to lose or whether it might turn to other vendors, but obviously, Apple is working on their own modems.
Apple didn’t buy Intel’s modem business and invest billions into designing their own modems in order to source modems from some other vendor. – MacDailyNews, November 16, 2021
I’ve always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do. — Steve Jobs
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/30/apple-is-poised-to-take-another-chunk-of-the-microchip-market/
Apple stock swings to a loss after warning of $4B – $8B in negative supply chain impacts
Thursday, April 28, 2022 6:15 pm
Apple easily beat earnings expectations and set a new quarterly record for its fiscal second quarter ended March 26, 2022, but Apple expects to see a $4B – $8B hit from supply chain disruptions in the current quarter which sent its stock price lower in after-hours trading.
Emily Bary for MarketWatch:
“Supply constraints caused by COVID-related disruptions and industry-wide silicon shortages are impacting our ability to meet customer demand for our products,” Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said on a conference call related to Apple’s AAPL, +4.52% earnings report Thursday.
The company anticipates that it will see $4 billion to $8 billion in negative impacts related to the constraints in its June quarter, which Maestri added was “substantially larger” than what Apple experienced during its March quarter.
While Apple fell some sting from silicon shortages in the March period, it now faces new challenges brought on by temporary factory closures in China related to COVID-19 outbreaks, Chief Executive Tim Cook noted. He expects that the pressures will impact “most of the product categories,” even though some factories have now reopened.
MacDailyNews Take: As of this article’s publication, the price of Apple stock in after-hours trading is down $5.24 (-3.20%) to $158.41.
See also: Apple results beat Street with all-time quarterly revenue record of $97.3 billion and MacDailyNews presents live notes from Apple’s Q222 conference call.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/28/apple-stock-swings-to-a-loss-after-warning-of-4b-8b-in-negative-supply-chain-impacts/
Apple results beat Street with all-time quarterly revenue record of $97.3 billion
Thursday, April 28, 2022 4:32 pm
Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2022 second quarter ended March 26, 2022. The company posted a March quarter revenue record of $97.3 billion, up 9 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.52.
“This quarter’s record results are a testament to Apple’s relentless focus on innovation and our ability to create the best products and services in the world,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “We are delighted to see the strong customer response to our new products, as well as the progress we’re making to become carbon neutral across our supply chain and our products by 2030. We are committed, as ever, to being a force for good in the world — both in what we create and what we leave behind.”
Q222 Revenue breakdown:
• iPhone: $50.570 billion (vs. $47.938 billion YoY)
• Services: $19.821 billion (vs. $16.901 billion YoY)
• Mac: $10.435 billion (vs. $9.102 billion YoY)
• Wearables, Home and Accessories: $8.806 billion (vs. $7.836 billion YoY)
• iPad: $7.646 billion (vs. $7.836 billion YoY)
“We are very pleased with our record business results for the March quarter, as we set an all-time revenue record for Services and March quarter revenue records for iPhone, Mac, and Wearables, Home and Accessories. Continued strong customer demand for our products helped us achieve an all-time high for our installed base of active devices,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO, in a statement. “Our strong operating performance generated over $28 billion in operating cash flow, and allowed us to return nearly $27 billion to our shareholders during the quarter.”
Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.23 per share of the company’s common stock, an increase of 5 percent. The dividend is payable on May 12, 2022 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 9, 2022. The board of directors has also authorized an increase of $90 billion to the existing share repurchase program.
MacDailyNews will provide live notes of Apple’s Q2 2022 financial results conference call beginning at 2pm PDT / 5pm EDT on April 28, 2022 here:
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/28/macdailynews-presents-live-notes-from-apples-q222-conference-call/
MacDailyNews Take:Boom!
MacDailyNews Note: Prior to earnings, the analysts’ consensus estimates (via Refinitiv) expected:
• Revenue: $93.89 billion
• EPS: $1.43
• iPhone revenue: $47.88 billion
• Services revenue: $19.72 billion
• Mac revenue: $9.25 billion
• Wearables, Home and Accessories revenue: $9.05 billion
• iPad revenue: $7.14 billion
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/28/apple-results-beat-street-with-all-time-quarterly-revenue-record-of-97-3-billion/
Apple Reports Second Quarter Results
April 28 2022 - 04:30PM
Business Wire
Revenue up 9 percent to new March quarter record
Services revenue reaches new all-time high
Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2022 second quarter ended March 26, 2022. The Company posted a March quarter revenue record of $97.3 billion, up 9 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.52.
“This quarter’s record results are a testament to Apple’s relentless focus on innovation and our ability to create the best products and services in the world,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are delighted to see the strong customer response to our new products, as well as the progress we’re making to become carbon neutral across our supply chain and our products by 2030. We are committed, as ever, to being a force for good in the world — both in what we create and what we leave behind.”
“We are very pleased with our record business results for the March quarter, as we set an all-time revenue record for Services and March quarter revenue records for iPhone, Mac, and Wearables, Home and Accessories. Continued strong customer demand for our products helped us achieve an all-time high for our installed base of active devices,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “Our strong operating performance generated over $28 billion in operating cash flow, and allowed us to return nearly $27 billion to our shareholders during the quarter.”
Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.23 per share of the Company’s common stock, an increase of 5 percent. The dividend is payable on May 12, 2022 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 9, 2022. The board of directors has also authorized an increase of $90 billion to the existing share repurchase program.
Apple will provide live streaming of its Q2 2022 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PT on April 28, 2022 at apple.com/investor/earnings-call. This webcast will be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.
Apple periodically provides information for investors on its corporate website, apple.com, and its investor relations website, investor.apple.com. This includes press releases and other information about financial performance, reports filed or furnished with the SEC, information on corporate governance, and details related to its annual meeting of shareholders.
This press release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include without limitation those about the Company’s plans for return of capital, the payment of its quarterly dividend, and its investment plans and environmental initiatives. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation: the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company’s business, results of operations, financial condition, and stock price; the effect of global and regional economic conditions on the Company’s business, including effects on purchasing decisions by consumers and businesses; the ability of the Company to compete in markets that are highly competitive and subject to rapid technological change; the ability of the Company to manage frequent introductions and transitions of products and services, including delivering to the marketplace, and stimulating customer demand for, new products, services, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the effect that shifts in the mix of products and services and in the geographic, currency, or channel mix, component cost increases, increases in the cost of developing, acquiring and delivering content for the Company’s services, price competition, or the introduction of new products or services, including new products or services with higher cost structures, could have on the Company’s gross margin; the dependency of the Company on the performance of distributors of the Company’s products, including cellular network carriers and other resellers; the risk of write-downs on the value of inventory and other assets and purchase commitment cancellation risk; the continued availability on acceptable terms, or at all, of certain components, services, and new technologies essential to the Company’s business, including components and technologies that may only be available from single or limited sources; the dependency of the Company on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties, many of which are located outside of the US and which may affect the quality, quantity, or cost of products manufactured or services rendered to the Company; the effect of product and services design and manufacturing defects on the Company’s financial performance and reputation; failure to obtain or create digital content that appeals to the Company’s customers, or to make such content available on commercially reasonable terms; the dependency of the Company on third-party intellectual property, which may not be available to the Company on commercially reasonable terms or at all; the dependency of the Company on support from third-party software developers to develop and maintain software applications and services for the Company’s products; the impact of unfavorable legal proceedings or government investigations; the impact of complex and changing laws and regulations worldwide, which expose the Company to potential liabilities, increased costs, and other adverse effects on the Company’s business; the intense media, political, and regulatory scrutiny, which exposes the Company to increasing regulation, government investigations, legal actions, and penalties; the ability of the Company to manage risks associated with the Company’s retail stores; the ability of the Company to manage risks associated with the Company’s investments in new business strategies and acquisitions; the impact on the Company’s business and reputation from information technology system failures, network disruptions, or losses or unauthorized access to, or release of, confidential information; the ability of the Company to comply with laws and regulations regarding data protection; the continued service and availability of highly skilled employees, including key personnel; political events, trade and other international disputes, war, terrorism, natural disasters, public health issues, industrial accidents, and other business interruptions that could disrupt supply or delivery of, or demand for, the Company’s products; financial risks, including risks relating to currency fluctuations, credit risks, and fluctuations in the market value of the Company’s investment portfolio; and changes in tax rates, the adoption of new US or international tax legislation, and exposure to additional tax liabilities. More information on these risks and other potential factors that could affect the Company’s business and financial results is included in the Company’s filings with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of the Company’s most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and subsequent filings. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Apple’s five software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.
NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple Newsroom (www.apple.com/newsroom), or call Apple’s Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042.
© 2022 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Apple Inc.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited)
(In millions, except number of shares which are reflected in thousands and per share amounts)...
https://ih.advfn.com/stock-market/NASDAQ/apple-AAPL/stock-news/87948277/apple-reports-second-quarter-results
Ethereum scaling solution Optimism upgrades governance structure
SAM BOURGI
7 HOURS AGO
Optimism Foundation will launch a governance token called OP to govern protocol and network parameters, and incentivize adoption.
The Optimism Foundation has unveiled a new governance structure and token as part of its ongoing efforts to bring scalability and cost efficiency to Ethereum (ETH), the world’s largest smart contract platform.
The “Optimism Collective” was introduced Tuesday afternoon in a lengthy post that outlined its mission and governance mandate. Described as a “large-scale experiment in digital democratic governance,” the Optimism Collective essentially comprises a band of communities and stakeholders committed to improving Ethereum’s technical capabilities.
According to the details, the Optimism Collective will be governed by two components: the Citizens’ House and the Token House. The Citizens’ House will “facilitate and govern a process to distribute retroactive public goods funding” via revenues collected by the network. The Token House, which will be established through forthcoming airdrops, is tasked with voting on protocol upgrades and project incentives.
The Token House, to be powered by Optimism’s new governance token OP, will be responsible for overseeing protocol and network parameters as well as creating incentives for users to enter the ecosystem.
The Optimism Foundation said in its post that the blockchain community’s “calls for scalability are deafening,” referring to the growing demand for fast and efficient smart contract functionalities. This demand is being answered by several layer-1 competitors, all of which succumb to centralization flaws while abandoning “Ethereum’s security and values,” the foundation said, adding:
“Scaling the technology alone is not enough. We have a duty to scale our values along with our networks.”
While Ethereum continues to dominate the developer scene, its competitors are growing at a faster clip, according to a January report by crypto research firm Electric Capital. The report found that developer activity is growing for projects such as Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL) and BNB Smart Chain (BNB), which could potentially eat away at Ethereum's dominance. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s share of the decentralized finance (DeFi) market, as measured by total value locked, has also declined considerably over the past 12 months, according to DeFi Llama.
As Cointelegraph reported, progress toward Ethereum’s proof-of-stake upgrade is underway, though delays have pushed out the implementation timeline by several months. On April 11, Ethereum developers implemented the network’s first-ever “shadow fork” to stress test their assumptions surrounding the upcoming merge.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-scaling-solution-optimism-upgrades-governance-structure
Max, if ITOX has virtually no money, where did they get the $200k to fund Aretas?
Seems you may be surprised when the quarter report is out, huh?
That is a good question! I am also interested and have been accumulating shares, since I first saw you post this on $Rig's Platinum Penny Picks. Thank You!
Wen Lambo fixed? Mechanic receives first payment in Bitcoin to mend Lamborghini
JOSEPH HALL
12 HOURS AGO
When a Lamborghini owner didn’t have cash on them to pay for their repair job, they used Bitcoin to pay Kansas City welder JayFab.
The Bitcoin meme “Wen Lambo” might be making a comeback. For JayFab, a Redditor who owns and operates a welding and fabrication company, it’s certainly the case.
Working in Kansas City, Missouri, in the Midwest, JayFab told Cointelegraph that he took payment in Bitcoin (BTC) for the repairs made to a Lamborghini Aventador.
JayFab told Cointelegraph that receiving Bitcoin for repairing the car was his “first legitimate transaction,” even though he first got into Bitcoin in 2016.
“From there [2016], I have taken the deep dive into the industry to learn about it, understand the tech and possibly have a second chance at a future.”
He explains that the payment was straightforward: When JayFab asked for the bill for the repairs, the Lambo’s owner didn’t have any cash and simply said “Shoot me a wallet address will ya?” To which JayFab replied, “Ya, sure!”
With that, JayFab received the Bitcoin payment for fixing a “$8500 Titanium exhaust system,” and putting "some pretty pipes on it for more screams and pops other upgrades," and the Bitcoin blocked chain revved its own engines onto the next block.
Discussion about the mechanic’s actions first circulated on the Bitcoin subreddit where, predictably, the discussion focused on capital gains and tax implications.
For JayFab, however, “the climate here [in the Midwest] for crypto is kinda non-existent, in my opinion, because it’s very blue-collar and agricultural as far as economical energy.”
Grassroots adoption stories in Bitcoin are growing, while Bitcoin transactions in neighboring Kansas are not unheard of. In 2014, a Kansas buyer bought a house for half a million dollars with Bitcoin.
JayFab would like to make it clear that “with more adoption, I hope that I can find my place in making or doing services for crypto.” In addition to accepting Bitcoin as payment for repairing the Lambo', he also sells “exotic work” and “crypto-themed furniture/items” on popular Bitcoin marketplace Bitify.
Naturally, the pieces he handmakes can be paid for with crypto.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/wen-lambo-fixed-mechanic-receives-first-payment-in-bitcoin-to-mend-lamborghini
Brazil’s Senate approves 'Bitcoin law' to regulate cryptocurrencies
CASSIO GUSSON
44 MINUTES AGO
It's a historic day for cryptocurrencies in Brazil, as the Senate has finally approved the country's first bill aimed at regulating the crypto market. The bill still needs to be approved in the Chamber of Deputies and then sanctioned by President Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazil’s Senate has passed the country's first bill governing cryptocurrencies in a plenary session, which will set the stage for the creation of a regulatory framework for the country’s crypto industry.
The bill must be approved by the Chamber of Deputies and then signed off by President Jair Bolsonaro to become law in the country. This is expected to occur by the end of 2022, according to experts who spoke with Cointelegraph Brazil.
The session that approved the project was chaired by Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco who said:
"I want to congratulate the rapporteur of the project, Senator Irajá, for the approval, here in the Plenary of the Senate, for this important bill.”
Federal Deputy Aureo Ribeiro first proposed the bill in 2015.
The bill was then approved in the Senate following lengthy deliberation on April 26, combining Senator Ribeiro's bill with Senator Arns’s bill PL 3825/2019 for which Senator Irajá Abreu was rapporteur.
During the session, the Senate confirmed that the country’s executive branch would be responsible for formulating rules for crypto-assets and could either create a new regulator or delegate its power to the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) or the Central Bank of Brazil (BC).
The session also saw several senators including the bill’s author, Senator Arns focusing discussion on appropriate penalties for crypto crimes, especially fraud.
According to Senator Arns, the penalties for this type of crime should be scaled according to the amount of fraud, money laundering, and other white-collar crimes committed. He said:
"The penalties must be proportionate to the amount of value affected by this type of crime. So whoever committed a crime of US $1 billion causing damage to thousands of people would have a greater penalty than the someone who affected less value.”
Senator Arns's proposal was backed by Senator Rose de Freitas, who called for greater punishments for crimes involving cryptocurrencies and said that the Brazilian market already moves more than $40 billion in Brazil.
Senators also discussed incentivizing crypto miners to open up shop in Brazil since there will be a complete tax exemption for the import of ASIC mining devices into the country
Bernardo Schucman, senior vice president of the digital currencies division of the American mining company CleanSpark, pointed out that the cryptocurrency market needs specific regulation so that institutional investors who are averse to risk feel encouraged and protected by investing in crypto mining in South America’s largest country. He said
"Regulation is very welcome [and] the trend is for Brazil to follow the largest economies in the world and facilitate the mining of these coins on Brazilian soil.”
The bill does not appear to face many challenges in the Chamber of Deputies, where it must be approved in a plenary session before being sent to President Bolsinaro before becoming law.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/brazil-s-senate-approves-bitcoin-law-to-regulate-cryptocurrencies
Apple looks poised to exceed expectations, post all-time record Q2 earnings on April 28th
Tuesday, April 26, 2022 11:21 am
Apple investors may see Apple’s stock price receive a nice boost when the company releases its fiscal 2022 second quarter results for the three months ended March 26th, on April 28th. The company is widely expected to post a new all-time fiscal Q2 record.
Harsh Chauhan for The Motley Fool:
When Apple released its fiscal first-quarter results in January this year, the company decided against issuing formal guidance, citing “continued uncertainty around the world in the near term.” However, CFO Luca Maestri did point out on the company’s January earnings conference call that Apple could “achieve solid year-over-year revenue growth and set a March quarter revenue record despite significant supply constraints.”
Maestri also added that the supply chain constraints in the March quarter are likely to be less than what the company experienced during the fiscal first quarter, which ended in December. This explains why Wall Street expects Apple to deliver $94 billion in fiscal Q2 revenue — a 5% increase over the prior-year period’s record revenue of $89.6 billion.
Maestri’s commentary is an indication that the demand for Apple’s products remained strong last quarter. Even analysts are anticipating something similar as the higher end of Apple’s Q2 revenue estimate sits at $100.4 billion, which would translate into double-digit year-over-year growth for the company… Analysts are expecting the company to report earnings of $1.43 per share, which would be a small jump over the prior-year period’s figure of $1.40 per share. However, a combination of higher volumes and improved pricing should rub off positively on Apple’s bottom line and help it report stronger numbers.
There are several reasons to believe Apple is headed for another record quarter. Stronger-than-expected numbers could send the tech stock soaring, which is why investors who are still on the sidelines may want to buy Apple before it becomes expensive.
MacDailyNews Take: Take the discounts where they present themselves.
Analysts’ consensus (FactSet) expect to see Apple report $1.43/share in Q2, up from $1.40 a share a year earlier. Estimize’s average estimate is $1.51/share. The FactSet consensus calls for $94.11 billion Q2 revenue and Estimize projects $95.7 billion, versus $89.58 billion YoY (Q221).
We expect the dividend for Apple shareholders to come in around $0.24 per share with an outside chance of a nice round quarter ($0.25) per share and buybacks of $90 billion at the very least.
As always, we’ll have Apple’s results for you as soon as they are available after market close, right around 1:30pm PDT / 4:30 pm EDT on Thursday, April 28th.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/26/apple-looks-poised-to-exceed-expectations-post-all-time-record-q2-earnings-on-april-28th/
Apple opening new engineering and test facility at its Cork, Ireland campus
Tuesday, April 26, 2022 5:09 pm
Apple is opening a new multimillion-euro engineering and test facility in its Cork, Ireland campus. The new facility – the first of its kind in Europe – will be responsible for testing and analyzing products.
Vish Gain for SiliconRepublic:
A team of highly skilled engineers and technicians will be equipped with high-tech equipment such as CT scanners and electron microscopes to ensure product quality.
The new facility is the result of a renovation of an old warehouse, with one of the world’s most valuable companies investing “tens of millions of euros” and employing around 300 construction workers, mostly local.
While the original structure of the warehouse has been kept intact, Apple said that the interiors have been completely transformed to create what it described as a facility that is the “first of its kind in Europe.”
Apple also noted the “exceptional growth” of its artificial intelligence and machine learning team, which was first set up in Cork in late 2019 and has now grown to a team of more than 680 people.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple first opened a manufacturing facility in Cork in 1980, employing 60 people. Today, more than four decades later, Apple employs more than 6,000 people in Cork.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/26/apple-opening-new-engineering-and-test-facility-at-its-cork-ireland-campus/
Some Apple Retail Stores are hiring fewer ‘genius’ employees
Tuesday, April 26, 2022 5:18 pm
Apple has slowed hiring at select retail locations for its “Genius” positions, an effort that some employees see as a cost-cutting move, Bloomberg News reports citing “people with knowledge of the matter.”
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
In recent weeks, Apple informed some stores that it won’t be filling Genius positions that became available after employee departures, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. The company also retracted verbal job offers for such roles in some cases. Still, Apple hasn’t laid off workers or enacted a widespread hiring freeze, according to the people.
Apple declined to comment, and the Cupertino, California-based company continues to advertise for Genius roles on its website.
The slowdown has resulted in five or more technical-support positions going unfilled at individual stores, according to employees. The employees described the changes as part of an effort to lower headcount at locations that aren’t seeing as many customers as they did before the pandemic.
MacDailyNews Take: When traffic finally picks up after extended COVID disruptions, we bet Apple will advertise and fill those “Genius” positions when they’re needed. It doesn’t take a “Genius” to realize that it’s bad business to have people sitting around getting paid to do nothing.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/26/some-apple-retail-stores-are-hiring-fewer-genius-employees/
Halfway To The Halving: What This Means For Bitcoin
by Best Owie 4 hours ago in Bitcoin Reading Time: 3 mins read
Bitcoin halvings are important events that have taken place since the digital asset was first launched in 2009. Since then, there have been a total of three halvings that have seen block reward cut down by half each time. The next bitcoin halving will happen in 2024 which means that the market is halfway there. As this fourth halving draws close, we take a look at how this affects the supply of BTC and in turn, the value of the cryptocurrency.
Fourth Halving Coming Up
The bitcoin halving is scheduled to happen every 210,000 blocks and the estimate for the next halving is put at May 4th, 2024, going by the current rate at which BTC is being mined. Currently, there have been a little over 19 million BTC mined, which only leaves an additional 2 million BTC that is left to be mined. With the halving cutting block reward by half, presently sitting at 6.25 BTC per block, it helps to predict the supply mechanics of the digital asset.
With each halving, the daily issuance and supply go down. It is expected to fall even lower with the next halving, where each block reward would only be 3.125 BTC, and with the average of 144 blocks that are mined per day, the daily BTC awarded to miners on a daily basis will fall from 900 to 450. This helps to ensure that the supply of bitcoin diminishes over time, making it one of the core features of the monetary policy of the network.
How It Impacts Bitcoin
The bitcoin halving has various effects on the cryptocurrency. One of the ways where these effects are more prominent is mining difficulty. With less BTC being rewarded to miners for each block, it makes for stiffer competition, causing mining difficulty to skyrocket. This is evident in the trend that has followed the last bitcoin halving which took place in 2020. Likewise, bitcoin’s hashrate also increases as miners require more computing power to be able to mine blocks.
One notable thing about the current state of the network is the low fees. Even though bitcoin is halfway to another halving, transactions fees have remained near all-time lows. This is said to be the result of more efficient use of block space as there is no evidence that there is a decline in the economic usage of the network.
However, one thing has always remained consistent across all bitcoin halvings and that is the effect it has on the price. Now, halfway through to the next halvings have been when the digital asset has recorded some of its lowest prices. So there are expectations that the price will suffer at this point. Nevertheless, a halving that reduces the supply of BTC going into circulation has always been a trigger for the next bull rally and 2024 is expected to be no different.
https://www.newsbtc.com/news/bitcoin/halfway-to-the-halving-what-this-means-for-bitcoin/
Half of Apple’s suppliers at risk in China due to quixotic ‘zero-COVID’ lockdown quest
Wednesday, April 20, 2022 9:31 am
Half of Apple’s 200 top suppliers have facilities in and around Shanghai, China where the Chinese Communist Party’s quixotic quest for “zero-COVID” has caused extensive and extended lockdowns and other restrictions are disrupting many business activities.
Lauly Li, Cheng Ting-Fang, and Shunsuke Tabeta for Nikkei Asia:
More than 70 companies own manufacturing plants in Jiangsu Province that directly supply the U.S. tech giant, according to an analysis of Apple’s latest available Supplier List. The majority of these are in Kunshan and Suzhou, the two cities near Shanghai. A further 30 or so Apple suppliers have facilities in Shanghai itself, the latest epicenter of the COVID-19 surge in China.
These suppliers run the gamut from major iPhone assembler Pegatron and iPad maker Compal Electronics to makers of components such as displays, printed circuit boards, thermal parts, batteries and acoustic components.
Most of these suppliers, moreover, serve not only Apple but also global and domestic tech giants from Google, Microsoft and Intel to Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo.
Foreign and domestic businesses have warned that the prolonged lockdowns could put China’s economic growth at risk and deal a huge blow to the automobile and tech industries…
China is officially committed to a “zero-COVID” policy, and many suppliers with production facilities in the region are worried it will take months for normal operations to resume.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote over 16 months ago (aging like a fine wine):
In general, human-transmissible coronaviruses do not disappear. There is no such thing as zero-COVID.
COVID-19 is here to stay. It will very likely become endemic, yet pose less danger over time. People will acquire immunity via vaccines (effectiveness TDB) and naturally as they contract and recover from variants like omicron since the partially-effective vaccines permit not only transmissibility, but also breakthrough infections. Influenza and the four human coronaviruses that cause common colds (OC43, 229E, NL63 and HKU1) are, of course, also endemic, but a combination of annual flu vaccines and acquired immunity means that sane societies tolerate the unavoidable seasonal deaths and illnesses they bring without requiring lockdowns, masks, social distancing, indefinite return-to-work delays, etc.
At which point, if ever, will some people decide that wasting away their short lives in abject fear of a bad flu, very likely engineered by China and partially funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is a hysterical self-defeating overreaction? – MacDailyNews, December 16, 2021
More fine wine:
The real virus is the panic. – MacDailyNews, March 9, 2020
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/20/half-of-apples-suppliers-at-risk-in-china-due-to-quixotic-zero-covid-lockdown-quest/
Morgan Stanley: Apple likely to beat revenue estimates this quarter; $210 price target
Wednesday, April 20, 2022 4:33 pm
Apple is likely to beat Wall Street revenue estimates when it reports next week, thanks to strength in the indomitable Macintosh and iPhone 13 lineups, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty writes in a note to clients.
Chris Ciaccia for Seeking Alpha:
“We expect Apple to post upside to March quarter consensus revenue estimates on the back of iPhone 13 and Mac strength, which we believe more than offset relative weakness in iPad and the App Store in the quarter,” Huberty wrote in a note to clients.
Huberty cautioned that COVID-related lockdowns in major China manufacturing hubs, such as Shanghai, Kunshan, and Zhengzhou, could cause Apple (AAPL) to “take a more cautious stance when providing commentary on the June quarter given the unpredictable nature of potential future lockdowns.”
It’s likely that Apple would be directionally cautious with its commentary for the next quarter, taking into account lower factory production and recent iPhone SE order cuts, Huberty explained.
Huberty also said she expects Apple to announce an $80 billion buyback and a 7% increase to its dividend when it reports.
MacDailyNews Take: A 7% increase would add move Apple’s per share dividend from the current 22-cents up to 23.5-cents. We’d like to see an even $0.25 per share dividend.
We’ll know for esure after market close when Apple reports fiscal Q222 results on April 28th.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/20/morgan-stanley-apple-likely-to-beat-revenue-estimates-this-quarter-210-price-target/
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Ethereum Foundation treasury expands non-crypto assets to 19%
BRIAN NEWAR
APR 19, 2022
The foundation that oversees and funds developments on the Ethereum network has disclosed its total holdings, including a sizable fifth in non-crypto assets.
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has released a report detailing how its $1.6 billion treasury consists mostly of Ether (ETH), but with a surprising 18.8% in non-crypto assets.
In total, the EF nonprofit organization which manages the funds for Ethereum developments holds about 0.3% of the current total ETH supply, amounting to roughly $1.3 billion, verifiable on Etherscan. However, its non-crypto holdings account for a sizable $302 million share.
The April 2022 report is the first issued by the Foundation to outline what it holds in the treasury and how it is allocating expenditures, including grant funding for various Ethereum-based projects. In all, the EF appears to have a very strong financial footing having spent just $48 million in 2021.
The report stated that it has increased its non-crypto holdings to $302 million from a previously undisclosed amount. That amount is meant to provide “a greater safety margin” in an effort to protect it against a downturn in the crypto market.
The Foundation did not immediately respond to a request to disclose the details regarding those non-crypto holdings. However, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake suggested that the non-crypto holdings are just fiat reserves in a Monday tweet.
The Foundation spent $21.8 million on layer-1 (L1) research and development, the largest share of its expenditures last year. This total does not include the Client Incentive Program (CIP) which is an ongoing program that rewards nine particular node operators with a share of 39,168 ETH, or $132 million at the time of writing, on a fixed schedule.
It spent a further $9.7 million on community development, $5.9 million on Ethereum as a developer platform, $5.1 million on international operations, $3.6 million on zero-knowledge (zk) research and development and $1.9 million on layer-2 (L2) research and development.
The EF’s financial report comes just a few months before The Merge is scheduled to take place, where the Ethereum mainnet transitions to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. This is expected to vastly reduce the network’s energy requirements and carbon footprint.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-foundation-treasury-expands-non-crypto-assets-to-19
Australia’s first Bitcoin ETF could attract $1 billion after launch next week
BRIAN NEWAR
37 MINUTES AGO
Australian investors will be able to trade its first Bitcoin spot ETF starting next week when the Cosmos Asset Management Bitcoin ETF launches on ASX Clear.
Financial regulators have greenlit Australia’s first Bitcoin ETF to begin trading on April 27 and the Australian Financial Review reports it could see up to $1 billion in inflows.
An ETF is a regulated exchange traded fund that allows investors to benefit from the price of Bitcoin (BTC) without needing to own any coins themselves directly.
Cosmos Asset Management beat out local contenders VanEck, BetaShares, and EFT Securities to issue Australia’s first Bitcoin ETF. Each firm has been in the running to close out regulatory approvals since at least March, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Cosmos Asset Management Bitcoin ETF will be listed on CBOE Australia with approval from the Australia Securities Exchange (ASX) Clear capital markets clearinghouse. Approval was made after Cosmos landed the minimum four market participants to support the 42% margin requirements needed to cover risk according to an April 19 article by the AFR.
The Cosmos Bitcoin ETF offers indirect exposure to spot Bitcoin investing through the Canadian Purpose Bitcoin ETF.
Trader at Australian wealth management firm Zerocap, Kurt Grumelart, called the ETF approval “exciting” and commented that it “validates further institutional adoption” following the record breaking launch of the Betashares CRYP fund, which invests in crypto-exposed US Shares. On its launch in Nov 2021 the fund saw $10M of net inflows within the first ten minutes.
Grumelart expects the new Bitcoin ETF to be similarly successful
“The event marks a large step forward for Australia and mainstream acceptance of the crypto industry as a whole.”
Grumelart predicted that a successful launch will lead to an influx of other players. “If overseas markets are any indication, it is likely that a successful launch will lead to a host of listings for crypto asset based funds outside of Bitcoin,” he said
This will be the second crypto related ETF from Cosmos since last year when the firm issued its Global Digital Miners Access ETF.
Australian regulators have been working to hammer down clear-cut rules for the crypto industry over the past year. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) wants more authority over the industry, but Senator Andrew Bragg thinks that is inappropriate until cryptocurrency is recognized as a financial asset under Australian law.
Grumelart said he believes clarifying the rules will aid the development of the industry.
“As the new ASIC regulations come out governing crypto assets, we expect greater clarity for local custodians and service providers, opening up this as an avenue within the coming year.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/australia-s-first-bitcoin-etf-could-attract-1-billion-after-launch-next-week
Ace Hardware offers unlimited 3% Daily Cash back on Apple Card
Tuesday, April 19, 2022 3:55 pm
Ace Hardware customers can now get unlimited 3% Daily Cash when they use Apple Card with Apple Pay for purchases in the Ace Hardware app, on AceHardware.com and at store locations nationwide. Ace is the first home improvement store to offer 3% Daily Cash back with Apple Card.
“As the only home improvement retailer to offer 3% Daily Cash back on Apple Card, we are thrilled to offer Ace customers even more value when they use Apple Card with Apple Pay to shop online, in-app, and at Ace stores in neighborhoods throughout the U.S.,” said Kim Lefko, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Ace Hardware, in a statement. “This benefit coupled with our award-winning service and best-in-class brands will deliver even more value for consumers as they confidently maintain and upgrade their most valuable asset – their home.”
Ace Hardware customers will receive Apple Card’s 3% Daily Cash back on their Apple Cash card in Wallet. Apple Cash can be used to make purchases anywhere Apple Pay is accepted, and can be sent to family or friends, or transferred to a bank account.
Ace customers will receive Apple Card’s 3% Daily Cash with Apple Pay in addition to the points they receive from the Ace Rewards program, which allows customers to earn points when shopping at Ace locations or online. Benefits include but are not limited to accrued points that lead to discounts, exclusive in-store and online offers and instant savings. To sign up for free, visit acehardware.com/ace-rewards or an Ace Hardware store near you.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple Card customers get 3% Daily Cash at Apple, and when using Apple Pay at select merchants like Ace Hardware, 2% back anywhere else they shop with Apple Pay, and 1% back when using their Titanium Card. For more information on unlimited Daily Cash back with Apple Card, visit www.apple.com/apple-card.
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https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/19/ace-hardware-offers-unlimited-3-daily-cash-back-on-apple-card/
Apple introduces certified recycled gold into its products
Tuesday, April 19, 2022 12:39 pm
Apple today released new details on the increased use of recycled content across its products. For the first time, the company introduced certified recycled gold, and more than doubled the use of recycled tungsten, rare earth elements, and cobalt. Nearly 20 percent of all material used in Apple products in 2021 was recycled, the highest-ever use of recycled content.
Apple released new details on this progress, its recycling innovation efforts, and clean energy in its 2022 Environmental Progress Report.
The company also shared new ways customers can celebrate Earth Day, including supporting World Wildlife Fund by using Apple Pay. With educational resources, curated content, and engaging activities across platforms, Apple customers can take opportunities to appreciate the beauty of nature from wherever they are and support causes and communities working to protect the environment.
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, said in a statement, “Our rapid pace of innovation is already helping our teams use today’s products to build tomorrow’s, and as our global supply chain transitions to clean power, we are charting a path for other companies to follow.”
More Recycled and Responsibly Sourced Materials Across Apple Products
Apple has pioneered innovations in the recycling and sourcing of materials to spur industrywide change. To help its recycling partners build on this momentum worldwide, Apple today announced its newest recycling innovation, Taz, a machine that uses a groundbreaking approach to improve material recovery from traditional electronics recycling.
In 2021, 59 percent of all the aluminum Apple shipped in its products came from recycled sources, with many products featuring 100 percent recycled aluminum in the enclosure. Apple has also made significant progress toward the company’s goal to eliminate plastics from its packaging by 2025, with plastics accounting for just 4 percent of packaging in 2021. Since 2015, Apple has reduced plastic in its packaging by 75 percent.
Additionally, Apple products in 2021 included:
• 45 percent certified recycled rare earth elements, a significant increase since Apple introduced recycled rare earth elements in its devices.
• 30 percent certified recycled tin, with all new iPhone, iPad, AirPods, and Mac devices featuring 100 percent recycled tin in the solder of their main logic boards.
• 13 percent certified recycled cobalt, used in iPhone batteries that can be disassembled by Apple’s recycling robot Daisy and returned to market.
• Certified recycled gold, featured — for the first time in any Apple product — in the plating of the main logic board and wire in the front camera and the rear cameras of iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro. To achieve this milestone, Apple pioneered industry-leading levels of traceability to build a gold supply chain of exclusively recycled content.
Recovering more materials for use in future products helps reduce mining. From just one metric ton of iPhone components taken apart by Apple’s recycling robots, recyclers can recover the amount of gold and copper companies would typically extract from 2,000 metric tons of mined rock. Apple is also committed to extending the lifetime of its products through refurbishment. In 2021, Apple sent 12.2 million devices and accessories to new owners for reuse, extending their lifetime and reducing the need for future mining. Ultimately, Apple aims to use only renewable or recyclable materials in its products — a goal announced in 2017 that has charted the company’s pathway on design and material sourcing.
Taz, a machine that uses new shredder-like technology to separate magnets from audio modules and recover more rare earth elements, is the latest in a series of recycling advancements spearheaded by Apple. The company has also further expanded the capabilities of its patented iPhone disassembly robot Daisy to take apart 23 models of iPhone, and has offered to license those patents to other companies and researchers free of charge. An additional robot, Dave, disassembles Taptic Engines, helping to recover valuable rare earth magnets, tungsten, and steel.
2022 Environmental Progress Report
In addition to charting progress in recycling innovation and material stewardship, Apple’s newly released 2022 Environmental Progress Report highlights the company’s significant work to become carbon neutral across its global supply chain and the life cycle of every product, as well as progress reducing waste and promoting the safer use of materials in its products.
In a year when many other companies saw large increases in their footprints and the company’s revenue grew 33 percent, Apple’s net emissions remained flat. Apple has been carbon neutral for its global operations since 2020, and has relied on 100 percent renewable energy to power its offices, stores, and data centers since 2018.
Apple recently announced that its suppliers more than doubled their use of clean power over the last year, with over 10 gigawatts operational out of nearly 16 gigawatts in total commitments in the coming years. As of this month, 213 of the company’s major manufacturing partners have pledged to power all Apple production with renewable electricity across 25 countries. In 2021, these renewable projects avoided 13.9 million metric tons of carbon emissions, the equivalent to removing 3 million cars from the road for one year.
For more information about Apple’s commitment to protect the planet for future generations, explore the 2022 Environmental Progress Report.
Explore, Learn, and Take Action for Earth Day
In celebration of Earth Day 2022, Apple is sharing new ways for customers around the world to explore the beauty of the natural world, learn about environmental issues facing communities worldwide, and take action to protect the environment.
Explore: Ahead of Earth Day, Apple Maps is making it easier than ever to find beautiful green spaces, family fun in nature, city walks, and trails with 25 new guides from Lonely Planet, AllTrails, and The Nature Conservancy in the US and Canada.
To celebrate Earth Day, Apple Fitness+ subscribers can enjoy nature-inspired yoga, meditation, cycling, rowing, and treadmill workouts, as well as a new Time to Run episode that takes listeners through the beautiful sights and sounds of Yosemite National Park with an uplifting pop and rock playlist; and coaching that inspires you to take in the great outdoors, no matter where you’re running. A new episode of Time to Walk is also available this week with world-renowned scientist and environmentalist, Dr. Jane Goodall, who shares why she is willing to push past her fears for the sake of her work and what she has observed about the interconnectedness of all living things. And after completing any workout of 30 minutes or more on April 22, all Apple Watch users can earn a limited-edition award.
Learn: On Earth Day, April 22, Apple customers can learn about the exciting environmental innovations behind iPhone 13 — including the Daisy recycling robot — with a new immersive augmented reality experience on Snapchat. And Apple Store locations worldwide are inviting customers to learn more about the company’s environmental commitments with special window decals.
In honor of Earth Day, Apple News, Apple Books, Apple Podcasts, and the Apple TV app will each feature curated global collections of content that offer in-depth opportunities to experience and learn about the natural world. Highlights include a book collection curated by visual artist and children’s author Oliver Jeffers, and a collection of eye-opening films about humanity’s interdependent relationship with nature, curated by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal.
Take Action: The App Store provides a single destination for users to discover apps that will help them to positively impact their communities and the planet — including by being able to track carbon footprints or connect with environmental grassroots organizations with apps like Earth Hero and Milkywire.
Customers can also help protect the planet by using Apple Pay. Now through April 22, Apple will donate $1 to World Wildlife Fund for each purchase made with Apple Pay on apple.com, in the Apple Store app, or at an Apple Store.
MacDailyNews Note: For more information about Apple’s environmental efforts, visit apple.com/environment.
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https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/19/apple-introduces-certified-recycled-gold-into-its-products/
Ukrainian man deploys Apple’s ‘Find My’ app to trace Russian troops
Tuesday, April 19, 2022 9:17 am
Using Apple’s “Find My” app, a Ukrainian man has been able to track the redeployment of Russian troops to the east of the country via a pair of AirPods that were stolen from his home near Kyiv.
George Grylls for The Times:
Vitaliy Semenets used the “Find My” feature available on Apple products to follow the progress of the stolen AirPods…
As Russian troops beat a hasty retreat from Kyiv this month, Semenets traced the devices as they crossed the border into Belarus, eventually ending up near the city of Gomel.
Last week the AirPods had reached Belgorod, a city in Russia where President Putin is massing his troops for an assault on the Donbas.
Semenets has posted updates of the AirPods’ journey on his Instagram page, even if he is unlikely to retrieve them. The Find My app can trace devices if they connect to the internet, or if they come close enough to other devices to connect via Bluetooth.
There have been numerous reports of Russian troops pillaging valuable goods from Ukrainian homes in what experts have said is a sign of the invading forces’ disorganization and lack of discipline… it was reported that a soldier had been killed in Irpin after he replaced his Kevlar body armour with a MacBook laptop computer.
MacDailyNews Take: Excellent!
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/19/ukrainian-man-deploys-apples-find-my-app-to-trace-russian-troops/
North Korea-obsessed Ethereum dev gets 5 years for breaking sanctions
April 13 2022 - 01:51AM
Cointelegraph
JESSE COGHLAN
13 HOURS AGO
Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith has been sentenced to 63 months in prison and a $100,000 fine for violating sanctions on North Korea.
Virgil Griffith, a former Ethereum developer, has been sentenced to 63 months in prison and will pay a fine of $100,000 for attending a conference and assisting North Korea to use blockchain technology in contravention of economic sanctions imposed by the United States.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York handed down the decision. Judge Castel stated that “what you see here is intentionality, a deliberate, willful intent to violate the sanctions’ regime,” adding that the crime was made worse because Griffith had a “desire to educate people on how to evade sanctions.”
In September 2021, Griffith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law banning U.S. citizens from exporting any “goods, services or technology to the DPRK (North Korea) without a license from the Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).”
In early 2019, Griffith was unsuccessful in gaining permission from U.S. authorities to travel to North Korea. But, in April, he went anyway and visited the capital of Pyongyang for the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference.
At the conference, he gave presentations dressed in a North Korean suit about how the country could use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions and launder money. He also presented methods on how smart contracts could be used to benefit the country in nuclear weapons negotiations with the U.S.
In an attempt to lower his sentence, Griffith’s defense team provided evidence of factors that may have caused him to act irrationally. They presented a psychological assessment of Griffith which showed him suffering from both obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
His defense team said that diagnosis of OCPD and NPD explained the “obsession” Griffiths had for North Korea and is potentially what caused him to brush off warnings from his friends, family and the government on unsanctioned travel to the country.
At the hearing, Griffith was given the opportunity to speak, stating he was remorseful of his actions, adding the sanctions on Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine had “shown their value” and that he had been “cured” of his “obsession with North Korea.”
The court did not appear convinced that Griffith was regretful, with Judge Castel saying:
“The fact of the matter is Virgil Griffith hoped to come home as a crypto hero, to be admired and praised for standing up to government sanctions, for his fearlessness and nobility.”
Griffith was arrested in November 2019 by the FBI, a few months after his return from the conference. He had several meetings with the Bureau regarding his trip prior to his arrest, even providing them with photographs of himself giving presentations at the conference.
North Korea has become increasingly sophisticated with its use of cryptocurrency both in evading sanctions and in using hacks and exploits to steal millions of dollars.
In January, a report by Chainalysis revealed that nearly $400 million was stolen by North Korean hackers in 2021 through exchange hacks and ransomware, employing a meticulous laundering system involving decentralized exchange swaps and multiple crypto tumblers.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/north-korea-obsessed-ethereum-dev-gets-5-years-for-breaking-sanctions
Interview
Cynthia Lummis: Senator, Hodler
The Wyoming senator, a speaker at CoinDesk's Consensus festival, holds plenty of BTC and champions crypto whenever she can.
Nikhilesh De
Apr 13, 2022 at 1:50 p.m. EDT
CoinDesk Insights
The Republican U.S. senator from [Wyoming]holds plenty of bitcoin (BTC) and may be the crypto industry’s most prominent advocate in Congress. Here’s what she’s thinking for 2022.
The lawmaker has spoken at length about lots of issues on the Senate floor during her first year in the chamber, and her vocal advocacy for the cryptocurrency industry separates her from her peers.
Lummis isn’t the only senator advocating crypto, but may have been the first to disclose her ownership in bitcoin from before even being elected. She introduced a bill that would require the U.S. government to treat distributed ledger technology as a developing technology stack on par with artificial intelligence or biotechnology, called for the removal or amending of language addressing crypto brokers in the bipartisan infrastructure bill and launched a caucus focused on digital currencies and related issues.
Now, the lawmaker is eyeing a far larger project: convincing a bipartisan group of senators to take up crypto issues next year.
“We are working … with other members on a comprehensive bill that we will be rolling out; we anticipate that you will see it before the end of this calendar year,” Lummis told CoinDesk in an interview. “We want to put it out as one big draft file so we can start getting input and feedback from people in the industry, the regulated community as well as the regulatory community.”
Lummis is working with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), co-founder of the Financial Innovation Caucus, as well as other lawmakers on a draft of the bill, and she expects to enlist more co-sponsors next year when she introduces different parts of the bill to Congress.
It’s a project Lummis has been building up to for some time.
‘Hodling’ in Congress
While Lummis is new to the U.S. Senate, she has had a long career in Wyoming politics. She represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2009-2017, and she has served as Wyoming’s treasurer and in the state’s House and Senate.
She has also been invested in bitcoin for a while.
Lummis first bought bitcoin in 2013 when the price was at about $320, she previously told CoinDesk. At the time, she said she had “never sold” her bitcoin, the price of which came close to $70,000 earlier this year and traded at about $46,000 earlier this week.
She hasn’t changed her viewpoint on bitcoin as an asset class.
“I just buy and hold, and I still do. That is my personal choice and investment strategy with regard to bitcoin,” she said.
According to public records, Lummis holds between $100,000 and $350,000 in bitcoin, and purchased more as recently as this past summer.
The idea of bitcoin as an inflation hedge, an asset that can maintain its value independently of the dollar or the global economy, is appealing, Lummis said last year.
“Going back to my store-of-value means of investing and diversifying, I want to have a diversified asset allocation. I want some assets that produce no income to me, but I can hold as a store of value. For someone my age who has other investments that are more vulnerable to our current economy, I am delighted to have one that seems a little bit decoupled from our current economy,” she told CoinDesk at the time.
Educating Congress
The biggest crypto priority for Lummis at present is education, she said. While there is a need for legislation that provides a clear regulatory framework, the biggest issue may just be informing policymakers about the asset class and its technology.
“The challenges still exist to educate members of Congress about digital assets,” Lummis said. “But the need for some statutory framework is growing stronger every day because the advancements in the technology is outstripping the Congress’s ability to really understand and embrace this subject.”
Lawmakers continue to ask questions about digital assets. Recently, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee on which Lummis sits, sent open letters to a number of stablecoin issuers, asking for details about their operations, consumer protection efforts, governance and issuance.
Earlier this year, Sen. Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.), the ranking member on the Banking Committee, solicited feedback from the industry about possible regulations.
Like any bitcoiner who has been down the rabbit hole, Lummis worries she is losing the ability to speak about crypto in a relatable way. When she tries to explain bitcoin to her Senate colleagues, she tends to make it too technical, with wallets, private keys and mining, rather than just explain what bitcoin can do and how it can do it.
“I suspect that I’m getting too far into the weeds,” she said. “I probably need to retool my own thinking about how to engage with people on this subject. We didn’t need to teach people what was going on behind the scenes in credit cards, we just needed to show them you stick it in a device that you swipe or you tap and then you get a bill that itemizes your purchases and you can pay it all in one bill. That’s the simple concept behind a credit card. We need to think of ways that are just as simple to describe the use of cryptocurrencies or digital assets.”
The Financial Innovation Caucus, which Lummis and Sinema started in May, is part of that effort.
The caucus brings in speakers to educate lawmakers, chiefly at the staff level, Lummis said, although some senators have participated in the discussions, as well. Lummis wants to continue the talks next year.
“We’re going to start a series of dinners in January where we can just have both bipartisan [discussions], and in some cases if people want to have more partisan discussions, we can,” she said.
The educational component will also come in the form of speeches on the floor of the Senate, Lummis said, pointing to remarks she made on stablecoins in September.
The goal is to present cryptocurrency as a hedge for investors to protect against financial upheaval or as a tool for underserved communities traditionally locked out of the banking system, rather than as a tool for criminal activity.
“We still hear people talking about cryptocurrency as primarily a criminal enterprise … Nothing could be further from the truth,” she said.
Lummis has already “elevated the conversation” around digital asset regulation, said Albert Forkner, commissioner at the Wyoming Division of Banking.
“I think it’s helpful to continue the education of her colleagues on the Hill. Digital assets, bitcoin … there’s a lot moving quickly, evolving rapidly,” Forkner told CoinDesk.
Engaging Congress
While holding talks with Congress is one facet of Lummis’s long-term plans, passing bills is another thing altogether. Lummis has already had some success: Amendments she introduced to the Endless Frontier Act, a bill targeted at China’s technology developments, were included in the bill when the Senate passed it earlier this year. The House, however, never took up the measure.
Lummis’ efforts, however, fell short with the infrastructure bill. Lummis joined Toomey to introduce a measure that was supported by senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sinema (among others) to amend language in the bill that broadened the definition of a broker for crypto tax reporting purposes.
While the bill’s sponsors – Sinema, Portman, Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) – didn’t oppose the amendment, it was blocked by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) after he was himself blocked from adding an unrelated military funding amendment to the bill.
Lummis has already introduced a bill to try to modify the language before the infrastructure legislation takes effect next year, and she plans to continue to try to change the provision next year. How the crypto industry engages with Congress can have an impact with that effort.
“I can’t speak highly enough of the digital asset industry. During that whole debate, they really came forward, they engaged with their U.S. senators, and they were able to help inform them, and also inform them how significant the digital asset community is,” Lummis said. “And that awareness alone has caused a lot of senators to take the time to learn and engage in this new asset class.”
Ideally, whatever laws Congress ultimately passes will enable crypto businesses to flourish, she said.
“If we get heavy-handed about regulation, we can have a dilatory effect on this industry. So finding the sweet spot between having an understandable [framework] on an innovation sandbox for the industry is going to be the key,” she said. “It’s going to be a challenge, because there still are skeptics out there. [They say] that this industry is not ready for primetime, when in fact, it’s more than ready.”
Personal views
While Lummis’s personal crypto portfolio is solely focused on bitcoin, she has “come to appreciate” newer tools like the Lightning Network as well as stablecoins.
By the same token, she’s now becoming more skeptical about central bank digital currencies, she said.
Still, she intends to spend more time learning about CBDCs next year and discussing the topic with other members of Congress.
Lummis also noted the potential harm that can come from scams in the sector and acknowledged the need for consumer protection.
“For the good of the industry, it’s important that there be some consumer protections to prevent the scams from turning that national asset class sour,” Lummis said. “So I think there’s great advantages if Congress acts responsibly, and is judicious about the manner in which it regulates. I think there’s some great advantages for this industry.”
Forkner, the Wyoming bank regulator, said that while his work at the state level doesn’t directly intersect with Lummis’s efforts at the federal level, simply having her as an advocate can help.
“It helps to have an advocate to reach out to federal regulators, especially with the bank regulators, as you saw in her opinion piece,” he said, referring to an article Lummis wrote for the Wall Street Journal.
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/04/13/cynthia-lummis-senator-hodler/
Apple’s privacy features will cost Facebook out $12.8 billion this year
Wednesday, April 13, 2022 12:02 pm
Apple’s App Tracking Transparency will cost Meta Platforms subsidiary Facebook $12.8 billion in 2022, research firm Lotame estimates.
William Gallagher for Apple Insider:
Apple released its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in iOS 14 on April 26, 2021, and it immediately had an impact on companies relying on advertising revenue. By July, it was estimated to be causing a 15% to 20% revenue drop for advertisers.
Then Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has reported that his company would see a $10 billion revenue hit for 2022…
Now a new analysis by research firm Lotame says that ATT is continuing to have an impact… Alongside ATT, Apple deprecated its old IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) technology… “[For its second year] we think the IDFA change will have an impact on the companies of nearly $16 billion,” says Lotame in its report. “Again with the lion’s share of that impact (81%) coming from Facebook.”
That 81% for Facebook represents an estimated $12.8 billion.
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, that’s too bad.
https://macdailynews.com/2022/04/13/apples-privacy-features-will-cost-facebook-out-12-8-billion-this-year/