The ASX’s long awaited blockchain-based replacement for CHESS has been delayed again, after trading volumes surge during the pandemic. 

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has announced it is delaying the introduction of its blockchain-based replacement for its Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) system again, because it wants to triple its planned capacity and make other improvements before it goes live. 

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a surge in trade volumes from March, causing the ASX to revise the requirements for its new blockchain-based clearance system – which has already been in development for four years.

Originally slated to launch in April 2021, in March 2020 the schedule was pushed back by 12 months, with testing expected to start in December and a full launch in April 2022. Now it appears there will be further delays, with a new implementation schedule set to be confirmed later this month.  

ASX is working with several firms on the project, including VMware and Digital Asset Holding (DA), and is utilising open-source contract programming language DAML. 

Though some have expressed concerns that the new system may suppress competition, by further enhancing the ASX’s monopoly position, and even threaten the survival of brokers, share registries, and other stakeholders, the ASX argues it will actually present new opportunities and greatly improve efficiency for everyone. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Though the delays are sure to frustrate many, and encourage opponents who have vested interests maintaining the status quo, the very fact that there has been such a surge clearly illustrates the need for a state of the art blockchain-based system. 

Staying with Digital Asset’s DAML, last month it was confirmed as the exclusive contract language for China’s Blockchain Services Network (BSN). 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

SingularityNET, the AI company best known for its Sophia robot, is considering ditching Ethereum and migrating to Cardano. 

The company has announced a partnership with IOHK – a company run by Cardano founder, Charles Hoskinson – and expressed serious concerns about the speed and costs of Ethereum, and the feasibility of the still in-development Ethereum 2. 

With the explosion in DeFi projects using Ethereum, gas fees have hit as high as $17 per transaction, and worsening congestion is causing major speed issues. 

According to Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO and Founder of the SingularityNET Foundation, the partnership with IOHK, and possible transition of SingularityNET onto modern blockchains like Cardano, will enable SingularityNET-based services to scale.

Transitioning to Cardano would mean SingularityNET replacing its native ERC-20 AGI token, and abandoning the Solidity smart contract programming language, in favour of Cardano and its Plutus language. 

SingularityNET’s long-term plans involve the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) – a machine intelligence that matches human intelligence. It will involve an ecosystem that enables different AIs to work together and even outsource to other, better suited, AIs. All rather Skynet.

As if that wasn’t scifi enough, Sophia – the face of SingularityNET – has applied for Maltese citizenship. 

AYO.NEWS says:

It’s obvious now that the DeFi revolution has overwhelmed Ethereum, and the much vaunted Ethereum 2 isn’t going to come to the rescue any time soon. But, though some will mourn the fall of Ethereum, there are now much better protocols out there – like Kadena’s 20-chain sharded and scalable layer-1 public blockchain that can handle 480,000 transactions per second, while keeping costs and environmental impact low, and security high. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

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Blockchain fantasy football platform Sorare has launched out of Beta in the UK, and welcomed Paris Saint-Germain as its 100th club.

The 2020 Champions League Finalist, which is the 100th club to join Sorare, has entered an agreement that will see digital collectibles of its players made available on the platform. This includes ‘legendary players’ from 2013, including David Beckham. 

From today, collectors and gamers in the UK and elsewhere will be able to freely buy, sell, and play with limited edition digital player cards of PSG players including Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, and historic players from 2013 such as David Beckham.

Discussing developments CEO of Sorare, Nicolas Julia, said:

“We​ are delighted to officially launch in the UK today, getting Sorare one step closer to closing game changing partnerships with major teams and clubs in the country. The​ European Fantasy Football market was estimated at close to USD 900M per annum1 in 2018, and expected to double in the next five years. Expanding into more European markets early on in our growth is a strategic step for Sorare both in terms of market acquisition and brand recognition with users, football teams, and investors alike. 

“With the inclusion of PSG to the platform, football fans in the UK and elsewhere will be able to leverage their football knowledge to play as a strategic manager and compete for rewards with skin in the game. PSG fans will be able to join the economy of their passions in a way that wasn’t possible before Sorare’s global fantasy football.”

While Head of Merchandising and Brand Diversification at Paris Saint-Germain, Fabien Allegre, added:

“Paris Saint-Germain is the new generation club. We are driven by our values of competitiveness. At the forefront of innovation, we are always looking ahead, looking to the future, to offer our fans new experiences. To constantly improve them, and to offer better coverage for our brand, Sorare will enable us to reach out to new, young communities, especially in Asia and America. We are proud of this new collaboration.”

The UK currently ranks 5th in terms of total numbers of Sorare users, though it is number one in terms of time spent per player on the platform. According to the company, its launch out of Beta paves the way for significant partnerships with UK-based football clubs.

Since launching early in 2019 Sorare has seen an average month-on-month growth rate of 52%, and now has more than 40,000 worldwide.

AYO.NEWS says:

With the COVID-19 crisis still meaning many football matches are being played behind closed doors, platforms like Sorare are providing a valuable way to boost fan engagement, and we expect the market will keep growing rapidly. 

Staying with non-fungible token-based sports collectibles, in August Dapper Labs launched a marketplace for its Flow blockchain-based NBA Top Shot. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Reddit’s MOON token seems to have gone ‘slightly off the rockers’, with a market cap of 30 septillion. 

Though Reddit’s ERC-20 based MOON and BRICK tokens are still on the Rinkeby testnet, being trialled by users of its cryptocurrency and Fortnite subcommunities – traders have already worked out a way to trade them, and the results are surprising to say the least!

According to Etherscan, more than 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 MOONs, Reddit’s crypto community token, have now been distributed to around 7,800 addresses. 

On 26 September xMOON reached $0.35 on Honeyswap, before falling back to $0.055 on the 30th. It means that, at one point, the market capitalisation was somewhere in the region of USD $2.66 septillion – or roughly 2 trillion percent more than then the value of the entire global economy in 2019 (approx. $133 trillion). 

Reddit is expected to launch its community tokens on the Ethereum (ETH) mainnet before 2021. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Crypto traders will be crypto traders – Reddit should have known they’d find a way to trade MOONs and BRICKs in short order. As for their performance? Well, perhaps best not take things too seriously right now. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

New online casino Trustbet.io has become the first brand to go live on the DAOPlatform blockchain-based igaming platform. 

After a successful community-focused soft launch in mid-August, Trustbet.io is now available for players in several jurisdictions across Latin America, Africa, Europe, and the CIS. 

The casino has initially launched with five games from the provider’s in-house publisher, DAOGames: Blackjack, Dice, Baccarat, Three Card Brag and High Card – all off which feature tamper-proof on-chain RNGs approved by GLI. 

Trustbet.io players will also benefit from no deposit requirements, instant payouts, ultra-fast game finality, and will avoid high blockchain transaction fees. 

Discussing the launch DAOGroup’s CCO Glen Bullen, said:

“Trustbet.io will do just as it says on the tin: offer players the ability to keep their money where they can control it, while reaping instant pay outs from quality games with verifiable randomness.”

“We’re very excited to showcase the DAOPlatform and its cutting-edge performance with such a quality brand as TrustBet.io; and, with their initial success proving the product, we look forward to rolling it out to further brands and help shape the future of igaming.”

Players and white label operators, like Trustbet.io, also benefit from the crypto-fiat gateway DAOWallet, allowing for both on and off-ramp payments for crypto (ETH, BTC), stablecoins (TrueUSD, Tether), and fiat (Euro via SEPA, USD via Swift).

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New York-based blockchain tech company Kadena has announced a multi-protocol decentralised exchange (DEX) named Kadenaswap. 

Kadenaswap will utilize Kadena’s 20-chain sharded and scalable layer-1 public blockchain with 480,000 transactions per second capability. To celebrate the occasion, Kadena is offering a free month of gas during October 2020, is launching a developer engagement program, and is partnering with ZelCore on full-node incentivisation for miners. 

Explaining the motivation behind Kadenaswap, the company pointed out that as DeFi continues to grow by billions each month, the fundamental problems of Ethereum are “breaking platforms and sending developers scrambling.” 

Ethereum is currently the infrastructure that most DeFi activity relies on, but it is struggling to cope, and gas prices have reached as high as $99 per transaction. Non-DeFi apps have been crowded out and recent hacks have caused losses of ten of millions of dollars – highlighting the major security issues faced by developers when dealing with Ethereum’s smart contract language, Solidity. 

While major DeFi projects have looked at alternative blockchain platforms, including “CeFi”, which leverages centralised exchanges’ scalability, and layer-2 networks like the Lightning Network, Kadenaswap is taking a different approach.

By leveraging Kadena’s multi-chain scalability and scaling on the base layer, and using decentralised bridge technology in Pact for access to major protocols regardless of the chain they originate on, Kadenaswap maintains a truly decentralised approach.

Kadena Co-founder and President, Stuart Popejoy, explained:

“Ethereum made DeFi possible, but congestion and high gas prices threaten the sustainability of the DeFi experiment just as it is poised to skyrocket.

“Kadenaswap’s support for multiple protocols and the ability to scale across the Kadena public multi-chain network will provide a much-needed, fully decentralized alternative to ‘CeFi’ on centralized exchanges and off-chain Layer-2 solutions. 

“Combined with community efforts like our developer program launch and free gas campaign, Kadenaswap shows a way forward to mass adoption of DeFi protocols.”

Kadenaswap will leverage the Pact smart contract language to interoperate with major DeFi protocols and stablecoins such as BTC, CELO, DAI, DOT, LINK, and ETH. It will also launch in stages beginning with the creation of native decentralized bridges to Ethereum as well as other networks such as Cosmos and Polkadot. 

Kadena’s founders bring proven financial and technical expertise from building J.P. Morgan’s first blockchain and previously working at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Additionally, as the first layer-1 multi-protocol DEX, Kadenaswap will create opportunities for automated market makers (AMMs) to balance liquidity across networks. 

Toward this end, a governance token named KDAX is under consideration to allow stakeholders to participate in setting incentives and other mechanisms. The first stage of Kadenaswap, which will include major components such as bridges, ERC-20 wrapped tokens, etc. will go live in Q4 of this year. Additional details can be found in the release of the company’s Q4 2020 roadmap next month.

AYO.NEWS says:

Has Kadena just presented the first real alternative for the DeFi ecosystem? There’s little doubt that Kadena’s multi-chain, sharded, scalable blockchain is technically impressive – and has resulted in the world’s fastest blockchain (which also addresses both environmental and security concerns), so success might end up coming down how well Kadena sells itself in the social sphere – after all, there are, for some reason, still a lot of diehard Ethereum loyalists out there. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020