Tallinn has been involved with lots of other enterprise after Skype was sold to eBay for approximately $2.6 billion in 2005. He is currently invested in Faculty AI, a London-based company that is focused on Machine-Learning systems. This company itself has received digital assets from Tallinn on two different occasions.

Tallinn gave Faculty 350 Ethereum (ETH) as at January 2018, he also followed up with a gift of 50 Bitcoin (BTC) which was worth $316,000 as at that time but is currently worth about $905,000 because of the recent surge in Bitcoins price.

He stated that investing with crypto assets was much easier and that converting to cash would have incurred Capital tax and therefore reduced the amount of the money that he was to donate to Faculty. He said that since he held most of his personal funds in cryptocurrencies, then he could choose to as well invest with it.

Faculty had to employ someone else that was currently working in a blockchain company and had the knowledge of how to do accounting for crypto since they were not up to speed with the blockchain technology at that time.

“Our accountants had to go and find someone else who was working on crypto and how to do accounting for crypto,” Faculty’s founder and CEO Marc Warner told the outlet.

The company is reported to have sold about $144,000 worth of Ethereum through 2019-2020 but still holding on to most of the crypto they received from Tallinn.

The collaboration would allow both parties to revolutionize the distribution of agricultural products. IOST plans to secure real-life use cases by securing high quality Dapp’s as the IOST ecosystem through this partnership.

Blocery aims to grow into a global project by leveraging the overseas network of IOST. The Blocery team is celebrating this partnership by holding an event that returns up to 99% of the payment amount as a reward at the agricultural products shopping mall operated by EZfarm, the parent company of Blocery.

“In the future of IOST, we will make a partnership in the practical field and prepare for the upcoming blockchain innovation. Through this, we will try to make a strong impact on the market by leveraging the technical advantages of IOST and adopting the technology into the leading countries of the blockchain.”

EzFarm, is the parent company of Blocery and is an agricultural start up with sales of 10M plus USD. The company is an Age-Tech company that combines agriculture with IT technology and provides platform services such as smart farm, farm production management, direct sales and distribution of agricultural products.

IOST has employees that are working remotely in various countries such as Japan, China, Singapore, Korea, and Spain. The foundation strives to gain practical development and adoption in each country.

The Ethereums deposited to this contract addresses are important as the launching of Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 depends on them to kick off. The deposit requires 524,288 ETH to be deposited in batches of 32 ETH, all tokens stated must be deposited 7 days prior to the date estimated to be the launch date for it to kick off which in this case is the 1st of December.

The ETH2 Deposit Contract currently has 50,332 Ethereum deposited, leaving it with 473,956 more ETH needed.

 “As stakers get their coins out of cold storage, get comfortable with the tools and confident that the tools work and they’re not accidentally throwing their coins away, etc.” Vitalik said.

Vitalik said that he is also expecting investors to participate later on, probably even on the last day.

“If you look at the ether sale in 2015 for example, there was a significant (but disappointing) level of participation on day 1, then very little on days 2-12, and then on day 13 and especially 14 (the last day with a full discount) there was a huge spike that ended up being something like half of all ether that ended up going into the sale. So it’s very possible that here too we’ll see a quiet period and then lots of participation in the last week of November. But this is me just speculating, we’ll see!”

One of the factors that could be affecting the turn up of participants for depositing into the ETH2 Deposit contract address could also be the fact that the crypto market has been performing so well and people would rather trade or hold on their investments and watch them grow.

The ETH 2.0 phase 0 will not have a direct effect on the existing Ethereum blockchain network, a release of phase 1 and 2 will help switch Ethereum from a Proof-Of-Work (POW) mechanism to Proof- Of- State (POS) consensus with more security, scalability and of course use cases.

Developers had launched Medalla back in August. Mallela is a test net that served as a multi-clients dress rehearsal for the operation of ETH 2’s phase phase 0 launch.

This collaboration will allow Bonded finance to offer Matic supporters with Access to their Accelerated crypto loan protocol, an opportunity for investors to borrow and loan out Matic token, an opportunity to earn as you hold the tokens, the ability to earn liquidity incentives and BOND tokens among other things.

“For Bonded, the opportunity to collaborate is exciting,as our network will always seek the most robust and comprehensive solution as we evolve and fully decentralize. Given what the future portends, Bonded is thrilled to hit Matic as one of our debit assets”.

Bonded said that they plan on showcasing alts or it is their dream to “make alts great again “. They plan to continue to list good projects as time goes on and to also integrate some of those blockchain solutions to what they have to offer.

This commitment is the essence of any healthy ecosystem and as our maiden Voyage gets underway, we are thrilled to be working with Matic” the announcement stated.

Matic network is a blockchain scalability platform which provides secure, scalable and instant transactions powered by POS side chains. The network achieves layer 2 scalying solutions by utilizing side chains for off-chain computation while ensuring asset security using plasma framework and a decentralized network of proof-of-stake (POS) validators.

Bonded platform is one that was developed to incubate and deploy experimental, high-yield, smart contract driven, financial instruments that push the bounds of open finance. It is an algorithms model that aims to unlock, aggregate and de risk.

Square crypto, a branch of Square that deals with Cryptocurrency  and blockchain has always shown it’s support for the bitcoin network through giving grants to developers and other bodies working to. The CEO of square is Jack Dorsey and he is a bitcoin maximalist, hence his company’s support for this innovation.

A Simple To Interact with Wallet

Valentine has given insights into what is building, she believes navigating bitcoin wallets is still a bit hard for crypto newbies and that you need a background in crypto to understand some bitcoin wallets.

people are not using Bitcoin or Bitcoin wallets because they’re too complicated. One thing that puts users off, she says, is the “technical jargon, unfamiliar user concepts”—plus potential users have had “little-to-no education.”

She hopes to improve this situation by examining how a selection of wallets “present private keys/seed phrases to users by looking at specific copy and onboarding flows”. Through this,  she hopes to find out and understand what would be most beneficial to non-crypto-savvy folks, and then head over to designing it.

“Unless equipped with a technical background, users are often deterred from reaping the benefits this technology has to offer. To preserve the ethos of this space—an ethos built upon fixing the otherwise broken current financial system—it’s crucial to use design as a vehicle to create better experiences for all types of users.”  

The new wallet will come with a good and quick to understand UI/UX design, hence why square believes that those factors shouldn’t be a determinant of who benefits from Bitcoin(BTC).

“Ethereum 2.0 is one track to deliver phase O in the very near future, said Richard Ma, CEO of Quants Stamp in a prepared statement.

Ethereum 2.0 is a network upgrade for the Ethereum network, it has been planned for a long time now, the upgrade is aimed at addressing love challenges the current network is facing like Scalability, speed and security. Eth 2.0 will also enable the Ethereum network to switch from a Proof Of Work (Pow) consensus to a Proof Of Stake (POS) consensus mechanism. The full roll out of Eth 2.0 will take 3 phases : Phase 0,1 and 2.

Phase 0 is being worked on and hopefully to be launched before the year ends. Justin Drake, a researcher on Ethereum 2.0 tweeted in July saying “the community wants phase 0 genesis in 2020- not a day late. The goal is set, lets ship”

The Teku, a part of the Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 was audited by Quantstamp in respect to launching within the year.

“Client teams have spent countless hours coordinating, testing, and working with auditing firms to ensure that the foundation of Ethereum 2.0 is ready for delivery,” Ma said.

The audit involved in maintaining the codes and controls that are needed for rewards and penalties, enforcing consensus rules etc.

The auditing company made sure to report issues back to the Teku development team, who quickly made sure to resolve them.

Along with Teku, the Beacon chain will be released in phase 0 and was already tested using the Zinken and Spadina Testnets. Once launched, focus will be shifted to phase 1 of the Ethereum 2.0 which will involve the integration of Proof-Of-Stake (POS) shared chain which help boost Eth’s Transaction Per Second (TPS).

Staking opportunity is now open to individuals who plan on staking, they can now deposit their 32 Ether to the contract through the dedicated launch while getting reading for the official launch. For the launch to occur, the contract must collect16 384 deposits of 32 ETH, that is a total of 524,288 ETH which is $238,551,040 as of the time of writing. All required funds must be collected 7 days prior to the actual launching date, if it is not, then the launch will be delayed to 7 days after the threshold is reached.

The Ethereum community has long awaited this release and have also signaled their interest in supporting the protocol growth and launching in time too without delay. The launch of phase 2 of the Ethereum 2.0 will not directly affect the existing challenges faced by the current Ethereum blockchain. Once the phase 1 and 2, these phases are more likely to occur in the next few years. The launch of the phases of the Ethereum 2.0 would then clearly rinse the provisions blockchain of all its challenges and allow the community to experience the new staking based consensus.

Ethereum /Cryptocurrency price Action

The whole crypto market has been experiencing lots of good movements in profits. The rise in both prices OT Ethereum and Bitcoin has got investors asking if really the bull market has tricked off already. The announcement of PayPal allowing crypto purchase and even having to later extend the limits is one of the signs why this is pumping so well. The Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 launch too is a contributing factor to almost shooting 6th to $500 per Eth in the market. Eth currently sits at $462 according to the world’s best cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.

The parent company of TelosTask, Telos believes that their new platform will be very much utilized by different gig workers in a wider range of sectors which includes social media and writing assignments, graphic designs and even video production and pretty much everything else that a freelance network can do. The task platform utilizes an escrow system to facilitate automated secure payments.

“This is the real power of high-capacity blockchain. Now anyone can instantly create a free Telos account with an easy to remember name and log into it with no more hassle than logging into Twitter. It’s a mass adoption-ready platform that’s desperately needed right now as people try to figure out reliable new ways to earn income and perform business tasks in the post-COVID world.”

Telos blockchain offers a wide range of technological services such as Swaps, a network Bancor liquidity service for token swaps, Telos dstor, a service that allows the global data storage for web 3.0. It is fast and reliable and censorship resistant, smart contracts, which allows for a trustless system. TelosTask will deploy the usage of these smart contracts to ensure “a built-in-system of trust” thereby making sure that every “labor is fairly compensated”. TelosTask team lead Destiny Marshall believes that the world is developing and that interest in task-based employment is growing rapidly too, so that’s why TelosTask was created to contribute to that growing economy.

As part of the collaboration, Societe Generale Forge will continue to grow it’s achievements such as the issuance of a 100 million Euro bond, a security token built on the Ethereum blockchain back in 2019. It is also involved or one of the partners picked by Banque de France, the Central Bank of France in experimenting it’s work in building a Central Bank Digital Currency.

“We are pleased to partner with ConsenSys, a company who is a key player in the development of distributed ledger technology globally and offers many of the infrastructure and development tools used by the blockchain community.” Jean-Marc Stenger, CEO of Societe Generale – Forge, noted.

Involvement  In Other CBDC Projects

ConsenSys is involved in a lot of partnerships with plans of developing a Central Bank digital currency (CBDC).  The blockchain firm was awarded the contract to square-head the second implementation phase of project Ithanon-Lionrock,  a project that involves building a cross-border payment network between Hong Kong and Thailand though it’s own CBDC.

It has also been involved in the project Ubin,  a Singapore’s Central Bank  project and the South African Central Bank’s project called khokha.

 “We have high regard for the accomplishments of Societe Generale – Forge and are proud to be working with them. ConsenSys is committed to advances in the CBDC space and has assisted six central banks around the world on CBDC projects.” Ken Timsit, Global Head of Enterprise Solutions at ConsenSys, said.

The platform will allow users in Dubai and other parts of the UAE to trade the spot prices of sugar through tokens. The tokens are guaranteed by universal blockchain which will issue electronic ownership certificates to each token. Tokens held by traders will represent between 1kg to 1M tonnes and they are to pay 0.4% as exchange fees and an annual 2.5% as storage fees.

Digitalsugar.io trading platform was launched in partnership with Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC) and Universal blockchain. The exchange platform will be the first of its kind, offering first spot contracts for raw sugar and also provides investors with an online platform to trade Sugar.

This development is in accordance with the plans for the Emirate Blockchain Strategy 2021’s wider goals which was created by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and chief of Dubai back in 2018. Among other things, the strategy outlined an ambitious plan of migrating some government related transactions to a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) by the end of this year.

“The adoption of this technology will reflect on the quality of life in the UAE and will enhance happiness levels for citizens. 50 percent of government transactions on the federal level will be conducted using Blockchain technology by 2021 … This technology will save time, effort, and resources and enable individuals to conduct most of their transactions in a timely manner that suits their lifestyle and work.” Sheikh Muhammad said regarding the Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021.