Day: August 29, 2020

Black Ops Cold War is More Hard Drive Hell

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COD: Black Ops Cold War will clock in at at least 100GB of hard drive space. Bloated game sizes are now a trend in modern gaming. If games are going to continue to be this big, next-gen consoles will need to bake in bigger hard drives. AAA game developers are intent on punishing us with larger games and next-gen games are no different. Call of Duty Modern Warfare, with its battle royale ‘Warzone’, is perhaps the most egregious example in all of gaming. A Microsoft Store listing for the upcoming…

Is Facebook the Sneaky Threat Amazon Never Saw Coming?

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Facebook Shops launched this week, several months after a similar feature went live on Instagram. Small businesses dissatisfied with Amazon Marketplace finally have an alternative. Facebook’s partnership with Shopify should scare Amazon. Earlier this week, Facebook quietly launched a shopping tab on its flagship app. The move comes months after the social media giant introduced a similar e-commerce feature on Instagram. Known as “Facebook Shops,” the new feature targets small businesses dissatisfied with existing third-party marketplaces like Amazon. It allows them to sell merchandise, communicate with their customers using WhatsApp…

Oasis Network Works with Chainlink to Enable Support for DeFi

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Oasis Network’s privacy-preserving components will have the ability to collect data from multiple sources via Chainlink and use it as input for privacy-preserving computation models that only release the outputs while the data and the models are kept private. Oasis Foundation, an organization supporting the development of the Oasis Network and its ecosystem, decided to integrate Chainlink market-leading decentralized oracles to enable support for Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and various other privacy-focused blockchain dApps built on the Oasis Network. Chainlink is the preferred oracle provider of the Oasis Network because it provides…

Providing fertile ground for blockchain innovation

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The strain placed on healthcare teams and networks over the past few months has been severe, pushing dedicated medical professionals to the limit as they work tirelessly to combat COVID-19 in communities around the world. The crisis has permeated every facet of society, shining a spotlight on the glaring inefficiencies within the traditional global healthcare system and illustrating the inherent need for technology-driven initiatives that can alleviate pressure on healthcare professionals and ensure patient data collation is as streamlined and secure as possible. As someone who has long championed the…

Chainlink acquires a privacy-preserving oracle protocol from Cornell University

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Chainlink (LINK) has acquired a privacy-preserving oracle protocol DECO from Cornell University and one of its creators, Ari Juels, will be joining Chainlink as chief scientist. Previously, Juels served as chief scientist at RSA and has been teaching at Cornell University since 2014, one of the premier blockchain hubs in the world. He is taking a sabbatical to focus on his work at Chainlink. Along with his research partner Markus Jakobsson, he coined the term “proof-of-work”. DECO employs advanced cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs to provide enhanced privacy to its users.…

Here’s the Biggest Sign the U.S. Stock Market Is in a Bubble

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U.S. tech stocks are now more valuable by market cap than the entire European market. Five mega-cap tech stocks have helped the S&P 500 outperform all of Europe. A significant market downturn could be in the cards as tech stocks are overvalued. There are many signs that the U.S. stock market is in a bubble. Here’s the biggest one. According to Bank of America, U.S. tech stocks are now worth more by market cap than the entire European equities market. This is the first time the U.S. tech sector’s market…

The End of an Era? Why Bitcoin and MMT Won the Week

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Fed Chair Jerome Powell tried to make it seem like the end of an era, but didn’t inspire confidence in the central bank’s ability to lead in the era that comes next. On The Breakdown’s Weekly Recap, NLW looks at the shifting sands of the global economy. He says Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole this week was an argument that an era that began in the 1970s is now closing.  At the same time, he argues Powell did very little to provide a vision for what…

Crypto traders outline likely outcomes

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The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is approaching the last weekly candle for the month of August. Some traders believe Bitcoin’s performance over the next two weeks could decide whether its price drops below $10,000 again or sees an extended uptrend. The week’s weekly candle close coincides with the expiration of CME’s Bitcoin futures contracts and Deribit’s options contracts. It could potentially set a precedent for September, especially if Bitcoin closes above or below key levels. In the short term, technical analysts generally consider $11,800 as the key level for Bitcoin.…

Prince Harry and His Faux Anger at Snobbery Is Hilarious

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Prince Harry and Prince William’s apparent falling out has been analyzed to death. Most of the pundits harbor the same agenda – and it’s biased in favor of Harry and Meghan Markle. We’ll never really know what caused the so-called rift between the brothers. Honestly, if I have to hear once more how Prince Harry and Prince William suffered a falling out because William is a snob, I think I may actually throw up. The Royalty TV documentary “The Royal Beat: Finding Freedom” offers the latest “insight” into the current…

Tech Stocks Boost S&P 500 to New Record

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All three major U.S. stock indexes ended the week higher than last Friday’s close, which represents the fifth consecutive weekly gains for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. Wall Street went on rising at the week’s end, with technology stocks driving the S&P 500 to its sixth record closing high since confirming a bull market on August 18. The Nasdaq (INDEXNASDAQ: .IXIC) also had an all-time closing high while the blue-chip Dow (INDEXDJX: .DJI) also stands in positive territory year-to-date. It appears that the S&P 500 (INDEXSP: .INX) may be…