Month: June 2023

How We Ranked CoinDesk’s Crypto Hubs 2023: Our Methodology

The next challenge was to create the initial sample of hubs we should collect data for. Both of us have worked professionally in the past on rankings that began with a sample of hundreds of metro areas. But our time and resources are not unlimited; we sought to shortcut the process by reaching out to dozens of crypto experts representing media, blockchain clubs, venture funds, founders of layer 1s, 2s and decentralized applications, players in DeFi, ReFi and more. We sought diversity wherever we could: race, gender, sexual orientation and…

A Boutique Hub for Crypto Early Adopters

The only Canadian hub to make it into our final ranking, Vancouver had a strong showing in per-capita opportunity measures including crypto jobs, companies and events, as well as a particularly high score for quality of life, in our enabler category. But like its neighboring U.S., Canada’s crypto regulatory structure score was just middling, sitting at three of a maximum score of five. The regulatory criteria, part of the drivers category, is the most heavily weighted at 35% of the total score. Another drivers criteria, the crypto adoption score, was…

It’s a Beautiful Life in This Crypto Payments Hotbed

Ljubljana is a study in contrasts when it comes to factors that measure grassroots crypto enthusiasm and activity. Its opportunities score, based on the rate of per-capita crypto jobs, companies and events, is outstanding, but its crypto adoption score, in the drivers category, was second-lowest of the entire 25-hub sample. The poor performance could be explained by the fact that crypto adoption is measured on a national scale, reflecting all of Slovenia, and not just Ljubljana itself. On its own, Ljubljana had a top-10 quality-of-life score, which enabled it to…

Japanese Financial Giant Mizuho to Let 45000 Employees Test Out OpenAI

Mizuho Bank said that it will use the AI tool in the bank’s brokerage unit. The Japanese banking giant will conduct an “ideathon” next month and brainstorm various ways to experiment with the technology. On Tuesday, June 27, Japan’s third-largest banking institution Mizuho declared that it will allow all of its 45,000 employees in Japan to use Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI from this week. This will make the Mizuho Group the first financial company in Japan to use generative AI. Niu Dujungang, head of the company’s digitalization, said that access to…

What is DALL-E, and how does it work?

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OpenAI created the ground-breaking generative artificial intelligence (AI) model known as DALL-E, which excels at creating distinctive, incredibly detailed visuals from textual descriptions. DALL-E, in contrast to conventional picture creation models, can produce original images in response to given text prompts, demonstrating its capacity to comprehend and transform verbal concepts into visual representations. During training, DALL-E makes use of a sizable collection of text-image pairs. It learns to associate visual cues with the semantic meaning of text instructions. DALL-E creates an image from a sample of its learned probability distribution…

A Buzzy, Affordable Mecca for Buy-and-Hold Crypto Nomads

The final hub to make the cut into our top-15 ranking of crypto hubs, Lisbon had an above-average rating for crypto regulatory structure, 4 out of 5. That important criteria, in the drivers category, was worth 35% of the total score on its own. But Lisbon scored in the solid middle- to lower-middle of the 25-hub pack on nearly every other measure, from grassroots crypto adoption (another driver) to opportunities criteria including per-capita crypto jobs, companies and events. What lifted the popular expat destination into the final 15 was a…

Robinhood to Cut 7% of Its Staff after Two Rounds of Layoffs

If implemented, it will mark the third round of layoffs for Robinhood in just over one year. The brokerage firm laid off 9% of its workers in April 2022 and 23% in August of the same year. Robinhood plans to lay off some part of its staff as it seeks to reduce the cost of operations due to the reduction in demand it is experiencing. Many current workers were employed to fill various needed roles during the Covid era. During that time, there was a huge demand for cryptocurrency trading…

Saudi Aramco Expects Strong Oil Demand from China and India despite Economic Downturn

The state-owned Aramco believes that the oil demand forecast for the rest of 2023 is solid even though metrics point to a dwindling economy. Saudi-owned oil and gas firm Saudi Aramco has a strong outlook on oil for the rest of the year as it anticipates healthy demand from India and China. Saudi Aramco predicts strong demand from both countries regardless of an economic retraction expected in global markets. Speaking at the Energy Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said oil market fundamentals “remain generally sound” for…

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire optimistic about bitcoin ETF approvals

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Share Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share on Telegram Copy Link Link copied Jeremy Allaire, the co-founder and CEO of Circle, expressed optimism about the potential approval of bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, China. Allaire believes that regulators’ previous concerns regarding bitcoin ETFs will soon be resolved, paving the way for authorized ETFs. He noted the progress in developing more mature market structures to support these financial instruments. Allaire told Bloomberg, “You have mature spot markets, well-regulated custody infrastructure, and…