Blockchain

Piracy Will Cost Billions to the TV and Music Industries

In most of the Western world, piracy is fought on every corner but still to no avail. The TV and Music industries especially, have been the biggest victims

The post Piracy Will Cost Billions to the TV and Music Industries appeared first on CoinStaker | Bitcoin News.

Published

2 years ago

December 16, 2019

Republished by Plato

With the evolution of the Internet, piracy has become increasingly more sophisticated. It’s biggest victims however, are probably music artists and actors.

In the last year’s forecast of Digital TV Research, it’s mentioned that the TV series and film could reach a revenue loss of over $50 billion by 2022. This is all attributed to online piracy and those rough estimations do not include sports, pay-per-view and other forms of media content. The real number would be quite higher.

If we’re looking at the scale of worldwide blockchain adoption, we must come to the consensus that the technology isn’t capable to destroy piracy, at least not yet. It’s important to note that most media content can be easily captured and reused. This means that in the moment most blockchain projects are not going after piracy so much as ad transparency.

A report from CREATe, a UK copyright research body, dives deeper into the psychological aspects of piracy. If we look past the ridiculous over complication of the aspects of Piracy, we can agree that most people do it because they simply cannot afford these products in any way. Some countries have a limited access, but they can share files endlessly with no repercussions.

There is no clear consensus on the subject since many people will likely have their own viewpoint. There is evidence that blockchain technology can be used to start the initiative to combat piracy. It’s a widely shared opinion that piracy would be completely eliminated if the Internet was entirely built on the technology. While that remains a future possibility, there are a few methods involving blockchain, which can be applied today.

Piracy is an opportunity for profit and fame, if a company can manage to combat it

A “surveillance smart contract” technology is currently being developed by Vevue. The blockchain streaming service says that the technology would be able to track the lifespan of all content. Essentially, this would mean that every time a video is copied or recorded in any possible way, the technology would be able to ID the original owner of the system/device on which the content was last displayed.

The tracking isn’t done by blockchain. Tracking and ID’ing the stolen content is quite the difficult task it goes a little above blockchain. The platform will use a very sophisticated computational engine, which is still pending a patent. It will be tasked with content protection but the details on tracking and ID’ing content will be kept a secret.

Another unique approach is taken by a South African company. CustosTech is implementing the Bitcoin blockchain in the fight against piracy. The company has built a technology known as “forensic watermarking.” It’s essentially a reward system, which embeds a monetary reward, in this case Bitcoin. The reward will be connected to the unique serial number encoded into the media files like eBooks, audiobooks, audio and video.

The technology is also known as digital watermarking and has seen the light of day for a few years now. Many companies use this technology today. The watermark is randomly placed in a piece of the media and it’s completely imperceptible. The fact that it’s location is unknown and the way it’s embedded across the entire file makes it incredibly difficult to remove. Another important part to note is that the serial key is completely unaffected by file manipulation such as downscaling, transcoding, recording or any form of alternation. This means that if a file is suspected of piracy, the serial number can be used to determine the file’s legal recipient and thus the origin of the stolen content.

In the near future many such projects will start popping up. The music and TV industry will do well to invest in such innovations because if successful, they could literally save them billions.

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Source: https://www.coinstaker.com/piracy-cost-billions-tv-music-industries/

Blockchain

Assessing an investment in Bitcoin post-China’s latest ‘ban’

Published

32 mins ago

September 28, 2021

Republished by Plato

The sky is blue. Water is wet. China is banning Bitcoin.

While some new investors were petrified, as can be inferred from the minor dip in prices, a majority of the community remained unscathed by the development.

It isn’t the first time China has banned Bitcoin, and it probably won’t be the last. However, speculations suggest that this time China might be more serious than before. However, will it really matter in the long run for Bitcoin and co.?

A quick recap of the Bitcoin-China tussle of 2021

China threw the first sign of caution back in March. Reports stated that there is an ongoing crackdown on Bitcoin mining firms and there was an extended ban on mining projects in Inner Mongolia. At that time, the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang were the highest contributors to the hash rate. And yet, Bitcoin continued to rally and recorded new highs in April, consolidating in that range till May 2021.

Then, in May and June 2021, China decided to ban banks and payments firms from providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions. The National Internet Finance Association of China, the Clearing Association of China, and the China Banking Association issued a warning that consumers would have no protection if they faced any losses during crypto-trading.

And now, the People’s Bank of China(PBoC) has announced that there would be tougher measures taken on crypto-trading. This applies to any institution involved in crypto-transactions, regardless of it being off-shore if services are provided in China.

So, is it time to buy Bitcoin?

Ironically, whenever China has made news with a major ‘ban’ announcement on Bitcoin, the digital asset has gone on to record all-time highs.

Source: Trading View

Beginning with the initial concern during Q4 of 2013, China’s central bank had revealed that it was worried about digital asset payments. At the time, Baidu, China’s biggest Internet service company, was served with a warning – Do not accept any form of digital payments. A few weeks later, it jumped by almost 6x, hitting $1242.

In September 2017, China announced that it was going to shut down all Bitcoin exchanges after the asset rallied towards the beginning of 2017. While the price momentarily dropped, end of Q4 2017, Bitcoin hit $20,000.

In terms of market structure, 2017 and 2021 have been largely similar. And now, they have another common entity with China’s ban. Speculators are suggesting that China’s restrictions are the perfect investment opportunity based on historical data.

However, only time will tell if the digital asset actually touches another ATH towards the end of the year.

Is there a hidden agenda?

Without sounding too dismissive about the current situation, it is important to identify the difference between China’s stance then and now. According to last Friday’s notice, 10 agencies are present. Previously, it was 7. Mainly, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) is one of the new entrants, something that might underline the weight of the current ban.

The notice claimed that any individual or organization investing in virtual currencies and similar crypto-derivatives violates “public order and good customs.” There is a certain indirectness to this statement since it can be essentially taken as “trade with crypto at your own risk.”

Leading commentators have also speculated the idea of diminishing economic freedom and the fact that China is ready to establish its own Fed coin. One which will have similar crypto-characteristics. China remains secretive as ever, so while such announcements do affect the larger market sentiment for Bitcoin, the asset has been resilient over the past few months.

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Source: https://ambcrypto.com/assessing-an-investment-in-bitcoin-post-chinas-latest-ban

Blockchain

Axie Infinity Records Holders ATH: 420% Year to Date Growth

Published

59 mins ago

September 28, 2021

Republished by Plato

Popular non-fungible token (NFT) gaming platform Axie Infinity continues to see increased adoption from users, following exponential growth in the number of wallet addresses.

Axie Sees Surge in Address Holders

According to data provided by IntoTheBlock on Tuesday (September 28, 2021), Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) ownership is on the rise, with 17,480 address holders. This figure represents a new all-time high (ATH) and a 420% increase year-to-date (YTD). Meanwhile, this growth is indicative of the rising popularity of Axie Infinity and play-to-earn non-fungible token (NFT) gaming.

Back in July, CryptoPotato reported that the value of the AXS token skyrocketed nearly 400% within one month, leading to a market capitalization of over the $1 billion mark. Later in August, AXS was among the assets listed on the major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Pro, which also gave it an immediate boost.

Axis Infinity, developed by Sky Mavis and released in 2018, arguably popularised the play-to-earn trend and has recorded a number of impressive milestones in recent times. Data from DappRadar revealed that the project recorded over $2 billion in NFT sales volume, solidifying Axie’s place as the most valuable NFT collection, thereby surpassing major names such as CryptoPunks, Art Blocks, and NBA Top Shot.

The data also showed that more than 600,000 users traded Axis Infinity NFTs, resulting in 4,887,645 transactions. The project currently boasts over 1.5 million daily active users.

According to Jeff Zirlin, co-founder of Axie Infinity, half of the platform’s users got to interact with cryptocurrency and blockchain for the first time through Axie, while 25% of them did not own a bank account.

The Growth of NFT Gaming

The NFT industry is becoming popular with celebrities, major sports leagues, and companies buying digital art in whatever form, or selling them. However, blockchain-based games are seeing a special kind of attention.

A report by DeFiPrime stated that the NFT Gaming market has a total market valuation of nearly $180 billion as of August 2021, with the value estimated to rise to $196 billion. An excerpt from the report reads:

“NFT games may have the potential to become the standard for the gaming market if it sees enough attention and popularity. Already they have made major changes to games and made it much more fun for players. From there, it could be a very major change to the way people play games and could be as major as Doom was to the market or 3D was for environments.”

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Source: https://cryptopotato.com/axie-infinity-records-holders-ath-420-year-to-date-growth/

Blockchain

Bitcoin, Ethereum will draw their market strength from this key aspect

Published

1 hour ago

September 28, 2021

Republished by Plato

Bitcoin and Ethereum are currently surviving a bearish scare, with both assets just about holding a position above their immediate supports. For Bitcoin, the $41,000-level is establishing a strong bounceback range while Ethereum has managed to remain above $3000.

On the contrary, some altcoins have recorded strong recoveries, with Solana, Bitcoin Cash, and Uniswap hiking by more than 10% in one 24-hour window.

Now, these altcoins seemed to have the relative edge at press time. However, there are a couple of key metrics which may allow us to evaluate the actual strength of Bitcoin, Ethereum as the market goes forward.

How much importance should be given to utility?

Source: Sanbase

Over the past few years, market stability has been dependent on different aspects. During the bullish rally of 2017, investor sentiment was key and when major traders started to become bearish, the digital assets collapsed.

Then, it was constructive institutional inflows at the beginning of 2019. At the time, it was suggested that institutions can allow tokens such as BTC, ETH to hold higher price positions. The price fell in 2020, irrespective of rising interest.

However, one key idea missed by most speculators might be the utility side of things, which is presently one of the most important functionality. Gone are the days when astute marketing allowed assets such as TRON to climb into the top-10.

Now, according to Santiment, Bitcoin has hit a two-month high in terms of circulation. What’s more, if the chart is closely observed, the average BTC transferred has risen consistently over the month of September.

Source: Sanbase

Similarly, Ethereum hit a similar feat but its 1-day circulation index was at a 3-month high, indicative of high token utility and movement.

Ethereum’s price has dropped sharply over the course of the past few weeks, but circulation has remained high.

Bitcoin, Ethereum spaces have evolved

Now, to be fair, it is important to account for volatility and the fact the circulation isn’t as high as it was during May 2021. However, maintaining a development and transaction-intensive ecosystem, one which allows the price to be built on strong foundations, is eventually advantageous.

Now, with respect to the assets that have grown over the past few days, besides BCH, both Solana and Uniswap are extremely utilized tokens. While one is the native token of a major DEX, another asset is currently responsible for bringing better L2 solutions.

Likewise, for Bitcoin and Ethereum, higher utility and circulation should keep the asset relevant, and progressively exhibit significant recoveries over Q4 of 2021.