Day: August 8, 2017

What is the likely impact of cryptocurrency derivatives? Three lawyers speculate on the possible innovations to come.

Video entertainment platform Stremio intends to partner with blockchain-based ad exchange AdEx once the exchange becomes fully operational.

Stremio is a semi-open source video entertainment platform launched in 2015. It is designed to host and deliver any kind of video content within the same application. Stremio app has been downloaded by 4 million people so far.

Similar to most video platforms, Stremio monetizes through third-party ads. However, most advertisement placement solutions entail non-transparency and complexities related to bidding and publishing.

AdEx is an ad exchange that offers blockchain solutions for the entire online advertising industry. It seeks to entitle end users to decide which ads to see by specifying their preferences, and to ensure transparency and fairness for advertisers and publishers. Integration with Stremio will allow for blockchainized solution that ensures automatic payouts for ads to publishers, and guarantees transparency to advertisers.

“We believe that incorporating such a reliable solution for ad serving in our platform would dramatically enhance our operations and bring the technologies of monetizing to a whole new level. Partnership with AdEx could be a first step in creating the online advertisement industry of tomorrow,” the Head of Adtech at Stremio Nikola Hristov stated.

Once deployed, AdEx can work with any platform, and is not focused solely on video entertainment platforms.

“The AdEx and Stremio teams will be working closely together on the integration of our solution in their platform once the exchange becomes fully operational. We are looking forward to implementing AdEx in a real-world environment as it will demonstrate the full range of new capabilities and advantages that the blockchain technology can offer to the online advertisement industry,” AdEx’s CMO Vanina Ivanova stated.

This might prove an ultimate real-world test for AdEx. Stremio app has millions of users worldwide, so the platform is of interest for advertisers from multiple industries.

“AdEx can be launched very smoothly with Stremio, and advertisers will have a ready-made audience from the first moment the advertisement network becomes operational,” Vanina Ivanova added.

Recently, AdEx launched a token sale set to fund the development of the blockchain ad network. The beta release of the solution is expected in early 2018.

Two Australian lawmakers have formed a parliamentary group to push government to better accommodate cryptocurrency and blockchain.

On Wednesday morning around 10:40 UTC, the Bitcoin software upgrade known as SegWit will lock-in. Although a two-week waiting period follows before full activation, the lock-in makes it impossible for miners to change their minds about the upgrade without forfeiting their mining income.

An upgrade process called BIP 9 governs how SegWit and other large, possibly contentious upgrades are made to the Bitcoin network. In this case, BIP 9 calls for 95% of miners to signal agreement for the upgrade within a 2016 block period, or roughly 2 weeks.

SegWit is on par to lock-in today. Miners are embracing the scaling upgrade, but there’s still time before users are able to take advantage.