Day: May 28, 2018

Lights, fashion, glamour. Many things come to mind when imagining the modeling industry. Beautiful women and beautiful men in beautiful clothes being photographed in beautiful locales. However, there is much more than meets the eye to the industry. For models and for clients, its current form can often take on a dark underside.

The top few agencies hold a monopoly over as much as 17% of total modeling revenue. This means incredible leverage for them over their models, meaning young girls who are often forced to work long hours for little or no pay in order to “break in” to the industry with a prestigious agency.

For those without the protection of larger agencies, scams and abuse are rampant. “Clients” and “jobs” can quickly turn into “creeps with a camera” and not being paid for time worked. On the other end, scam agencies can often send models that don’t look like they do in their pictures and then demand payment from clients.

Even worse, is that the industry has done little to improve or innovate since the invention of the internet. Sometimes paper-based, agencies are alienated from the efficiency that comes with current technology, and as a result, models and clients are not being served properly. Agencies profit from a lack of transparency, rather than the free flow of information.

Yes, the glamor of modeling is quickly subsumed by the harsh realities of an industry far too often run by the most powerful at the cost of the health and safety of a young, inexperienced, and expendable labor force.

That is where CRYSTALS comes in.

CRYSTALS is a blockchain-based, innovative company that is moving to not only technologically innovate the modeling world, but prove that technology can improve the agency and safety for models and clients alike.

CRYSTALS is a broad platform for both models and clients. Models create profiles with pictures, measurements, and past work that potential clients can easily browse and use to contact them while protecting their personal information. When a client decides to book a model, a first authorization of a transfer of CRYSTALS cryptocurrency, CRS Token, is initiated.

The model then reports for their job and using a smartphone app, the transaction is completed and the model receives the promised amount upon confirmation of completed work. The payment for their time is not left up to negotiation and registering the job on the network prevents dangerous clients from using the service for unsavory ends.

In a year where it seems like every single industry is going “crypto this and blockchain that”, CRYSTALS presents an actual case where blockchain could truly serve as a solution to increase the safety and security of an industry. CRYSTALS would allow the model to escape the often exploitative agency system and present themselves to clients with a guarantee of payment and promotion. The often empty buzzwords of “decentralization” and “security” would actually serve to promote the agency and self-empowerment of models everywhere.

CRYSTALS is in late development and still raising funds. It is expected to be functional and ready for use in the next year or two. When it does, the modeling industry will surely take notice. The question will be whether the agencies it threatens have the power to do something to the democratizing power of the website?

Questions like this are not specific to the modeling industry. As technology and the ability of cryptocurrency to bypass traditional financial tools increases, other sectors will face this same challenge presented by innovators like CRYSTALS. How they react and whether the traditional powers survive intact or the power is shifted to the decentralized labor force is a question many workers outside of models should be asking.

While cryptocurrencies will undoubtedly continue their mission to decentralize and anonymize currency, those same principles can continue to be applied to other sectors.  CRYSTALS is not only a revolution for modeling but an example of how innovative technology can transform the lives and working experiences of an entire industry.

The American economy is sure to transform in the next couple of years due to blockchain technology. What industry do you think is next?

The post How Crystals Is Using Blockchain Technology to Innovate the Modeling Industry appeared first on NewsBTC.

Crypto markets continue downtrend with all top ten coins by market cap in the red, Bitcoin trading around $7,200

The coming months will be crucial for all cryptocurrencies. So far, the markets are not looking all that impressive, with little to no improvements in sight. At the same time, there is some good news for EOS holders. Various airdrops are coming to holders in the next few weeks and months.

The EOS Airdrops are Coming

One of the unusual benefits of holding specific cryptocurrencies is how one can be entitled to an airdrop. This issuance of “free coins or tokens” usually affects the major cryptocurrencies. In the past, Bitcoin and Ethereum users have seen their fair share of such tokens appearing out of nowhere. It now seems EOS holders will go through a similar phase. Raising awareness for new blockchain projects requires a unique approach.

Rather than raising money through an ICO, these projects are giving away value. It is a conscious decision which benefits all parties involved. EOS holders receive these tokens for exciting projects, and the project creators issue tokens to themselves as well. Later on, some of those tokens are sold across exchanges for additional project funding. It is a tried and tested business model which usually works out pretty well.

As such, the EOS user base will see a fair few new tokens make their way to the ecosystem. The list is growing steadily, with the first airdrops to occur in the coming weeks. Chaince will be the first project to do so, with 900 million of the 2 billion tokens being airdropped on June 15th. Having an active “stake” in a new asset trading platform for EOS projects will certainly appeal to some users.

The Value of Aidropped Tokens

One thing worth taking note of is how these EOS airdrops work. Most projects issue 1 token per user in exchange for every EOS in their portfolio. For “whales”, this means a lot of free money will be heading their way in the coming weeks. All of these tokens will still need to achieve some form of monetary value on their own accord. That will not be easy, albeit some of these airdrops are seemingly in a rather advanced stage of development.

With nearly a dozen airdrops on the horizon for EOS users, an interesting future lies ahead. It further confirms developers are building new products and services on top of this ecosystem. More competition is a good thing in this regard. As of right now, most people tend to focus on the Ethereum blockchain for such purposes. Additionally, NEO is also gaining some traction in this regard.

The big question is whether or not these airdrops bring additional value to EOS. The projects they represent seemingly are on the right track to success. However, they are all in an unfinished state, and without initial excitement, their chances of success will diminish quickly. An interesting year lies ahead for EOS at this rate. Airdrops will continue to be a big part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem moving forward.

The post Around a Dozen Airdrops are Coming to EOS Holders appeared first on NewsBTC.

With security tokens predicted to be the next big crypto megatrend as early as the first quarter 2019, one tiny country in Europe’s Nordic region is helping bring security tokens into the mainstream by creating the world’s first infrastructure to legally issue and trade them.

Yet for many within the crypto community, the difference between a utility token and a security token remains unclear. To keep it as simple as possible, a utility token provides its holder with access to a product. It is best to be thought of as a product key. Meanwhile, a security token gives its holder a real part of a product or a share of the security the token is related to.

However, the biggest problem for security tokens is the lack of legal regulations regarding their issuance. This lack of legal regulation is what is currently holding back the incoming tide of security tokens. But Lithuania, a Eurozone country with a population of around 3 million in the European Union’s Nordic region is helping bring this megatrend forward thanks to its crypto-friendly legislation and government stance.

The Crowdfunding Law of the Republic of Lithuania is the first of its kind in the EU. It allows businesses to legally carry out security token issuing ICOs, with the country’s government and its related institutions actively striving to solve regulatory issues surrounding the legal regulation of ICOs and security tokens.

DESICO, the world’s first infrastructure to issue and trade security tokens in full compliance with the law has decided to operate from Lithuania thanks to its government’s favorable position on ICOs and security tokens.

Lithuania’s ICO-friendly business climate has given DESICO the chance to set new standards for both ICOs and security tokens. This active encouragement by the government to transform security tokens into a mainstream asset has given DESICO the opportunity to make its concept of creating an infrastructure to fully legally issue and trade security tokens.

Thanks to its game-changing idea and its creation of legal precedence, DESICO has received backing from the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, making it the EU’s very first member state to obtain such an accolade. The country’s Finance Ministry praised DESICO for fostering “Lithuania’s fintech and blockchain communities by promoting the settlement of global blockchain and fintech businesses in Lithuania.”

DESICO has also attracted attention from the global fintech and blockchain communities. During the past few months, DESICO has met with blockchain experts and financial movers and shakers at conferences in Santa Monica, London, and Tel Aviv.

Recently, two of DESICO’s co-founders have headed to the Crypto Forum in Seoul, the capital of crypto crazy South Korea.

“The fact that DESICO has been between conferences in California and Seoul over the last few months shows that security tokens are at the front of the minds of crypto experts across the globe,” said DESICO CEO and co-founder, Laimonas Noreika. “Thanks to the attention we have already encountered from the global blockchain and fintech communities, we are confident that DESICO’s decision to fully legally issue and trade security tokens, plus its legal advantage, will bring security tokens into the mainstream and set new standards for the ICO industry.”

To discover about how DESICO will transform security tokens into a fully legal and mainstream asset class, visit the DESICO website, or join its Telegram community.

The post How a Country With a Population of 3M Is Helping Make Security Tokens the Next Crypto Megatrend appeared first on NewsBTC.

While the odds are still stacked in favor of bitcoin’s bears, marketplace exhaustion may have provided a chance for a brief rally.

Blockchain proved itself as a major market motivator with corporations and startups alike looking to harness the technology for their own benefit. Though initially reluctant, major financial institutions are starting to embrace distributed ledgers to upgrade their legacy network software. Transfers that once took days can now be accomplished in a matter of minutes – without a loss of security or a higher fee. Asset transfers can be secured against counterparty risk by using smart contracts, and decentralized applications remove the ability for a central business to control actions.

Now, we are beginning to see a convergence of emerging technologies. Machine learning and artificial intelligence allow a greater level of autonomy for blockchain platforms. The greater the ability of the system itself to resolve conflicts, the less human intervention required. Biometrics allows for securing both ends of a transfer, preventing even social engineering hacks from gaining access to accounts. The following are three of the biggest blockchain projects of the year – including both traditional and emerging technology.

1. Ripple’s Codius Platform

Ripple is a well-known entity in the blockchain ecosystem. Their XRP token consistently holds the third spot on the list of top cryptocurrencies by market cap. Their product suite is generally aimed at larger banks and hedge funds. They offer bridge-currency functionality, liquidity pools, and solutions that reduce friction for network transfers.

The XRP blockchain, however, has notably lacked smart contract functionality. This stems from a decision made by the company in 2015 to eliminate their Codius project, which would have made them the first major blockchain project to integrate smart contracts. Ripple’s justification at the time was that the market was too small to properly realize decentralized application development. Their assessment was correct, but the environment has substantially changed since then.

Ethereum proved the viability of smart contracts, and Ripple recently revived their Codius project. Introducing smart contract functionality on the Ripple blockchain would allow developers to create an entirely new class of applications. The native apps would allow even average users to take advantage of the bridge-currency status of the XRP token in RippleNet’s platform. Ripple Labs have previously suggested the use of XRP as a means of sending remittances – and smaller scale decentralized applications are the perfect vector for this process.

2. Endor’s Predictive Analysis System

Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool for a variety of industries. Customer service chatbots free up company resources, while data parsing programs operate exponentially faster than their human predecessors, to name just a few use cases. Coupled with machine learning, artificial intelligence programs can take in an enormous amount of data, and predict outcomes based on past indicators. This system of predictive analysis can often find correlations that would have been missed by human analysts.

Endor, created by a team of MIT engineers, uses predictive analysis to answer questions posed by average users. By using “Social Physics”, Endor analyzes a tremendous amount of data to offer the most accurate predictions possible. The apt description of Endor as the “Google of predictive analysis” speaks to both the relative ease of use and the power behind the platform. While predictive analysis was once a tool available only to corporations with large development budgets, Endor is bringing that technology to the masses.

Endor’s recent ICO earned $45 million USD, and the company is currently working on cryptocurrency predictions as a public proof of concept of their platform. Users will be able to use the native EDR token to fund market analysis and price predictions – using past data sets on prices, but also correlations related to social media buzz and press releases.

3. IBM and Linux’s Hyperledger Protocol

While eager to get involved with the ambitious tech startup projects that come out of Silicon Valley, traditional banks are still feeling the pain of the dot-com bubble. To alleviate this problem, industry giant IBM helped the Linux Foundation to create the Hyperledger project and associated community. Their goal is to create a standardized, open-source blockchain protocol for use in corporate finance and supply chain management.

The backing of such a high-profile company gave the Hyperledger protocol an immense boost from the very start. To date, hundreds of companies and organizations have signed on to assist with the development of the protocol. The memberships are not restricted to the technology sector – insurance company Kaiser Permanente, journalism staple Reuters and several universities are all assisting. Even Ripple is on board, bringing the cryptocurrency community into the fold.

The Current Blockchain Environment

As the cryptocurrency market emerges from a sluggish first quarter, both traditional and blockchain companies are looking towards new projects. Codius, Endor, and Hyperledger may be the strongest of the group, but there are other niche projects showing great promise as well. While 2017 was the year in which blockchain technology gained the public’s attention, 2018 may very well be when the public at large truly embraces what the technology can do for them.

The post Top Three Upcoming Blockchain Projects of 2018 appeared first on NewsBTC.

BlockShow 2018 Europe has kicked off in Berlin, bringing together over 3,000 attendees and 150 projects from the international blockchain space

A newly released Intel patent application sets out a system for automatically creating and validating blocks on a distributed ledger.

Complaints claim that after demanding all users link their real ID to their trading account, Poloniex crypto exchange has “frozen” them

Legendary MMA fighter Rory Mcdonald Tweeted out a video of himself working out in a Bitcoin cash T-shirt that raised speculation that the fighter may have a new sponsor in the Bitcoin spin-off.

MMA Champ Teams up with Bitcoin Cash

Canadian Bellator welterweight world champion Rory McDonald, who is an outspoken devotee of cryptocurrency, has made his connection with Bitcoin Cash public in a 30-second video he tweeted out showing him hitting a water bag wearing in a Bitcoin Cash T-shirt.

Big fans of yours over here @BitcoinCom Amazing to see you wearing our swag, we're definitely going to hook you up with some more! @rory_macdonald #bitcoin #BitcoinCash #bch https://t.co/GvAYOK111E

— Bitcoin.com Official (@BitcoinCom) May 27, 2018

McDonald has had connections with cryptocurrency since he was introduced to it by a former coach. He has had an ongoing sponsorship deal with Dash and even cites that partnership as his reason for leaving the UFC to fight in Bellator. Calling the move a great opportunity for not only himself but all fighters to improve their stake through pairing with cryptocurrency McDonald contends it’s not just talk, that he truly believes in the movement.

He told the media during a phone interview at the start of his Dash partnership “This will be hopefully the first of many sponsorships with Dash and me, it’s not just for me but it’s going to a big opportunity for many other fighters and even Bellator itself … there’s tons of fighters interested in it,” adding at the end;

“with cryptocurrency, there’s so many different possibilities as a fighter now that you can get into these different markets and get yourself out there, other than just being in a cage and wearing a uniform and being like everybody else.”

The fighter who has in the past requested his purse by paid out in Bitcoin hasn’t announced an end to his connection with Dash but the recent publicity he’s been giving to Bitcoin Cash may mark the end of the deal and the beginning of a new one.

Crypto and MMA are a Solid Match

MMA and cryptocurrency share the same struggle as a disruptive underdog bucking the odds to gain validity against established if outdated institutions. McDonald is not the first fighter working to bring the two together. Conor Mcgregor, arguably one of the greatest MMA fighters ever and certainly one of the most flamboyant, has made it known that he would like to see UFC accepting cryptocurrency. John Fitch a UFC welterweight contender has also been pushing the league to not only accept but also to pay out in Bitcoin.

McDonald feels that Bellator is better positioned to implement cryptocurrency into their structure since they have no binding brand partnerships. The fact that the league is based in Montreal which he calls a very cryptocurrency friendly place is a solid start to what he sees as the future of for both the league’s and his own ongoing relationship with cryptocurrency.

Image from Shutterstock

The post MMA Champ Rory McDonald Teamed Up with Bitcoin Cash appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Points

• Bitcoin price is struggling to hold the $7,250-7,300 support area against the US Dollar.
• There are two bearish trend lines formed with resistances at $7,400 and $7,510 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair remains at a risk of more losses if it breaks the $7,150 support level.

Bitcoin price is moving further into the bearish zone below $7,400 against the US Dollar. BTC/USD must remain above $7,000 to avoid a sharp decline.

Bitcoin Price Analysis

There were a couple of rejections noted around $7,500 level in bitcoin price against the US Dollar. The BTC/USD pair started a downside move and declined below the $7,400 and $7,300 support levels. It even settled below the $7,400 pivot and the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $7,260 low to $7,648 high. It opened the doors for more losses and the price declined below the $7,260 low.

The current price action suggests a downside break below $7,260 with a bearish angle. At the moment, the price is testing the 1.236 Fib extension level of the last wave from the $7,260 low to $7,648 high. If the price breaks the $7,150 level, there could be more losses towards the $7,000 level. The 1.618 Fib extension level of the last wave from the $7,260 low to $7,648 high is at $7,020 to act as a support. Further below this, the price could decline towards $6,800. On the upside, there are two bearish trend lines formed with resistances at $7,400 and $7,510 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair.

Looking at the chart, the price may struggle to break the $7,300 and $7,400 resistance levels. Only a close above $7,500 could clear the path for a bullish trend in the near term.

Looking at the technical indicators:              

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BTC/USD is moving in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI is now well below the 40 level.

Major Support Level – $7,020

Major Resistance Level – $7,400

The post Bitcoin Price Watch: BTC/USD Upsides Remain Limited appeared first on NewsBTC.

A company is creating a decentralized VR world which gives users the chance to rub shoulders with some of the world’s biggest celebrities #SPONSORED