📔 Weekly Journal: Test Lightning Pay NZ ⚡️
[6 min read] Your guide to getting ahead on the digital frontier (& the weekend!). Today, the usual market news as well as all about the Kiwi bitcoin payments provider you can test out for yourself
Welcome to this week’s Weekly Journal 📔, your guide to the latest news & innovation in emerging technology, digital assets, and our exciting path to the Metaverse. This is week 68 of the 520 weeks of newsletters I have committed to, a decade of documenting our physical and digital lives converge.
New subscribers are encouraged to check out the history & purpose of this newsletter as well as the archive.
Enjoy your weekend! 😎
- Ryan
Digital Assets Market Update
🔥🗺️ 7-day heatmap below, which shows the current share of market for the top cryptocurrencies, alongside total marketcap (USD) and the change in price over the last week.
🎭 Crypto Fear and Greed Index is based on volatility, social media sentiments, surveys, market momentum, and a few other bits and pieces.
Interesting news from this week🗞️
⚡️ Our friends at Lightning Pay NZ have launched their closed beta, and are looking for shoppers and merchants to sign up.
They offer instant, secure, and low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Proudly Kiwi-owned, Lightning Pay assures non-custodial services, maintaining user control over Bitcoin. Merchants can effortlessly convert Bitcoin to New Zealand Dollars. With a mere 1% fee plus bank charges, Lightning Pay promises the fastest and most economical Bitcoin exchanges. Join their closed beta by clicking here!
🇨🇳 Despite government restrictions, China's crypto investors triumphed in 2023, netting approximately $1.2 billion, placing fourth globally in gains, reports Chainalysis. The rebound showcases enduring interest amidst regulatory hurdles. Although American investors led with $9.36 billion, China's performance is notable given strict bans. Hong Kong also saw gains, aiming to become a crypto hub. Crypto's resilience in China signals a promising future despite challenges.
🔷 BlackRock introduced its 'BUIDL' tokenised asset fund this week on Ethereum, with a $5 million entry. The fund, registered in the British Virgin Islands last year, aims to provide instant, transparent settlement and broaden investor access to blockchain offerings. BlackRock partnered with Bank of New York Mellon as custodian and Securitize for transfer services. The move follows anticipation for an Ethereum ETF, with analysts predicting a potential $14,000 ETH price surge. However, SEC delays on ETF approvals raise uncertainty despite BlackRock's filing, which previously spiked ETH prices.
🌏 The Worldcoin Foundation, responsible for the Orb technology designed to authenticate "humanness," has made its eye-scanning code open source on GitHub. This move aims to enhance transparency and collaboration. Worldcoin's Orb scans users' irises to create unique identifiers stored on its blockchain. Despite controversy and security concerns, the foundation prioritizes privacy and security, with ongoing audits. This development coincided with a 4% increase in Worldcoin's WLD cryptocurrency value, now trading at $8.40 amidst broader cryptocurrency market volatility.
👓Read of the Week
The latest edition of Digital Assets Investor Magazine is out with print copies on shelves around NZ, Singapore, and Malaysia. Below is at a local Paper Plus!
The digital version goes out to 12,000+ Financial Professionals around APAC, read it your self here (or click the cover below)
🎥 Watch of the week
Nvidia's latest AI chip, Blackwell, heralded by CEO Jensen Huang as a platform, not just a chip, boasts significant performance upgrades measured in petaflops. This computational power is pivotal for various industries embracing the metaverse, from robotics to healthcare. Nvidia's stock benefits from investments in computational infrastructure, while partnerships with companies like Cadence expand its ecosystem.
Here is Chris Gannatti, Global Head of Research at WisdomTree, discussing.
AI 🎨🤖🎵✍🏼
In a groundbreaking development, AI has been demonstrated to run on blockchain as a smart contract, marking a significant milestone in technology. Utilising the Internet Computer blockchain, this demonstration showcases AI's potential to revolutionise web3 and multi-chain environments. While optimisations are still coming, plans also include hardware optimisation and specialised subnets for hosting AI smart contracts. This advancement aims to enable secure, unstoppable AI interactions, such as auditing Ethereum contracts and autonomous KYC processes while turbocharging crypto AI development. Fascinating! Here is a demo:
The Internet Computer is a blockchain protocol that offers revolutionary capabilities by adding autonomous serverless cloud functionality to the public Internet, enabling the creation of decentralised systems and services using "canister software." Key features include tamperproof and autonomous operation, simplifying development and maintenance while ensuring sovereignty. It even has support for advanced tokenisation models and next-gen AI. I like its focus on simple usability, which enables easy user entry to Web3. At the same time, native multi-chain support facilitates seamless interaction between different blockchains, promising a trustless, secure, and efficient future for decentralised applications and services.
That’s all for the free version this week! If you have any organisations in mind that could benefit from learning about emerging technology, be sure to reach out. Educational workshops are one of many consulting services I offer.
DCA With Me 🤑
Dollar Cost Averaging is an investment strategy in which an investor regularly invests a fixed amount of money into a particular asset/asset class at regular intervals, regardless of its current market cycle. By doing so, the investor can reduce the impact of market volatility and potentially earn a better return over time. Motto = time IN the market beats trying to time the market
To experiment with this, I invest $50 NZD into a Digital Asset every week. Each week I will choose an asset that seems underpriced in the short term and has positive long-term potential. My timeframe is 3-5 years. I don’t give financial advice but if you want to follow along with me you can use my easycrypto.co.nz referral link to support this newsletter. Let’s dive into this week’s pick:
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