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Make a wish: New Year’s resolutions from crypto industry insiders

The new year is just over a week away, so folks all across the crypto world are thinking ahead to what 2022 will bring to the crypto industry and the world.
As the new year rapidly approaches, people are thinking about what they can…

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The new year is just over a week away, so folks all across the crypto world are thinking ahead to what 2022 will bring to the crypto industry and the world.

As the new year rapidly approaches, people are thinking about what they can do to make 2022 even better than 2021. With so much anticipation for cryptocurrency in the coming year from government policymakers and market action, it’s no wonder that some in the crypto industry have ambitious resolutions for the new year with how they will help to shape the industry for the better.

National governments have taken steps to increase the global adoption of blockchain technology right up to the end of 2021. Late in the year, governments from Australia, Kazakhstan, Brazil and the Eastern Caribbean launched, or made public, their plans regarding central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The United States Senate heard testimonies from crypto company executives in December, and Thailand’s government vowed to issue a regulatory framework for crypto by 2022.

As for the bull market, nobody truly knows what will happen. Some analysts believe that the four-year market cycle has been broken, indicating that the bull run will continue well into 2022. However, bearish signals persist despite the strength of Ether (ETH) and altcoins, making a stronger case for the argument that this time around, things are different.

Several industry participants shared their thoughts with Cointelegraph regarding their New Year's resolutions. They range from education and inspiration to healthcare concerns. They even floated ideas of a global metaverse GDP.

Bobby Ong, CoinGecko

Bobby Ong, co-founder of CoinGecko, also shared his resolutions for the new year. As with others in the industry, Ong feels that education is one of the keys to crypto adoption. He told Cointelegraph that his greatest ambition is to see the industry use education to help users keep their digital assets safe.

His concerns regarding user security have genuine merit considering that so far in December 2021, there have been over $149 million in losses due to security breaches at Grim Finance, Badger DAO, MonoX, Visor Finance and AscendEX. At the time of publishing, there is still about a week left in the month for other breaches to be revealed. Ong said:

“I hope to see more people educating themselves on crypto security in 2022. Too many new users have lost cryptocurrencies and NFTs due to bad security practices and I hope more projects and companies will educate their users on best practices.”

He went on about how he believes that crypto users — both new and experienced — need access to as much information and education as they can get: “Our motivation in doing this is to help users make sense of the crypto world and we hold the view that anything that can be tokenized will be tokenized.”

Yat Siu, Animoca Brands

Animoca co-founder and chairman Yat Siu voiced his aim to see the metaverse niche mature in 2022. His lofty goals for the new year include bringing metaverses onto a global scale of recognition which could have evolutionary implications for the nonfungible token, or NFT, market as well.

It may be safe to say that the Metaverse have come closer to mainstream adoption than they ever had before thanks, in no small part, to Mark Zuckerberg and Meta. Siu and Animoca, one of the biggest investment firms in the NFT and metaverse space, are counting on the continued expansion of those markets.

Animoca had a fantastic 2021, especially in the last few months of the year when the firm increased its treasury value five-fold from $2.9 billion in September to $15.9 billion by the end of November. As the latest winner of Deloitte Hong Kong’s Fast Technology award, Animoca may have the momentum needed to continue its success in 2022. Siu said his New Year's resolution was:

“To help in constructing an open metaverse with such a significant GDP that closed metaverses are forced open in much the same way that free trade opened up the global economy. Where we are no longer digitally defined as ‘users’ but as metaverse citizens with true digital ownership.”

Pradeep Goel, Solve.Care

Next, Solve.Care blockchain-based healthcare platform CEO Pradeep Goel shared his thoughts on what can be done to improve the crypto space in 2022. The telehealth field, which Solve.Care has one foot in, saw a 63-fold increase in utilization through 2021, according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Especially for geriatric patients and those with low mobility who cannot easily make regular doctor visits, the utility of telehealth services was fleshed out over the past 20 months through the COVID-19 pandemic. Solve’s position as a crypto-telehealth leader aided in the launch of its Global Telehealth Exchange and various other services, which Goel hopes will help users obtain the health services they need. Goel told Cointelegraph:

“It is my wish that in 2022, we will see greater utility and adoption of cryptocurrencies, especially for the healthcare sector. Not only can they be used as a payment currency, but they can be programmed to streamline and facilitate seamless interactions between stakeholders like patients, healthcare providers, government agencies and insurance companies.”

Jen Buakew, To The Moon Lab

Jen Buakaew, founder of growth accelerator To the Moon Lab, hopes that 2022 will make the crypto space more accessible for laypeople who want to explore its possibilities. In her experience at crypto conferences, many people become befuddled by the NFTs that sell for millions of dollars and the technical jargon tossed around by industry experts. She said, “These things usually mean nothing to people besides making them feel that crypto success is unattainable.”

In her view, people interested in joining the industry as traders, entrepreneurs, or professionals don’t have an adequate support system in place to help them reach their goals should they choose to join the industry. That lack of support is what she thinks keeps some individuals from contributing their valuable input in the first place. Buakaew said:

“My New Year's resolution is to inspire as many people as I can to get themselves into crypto by showing them the simplest ways where they can benefit from being part of the decentralized economy. I would like to change this narrative or the mindsets of the ordinary people, especially those in the less fortunate demographics to 'if Jen can do it, well then so can we.’”

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Mike Pompeo Doesn’t Rule Out Serving In 2nd Trump Administration

Mike Pompeo Doesn’t Rule Out Serving In 2nd Trump Administration

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Former Secretary…

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Mike Pompeo Doesn't Rule Out Serving In 2nd Trump Administration

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a new interview that he’s not ruling out accepting a White House position if former President Donald Trump is reelected in November.

“If I get a chance to serve and think that I can make a difference ... I’m almost certainly going to say yes to that opportunity to try and deliver on behalf of the American people,” he told Fox News, when asked during a interview if he would work for President Trump again.

I’m confident President Trump will be looking for people who will faithfully execute what it is he asked them to do,” Mr. Pompeo said during the interview, which aired on March 8. “I think as a president, you should always want that from everyone.”

Then-President Donald Trump (C), then- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L), and then-Vice President Mike Pence, take a question during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus at the White House in Washington on April 8, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

He said that as a former secretary of state, “I certainly wanted my team to do what I was asking them to do and was enormously frustrated when I found that I couldn’t get them to do that.”

Mr. Pompeo, a former U.S. representative from Kansas, served as Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2018 before he was secretary of state from 2018 to 2021. After he left office, there was speculation that he could mount a Republican presidential bid in 2024, but announced that he wouldn’t be running.

President Trump hasn’t publicly commented about Mr. Pompeo’s remarks.

In 2023, amid speculation that he would make a run for the White House, Mr. Pompeo took a swipe at his former boss, telling Fox News at the time that “the Trump administration spent $6 trillion more than it took in, adding to the deficit.”

“That’s never the right direction for the country,” he said.

In a public appearance last year, Mr. Pompeo also appeared to take a shot at the 45th president by criticizing “celebrity leaders” when urging GOP voters to choose ahead of the 2024 election.

2024 Race

Mr. Pompeo’s interview comes as the former president was named the “presumptive nominee” by the Republican National Committee (RNC) last week after his last major Republican challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, dropped out of the 2024 race after failing to secure enough delegates. President Trump won 14 out of 15 states on Super Tuesday, with only Vermont—which notably has an open primary—going for Ms. Haley, who served as President Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

On March 8, the RNC held a meeting in Houston during which committee members voted in favor of President Trump’s nomination.

“Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump on his huge primary victory!” the organization said in a statement last week. “I’d also like to congratulate Nikki Haley for running a hard-fought campaign and becoming the first woman to win a Republican presidential contest.”

Earlier this year, the former president criticized the idea of being named the presumptive nominee after reports suggested that the RNC would do so before the Super Tuesday contests and while Ms. Haley was still in the race.

Also on March 8, the RNC voted to name Trump-endorsed officials to head the organization. Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Republican, was elected the party’s new national chairman in a vote in Houston, and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, was voted in as co-chair.

“The RNC is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly every single day to elect our nominee, Donald J. Trump, as the 47th President of the United States,” Mr. Whatley told RNC members in a speech after being elected, replacing former chair Ronna McDaniel. Ms. Trump is expected to focus largely on fundraising and media appearances.

President Trump hasn’t signaled whom he would appoint to various federal agencies if he’s reelected in November. He also hasn’t said who his pick for a running mate would be, but has offered several suggestions in recent interviews.

In various interviews, the former president has mentioned Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, among others.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/13/2024 - 17:00

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International

Riley Gaines Explains How Women’s Sports Are Rigged To Promote The Trans Agenda

Riley Gaines Explains How Women’s Sports Are Rigged To Promote The Trans Agenda

Is there a light forming when it comes to the long, dark and…

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Riley Gaines Explains How Women's Sports Are Rigged To Promote The Trans Agenda

Is there a light forming when it comes to the long, dark and bewildering tunnel of social justice cultism?  Global events have been so frenetic that many people might not remember, but only a couple years ago Big Tech companies and numerous governments were openly aligned in favor of mass censorship.  Not just to prevent the public from investigating the facts surrounding the pandemic farce, but to silence anyone questioning the validity of woke concepts like trans ideology. 

From 2020-2022 was the closest the west has come in a long time to a complete erasure of freedom of speech.  Even today there are still countries and Europe and places like Canada or Australia that are charging forward with draconian speech laws.  The phrase "radical speech" is starting to circulate within pro-censorship circles in reference to any platform where people are allowed to talk critically.  What is radical speech?  Basically, it's any discussion that runs contrary to the beliefs of the political left.

Open hatred of moderate or conservative ideals is perfectly acceptable, but don't ever shine a negative light on woke activism, or you might be a terrorist.

Riley Gaines has experienced this double standard first hand.  She was even assaulted and taken hostage at an event in 2023 at San Francisco State University when leftists protester tried to trap her in a room and demanded she "pay them to let her go."  Campus police allegedly witnessed the incident but charges were never filed and surveillance footage from the college was never released.  

It's probably the last thing a champion female swimmer ever expects, but her head-on collision with the trans movement and the institutional conspiracy to push it on the public forced her to become a counter-culture voice of reason rather than just an athlete.

For years the independent media argued that no matter how much we expose the insanity of men posing as women to compete and dominate women's sports, nothing will really change until the real female athletes speak up and fight back.  Riley Gaines and those like her represent that necessary rebellion and a desperately needed return to common sense and reason.

In a recent interview on the Joe Rogan Podcast, Gaines related some interesting information on the inner workings of the NCAA and the subversive schemes surrounding trans athletes.  Not only were women participants essentially strong-armed by colleges and officials into quietly going along with the program, there was also a concerted propaganda effort.  Competition ceremonies were rigged as vehicles for promoting trans athletes over everyone else. 

The bottom line?  The competitions didn't matter.  The real women and their achievements didn't matter.  The only thing that mattered to officials were the photo ops; dudes pretending to be chicks posing with awards for the gushing corporate media.  The agenda took precedence.

Lia Thomas, formerly known as William Thomas, was more than an activist invading female sports, he was also apparently a science project fostered and protected by the athletic establishment.  It's important to understand that the political left does not care about female athletes.  They do not care about women's sports.  They don't care about the integrity of the environments they co-opt.  Their only goal is to identify viable platforms with social impact and take control of them.  Women's sports are seen as a vehicle for public indoctrination, nothing more.

The reasons why they covet women's sports are varied, but a primary motive is the desire to assert the fallacy that men and women are "the same" psychologically as well as physically.  They want the deconstruction of biological sex and identity as nothing more than "social constructs" subject to personal preference.  If they can destroy what it means to be a man or a woman, they can destroy the very foundations of relationships, families and even procreation.  

For now it seems as though the trans agenda is hitting a wall with much of the public aware of it and less afraid to criticize it.  Social media companies might be able to silence some people, but they can't silence everyone.  However, there is still a significant threat as the movement continues to target children through the public education system and women's sports are not out of the woods yet.   

The ultimate solution is for women athletes around the world to organize and widely refuse to participate in any competitions in which biological men are allowed.  The only way to save women's sports is for women to be willing to end them, at least until institutions that put doctrine ahead of logic are made irrelevant.          

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/13/2024 - 17:20

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Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-March 2024

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-March 2024
A brief excerpt: This 2-part overview for mid-March provides a snapshot of the current housing market.

I always like to star…

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Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-March 2024

A brief excerpt:
This 2-part overview for mid-March provides a snapshot of the current housing market.

I always like to start with inventory, since inventory usually tells the tale!
...
Here is a graph of new listing from Realtor.com’s February 2024 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report showing new listings were up 11.3% year-over-year in February. This is still well below pre-pandemic levels. From Realtor.com:

However, providing a boost to overall inventory, sellers turned out in higher numbers this February as newly listed homes were 11.3% above last year’s levels. This marked the fourth month of increasing listing activity after a 17-month streak of decline.
Note the seasonality for new listings. December and January are seasonally the weakest months of the year for new listings, followed by February and November. New listings will be up year-over-year in 2024, but we will have to wait for the March and April data to see how close new listings are to normal levels.

There are always people that need to sell due to the so-called 3 D’s: Death, Divorce, and Disease. Also, in certain times, some homeowners will need to sell due to unemployment or excessive debt (neither is much of an issue right now).

And there are homeowners who want to sell for a number of reasons: upsizing (more babies), downsizing, moving for a new job, or moving to a nicer home or location (move-up buyers). It is some of the “want to sell” group that has been locked in with the golden handcuffs over the last couple of years, since it is financially difficult to move when your current mortgage rate is around 3%, and your new mortgage rate will be in the 6 1/2% to 7% range.

But time is a factor for this “want to sell” group, and eventually some of them will take the plunge. That is probably why we are seeing more new listings now.
There is much more in the article.

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