Author Archives: Danzig

GBP/USD to end the year at 1.29 on a modest Brexit deal CIBC – FXStreet

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Sterling has depreciated by around 5% versus the USD in September as the Brexit clock is ticking. Jeremy Stretch from CIBC Capital Markets expects a modest deal to be reached, supporting GBP resilience.

While we still expect a deal even this late, it will likely be far from comprehensive. While the UK has placed a self-imposed October 15th deadline on discussions, in line with the EU leaders summit, we would not be surprised if talks extend at least until the end of October. As the timeline tightens, we expect sterling to continue to be whipsawed by Brexit headlines. We underline that the reaction to a deal or no-deal scenario is likely to be far from symmetrical.

If our base case of a modest trade deal being agreed to is correct, expect modest GBP impetus into year-end, towards the 1.29 mark. Failure to reach a deal could see sterling heading back towards the end of March lows.

Beyond Brexit, the BoEs assumed V shaped recovery looks set to be challenged by tightening lockdown restrictions. Although the UK government remains intent upon avoiding a repeat of the March lockdown, the drag on service sector activity will still weigh on the recovery. While the BoE has acknowledged negative rates as part of its toolbox, they continue to view them as only being used in an emergency setting, namely a no-deal Brexit scenario.

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GBP/USD to end the year at 1.29 on a modest Brexit deal CIBC - FXStreet

Measuring the impact of Brexit – Fruitnet

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Although trade negotiations with the EU are still underway, it is evident that the UKs fresh produce sector is going to be significantly affected by the UKs departure from the bloc. As stated in the governments Border with the European Union published in July, from 1 January 2021 the UK will operate a full, external border as a sovereign nation with controls placed on the movement of goods between Great Britain (GB) and the EU; these controls will be implemented in three stages up until 1 July 2021. This followed Theresa Mays announcement of the UKs Global Tariff setting import duty rates.

New research

Against this background, Dr Stavros Karamperidis, lecturer in maritime economics at the University of Plymouth, and Andrew Morgan, director of Global 78 both members of the Ports, Maritime and Waterways forum committee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK) are now undertaking independent supply chain research concerning UK fresh produce imports. This is scheduled to start in September, with a final paper to be published in early 2022.

The research will assess the economic impact of Brexit on inbound fresh produce supply chains, especially those that are most time critical. Bearing in mind that the latest complete year of UK overseas trade data sets are those for 2019, and also that Covid-19 has impacted economic activity throughout 2020, the work will investigate matters across three time periods: 1) in 2019 i.e. before Brexit; 2) in the 2020 transition period; and 3) in 2021 after final exit.

Combining rigorous data analysis with investigation of operational realities, the principal objective will be to achieve a fact-based holistic view of inbound fresh produce supply chains. This will require operational and economic evaluation of As-is and What-if scenarios, including break-even analysis. It will recognise too the need for a whole system / system of systems understanding.

Pre-project planning will be followed by three investigative phases, with a fourth phase focused on further analysis, reporting, and drawing conclusions. In the investigative phases, the researchers will seek to engage with a broad spectrum of stakeholders drawn from among the following groups:

Stakeholders will be invited to participate in online structured interviews and periodic surveys. While the final paper will be in the public domain, those stakeholders participating will be able to receive anonymised and aggregated outputs in the interim, namely:

Commentary on provisional findings to date.

A selection of end-to-end process maps.

Benchmark logistics costs and cycle times for representative import routes.

Pre-project observations

As reported in FPJ, the UK retail fresh produce sector has a current value of 11.5bn with consumer demand for year-round availability of the full product range. Defra reports further show a heavy reliance on imports, both from the EU and the Rest of the World (around 38 per cent and 30 per cent respectively of total supply volume in 2019).

Overall, Spain and the Netherlands are the leading EU source markets, the latter also re-exporting imports from other countries. Growing seasons affect availability across domestic, EU and Rest of the World production. For example, citrus production follows the sun with South Africa replacing Spain as the principal supplier during the northern hemisphere summer. By contrast, bananas are harvested in the Caribbean, South America, and West Africa and imported throughout the year.

The sector is necessarily dependent on ports and shipping. Modes of appearance will be temperature-controlled containers (e.g. ISO 40ft) or road trailers (driver-accompanied or unaccompanied). As a broad generalisation, shipping will be deep-sea services from non-EU countries; and short-sea services from the EU these as either roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) ferry services or container feeder services. Airfreight and rail freight services also feature.

The Dover corridor is the major RoRo trade conduit, comprising high-capacity, high-frequency ferry services from Dunkerque or Calais and Channel Tunnel freight shuttle services, to provide up to 50 per cent of the UKs RoRo capacity. In normal times it averages approximately 12,000 freight vehicles inbound/outbound in a 24-hour period with around 13 per cent temperature-controlled. Other UK port and service clusters are Thames, East Coast, Irish Sea, and western Channel, with port terminals then segmented by type and capacity.

Emerging issues

With major impending changes in the EU:UK trading relationship, issues are expected to emerge during the project that will affect its direction. Some of those already identified include:

How import duty rates on fruit and vegetables (between eight per cent and 16 per cent unless a trade deal is struck with the EU) will affect sourcing decisions made by UK importers and the choice between EU or Rest of the World supply. These decisions will in turn impact on the ratio of road trailer to container use and the UK arrival/import routes and services used as a result.

How the existing trade patterns with EU countries could be reshaped. For example, whether Morocco would increase its presence as a supplier of oranges and tomatoes in place of current EU suppliers (such as Spain) because of its Free Trade Agreement with the UK.

The need for UK importers to have appropriate customs arrangements in place by 1 January 2021 including a customs comprehensive guarantee (CCG), a deferment account, and authorisation for customs freight simplified procedures (CFSP) in order to benefit from the three-phase compliance introduction.

Round-trip transport compliance and economics. Inbound traffic is often matched with outbound traffic for maximum vehicle utilisation and overall operating cost control. Round-trip compliance will now involve four customs gateways and possibly increased journey times all affecting whether an operation is still economically viable.

The risk of congestion and its effect on journey times, especially those involving time-critical consignments. Allied to this aspect will be competition for port terminal capacity, and the introduction of the Goods Vehicle Movement Services (GVMS) and pre-lodgement requirements.

Whether and to what extent the Dover Corridor will remain the preferred RoRo trade conduit. The UK government has mooted having new inspection facilities but away from the Port of Dover, encouraging traffic to use East Coast ports, and use of alternative ferry services such as those handling unaccompanied trailers, although there is much uncertainty about the details.

How traffic involving Ireland the Republic of Ireland and/or Northern Ireland including traffic transiting mainland UK will be handled, especially in view of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Next steps

The researchers believe that this will be a significant project in that it will bring together a wide range of stakeholders across a broad spectrum of commercial and regulatory activity. It will maintain an independent view of matters and the provisional results will be made available for research participants in the expectation that quality information will support effective decision making.

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Measuring the impact of Brexit - Fruitnet

Coronavirus, Job Market and Brexit Stresses Darken the Outlook for the British Economic Recovery – FX Empire

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Transition out of furlough scheme to abet market-based adjustment but raise unemployment

Rules that restrict economic activity most critically within the UK services sector and thus adversely impact demand and labour markets are occurring while the UK is phasing out current furlough wage support policies by end-October to be replaced with a six-month Job Support Scheme to subsidise wages for short-time work.

The premise to this change in policies to abet market-based economic adjustment and arrest the sharp increase in public debt is understandable given many of the jobs may not come back and in view of a public debt ratio we see rising past 110% of GDP in 2020, after 85% in 2019, says Shen. However, there will be, in following, a significant increase in unemployment due to this policy transition, with the effects to reverberate across the economy in the fourth quarter and into 2021 as lost subsidised income and resulting curtailed private final demand interact with economic losses from renewed economic and social restriction.

The public health and unemployment crises gather as Brexit negotiations enter a critical three-month stretch, including this weeks nominal final round of formal negotiation, before the transition state ends in December.

We have considered a year-end no-deal Brexit as unlikely, especially amid a global health emergency thats elevated the need for just-in-time supply chains and given political sensitivities of any Brexit disorder around the end-year Christmas period, says Shen. Instead, a last-minute agreement late in the year of some kind that avoids no-deal, announces progress made since March in free trade talks and gives the UK and the EU potentially additional time by extending standstill conditions for most if not all goods trade temporarily into 2021 to allow continued negotiation, give any time needed for Treaty ratification and/or support necessary preparations around customs infrastructure appears more likely.

No-deal remains unlikely from multiple vantage points whether due to the significant economic, financial market, social and political dislocations thatd ensue including probable loss of life amid the pandemic, the succour no-deal could give nationalists in Scotland surrounding independence, the frictions to trade no-deal facilitates within the UK itself between Great Britain and Northern Ireland or between the county of Kent and the rest of England in travel to Dover, the fact the UK is unprepared currently to replace arrangements with many global trading partners it benefits from preferential trade within the EU customs union, or the damage a no-deal scenario could deal to EU-UK relations longer term for both counterparties in key strategic areas.

The Internal Market Bill detailed earlier this month was likely designed to add pressure in trade negotiations similar to the tactical use of parliamentary prorogation in 2019 with the intention that such pressure could force the EU to back down on some negotiation red lines, adds Shen.

As such, things on Brexit could easily still get worse before they get better with uncertainty looming around how much progress will have been made before a self-imposed 15-16 October European Council deadline. However, we maintain the view that even were the UK to agree on terms with the EU ultimately, theres an ongoing cost of Brexit uncertainties as future relationship negotiations drag on into 2021. Entering 2020, we estimated this Brexit cumulative cost in lost output had already totalled to over 1.5% of UK GDP.

With protests against coronavirus restriction, higher short-run unemployment and banks relocating operations to Europe, economic output is foreseen contracting in the fourth quarter and the robust recovery foreseen in 2021 will take some hit, says Shen. This holds important credit implications for the United Kingdoms AA/Negative ratings were economic uncertainty and rising public debt to not be firmly addressed.

For a look at all of todays economic events, check out our economic calendar.

Dennis Shen is a Director in Sovereign and Public Sector ratings at Scope Ratings GmbH.

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Coronavirus, Job Market and Brexit Stresses Darken the Outlook for the British Economic Recovery - FX Empire

Is Covid-19 giving brands a new perspective on Brexit? – Marketing Week

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Covid-19 may have put Brexit strategy on the backburner, but has the existential threat posed by the pandemic recalibrated how brands view Britains exit from the EU?

With attention diverted by the all-encompassing trauma that is Covid-19 it has been easy to forget that, prior to the spring of 2020, Brexit was the biggest challenge facing most UK companies.

Now, just months before the transition period of the UKs departure from the EU ends on 31 December, businesses still dont know what shape Britain's future relationship with its nearest neighbours will take.

Have they been able to make any preparations for Brexit, or has dealing with the pandemic taken all their time and energy?

Shoe brand Joseph Cheaney imports nearly all its raw materials, particularly leather, from the EU. The tanneries are based in France, Italy, Germany. They make the best calf leather in the world and thats where we buy it from, explains joint managing director William Church.

He is hoping that tariff-free imports of these materials will still be possible next year and that any delays from customs checks will be minimal. Stockpiling large quantities of materials in case of supply issues isnt practical and the company wont be repeating the efforts it made on previous occasions when a cliff-edge Brexit looked likely.

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Is Covid-19 giving brands a new perspective on Brexit? - Marketing Week

Economic Data, Brexit, and the US Presidential Debate to Keep the Markets Busy – FX Empire

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For the Kiwi Dollar

Building consents and business confidence figures were in focus.

In August, building consents rose by 0.3%, partially reversing a 4.6% slide from July.

The Kiwi Dollar moved from $0.65820 to $0.65853 upon release of the figures that preceded business confidence figures.

Of greater significance, however, was business confidence in September.

The ANZ Business Confidence Index rose from -41.8 to -28.5, which was down from a prelim -26.0. In August, the index had stood at -31.8.

According to the latest ANZ Report,

The Kiwi Dollar moved from $0.66010 to $0.66056 upon release of the figures. At the time of writing, the Kiwi Dollar was up by 0.27% to $0.6606.

Industrial production and retail sales figures were in focus.

In August, industrial production rose by 1.7%, following an 8.7% jump in July. Economists had forecast a 1.5% rise.

According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry,

Industries that mainly contributed to the increase were:

Industries that mainly contributed to the decrease were:

Forecasts for September were revised upwards from a 1.9% increase in production to a 5.7% increase. Industrial production is projected to rise by 2.9% in October.

According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, retail sales fell by 1.9%, following a 2.9% decline in July. Economists had forecast a 3.5% decline.

The Japanese Yen moved from 105.672 to 105.693 upon release of the figures. At the time of writing, the Japanese Yen was down by 0.03% 105.69 against the U.S Dollar.

It was a particularly busy morning. Key stats included Septembers NBS private sector PMIs and the markets favored Caixin Manufacturing PMI.

In September, the NBS Manufacturing PMI rose from 51.0 to 51.5. Economists had forecast a rise to 51.2. The NBS non-manufacturing PMI increased from 55.2 to 55.9, leading to a rise in the composite from 54.5 to 55.1.

The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.71341 to $0.71334 upon release of the NBS figures that preceded the Caixin number.

In September, the Caixin Manufacturing PMI slipped from 53.1 to 53.0. Economists had forecast a PMI of 53.1.

According to the September survey,

The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.71369 to $0.71381 upon release of the PMI.

Building approvals and private sector credit figures were in focus.

With geopolitics and private sector PMI numbers out of China, however, the stats had a muted impact on the Aussie Dollar.

Building approvals fell by 1.6%, while private sector credit stalled in August.

The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.71449 to $0.71369 upon release of the figures that preceded Chinas Caixin survey numbers. At the time of writing, the Aussie Dollar was up by 0.08% to $0.7136.

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Economic Data, Brexit, and the US Presidential Debate to Keep the Markets Busy - FX Empire

‘NO compromise!’ Boris ordered to stand firm as Brexit Britain ‘fighting for sovereignty’ – Daily Express

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Former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib argued the UK cannot compromise on its red lines in the trade talks with the EU. While speaking with Belinda de Lucy from Brexit Unlocked, he urged Boris Johnson to stand firm in talks. Ms de Lucy said: "So I've noticed a few tweets from some very strong Brexiteers recently saying, 'Well, is it all that bad if we compromise a little bit on state aid?'

"To me, it's a way the EU can keep its tentacles around our economy.

"This is because I don't think they'll use it in good faith.

"How can you explain how these compromises will be bad for the UK, in the long term, if Boris does buckle on state aid?"

Mr Habib insisted the UK should remain strong and focus on its goal of being completely separate from the EU.

DON'T MISS:Italy fury sparks fears COVID-19 recovery fund will lead to Italexit

He said: "When people talk about making a compromise in a deal, that's around the edges of the grey areas of the deal.

"But actually, the key issue here, what we're fighting for here is our sovereignty.

"We're not fighting for an extra bit of tariff, perhaps or, you know, greater access to their fishing.

"We're fighting, actually, for our sovereignty, and there can be no compromise on taking back control.

"Boris promised he would take back control on all of our laws, our borders, our cash and our fishing."

Despite previously praising Lord David Frost, Mr Habib warned about a statement made by the negotiator.

Mr Habib said: "That is, and you cannot compromise on that.

"I heard David Frost a couple of months ago saying, well, we might have to compromise on 40 percent of our red lines.

READ MORE:

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"Well, which bit of sovereignty do you want to give away? Which part of the United Kingdom do you want to hand over to the European Union?"

It comes as Brexit talks enter the ninth stage of negotiations this week between the UK and EU.

Ahead of talks Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said in London that Britain's focus was on progress in trade talks.

"Although the last two weeks of informal talks have been relatively positive there remains much to be done," he said.

"We simply want the standard free trade agreement ... we continue to be asked to accept provisions that do not reflect the reality of our status as an independent country."

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'NO compromise!' Boris ordered to stand firm as Brexit Britain 'fighting for sovereignty' - Daily Express

Ex-CEO of Bitcoin.com, a Leading Proponent of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Joins Nodle’s Board to Help Develop the Nodle Cash Ecosystem – GlobeNewswire

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San Francisco, CA, Sept. 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) IoT connectivity and security startupNodleannounces Stefan Rust, former CEO ofBitcoin.com, a leading proponent for Bitcoin Cash (BCH), bringing P2P cash to the world, will join Nodles Board of Directors.Nodle Cashis the cryptocurrency of Nodle that smartphone users earn by connecting to nearby sensors and Bluetooth-enabled IoT devices.

Stefan Rust will focus on ecosystem growth efforts for Nodle Cash to increase the user base and decentralization of the Nodle Network, as well as grow the developer community and secure adoption with strategic partners. Rust brings his extensive experience in mobile and blockchain, both as an entrepreneur and as a business leader of a multibillion dollar technology, specializing in turning cutting-edge technologies into commercial success.

Nodle Cash is a manifestation of my background in blockchain and wireless combined with the business model of tomorrow where the user gets paid, Rust said. We started off with big telcos charging us a lot of money to communicate over the network. Along came IP, and all we did was pay for connection. With social media, we pay with our data. Nodle Cash is one of the first payment systems where you get paid for the data you provide which in turn allows businesses to improve their service.

Nodle Cash is the cryptocurrency for the Nodle Network, in which app users are rewarded for providing connectivity to nearby Bluetooth-enabled IoT devices by allowing tiny bits of data to securely move from sensors through their phones to the cloud. This dramatically reduces the costs for enterprises and smart cities to gather data. The community of smartphone users who get rewarded for participating in the network is dubbed The Citizen Network. Currently the best way to earn Nodle Cash is through your smartphone with the Nodle Cash app or partnering with developers implementing our SDK in their apps.

Nodle Cash started on the Stellar Blockchain, and after processing more than 1.3M microtransactions a day, Nodle migrated to the Polkadot ecosystem, with its own chain, the Nodle Chain, built on Parity Substrate. Through the Polkadot Ecosystem, the Nodle Chain enables connectivity, micropayments and a whole set of applications for IoT devices.

We are excited to work more closely with Stefan Rust, said Micha Benoliel, Nodles CEO and Co-Founder. Stefan was an early advisor to Nodle, he will contribute a lot to our next evolution towards a fully decentralized architecture. Stefan brings a world of experience in developing ecosystems for decentralized networks and has made a career out of operating on the cutting edge.

###

About Nodle

Nodle is a decentralized wireless network composed of millions of smartphones connecting people and things privately and securely. Founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneur Micha Benoliel, the Nodle Network dramatically reduces the costs of IoT device communications. Nodles privacy-first, IoT networking stack enables for a multitude of applications, ranging from social distancing, contact tracing, connecting and securing physical assets, moving sensor data at low cost, and security certificates, to providing insights for consumer electronics manufacturers, enterprises, smart cities, and the finance industry. The Nodle Network is global, with 5 million daily active nodes and 100 million devices connected every week across 100+ countries. Nodle is backed by Blockchain Ventures, Blockchange, Bootstraplabs, Olymp Capital, Blockhead, Mark Pincus from Zynga, Pierre Andurand and Greg Kidd. For more information, go tohttps://nodle.ioor follow us on Twitter@NodleTeam.

About Stefan Rust

Stefan was most recently the CEO of Bitcoin.com. Navigating regulations competing against the national telecom operator, Stefan helped change the mobile landscape in China. He then moved on to Sun Microsystems where he worked to create an ecosystem that brought content and apps to mobile with Java. After having bought his first Bitcoin in April 2012 and using it to pay developers directly, he realized the staggering potential of this global decentralized censorship-resistant currency. He has also advised tech giants like Qualcomm, Red Hat, Sony, Siemens, Limelight Studios, and many others in their developer-led innovations. You can follow Stefan on Twitter@srust99.

Contact:

Daren McKelvey

Director of Communications

Nodle

(631) 743-6423

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Ex-CEO of Bitcoin.com, a Leading Proponent of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Joins Nodle's Board to Help Develop the Nodle Cash Ecosystem - GlobeNewswire

The Genesis of BCH Tokenization: Over 10,000 SLP Tokens Built on Bitcoin Cash | Technology – Bitcoin News

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This week Bitcoin Cash fans have been discussing the milestone of over 10,000 Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) tokens created since the infrastructure was first introduced. Moreover, tokens built on Bitcoin Cash are nearing 1 million transactions to-date.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) community members have noticed there are now 10,679 SLP tokens created since the Simple Ledger Protocols inception. The discussion concerning the SLP milestone took place this week on the popular Reddit forum r/btc.

In addition to the 10k+ SLP tokens created, the number of transactions is nearing 1 million. Bitcoin.com token data page indicates theres been 960,346 SLP-based transactions. Statistics show 2,250 SLP transactions were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Currently, the top five most popular tokens in the last 24 hours have been Refund Token, Mistcoin, MAZE, Spice, and Zapit. However, 30-day stats show the top five SLP tokens by use was Mistcoin, MAZE, Refund Token, TBS, and Zapit. In addition to the 10k SLP tokens minted so far, theres been 13,353 token burns to-date as well. Burning is the act of taking the SLP tokens out of circulation.

Since the project was introduced, the SLP team is working with a number of projects and infrastructure providers. This includes exchanges, stablecoin issuers like Honestcoin and Tether, Bitcoin.com, an SLP hardware wallet, games like Realmx, the digital advertising marketplace Tribeos, the Spice Token ecosystem, SLP payments for Woocommerce, and many more.

SLP development is bringing decentralized finance (defi) to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as well with the upcoming introduction of the derivatives product Anyhedge, a project developed by the General Protocols team. Additionally, the SLP exchange Cryptophyl is restructuring into a decentralized exchange (dex) for BCH and is working with General Protocols as well.

Moreover, a while back the SLP development team published a number of bounties to further the SLP ecosystem.

For instance, the bounty is for building one or more smart-contracts that provide additional security to token issuers and paid out 500+ honestcoin (USDH). Additionally, during the last six months the SLP project formed the SLP Foundation and described how people can leverage multi-signature management with SLP tokens.

Furthermore, since the Simple Ledger Protocol was invoked a number of tokens have gathered real-world value.

Bitcoin.coms SLP token index shows a total of eight market caps including tether (USDT). There are 6 million SLP-based USDT in existence but tethers are also minted on a number of other chains.

Other top SLP tokens featured in the market cap index include flexcoin (FLEX) with $29 million, gocrypto (GOC) with a $4 million market cap, Brave Sound Token (BRST) has an overall valuation of $3.3 million. This is followed by honestcoin (USDH $2.7M), ACD Coin (ACD $2.3M), sai (SAI $882k), and spice coin (SPICE $332k).

The SLP Foundation also announced a partnership with the Blockhack Global 2020 event scheduled for October. [Six] weeks. BIG education [and] investment partners, the SLP Foundation tweeted on September 18. The Blockhack event is hosted by Bitbay and its a six week virtual hackathon that starts on October 5 through November 14.

What do you think about the growth of the SLP token universe built on Bitcoin Cash so far? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, explorer.bitcoin.com, markets.bitcoin.com,

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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The Genesis of BCH Tokenization: Over 10,000 SLP Tokens Built on Bitcoin Cash | Technology - Bitcoin News

The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 30th, 2020 – FX Empire

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It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin fell to an early morning low $10,674.2 before finding support.

Steering clear of the major support levels, Bitcoin struck a late morning high $10,815.4 before hitting reverse.

Coming up short of the major resistance levels, Bitcoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $10,654.0.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $10,585, Bitcoin rallied to a final hour intraday high $10,889.0.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $10,915, Bitcoin eased back to end the day at sub-$10,860 levels.

The near-term bullish trend remained intact, in spite of the latest pullback. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.

Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Tuesday.

Chainlink (-1.19%), Crypto.com Coin (-1.92%), and Polkadot (-0.36%) bucked the trend on the day.

It was a bullish day for the rest of the majors.

Binance Coin rallied by 7.20% to lead the way.

Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.74%), Cardanos ADA (+1.09%), Ethereum (+1.76%), Litecoin (+1.08%) also found solid support.

Bitcoin Cash ABC (0.11%) and Ripples XRP (+0.83%) trailed the front runners, however.

In the current week, the crypto total market fell to a Monday low $321.20bn before rising to a Tuesday high $341.14bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $337.21bn.

Bitcoins dominance rose to a Monday high 61.23% before falling to a Tuesday low 58.93%. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 59.31%.

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The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 30th, 2020 - FX Empire

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Roger Ver Propaganda for the Blockchain Technology and Use Case Continues – The Cryptocurrency Analytics

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Roger Ver pointed to how having nearly 100x more Bitcoin wrapped for use on Ethereum than in Lightning Network shows LN has been a total failure for scaling BTC.

However, someone in response stated, that it need not necessarily be so. Clarified that LN is just getting started as a technology, Ethereums technology has been around for much longer and is much more widely trusted as far as security is concerned Once LN proves its security and if Ethereum doesnt scale and bring down its fees it will be game over.

Many of them feel that it is time to acknowledge reality pointing to how the market has spoken again. Someone added to these ideas stating, the market also values BTC orders of magnitude more than any other blockchain.

However, many agree that WBTC is an interesting concept. Centralized, but when multiple banks issue these WBTC it can still work (semi-centralized), like in the free banking system pre 1913. This also looks like too much of focus on Cool Tech than usability and economics.

Someone trying to enlighten stated, actually it shows that the store of value use case and getting yield on that value is more important than a medium of exchange. Therefore that Bitcoin Cashs whole thesis is now challenged more than ever.

Sydney Ifergan, the crypto expert tweeted: No Matter what the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) ideals for propaganda are people are now looking to get more yield. Ultimately, they look at more money.

Roger Ver continues to propagate his ideals. Bitcoin is the brand that people want. Bitcoin Cash is the technology and user experience that made it popular.

Michael Saylor, Founder and Chairman of Microstrategy stated, If #Bitcoin is treated as a treasury reserve asset, based on our model, 99.98% of all transactions will be off-chain, and assets-at-risk will be in cold storage 99.92% of the time.

In response Roger Ver stated, This system sounds like it would work great! Until it doesnt.

The other ideals of Roger continue to prevail, and these ideals are the reasons for why he thinks Bitcoin Cash is necessary.

Bitcoin was designed to be digital cashused to make payments over the internet. Theres no such thing as a free government service. If Bitcoin is not an efficient medium of exchange its basically useless for promoting free markets.

Roger is also tired about the Lockdowns, Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or other physical impairment For everyones good health, end the lockdowns.

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Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Roger Ver Propaganda for the Blockchain Technology and Use Case Continues - The Cryptocurrency Analytics

The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 28th, 2020 – FX Empire

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Bitcoin, BTC to USD, rose by 0.48% on Sunday. Following on from a 0.39% gain on Saturday, Bitcoin ended the week down by 1.21% to $10,803.0.

It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin rose to an early morning intraday high $10,824.0 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $10,836, Bitcoin slid to a midday intraday low $10,594.0.

Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $10,670 before finding support.

Steering clear of the second major support level at $10,589, Bitcoin moved back through to $10,800 levels and into the green.

The near-term bullish trend remained intact, in spite of the latest pullback. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.

Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Sunday.

Polkadot fell by 1.24% to buck the trend on the day.

It was a bullish end to the week for the rest of the majors, however.

Bitcoin Cash SV (+3.91%), Cardanos ADA (+5.99%), and Chainlink (+4.25%) lead the way.

Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.71%) and Ethereum (+1.06%) also found strong support.

Binance Coin (+0.11%), Crypto.com Coin (+0.06%), Litecoin (+0.04%), and Ripples XRP (+0.69%) trailed the front runners.

For the week, it was also a mixed bag for the majors.

Binance Coin (+10.81%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+16.52%), Cardanos ADA (+13.31%), and Chainlink (+11.01%) led the way.

It was a bearish week for the rest of the pack, however.

Bitcoin Cash ABC (-0.08%), Ethereum (-3.57%), Crypto.com Coin (-5.05%), Litecoin (-2.17%), Polkadot (-6.34%), and Ripples XRP (-1.28%) joined Bitcoin in the red.

In the week, the crypto total market rose to a Monday high $334.04bn before sliding to a Wednesday low $300.97bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $330.8bn.

Bitcoins dominance rose to a Wednesday high 62.31% before falling to a Sunday low 60.65%. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 61.14%.

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The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 28th, 2020 - FX Empire

Crypto hedge funds and mining regulations: Bad crypto news of the week – Cointelegraph

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Its been a difficult week for Bitcoin this week. The price has fallen about 5 percent over the last seven days to drop beneath $10,400. It could bounce but if it continues downwards, it might drop below $10,000 and get dangerously close to the CME gap.

One sign that the price might fall further has been a decline in the number of Bitcoin addresses holding a single Bitcoin. Theyve reached a four-month low. But Tyler Winklevoss still thinks that Bitcoin is better than gold, and Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor has moved from bear to bull. His company recently bought almost 16,800 Bitcoins over 74 hours, spending about $175 million. Paypal is bearish too. The payments firm is working on a way to allow merchants to accept cryptocurrencies.

In Brazil, fund manager Hashdex has made an agreement with Nasdaq to launch the worlds first crypto asset exchange-traded fund. The fund will trade on the Bermuda Stock Exchange. And while Hashdex is deepening crypto trading, meat processing firm JBS is using the blockchain to monitor its supply chain and ensure that none of its suppliers are raising cattle on illegally deforested land.

Australia also sees an opportunity to secure food supplies with the blockchain. The government-backed agricultural supply chain platform, Entrust, will use Hedera Hashgraph to ensure that wine from the Clare Valley region isnt counterfeit.

In Russia, the government has said that it will prioritize the development of blockchain technologies, while in Venezuela, the Maduro government has issued a decree to regulate crypto mining. Miners in the country now need a license.

If you want to buy a country, or at least parts of one, a new partnership between Upland and Tilia, the makers of Second Life, lets players sell their virtual property and turn digital cash into fiat. Alternatively, you can hang around in Bakersfield. A Bitcoin Cash fan has been leaving stickers around the city with QR codes, enabling people to download gifts of up to $500 worth of the cryptocurrency. The Bitcoin Man of Bakersfield is trying to encourage the take-up of cryptocurrencies.

The Bitcoin Man has already given away $1,100 and plans to give away another $2,000 but the airdrop of 28,000 MEME tokens has helped to push the price of the token up to $1,175. The giveaways were made up of batches of 250 tokens each.

Craig Wright could have done with some of that luck this week. The Satoshi-pretender lost a plea for summary judgment and will go to trial in January in a billion-dollar Bitcoin lawsuit. And finally, Brock Pierce is hoping to do better. The former Mighty Ducks child star and Bitcoin billionaire has managed to get onto 15 states in his run for the presidency. He believes that cryptocurrency is the 21st-century cure for Americas 21st-century problems.

Check out the audio version here:

Joel Comm is an internet pioneer, New York Times best-selling author, futurist speaker and co-host of The Bad Crypto Podcast. Thats a fancy way of saying he writes words, says things and loves to play with cryptos.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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Crypto hedge funds and mining regulations: Bad crypto news of the week - Cointelegraph

The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 26th, 2020 – FX Empire

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It was a bearish start to the day. Bitcoin fell from an early morning intraday high $10,774.0 to an early afternoon intraday low $10,580.0.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $10,370, Bitcoin recovered to match the intraday high $10,774.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $10,990, however, Bitcoin eased back to sub-$10,750 and into the red.

The near-term bullish trend remained intact, in spite of the latest pullback. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.

Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Friday.

Cardanos ADA led the way, surging by 17.41%.

Chainlink and Ripples XRP also found strong support, with the pair rising by 8.67% and by 3.73% respectively.

Binance Coin (+0.41%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (+0.79%), Crypto.com Coin (+1.59%), Ethereum (+0.85%), Litecoin (+2.38%), and Polkadot (+1.23%) also found support.

Bitcoin Cash SV joined Bitcoin in the red, however, falling by 1.96%.

In the current week, the crypto total market rose to a Monday high $334.04bn before sliding to a Wednesday low $300.97bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $323.67bn.

Bitcoins dominance fell to a Monday low 60.89% before rising to a Wednesday high 62.31%. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 61.07%.

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The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 26th, 2020 - FX Empire

What Would Jesus Think of Bitcoin? – hackernoon.com

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@ks.shilovKirill

Blockchain enthusiast developer and writer. My telegram: ksshilov

Many are surprised to learn that the Bible makes so many references to the topic of money. To be specific, the Good Book contains about 500 verses on prayer, fewer than 500 on faith, but more than 2,300 on money!

Financial dealings are mentioned more often than salvation, redemption, faith, and even love. And certainly more than heaven and hell (combined). In fact, the only topic to which the Bible dedicates more page space than that of money is the Kingdom of God.

With all this source material, then, can we take a guess at what Jesus would have thought about Bitcoin? Lets explore the implications of three Biblical excerpts found in the New Testament: the Cost of Being a Disciple, the Parable of the Talents, and the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders.

In the Book of Luke, Jesus is traveling with a large crowd. He turns to them and says:

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Wont you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, This person began to build and wasnt able to finish.

Luke 14:28-30

From this quote, we can infer that Jesus understood the importance of accurately estimating costs before embarking on a project, and the inevitable ridicule that would result from failing to do so.

image via Word On Fire

So how does this relate to Bitcoin?

An aspect of cryptocurrency that doesnt get much press is its enormous cost of development. Competent programmers make up only a very small percentage of the worlds labor force, and an even smaller portion of them are fluent in the programming languages used in existing cryptocurrency implementations.

So it should come as no surprise, then, that the average annual salary for a single Bitcoin developer is over $103,000. And thats just one person! This six-figure sum doesnt cover any of the other personnel costs associated with development like management, human resources, legal, or testing infrastructure.

Early Bitcoin enthusiasts assumed that development costs would either be altruistically borne by volunteers, and/or be subsidized by companies that use the Bitcoin ecosystem. And it turned out that they were right, except the results werent what they hoped for.

Beginning around 2014, various companies with competing visions of Bitcoin began ponying up the dough to hire their own Bitcoin developers, write their own supplemental whitepapers, and run their own public relations campaigns. These well-financed, competing entities created deep splits within the Bitcoin community. Years later, the result has been hard forks, a failure to scale, and an abrupt rebranding from electronic cash to digital gold.

If there had simply been an accurate calculation of costs from the beginningand a plan made to internally finance these costsits possible that none of the ugly splits and mission-failure would have happened.

Luckily, other cryptocurrencies took notice of the problem early-on and developed internal financing models to ensure they could afford to independently build out their visions. Dash and BitShares were the first networks to do so in 2014, creating treasury models that have since been utilized by countless other projects including Cardano, Zcash, and maybe even Bitcoin Cash.

When it comes to financial planning, its likely that Jesus would not have approved of Bitcoins disastrous dependence on volunteers and third parties, and would have looked instead to a project that covers its ongoing costs via internal financing.

In Biblical times, a talent was not an innate skill, but rather a unit of value based on weight. In Matthew, Jesus tells about a landowner whos about to go on a journey. The landowner gathers some talents and calls three of his servants to him. [T]o one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one.

After a time, the landowner comes back, and he checks what each of his servants has done with the talent(s) received:

The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his masters money.

Matthew 25:16-18

image via St. Michael Catholic Church

We can conclude from this parable that Jesus approved of putting money to work, so to speak, resulting in a person having more talents at the end of a time period than he started with.

Staking, anyone?

The parable of the talents is reminiscent of the staking model that many cryptocurrencies run today, in which holders of their tokens of value are able to generate additional value in exchange for providing necessary node infrastructure and/or governance services.

But Bitcoin doesnt have any such thing. Within the Bitcoin system, the best that a token holder can do is hodlan action that makes him quite similar to the servant who dug a hole in the ground and hid his masters money.

We can conclude, then, that as opposed to just holding Bitcoin, Jesus would have instead preferred to make a return with any number of the cryptocurrencies which practice staking today, like Tezos, Dash, and maybe shortly Ethereum.

Now to our third and final account: a story Jesus told in both Matthew and Luke about what happens to differently-built houses when storms inevitably strike. Jesus says that the individual who puts His teachings into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock:

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

Matthew 24:25

The parable continues that the man who does not heed Jesus teachings is like a foolish man who built his house on sand:

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

Matthew 24:27

In cryptocurrency, 51% attacks can be seen as violent storms. Similar to the destruction of a home by wind and water, a 51% attack destroys faith and longevity in a cryptocurrency by proving that its foundation is insecure.

image via Reformed Baptist Blog

Such attacks have successfully been carried out within networks like Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Gold, Vertcoin, andmore controversiallyBitcoin Cash. Some have even questioned whether 2016s Ethereum DAO rollback was, in fact, a 51% attack. Such a question arose again in 2019 when the leader of the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange stated that hed discussed a re-org of Bitcoins blockchain with miners who possessed the power to pull it off (though unlike in Ethereum, a Bitcoin rollback/reorg was not then executed).

That these credible threats are present within such large networks has inspired more nimble networks to build protections against 51% attacks. The most notable attempt has come from Dash, which released a technology called ChainLocks in 2019. The technology has subsequently been integrated into companies like Coinbase, KeepKey, and HitBTC, and scheduled for addition to the protocols of networks like Zcoin.

Given these considerations, we can safely conclude that Jesusclearly a big fan of building on rockswould prefer the solid foundations of coins like Dash and Zcoin over sandy ones like that of Bitcoin.

Stories and parables from the Bible can give us a decent idea of what Jesus would think about Bitcoin, but less an idea about what he would actually do (buy, short, trade, something else?) Given that the best course of crypto action is entirely dependent on an individuals circumstances, as well as precise market conditions at the time, we can probably only answer the question with: It depends.

So regardless of how, precisely, Jesus would have interacted with the current cryptocurrency market (if, indeed, he would have interacted at all), we can feel fairly confident that he would have preferred a coin which 1) has a self-funding mechanism, 2) allows for user returns via a system like staking, and 3) has protocol-level protection from 51% attacks.

Blockchain enthusiast developer and writer. My telegram: ksshilov

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What Would Jesus Think of Bitcoin? - hackernoon.com

The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 27th, 2020 – FX Empire

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It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin fell to an early morning intraday low $10,675.0 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $10,601, Bitcoin rallied to a mid-morning intraday high $10,841.0.

Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $10,795 before falling back to sub-$10,700 levels and into the red.

Finding late support, Bitcoin struck a late afternoon high $10,795.0 before easing back. The first major resistance level at $10,795 pinned Bitcoin back late in the day.

The near-term bullish trend remained intact, in spite of the latest pullback. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.

Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Saturday.

Binance Coin and Bitcoin Cash SV rallied by 6.07% and by 5.32% respectively to lead the way.

Bitcoin Cash ABC (+2.55%), Ethereum (+0.57%), and Litecoin (+0.07%) also found support.

It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors, however.

Cardanos ADA (-1.67%), Chainlink (-3.83%), Crypto.com Coin (-0.06%), Polkadot (-2.35%), and Ripples XRP (-0.06%) struggled.

In the current week, the crypto total market rose to a Monday high $334.04bn before sliding to a Wednesday low $300.97bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $324.93bn.

Bitcoins dominance rose to a Wednesday high 62.31% before falling to a Saturday low 60.81%. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 61.09%.

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The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 27th, 2020 - FX Empire

AirVPN review: Good speeds and full of stats – PCWorld

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AirVPN in brief:

In the past few years, weve covered most of the well-known VPN services, with the exception of AirVPN. A popular choice among privacy advocates, AirVPN was founded by a very small group of activists, hacktivists, hackers in 2010. While it doesnt quite rise to the level of privacy and anonymity weve seen from other services, AirVPN is a very good service.

The AirVPN Overview tab with an active connection.

AirVPNs desktop software is called Eddie, which is not as user-friendly as programs from the likes of NordVPN, TunnelBear, or ExpressVPN.

Eddies left rail features six menu items: Overview, Servers, Countries, Speed, Stats, and Logs. The only ones that will concern most users are the first three. The Overview section is where you log in to the app and disconnect from the VPN network.

Before we get to the Servers tabs well hop over to Countries. This menu item lists all 21 country options that AirVPN offers. It also offers some fantastic stats polled from the OpenVPN servers including the number of servers in each country, the current load of all servers in that country, and the number of users connected to each country location. To the right of this are three icons: a green checkmark, red X, and a blank box.

AirVPNs country list.

Highlight a country location, click the green checkmark, and only that countrys servers will show up in the Servers tab. You can select several countries if you like in order to favorite the countries you use most.

Now well hop over to Servers where again we see a bunch of key stats including the city location of each server, its latency expressed in milliseconds, the current server load, and the number of users on each server. Then on the right youve got the same icons as theCountriestab does, with the addition of a refresh button at the bottom, and the connect button at the top (that right-pointing arrow and bracket).

The best feature about AirVPN has to be the level of transparency about the current conditions of its network. This information is a big advantage for power users looking to find the best possible server in a given country.

We dont usually go into too much detail about a services website, but there are a few interesting points about AirVPNs site. The first is its Status page where you can see some interesting information about the network such as the current geographical distribution of users, the top user speeds, top session times, as well as any pending issues. This page also lists information about each and every AirVPN server in its network.

Theres also the Technical Specs page that lists all the details about its OpenVPN connections based on the version of OpenVPN youre using. AirVPN only uses OpenVPN, with no options for other protocols. We asked the company if it plans to introduce WireGuard, and the company said it has tested it; however, AirVPN has some significant privacy concerns that need to be addressed before it could open this protocol to users on its network.

AirVPNs Servers tab with only the U.S. servers showing.

AirVPN allows for five simultaneous connections at once, which is standard for VPN services. The company offers multiple subscription options including a three-day trail for 2, 7 for one month, 15 for three months, 29 for six months, 49 for a single year, 79 for two years, or 99 for three. At this writing, the single-year pricing converted to about $58, which is just below the standard $60 that many services charge. If you like AirVPN, the three-year subscription offers excellent value.

AirVPN accepts PayPal, credit cards, and multiple cryptocurrencies via direct wallet-to-wallet transfers including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Doge, and Monero.

In our tests, AirVPN had good speeds. Overall, AirVPN maintained 36.62 percent of the base speed over three days of testing on multiple locations. Those speeds arent enough to take the fastest VPN crown, but were confident that AirVPNs performance will be sufficient for most use cases. What surprised us was AirVPNs consistency. Usually one or two locations arent quite up to snuff, and while we did see some weak speeds at times, most locations showed double-digit speeds (or close to it) during each round of testing.

AirVPNs Overview tab.

AirVPNs privacy policy states that it doesnt track your online activity while connected to the network. Anything it does need to keep, like your IP while using the network, is stored only in RAM and only for the time being necessary to provide the service.

AirVPN doesnt publish information about its team. It does, however, name an official point of contact, Paolo Brini who is an Italy-based activist. AirVPNs privacy notice lists an address in Perugia, Italy where you can send mail or complaints.

To sign up for an account you need the standard email, username, and password. Officially, AirVPN says you dont need an email address, but in our experience you needed a valid email address to get an account. Thats good for recovering a password, but not the best if you want to maximize anonymity. It all depends on what you need from a VPN.

AirVPN is good. It has solid and consistent speeds, good pricing, the right privacy promises, and a high level of transparency about its network. AirVPN is a great choice unless you need your VPNs desktop software to hold your hand, or you want extra services such as Double VPNs and a works with Netflix guarantee.

Editors note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.

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AirVPN review: Good speeds and full of stats - PCWorld

The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 25th, 2020 – FX Empire

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It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin fell to an early morning intraday low $10,222.0 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $10,092, Bitcoin rallied to a late intraday high $10,842.0.

Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $10,495 and the second major resistance level at $10,726.

In spite of a bearish end to the day, Bitcoin avoided a fall back through the second major resistance level.

The near-term bullish trend remained intact, in spite of the latest pullback. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.

Across the rest of the majors, it was a bullish day on Thursday.

Chainlink led the way, surging by 29.25%.

Binance Coin (+7.75%), Cardanos ADA (+7.98%), and Ethereum (+8.89%) also saw solid gains.

Bitcoin Cash ABC (+4.10%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+4.08%), Crypto.com Coin (+0.07%), Litecoin (+4.66%), Polkadot (+4.16%), and Ripples XRP (+5.23%) saw relatively modest gains on the day.

In the current week, the crypto total market rose to a Monday high $334.04bn before sliding to a Wednesday low $300.97bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $320.94bn.

Bitcoins dominance fell to a Monday low 60.89% before rising to a Wednesday high 62.31%. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 61.68%.

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The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 25th, 2020 - FX Empire

Toxic Beaches: Hundreds of Closures and Health Warnings in 2020 – Environmental Working Group

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Spotty Tracking, Confusing Language and Limited Public Outreach Hamper Water Contamination Monitoring

For Immediate Release:

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

WASHINGTON Toxic algae and bacteria forced the closure of at least 116 U.S. beaches and triggered health warnings at 162 more this spring and summer, according to an investigation by the Environmental Working Group.

From May 5 to September 10, health officials and other entities in 36 states issued 278 closures of or warnings about lake and ocean beaches, EWG found through a search of online news reports nationwide and a sampling of public health agency websites in nine states in the Southeast and upper Midwest.

We found a troubling mishmash of public safety measures for toxic algae and bacterial contamination of beaches across the country, said Anne Schechinger, EWG senior analyst of economics and a coauthor of the report. Dozens of different government agencies and other organizations issued warnings with inconsistent wording, unclear direction and insufficient explanations of human health threats.

EWG identified 96 different entities that issued warnings. More than half 56 were health officials at the city, county, regional or state level. Others included cities, the Army Corps of Engineers, state agencies that oversee parks or the environment, and nonprofit organizations.

They relied on an inconsistent array of terms for their warnings, such as beach advisory, beach closure, contact advisory, contamination advisory, health advisory, high bacteria advisory, recreational advisory, swim advisory and water quality advisory.

Sometimes it wasnt clear what was actually meant by a warning, or whether a beach was closed to human activity. And many warnings were vague about why they were issued for example, recommending that people stay out of the water but not specifying why going into the water could be unsafe.Most advisories were posted online temporarily, and almost no entity archived older warnings.

Michigan had the most reported closures and advisories by far, with 69. Florida had 22, and Iowa and Ohio each had 19. But more warnings could simply indicate that water quality monitoring in a given state is more thorough, or that it is easier to find information about warnings.

The bacteria that spurred the advisories were E. coli and enterococci, which are found in the digestive systems of people and animals. Some strains of both bacteria can cause serious illness.

A toxic algae outbreak occurs when an algae bloom made up of microscopic organisms called cyanobacteria emits toxins that are dangerous to humans, pets and wildlife.

Farm runoff, a major cause of water pollution that largely is not regulated, is closely linked to toxic algae outbreaks and bacterial contamination. It is likely that both issues coexist in many locations, but most health departments and other agencies monitor for one contaminant only.

Our investigation calls into stark relief the need for a nationwide beach monitoring program, Schechinger said. It also points to the need to hold the agriculture industry accountable for water pollution and even more importantly, to prevent pollution before it contaminates our waters.

Because no standard system exists for monitoring water quality at beaches, EWGs report is almost certainly missing many sites where warnings were issued. And there is no way to know how much contamination was not monitored at all or was found but not covered in the news media.

EWG tracks all news reports of algae outbreaks throughout the year. All of its work on the issue can be found at http://www.ewg.org/toxicalgae.

###

The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action. Visit http://www.ewg.orgfor more information.

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Toxic Beaches: Hundreds of Closures and Health Warnings in 2020 - Environmental Working Group

Mom drowns trying to rescue her 3 children from rip current at Jersey Shore beach – NJ.com

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A woman on vacation with her family in North Wildwood drowned Tuesday when she tried to save her three children from dangerous rip currents, authorities said.

The 49-year-old woman, whose name was withheld, ran into the ocean when the children ages 8, 10 and 19 began having trouble about 3 p.m. at the 18th Avenue beach, according to police and fire officials.

The mother was calling out to them to come back and when she saw they were having trouble, she jumped into the water, said Fire Chief Dominick J. McClain.

The woman picked up the two youngest children both boys in the breakers and carried them to shore, McClain said.

The 19-year-old daughter continued struggling in the water and the mother apparently went back in after her, the chief said.

Rescuers arrived moments later and pulled the teenager out of the water. The mother was found unconscious about 150 yards from the shoreline, according to the police and fire departments.

Emergency responders began life-saving measures as they took her to Cape Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, according to the chief.

McClain said the womans husband had been with the couples other children at Montego Bay Resort, where the family had been vacationing. He said the man arrived on the beach as his wife was pulled out of the water.

The children were all taken to the hospital, where they were evaluated and released, McClain said. The family is from Wernersville, Pennsylvania.

McClain said there were no lifeguards at the beach and that the day was overcast with cold, churning waters.

It was not at all a beach day. The water was very rough and the rip currents were very dangerous, he said, adding there was only one other visitor at the time.

North Wildwood officials on Wednesday said they were renewing a warning for people not to swim at beaches without lifeguards.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Mom drowns trying to rescue her 3 children from rip current at Jersey Shore beach - NJ.com

The chemical BPA is widespread on beaches around the world – Environmental Health News

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Beach sands around the world are laced with the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA), according to new research that calls attention to a less well-known source of exposure to the hormone-mimicking chemical.

Scientists from South Korea and Japan analyzed sand and seawater samples from beaches in 19 countries. They found BPA to be ubiquitous. Substantial amounts of the chemicalused in can liners, paper receipts and plastic products including food and beverage containerslittered all of the beaches, peaking at upwards of 200 milligrams of BPA per kilogram of sand in Greece. That would be equivalent to about 200 credit cards scattered across an American football field.

"The high BPA concentrations found on sandy beaches in this study should be a global concern," write the authors.

Scientists had already shown that people can be exposed to BPA through many sources including the air, food and water. "This is another study inventorying the extent of plastics contaminating our living environment," Rolf Halden, a sustainability scientist at Arizona State University, who was not involved in the study, told EHN. "It makes us aware that when we lie on the beach, we're not only lying on a bed of sand but a bed of plastics."

BPA-containing plastics break down over time into tiny pieces, known as microplastics and nanoplastics, often with the help of the sea, surf and sand. The sand samples tested by the researchers included these fragments mixed with sand, as well as sand particles on which BPA and other chemicals have hitched a ride. They discovered that BPA concentrations were significantly higher in the sand than in seawater, and varied widely between beaches. A factor of nearly 10,000 separated levels in sands sampled from Greece and Slovenia, for example. Samples from six U.S. beaches ranged between 0.4 and 45 milligrams per kilogram, or parts per million.

The BPA concentrations uncovered in the new study surprised Thomas Zoeller, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "Parts per million quantities, in many of these places, is pretty outrageous," Zoeller, who was not involved in the study, told EHN.

Zoeller noted that exposure to such highly contaminated sand could be enough to cause health effects. However, he also cautioned that the study faced some significant limitations. "It's difficult to extrapolate from these numbers. They don't represent some average for a country, or even a single beach," he said. "Still, everywhere they looked they found it."

In a statement to EHN, Steven G. Hentges, senior director of the Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group at the American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group, said that "government agencies around the world consider BPA to have a low potential to accumulate to any appreciable extent in organisms that come into contact with it in the environment." BPA is "one of the most widely studied chemicals in the world, and government scientists around the globe have found that it does not pose a health risk at typical exposure level," he stated.

Thousands of peer-reviewed studies from academics, however, have concluded that absorbing or ingesting BPA may harm people at doses 20,000 times lower than what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says is safedoses comparable to levels at which most of us are exposed. In November 2019, EHN published a year-long investigation which found U.S. regulators were willfully ignoring research that increasingly links low-dose BPA exposures to harmful health impacts ranging from birth defects to cancer.

"This is a chemical people should not be exposed to," Frederick vom Saal, a professor of biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, told EHN. He lamented the lack of progress in the U.S. on regulating BPA. "There are other parts of the world that are taking this seriously," said vom Saal, who was not involved in the new study. France banned the use of the chemical in food and beverage packaging and utensils after an assessment by the French Agency for Food, Environmental Health and Safety determined that it is hazardous at much lower levels than the FDA considers hazardous.

Beachgoers may be particularly at risk due to the use of sunscreen and other oils and lotions. Vom Saal published a study in 2014 that found chemical mixtures used in a variety of personal care products facilitate the movement of BPA and other chemicals through the skin. More than 300 different chemicals can act as permeation enhancers. The use of hand sanitizer before handling receipts can increase BPA absorption through the skin by up to 200-fold, according to vom Saal's study. Beachgoers today, amidst a pandemic, may well be lathering up with sanitizer, too.

"BPA is a very sticky chemical," said vom Saal. "So, would it stick to sand? Absolutely. And if you're using sunscreen or skin lotions or hand sanitizer, then this stuff goes right through your skin."

Meanwhile, Halden's research has detected BPA and other molecules from commonly used plastics in human liver and fat tissues. More recently, his team detected plastic as well as BPA in all 47 samples they took from human lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys.

"These are materials we're using on a tremendous scale without thinking about their afterlife and the consequences they pose to our health," said Halden.

Bum Gun Kwon from Chosun College of Science and Technology in South Korea, and author on the study, expressed the same concern. "Although there may be differences in degrees, large amounts of discarded plastic are too common," he told EHN in an email.

"Strict new rules for the use of sandy beaches should be set and followed," said Kwon. "For example, rules restricting the use of plastic materials derived from petroleum."

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The chemical BPA is widespread on beaches around the world - Environmental Health News