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Is It Too Late To Invest In Cryptocurrency? – Yahoo Finance

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

filadendron / Getty Images

Cryptocurrency investing has been one of the big news stories of 2021. Although the first Bitcoin was mined way back in 2009, it wasnt until Bitcoin millionaires began being minted that crypto started grabbing the publics attention. Now, new coins have flooded the market, and more millionaires have been created, as some coins have rallied 1,000%, 2,000% or even more. In the midst of all of these incredible gains, the natural question is whether or not its too late to invest in cryptocurrency. The truth is that no one can guarantee whether crypto will rise or fall from here, as its an entirely new market that is neither well-defined nor well-regulated. But there are clear arguments on both sides of the coin as to whether its time to buy or not.

Check Out: 10 Best Cryptocurrencies To Invest in for 2021Consider: Dogecoin: Is It Still Worth an Investment?

One of the fears of entering the crypto market has always been that governments around the world will shut down acceptance and even production of the coins. That time may already be here. In late May 2021, China began cracking down hard on bitcoin mining and trading, which sent crypto prices cascading downwards. According to Boris Schlossberg, managing director at BK Asset Management, the primary reason for this crackdown was because Chinese authorities are keen to see their own digital currency in the form of the yuan become the primary unit of account in the Chinese economy. If other governments follow suit, demand and support for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could falter.

The Economy and Your Money: All You Need To Know

If youre a believer that the crypto market is another version of the stock market, there might be no better time to buy cryptos like Bitcoin because they are on sale. As of June 4, Bitcoin was more than 40% off its all-time high, and other cryptos had fallen by a similar amount or even more. As the history of Bitcoin has shown, massive drops like this are not at all unusual, and yet the cryptocurrency has managed to consistently climb to new highs. If you were curious about Bitcoin a few weeks ago, the current sell-off might be a chance to dip your toe into the market.

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Explore: What Are Altcoins and Are the Potential Rewards Worth the Risks?

Skeptics believe that cryptocurrency is an asset class with no store of value, no barrier to entry and no value as an exchange currency. As such, skeptics view crypto as simply a speculative asset class with no long-term viability as a true asset class. At a CNBC-hosted panel in Davos, Switzerland in 2019, Jeff Schumacher, founder of BCG Digital Ventures, had this to say about Bitcoin: I do believe it will go to zero. I think its a great technology but I dont believe its a currency. Its not based on anything. In 2020, famed investor Dennis Gartman offered the same assessment to Bloomberg, saying that if central banks refuse to give up their monopoly on monetary policy, Bitcoin could one day plunge to zero.

Read: Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From?

Rather than seeing Bitcoin go to zero, believers like Ark Investments Cathie Wood suggest quite the opposite. The popular investment strategist and CEO believes that Bitcoin will actually hit $500,000. Part of the reason for Woods bullishness is her belief that asset managers will eventually allocate up to 5% of their portfolios to cryptocurrency. Greg Cipolaro and Dr. Ross Stevens, researchers at New York Digital Investment Group, support this belief, adding that Increasing fundamental demand combined with a fixed supply and automatically declining supply growth make a compelling case for Bitcoin as an alternative investment for institutional investors. The researchers are referring to the fact that the supply of Bitcoin is limited to 21 million coins.

What’s really behind the bitcoin decline and why it could take the cryptocurrency as low as $20000 – CNBC

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

People enjoy themselves at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention, a crypto-currency conference held at the Mana Convention Center in Wynwood on June 04, 2021 in Miami, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

The price of bitcoin fell about 10% Tuesday to around $32,000 and is on pace for its third straight day of losses, bringing most other cryptocurrency prices down with it. It's down 50% from its April all-time high.

Many are speculating the price moved on news that U.S. officials recovered most of the ransom paid to the Colonial Pipeline hackers.

Analysts, however, say it's more likely the movement is part of wider consolidation coming off highs from a month ago. In other words, the technical breakdown in the charts is driving the action and technical analysts see a possible bottom as low as $20,000 from here.

Dave Keller from Sierra Alpha Research said in a market video update to clients that $30,000 is the support level to watch, and that bitcoin is a market in a clear downtrend.

"Movement in any given day can be filled with noise and short-term action," he said, but the chart "has transitioned from an uptrend phase to a downtrend phase," citing lower highs, lower lows, breaking down through moving averages and breaking down through traditional support levels.

Bitcoin - 6 months

Coin Metrics

What's really behind the bitcoin decline and why it could take the cryptocurrency as low as $20000 - CNBC

New Cryptocurrency Backed by Geely Will Cater to ‘Establishment’ – Bloomberg

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

As governments struggle to rein in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, a Swiss-Danish group is launching a new blockchain technology it says will be ready for regulation from day one.

Backed by one of the founders of Saxo Bank A/S and a director at Volvo Cars, which both count Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. as an owner, the project will on Wednesday introduce its blockchain, which has been developed with Denmarks Aarhus University. The projects cryptocurrency -- Global Transaction Unit (GTU) -- will be listed on exchanges over the summer.

The foundation behind GTU goes by the name of Concordium AG. Its chief executive, Lone Fonss Schroder, whos also a vice chair at Volvo Cars, says the key difference between GTU and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will be its ability to provide the kind of transparency that regulators and members of the mainstream economy want.

We have identification at the protocol level, and that means that every transaction comes with provenance, Fonss Schroder said in an interview. If the regulator wants to see, by court order, whos done what, they can see it. That is why we say we have regulatory readiness.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin slumped on Tuesday, with some analysts pointing to the recovery of Colonial Pipeline Co.s ransom as evidence that crypto isnt beyond government control. The FBI was able to find the Bitcoin by uncovering the digital addresses used by hackers, suggesting the biggest cryptocurrency may not offer the untraceability for which its often sought out.

It may well be that corners of the crypto world are working toward a product they hope will be regulated and widely used. The ultimate establishment digital currency will of course only come once central banks launch their CBDCs.

--Johanna Jeansson, Nordic economist

Regulating Bitcoin and its rivals has emerged as a key challenge as cryptocurrencies draw in ever larger crowds of enthusiasts, despite -- or perhaps because of -- their extreme volatility. But its far from clear how to regulate a product thats generally designed to evade the scrutiny of national authorities. Governments from China to the U.S. are trying, but theres so far no viable model that provides real regulation and transparency.

Fonss Schroder says the hope is that GTU will be more appealing to corporations who have considered the payment form, but are put off by the secrecy that normally accompanies crypto transactions. She says the goal is to promote GTU as a cryptocurrency for the establishment.

Geelys billionaire founder, Li Shufu, would like to see that in the future you can buy a car with the GTU, because its sustainable, Fonss Schroder said.

Concordium earlier this year raised over $40 million from private and strategic sales, reaching a $4.45 billion valuation, according to a statement. Its chairman is the Saxo Bank co-founder Lars Seier Christensen.

GTU wont impose the same kind of burden on the environment that Bitcoin mining does, because additional coins wont be generated by channeling vast amounts of computer energy into cracking a code, the founders say. We have 0.001% of Bitcoins energy spent, according to Fonss Schroder.

Bitcoins carbon footprint has prompted former loyalists to turn their backs on the worlds most popular cryptocurrency. Tesla founder Elon Musk rocked the crypto market earlier this year when he aired his sudden concern over how energy intensive Bitcoin mining is, while still declaring his belief that cryptocurrencies have a future.

The creators of GTU say new coins will be produced using a so-called proof-of-stake technology, rather than the energy intensive proof-of-work that Bitcoin uses. Concordium says that model may also be more appealing to businesses.

With assistance by Frances Schwartzkopff

(Adds reference Bitcoins slump in fifth paragraph)

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

New Cryptocurrency Backed by Geely Will Cater to 'Establishment' - Bloomberg

Crypto finally has a reason to exist – Economic Times

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

I have news from the world of cryptocurrency: After many years of doubt and uncertainty, a killer app has finally been found. Thats why crypto prices, in spite of numerous plunges, have remained much higher than many skeptics expected.

The core use case for crypto is called DeFi, a recently coined abbreviation for decentralized finance. DeFi doesnt have a formal definition, but it typically includes the use of the blockchain to borrow and lend using auction markets; to trade in unconventional derivatives; to trade one set of crypto assets against another; and for unusual forms of insurance. The profit opportunities arise in part because the blockchain eliminates the need for traditional financial intermediaries, with their fees and associated regulations.

An example: Say you have some money to invest, but government bond rates are too low and you already have plenty invested in publicly traded stocks. You might allocate some of your portfolio to the loan auction markets built on Ethereum, in essence tossing some crypto into the market and seeing at what price it will be lent out. You could end up with yields of 6% or more, though some of these opportunities are very risky.There could be $100 billion invested in DeFi right now. More important, these systems are growing rapidly. Reliable numbers are difficult to come by, but by one account DeFi grew sevenfold in just a few months in 2020, to a total value of $7 billion. Its not surprising that investors would find DeFi attractive, especially in a world of low yields and pricey assets. Think of them as decentralized markets in a very junky form of junk bonds.

To be clear: I am not arguing that these uses of DeFi are socially beneficial. It is simply too early to say. One criticism of DeFi is that it is effectively regulatory arbitrage, bypassing useful laws and restrictions in the quest for higher private gain. The longer-run result could be a financial economy more fragile and more vulnerable to conditions of recession, especially as DeFi attains larger scale. DeFi loans often go to non-mainstream borrowers of uncertain quality.

But its also important not to confuse different criticisms of crypto that its useful only for speculation, for example, or that its bad for the environment. The crucial thing is not to let your attitude toward crypto (positive or negative) affect your analysis. Instead, focus on answering one question at a time.

You could say that crypto is a Trojan horse of a new and quite different financial system. If you have ever dealt with U.S. banks, and suffered through their bureaucracy and mediocre software, you might conclude that they are ripe for disruption. Banks in other countries may be even more vulnerable.

Obviously, as DeFi grows, questions of government oversight and control will come to the fore. Still, it seems unlikely that DeFi institutions will be regulated out of existence. DeFi can be run on platforms outside of the U.S., and American and European regulators cannot shut it down any more than they can prevent me from placing an online bet on a Mexican soccer game.

Keep in mind that significant swaths of the developing world currently use micro-credit, where borrowing rates of interest are often 50% or 100% on an annualized basis. It is likely that some of those countries will experiment with DeFi as an alternative method of credit allocation, regardless of whether those new institutions satisfy U.S. regulators in every regard.

If you are baffled by a lot of DeFi, well welcome to the club. The confusing and ever-changing nature of DeFi helps explains why the prices of crypto assets are so volatile. If DeFi lies in part behind the demand for crypto, and you dont know exactly where DeFi is headed, the future for crypto is also highly uncertain. It is very unusual to have such a highly visible window on what is essentially the value of a bunch of startups.

Finance is about to get even stranger and crypto is just the beginning of that.

Original post:

Crypto finally has a reason to exist - Economic Times

Visa And The Cryptocurrency Opportunity: Inside The Card Networks Digital Currency Plans – Forbes

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

Visa has broad plans for digital currency, as the payments industry begins to embrace the ... [+] opportunities in cryptocurrency.

Its been brewing for some time, but 2021 is finally seeing established payment companies take the opportunities of cryptocurrency seriously, and among those leading the pack is Visa V .

An industry that was previously plagued by volatility and speculation is beginning to see its enterprise-friendly side blossoming, and according to the card network, the opportunities are abundant.

The world of digital currencies and crypto has moved and evolved quite significantly since the 2009 launch of Bitcoin, explains Nikola Plecas, head of new payment flows,Visa Consulting and Analytics, Europe at Visa.

Visa's strategy is to be a network of networks and really be able to originate and terminate new payment flows outside of card rails. We have made tremendous push into these new flows over the last couple of years with products such as B2B Connect, Visa Direct, Push to Pay and digital currencies naturally fall into that category.

However, this doesnt mean that the worlds most famous cryptocurrency Bitcoin features heavily in the card networks plans. Instead, Visa characterises the industry as made up of two distinct groups: conventional, untethered cryptocurrencies and fiat currency-backed digital currencies, often known as stablecoins, which are attracting greater interest from institutional and government organizations despite currently a smaller part of the overall market.

The former is seen by the company as a tradeable asset with limited industry potential CEO Alfred Kelly described it as digital gold in the companys Q2 2021 earnings call. However, the latter is where Visa sees significant potential for payments.

We see these as having the potential to be used by consumers and merchants in the same way as existing fiat currencies are, says Plecas. And when it comes to areas of opportunity, there are many for organizations such as ours.

While many use the terms cryptocurrency and digital currency interchangeably, Visa has chosen to characterize the area it is focusing on the stablecoin side of the industry as digital currencies.

Visas digital currency efforts currently fall into five areas. Some of these are well-established and already contributing to the companys revenue growth, while others are in the early stages and are unlikely to make a meaningful impact on Visas top line in the near future. However, they together represent a long-term view of the market.

The first is perhaps the most obvious: making it easy for consumers to buy cryptocurrencies, which has involved working with wallets and exchanges drive acceptance. This area earned a mention in Visas most recent earnings call as being the second biggest contributor of growth in its card-not-present excluding travel segment the biggest growth was the surge in ecommerce.

Second is a natural progression from the first: enabling cryptocurrency to be cashed out to fiat.

We want to make sure that you as a consumer, once you exit your cryptocurrency positions in exchanges and wallets can cash onto a Visa credential and then start spending at any of our 70 million-plus merchant endpoints, says Plecas.

While those two are in full swing, a newer development is the third pillar, which is the use of digital currency APIs to enable banks and neobanks to add cryptocurrency options for their clients. This is in the early stages, with US neobank First Boulevard becoming the pilot customer earlier this year, however Plecas highlights that Visa is looking to extend to other markets and regions with the product.

We quickly realized that there's potential to be the next gen of neobanks, he explains. They're also doing a lot of their treasury operations, paying vendors and employees already in stablecoins.

In order to do this, the company needed to enable customers to stay within their ecosystem when they also settled their obligations with Visa, which is where pillar four, settlement in stablecoins comes in. This has seen Visa settle its first transaction in a stablecoin, US dollar-tethered USDC, this year.

Settling in USDC is very similar to settling in USD, he explains.

What we've done is an upgrade of existing treasury infrastructure operations to be able to receive these assets, because actually receiving them is now done through public blockchain rails. And as time evolves, we want to support other stablecoins.

The final pillar, however, is the most long-term: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). According to the Bank for International Settlements, 86% of the worlds central banks are now considering the launch of CBDCs of one form or another, with more than one in ten currently engaged in pilots.

CBDCs have a variety of benefits, including the potential to better reach the underbanked, and Visa argues that their implementation will require public-private partnerships.

That way, they will be integrated in the right way into the existing payments' ecosystem, says Plecas.

At Visa, we want to make sure that our products and services are acting as a bridge between our existing clients and the new clients and blockchain rails involved with digital currencies.

Visa's areas of focus as it moves into cryptocurrency

While much of this is focused on the consumer side of cryptocurrency and digital currencies, Visa also sees significant potential in B2B payments.

B2B is an area of high growth, high importance and high interest to all of Visa. And we see that digital currencies can supplement and compliment some of the existing solutions that we have in the space, says Plecas.

However, while digital currencies can impact the B2B space, and in some cases are already doing so, broader institutional adoption is likely to take time.

Nevertheless, in areas with poor infrastructure, the potential of CBDCs in particular is strong for B2B.

In some countries the infrastructure is just not there yet, and for these types of countries and regions, digital currencies can complement what we already have.

One of the areas that is often raised in digital currency discussions is cross-border payments, with many citing potential speed and cost benefits. However, Plecas stresses that while there is potential, it is not a simple clean fix.

The cross-border space is highly complex, and it has a large number of actors who are trying to solve for consumer experience in terms of end user price and time efficiency, he says.

It's not easy to solve for this, even if you're trying new technologies that would give you some advantages theoretically with this aspect.

However, he says Visa sees particular opportunities in global marketplaces that bring together buyers and sellers from different currencies.

In those instances, potentially digital currencies can help them reach some of these markets in a more time and cost efficient way.

Originally posted here:

Visa And The Cryptocurrency Opportunity: Inside The Card Networks Digital Currency Plans - Forbes

Cryptocurrency Prices Today on June 7: Bitcoin, ether, dogecoin and more – Moneycontrol.com

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

Most cryptocurrencies were trading in the green today as the overall market capitalisation of all tokens jumped 1.54 percent over the previous day to $1.66 trillion.

June 07, 2021 / 07:54 AM IST

Most cryptocurrencies were trading in the green today, June 7, as the overall market capitalisation of all tokens jumped 1.54 percent over the previous day to$1.66 trillion. In line with the general trend, the largest cryptocurrency, bitcoin was trading in the positive territory, up 1.2 percent at36,633.75, at the time of writing this copy.

The total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours is $79.70 billion, whichis a 22.07 percent decrease over the previous day, while the volume of all stable coins is now $61.40 billion, which is 77.04 percent of the total crypto market 24-hour volume.

Meanwhile, in a shift, Google announced slight modification to its advertising policy and said it will begin accepting ads of cryptocurrency exchanges and digital wallets targeting consumers in the United States on its platform from August 3.

A blog post by the search giant says the new rules apply only to wallets in the US, although they will apply to advertisements globally.The tech giant said it will update its financial products and services policy in August.

To take advantage of Googles new policy, crypto wallets will have to be registered with the FinCEN and federal or state-chartered banks. Adding: All prior Cryptocurrency Exchange certifications will be revoked on August 3, 2021. Advertisers must request new Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Wallets certification with Google when the application form is published on July 8, 2021.

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Cryptocurrency Prices Today on June 7: Bitcoin, ether, dogecoin and more - Moneycontrol.com

Inside the world of rising cryptocurrency and DeFi scams – Moneycontrol.com

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

Ambiguous market regulations, the anonymity of identities, financial transactions, and a rallying, rapidly expanding cryptocurrency market- all of it makes for a heady concoction for both new and experienced investors alike to participate in the cryptocurrency market. But what's hard to miss is that this space is teeming with fraudsters and scamsters as well, looking to profit off the unaware, inexperienced crypto enthusiasts. And given the wild west of cryptocurrency and its novelty, with bitcoin swinging extraordinarily between $8,900 to touching a high of $64,863 this year, the rise of the scamming industry here is not surprising.

Scams on the rise

A global blockchain analytics firm, CipherTrace, estimated that the fraudsters have globally earned somewhere around $432 million between January- April this year.

A recent report by FTC (Federal Trade Commission) stated that around 7,000 U.S. consumers reported losing more than $80 million on various cryptocurrency scams between October 2020 and March 2021, with an average of $1,900 per transaction.

It is hard to miss the sharp, steep rise in both the volume and frequency of such transactions. Comparing this time period with the same last year, the scam reports have risen by as much as 12%. This takes the amount lost to around 1,000% more, as compared to last year.

And it's not just the United States that has seen this trend. Australia has also seen a steady spiral in the number of crypto-related scams. A recent report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, titled Targeting scams: report of the ACCC on scam activity 2020, also pointed out that bitcoin payment frauds ranked second only to the age-old technique of bank transfers. Investors lost around $26.5 million in 1,985 transactions over the last year.

It is interesting to see the myriad ways scamsters are employing to dupe people. From impersonating cryptocurrency influencers like Musk to luring a new love into investing in an amazing crypto opportunity, the creativity is indeed fascinating.

Some of them take it a step further by creating now-defunct cryptocurrencies, or in some cases, an entire exchange. The most recent in the line is the now-defunct LUB Token, which was based on Telegram. The currency offered a daily return of 10% if its press releases and now-gone website is to be believed.

And for those who want a genuine shot at the legitimacy of their fraud, the Korean fraud exchange, BitKRX is a handy case study. Uncovered in 2017, the exchange vanished when investors tried to access their funds. It was found that 99% of its transaction volume was fabricated.

Another area where frauds and scams are burgeoning is the upcoming, relatively nascent area of DeFi or Decentralised Finance. DeFi takes blockchain technology and utilizes its applications in various financial services like insurance, lending, and more.

DeFi is known to offer a higher yield on crypto-assets as compared to other conventional means. But, this also makes it extremely vulnerable to sudden vanishing and absconding post-raising funds for a project.

Between January-April 2021, DeFi scamsters raked in almost $83.4 million. Looking at the broader picture, almost 55% of all major cryptocurrency scams were DeFi hacks. That means out of a total theft amount of $432 million, $240 million can solely be attributed to DeFi.

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Inside the world of rising cryptocurrency and DeFi scams - Moneycontrol.com

Should you invest in Polygon (MATIC) Indian cryptocurrency? Here’s what experts suggest – CNBCTV18

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

Polygon (MATIC), earlier known as Matic Network, rose over 10 times between March 2021 and its all-time high in May 2021 before crashing almost 66 percent in the recent crypto meltdown starting from May 19, 2021. But, the digital currency recovered compared to most other crypto peers after the crash. The recovery and the previous stellar returns are enough to divert the attention of crypto enthusiasts to this coin.

Not just that, Polygon at present has the most number of partnerships in the crypto space. It is also working on a wider mission ever since its rebranding.

Given these factors and rekindled interest in Polygon, should investors make bets on the coin? To get an answer to this, its first important to understand how the value of any cryptocurrency is determined?

According to Prateek Singh, Founder, LearnApp.com, the value of any cryptocurrency is derived from two factors: the hype (increase in demand due to social media/influencers) which is generally short-term in nature and may result in the fate that Dogecoin saw in the recent crash.

The other factor, Singh said, is the fundamental value that it provides.

Matic is a layer 2 scaling solution built on the Ethereum blockchain. It helps speed up transactions made on ethereum based DApps(Decentralized Applications). So, Matic does provide a fundamental value to DApps developers, he added.

Matic, according to Singh, could hence perhaps be the main solution to the Ethereum scaling problem and solve the blockchain trilemma.

However, Prateek warns against buying any cryptocurrency (including Matic) without understanding its fundamentals.

It will be more interesting if people start learning about how crypto works, what are Dapps, what fundamental value does Matic provide, etc and based on that analysis they should take an investment call, he suggested.

Avinash Shekhar, Co-CEO of ZebPay calls MATIC one of the best performing crypto assets. However, he is also of the view that individuals should learn about the asset and the technology backing it before investing in any cryptocurrency.

Talking about the challenges of Polygon (MATIC), CoinDCX spokesperson said that it may face competition from projects like PolkaDot, Cosmos, or even the much-anticipated Ethereum 2.0 in the future.

These projects, he added, once operational, could overshadow Polygon and lead to significant headwinds for further price appreciation. Thus, investors should research important support and resistance levels before taking any fresh positions.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on CNBCTV18.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. CNBCTV18.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

(Edited by: By Ajay Vaishnav)

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Should you invest in Polygon (MATIC) Indian cryptocurrency? Here's what experts suggest - CNBCTV18

Bitcoin selloff: Will the cryptocurrency drop to $20,000? – Business Today

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

The latest selloff in Bitocoin has brought the cryptocurrency closer to the levels seen in May. This has led to questions on how low the cryptocurrency can fall, with some analysts predicting $20,000 levels.

Bitcoin has dropped about 7 per cent this week, and was trading at about $34,200 on Wednesday. Further weakness in the cryptocurrency can lead to a fall to $20,000, as per some of the analysts.

Bitcoin is dangerously approaching $30,000 level and a break of $30,000 could see a tremendous amount of momentum selling, Bloomberg quoted Oanda Corp Senior Market Analyst Edward Moya as saying.

If the cryptocurrency drops further from its current levels, it can possibly fall to $20,000 levels, as per Evercore ISI Technical Strategist Rich Ross and Tallbacken Capital Advisors' Michael Purves, the news agency said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk calling cryptocurrencies "energy-intensive" and not environment friendly led to a rout in the digital currencies last month. Besides, Musk's announcement that Tesla will no longer accept Bitcoins, and China's action on the crypto front also led to the fall in cryptocurrencies.

Also read: Cabinet approves allotment of 5 MHz spectrum to Indian Railways to boost security

China proscribed financial institutions and payment companies from providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions and warned investors against speculative crypto trading.

US Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell also turned up the heat on cryptocurrencies last month, saying they pose risks to financial stability, and indicated that greater regulation of the increasingly popular electronic currency may be warranted.

However, not everyone is bearish on Bitcoin, with many confident about the long-term outlook.

On Wednesday, El Salvador became the first country in the world to officially grant legal tender status to Bitcoin. Meanwhile, US-based MicroStrategy Inc, a major bitcoin corporate backer, on Tuesday said it was offering $500 million in bonds, and the proceeds will be used to buy Bitcoins.

Irrespective of Bitcoin value, industry experts recommend building a long term portfolio by investing in cryptocurrencies in a disciplined manner via SIP, like in mutual funds.

Also read: Cryptocurrency market crashes! Is it time to sell Bitcoin?

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Bitcoin selloff: Will the cryptocurrency drop to $20,000? - Business Today

Interactive Brokers to Offer Cryptocurrency Trading by Summer’s End – ThinkAdvisor

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

What You Need to Know

Interactive Brokers, one of the first brokerages to offer no-fee trading and the trading of fractional shares, will start trading cryptocurrencies on its platform by the end of the summer, according to Chairman and CEO Thomas Peterffy.

Customers certainly are asking for [crypto trading] and we expect to be ready to offer it to them by the end of the summer, Peterffy said Wednesday at the Piper Sandler Global Exchange & FinTech Conference, according to CNBC.

The online brokerage currently offers trading in Bitcoin futures as do TD Ameritrade, Kraken and several other crypto-focused firms.

When it launches cryptocurrency trading, Interactive Brokers will be competing against Robinhood, whose platform has had problems with Dogecoin and Ether trading, and, primarily, Coinbase Global, the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange, which went public in mid-April. Coinbases stock price has since been falling almost steadily since its initial public offering and is now roughly 40% below its inaugural price.

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Interactive Brokers to Offer Cryptocurrency Trading by Summer's End - ThinkAdvisor

Proof-of-space cryptocurrency Chia triggers HDD sales boom in Europe – The Register

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

The launch of the cryptocurrency Chia has caused demand for hard disk drives in the European market to blow up, according to research firm Context.

Figures for April released by the analyst show just under 200,000 enterprise-grade nearline storage drives of 10TB capacity and above were sold to end users across the region, representing 240 per cent growth compared with the same month in 2020.

Meanwhile, NAS consumer-grade HDDs saw around 250,000 units sold, a year-on-year increase of 167 per cent.

Finally, surveillance disk drives sales were just shy of 200,000 units, up 116 per cent. These pieces of kit "should be used in surveillance but there has been no specific event in surveillance to cause that growth," senior enterprise analyst Gurvan Meyer told The Reg.

The explosive growth in drives across the market was best explained by the launch of cryptocurrency Chia, which relies on proof of space, as opposed to proof of work employed by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

"For sure it is Chia," Meyer told The Register. He said economies opening up and cloud providers beefing up their infrastrucure has als played a lesser role.

"It has taken everybody by surprise following the launch of Chia. Even Western Digital and Seagate were not expecting high demand like this." He said he expects the effect on the market to be long-lasting.

Cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, have been criticised for relying on proof-of-computational work, which sucks up a phenomenal amount of electricity and skews the market for GPUs.

The alternative proposed in the Chia model relies on proof of space, in which the user sets aside a dedicated amount of storage on their computers and the software allocates a unique number to each section of that space.

When the currency network needs to validate a new transaction, it selects one of these unique numbers at random and the computer the segment belongs to then validates the transaction. The idea is that rather than using computing power in a race, it employs a lottery system.

Context said the model made Chia not only greener than proof-of-work systems in terms of power consumption, but also more accessible as most users have unused storage space on their devices.

Chia launched in May after BitTorrent protocol author Bram Cohen founded the network in 2017.

"Proof of space is a relatively new consensus mechanism but any number of new currencies could also choose to use it," Meyer said. "Should the method gain popularity, the demand for storage could increase even further."

Why Cryptocurrency Investors Are Excited About Cardano – Motley Fool

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

Cardano (CRYPTO:ADA) has seen one of the most significant price jumps of any leading cryptocurrency in 2021 so far. Priced at just $1.85 as of this writing, the coin is more than 10 times more valuable than it was on January 1 and currently sits in the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap.

The recent crypto market crash has erased much of Bitcoin's (CRYPTO:BTC) recent gains (although it's still up about 32% since January 1), and at least temporarily dampened Ethereum's (CRYPTO:ETH) electrifying surge -- it's down about 35% from its recent all-time high. However, Cardano has kept more of its upswing action intact amid increased market volatility.

Image Source: Getty Images.

Cardano isn't as well-known as Bitcoin or Ethereum, and its market cap and daily transaction volume are a fraction of those leading coins. But that's part of the appeal: cryptocurrency investors see vast potential in the so-called "Ethereum killer," which is on the verge of a massive blockchain network upgrade that could help it live up to that moniker.

Here are five reasons why investors are so bullish on Cardano right now.

Cardano will soon implement "smart contract" functionality, which essentially means adding code that enables automated, self-executing contracts. Smart contracts allow developers to build apps on top of blockchain platforms, such as Ethereum's enormously popular Uniswap decentralized exchange. The entire decentralized finance (DeFi) industry is built on smart contracts, much of it on Ethereum, and Cardano is about to join the party.

Ethereum's blockchain can only handle a very limited number of transactions right now -- around 15 per second -- which has led to immense congestion on the network. That means longer waits to complete transactions and high "gas fees" (or transaction fees) that you'll pay to send them through.

Future network upgrades should ease that pain, but Cardano is already primed to handle much larger volumes of transactions. It has been tested at up to 257 transactions per second, but Cardano developer Input Output is looking into much vaster tallies -- potentially as many as 1 million or more transactions per second.

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum are based on energy-intensive "proof-of-work" systems, which require miners to use powerful computers to solve complex math equations -- all in the hopes of winning some cryptocurrency for their efforts. In fact, it's part of the reason why the crypto market is down so much lately, after Tesla decided to stop accepting Bitcoin due to the outsized environmental impact of mining.

Luckily, Cardano has a much more eco-friendly "proof-of-stake" system, in which validators hold their coins within the network to participate and earn rewards. According to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, the network is "1.6 million times more energy efficient" than Bitcoin. That might seem like an impossible figure, but it really speaks to the overwhelming amount of energy needed to power Bitcoin's network. It's something that crypto newcomers are surely keeping in mind as they plot potential investments, and Cardano offers a better path forward.

As a third-generation blockchain network, Cardano has learned from the missteps of its predecessors to try and create a more effective, economical, and energy-efficient system. On top of that, it's also based on peer-reviewed scientific research, with ample time and energy put into exploring the technical possibilities within. You might call it the opposite of Facebook'sclassic "move fast and break things" motto. Some would say that's why Cardano has been slow in implementing features like smart contracts, but it could assuage some investors' fears given the already volatile nature of cryptocurrency.

If bullish cryptocurrency analysts are correct, then the entire market may have plenty of room to grow in the years and decades to come. But the days of buying a single BTC or ETH for a few dollars and watching it grow into the thousands (and beyond) are long gone. Could Cardano's value ultimately lift off into the stratosphere like those coins did? There's no telling for now. But the fundamentals behind Cardano appear to be strong, and given the current low price per coin, many investors see it as a worthy long-term bet on a promising cryptocurrency project.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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New watchdog to crack down on modern slavery and low pay – Construction News

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

A new "one-stop shop" to protect workers from modern slavery and low pay has been proposed by the government.

The organisation will combine efforts to tackle modern slavery, safeguard the minimum wage and protect agency workers, replacing three organisations in the process. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said this would "help improve enforcement through better coordination and pooling intelligence". Workers will also find it easier to blow the whistle on bad behaviour thanks to the one-stop shop nature of the new body, it said.

A spokesperson for the department said it was not yet clear when the new organisation would start operating. "The new enforcement body will be established through primary legislation when parliamentary time allows," they said. The new body is yet to be named.

Once operational, the organisation will carry out more enforcement to ensure that "unscrupulous" operators cannot undercut rivals who pay workers fairly. BEIS also said it will make it easier for workers to claim statutory sick pay and holiday pay owed.

The new watchdog will incorporate the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and HMRCs national minimum wage enforcement.

Business minister Paul Scully said: "The vast majority of businesses want to do right by their staff, but there are a minority who seem to think the law doesnt apply to them. Exploitative practices like modern slavery have no place in society."

He added: This new workers watchdog will help us crack down on any abuses of workers rights and take action against companies that turn a blind eye to abuses in their supply chains, while providing a one-stop shop for employees and businesses wanting to understand their rights and obligations."

The government said the new organisation would continue to operate its naming and shaming scheme, which can fine companies that do not pay their workers what they are owed up to 20,000 per worker.

The construction sector had the highest level of reports of modern slavery during the pandemic in 2020. Construction News has previously exposed incidents of modern slavery on major construction projects.

Its never been more important to ensure you have the tools to identify and address the modern slavery risk to your business.

Unseens online business portal is a subscription service that provides confidential information to companies about suspected modern slavery cases, trends and risks. The secure platform lets businesses safely access real-time reports made through the helpline relevant to their business or supply chain.

Companies that are interested in joining should contact:business@unseenuk.org

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Every New Financial Bubble Is a Cry of Desperation – In These Times

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

The weird investments are flying again. Earlier this year it was Gamestop stock, rising to the moon for no reason except that many people on internet message boards decided to push it there. Now its the stock of AMC, which has risen 3,000% this year for the same reason. This same collective mania causes millions of normal people to pour money into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which have no underlying value other than the collective mania itself. The driver of this mass national frenzy is not any sort of business strategy, or even simple pandemic-induced boredom. Its just the latest manifestation of the sickening desperation of people to break free from wage slavery. It is the modern lottery ticket. And, like all such dreams that are rooted in luck rather than in politics, it will ultimately amount tonothing.

Financial manias are nothing new. They have been around since the Dutch were going wild over tulip bulbs in the 1600s, and probably much longer than that. It is abasic truth that if you can get alarge number of people to buy anon-infinite good at the same time, the price of that good will go up, until people stop buying it. That means that profits can be made for as long as the collective will to keep buying can be sustained. But at some point, inevitably, the pool of buyers dries up, and the people with lucky timing take their profits, and amuch larger number of people with less lucky timing get left holding assets whose price plummets back down towards zero. It does not matter whether the asset in question is tulip bulbs or tech stocks or Bitcoins. This is how it happens. Being seduced over and over again by such aclearly established pattern for failure is just part of humannature.

An unfortunate aspect of all these bubbles is that savvy, well-informed insiders tend to be the ones who end up with profits at the end, while regular people who were attracted only by the promise of quick riches get left with the losses. The key to making money in such situations is being able to judge when to sell, before everything starts going downhill. That is much easier to do with specialized training or insider information, two things that accrue to the elites rather than to the masses. This is somewhat ironic, because what attracts people to these bubbles is the promise that here, at last, is away for the little guy to strike it richa way for all of us who were not born rich or well-connected to grab aslice of the good life that is usually only bestowed on the wildly undeserving upperclass.

But its amirage. There are always some lucky winners in bubbles (today, they are the people advertising their eye-popping investment gains on Reddit, or the instantly rich Bitcoin investors flaunting their new wealth on Twitter), but the main function of this relatively small number of winners is to attract amuch larger number of investors into the mania who will eventually be losers. There is alaw of gravity in the economic world. Just like rockets fired in the air will later fall to earth, so too will investments priced much higher than their actual value crash down again, sooner or later. And all of the regular folks, who noticed the bubble just in time to bet their scraped-together savings on it as apath out of working drudgery, will be the ones crashing withit.

This is not really an economic problem. It is apolitical one. The problem is that people dont see it as political. American capitalism causes enormous inequality and produces ashiny, rich top tier of winners that will always be viewed with envy by ahuge lower tier of people struggling just to keep their heads above water. All financial manias are really society-wide get-rich-quick schemes. In American capitalism, get-rich-quick schemes only work for the already rich. Otherwise, they would not be allowed to exist. Neither Reddit memes nor infinite varieties of crypto will changethat.

All of these schemes are propelled by not only ignorance and greed, which are natural elements of human nature, but by the equally natural sense of desperation that builds up in people who are trapped in an economic system that offers them no legitimate way to reach the good life. America is particularly cruel: It valorizes the rich, taunts everyone with their luxurious lifestyles, and pretends that anyone can have what they have, while instead offering asystem designed to filter economic gains upwards to the rich while leaving everyone else treading water. It is only normal for people to grasp at any path offered to easy riches, no matter how much of an illusion it is. It is not any more of an illusion than the idea that aregular working person in 2021 can achieve the American dream without taking anyshortcuts.

Political action is the only real path out of this, and its apath that is rocky and long and offers uncertain rewards. Nobody wants that. America is built to make us not want that. America is built to make us want the reward in our bank account, here and now. Idont have any illusions about convincing millions of people not to throw their savings into inflating (or deflating) bubbles in hopes of striking it rich. But Iwould like for people to understand exactly what is happening here. The things are not worth what the price says. What goes up will not keep going up forever. You are, statistically, probably not the lucky one who will come out on top. This time isnt different. Socialism might not be as fun as gambling, its true. On the other hand, in socialism, everybody gets something. You can never reallylose.

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Every New Financial Bubble Is a Cry of Desperation - In These Times

Racial wealth gap may be a key to other inequities – Harvard Gazette

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

Around that time, the rates of college graduation began to decrease and overall high school graduation numbers leveled off. For Goldin and Katz, expanding access to higher education could actually help reduce inequality.

You could wipe out a large fraction of inequality by ramping up the education of individuals who are limited in their ability to access and finish a college education, said Goldin.

The problem of wealth inequality is more extreme than income inequality since the former builds on the latter, said Katz, and their effects persists across generations. The legacies of the Jim Crow era and racism against Blacks are expressed today in residential segregation, housing discrimination, and discrimination in the labor market.

For Katz, who has been studying housing discrimination and its effects on upward mobility, public policies can be implemented to reduce residential segregation. A study Katz co-authored with Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren, professor of economics, found that when low-income families move to lower-poverty neighborhoods, with help of housing vouchers and assistance, it is likely to reduce the persistence of poverty across generations. Chetty and Hendren, along with John Friedman of Brown University, were the co-founding directors of the Equality of Opportunity Project, now expanded and called Opportunity Insights, based at Harvard.

Growing inequality is spoiling the chances to have a better life than the previous generation. Recent numbers show that the top 1 percent has seen their wages grow by 157 percent over the last four decades, while the wages of the bottom 90 percent grew by only 24 percent.

The American dream has sort of shifted from one in which the economic growth of the nation was shared more across the income distribution, said Goldin. Now its essentially a lottery. It is as if we all go on, buy a ticket to the lotto game, and a couple of people from the millions are going to win it. And the rest of the people are not going to share in that.

To keep the American dream alive and return to the era of shared prosperity, the government must act, said Katz. Both Goldin and Katz believe that an expansion of investment in higher education infrastructure and access to a high-quality college education would have a powerful impact in the lives of many Americans. It could be similar to the effects of the high school movement, which lifted millions of American families out of poverty during the first half of the 20th century.

In the early 20th century, we allowed everyone access to high school, said Katz. We have never done that for college, even though college is as essential today as high school was 100 years ago.

The economic returns of a college degree are important, but the social returns are also valuable, said Anthony Jack, assistant professor of education at the Graduate School of Education.

Workers who are more educated tend to be in jobs that are more recession- and pandemic- proof, said Jack, who also holds the Shutzer Assistant Professorships at the Radcliffe Institute. They also tend to live longer, have better health outcomes, and be more civically engaged. Education means more than just extra dollars in the bank. Its also the constellation of things that come along with it.

But the road to college has become increasingly harder, especially for low-income people, even though access to college for disadvantaged students has increased over the past two decades. A report by the Pew Research Center found that the number of enrolled undergraduates from lower-income backgrounds grew from 12 percent in 1996 to 20 percent in 2016. Most of that growth has taken place in public two-year colleges and less-selective institutions.

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Racial wealth gap may be a key to other inequities - Harvard Gazette

Factories that abuse and underpay staff could be banned from sales under new watchdog – The Mirror

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

A new workers watchdog which will enforce rules on modern slavery and minimum wages has been proposed by the government.

There are also plans to bring in greater protection for agency workers and a new adjudicator to investigate company supply chains.

If brands are found to flout these rules, they could face having their goods banned from sale under the new watchdog.

At the moment, there are three different bodies that deal with these types of issues - the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and HMRCs National Minimum Wage Enforcement.

But the plans for a new watchdog will effectively combine all these authorities under one umbrella.

The government says the new watchdog will enhance workers rights by providing a single port of call for employees to blow the whistle on bad behaviour.

It will also have the ability to ensure vulnerable workers get the holiday pay and statutory sick pay they are entitled to.

Extra curbs aimed at targeting the clothing sector - including banning sales of brands who are found to allow bad behaviour - are being explored as well.

The government says this could work by either creating a Garment Trade Adjudicator, or by extending an agricultural licensing scheme.

Under that scheme, businesses who provide agricultural workers must have a license, and can be inspected to make sure they are meeting employment standards.

It comes after online retail giant Boohoo was last year alleged to have paid staff as little as 3.50 an hour in some UK factories.

This led to Boohoo launching an internal review and cutting its supplier network from an estimated 500 firms to under 100.

Following the claims, the retailer said it would "immediately disclose" any suggestions of modern day slavery "to the relevant authorities".

The plans for the new watchdog were confirmed in a consultation response today and come as part of wider efforts to protect workers rights.

Paul Scully, Business Minister, said: This government has been absolutely clear that we will do whatever we can to protect and enhance workers rights.

The vast majority of businesses want to do right by their staff, but there are a minority who seem to think the law doesnt apply to them. Exploitative practices like modern slavery have no place in society.

This new workers watchdog will help us crack down on any abuses of workers rights and take action against companies that turn a blind eye to abuses in their supply chains.

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Factories that abuse and underpay staff could be banned from sales under new watchdog - The Mirror

Dr. Heavenly’s Job Advice Has Fans In A Fury. Here’s Why. – Nicki Swift

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

Although Dr. Heavenly Kimes' advice to work for free was slammed by many, she went on to defend her point of view.

"Employers take advantage of people who are good workers and accept lesser pay ... They [are] not getting what they deserve," one person replied to herTwitter tip, to which she responded, "Not true., if you bring money to the business. By being a top producer and/or. You have skills most do not. With a great attitude...The employer will pay more to keep you!"

She didn't stop there and continued to make some pretty big assumptions about her critics."Heavenly out here promoting slavery in 2021. You out here giving your best for free. Spending money you don't have to get to a job that doesn't pay..." anotherwrote to Dr. Heavenly."Nope, I'm trying to help you get a job!! Chances are [you're] not doing anything anyway ... probably collecting unemployment ... Why not prove yourself for the job you want! THINK. !!! However, closed-minded people will never get ahead," she slammed in response.

Someone else even called her advice "exploitation," prompting her towrite,"Stay jobless, you just don't get it. But a successful person knows it doesn't happen overnight you have to go get it!" Plus, when another fan called her remarks, "bulls**t," she was quick to pass judgment, stating, "I can already tell you are unemployed!"Despite the backlash, it looks like Dr. Heavenly's sticking to her word.

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Dr. Heavenly's Job Advice Has Fans In A Fury. Here's Why. - Nicki Swift

Germany, France and the UK apologize for the colonial past – Mediarun Search

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

In an effort to recognize and reclaim, European nations are reconsidering the historical events of the exploitation of affected, enslaved, or annihilated people. One is that Germany has recently apologized for its role in the genocide that took place in Namibia 100 years ago.

The German government paid more than 1 billion euros in compensation to the African country, in the form of funding for projects under development. Despite the gesture, the head of the Namibian Genocide Victims Association says the offer was not enough.

France followed a similar path with Rwandas former colony. During a visit to Africa, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the role of the European nation in the 1990s massacre.

In the UK, the Bank of England apologized for former members who profited from slavery. The company developed a policy to end wage differences linked to the race and gender of employees.

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Germany, France and the UK apologize for the colonial past - Mediarun Search

Hunter Biden uses n-word multiple times in casual conversations and text messages show – Texasnewstoday.com

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

Hunter Bidens text message revealed that he used n words multiple times in a conversation with a white lawyer with an hourly wage of $ 845.

The shocking text is for his father, President Joe Biden, who just gave a speech condemning racism for the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre last week and has tried to portray racial justice as a top priority for his administration. It can be embarrassing.

In a text addressed to corporate lawyer George Messiah in January 2019, the presidents son joked about a big penis and told the lawyer, I love you because you are black. Dat n *** a .

In another document a month ago, he wrote to a Chicago lawyer: Because you shouldnt charge me a Hennessy fee.

Mesiles replied:

The hunter added: This is what Im saying I cut off the racist slander and sent a text message to Messiah.

A text message recovered from Hunter Bidens abandoned laptop shows that the presidents son (pictured last month) used n words multiple times in a casual conversation with white lawyer George Messiah. Is

In a December 2018 text message exchange obtained by the DailyMail.com show, the hunter asked Messiah: Dont charge me a Hennessy fee (sic) n ***

In another exchange the following month, the hunter frivolously spoke to Messiah again, n *** a, joking in a seemingly gloomy conversation, I just love you, so youre black. It was.

The photos were not downloaded to the hunters laptop, and the DailyMail.com restored the text exchange.

But Mesiles replied: Why are you so tanned?

Im sorry I sexted for another friend, Georgia, Hunter replied.

In the January text exchange, two men were talking about philosophy and joking.

Mesiles: I have an unconditional ideal of love on my behalf. I dont have much. You. God,

Hunter: Oh, were you just a fictional character born of the imagination of a group?

Mesires: My parents love was conditioned.

Hunter: My penis these days is unconditional.

Mesiles: Thats why were looking for it.

Hunter: For my penis

Mesires: And we are always looking.

Hunter: Big penis, George. They always find it. And I love you because youre black.

Mesires: Its very annoying to talk about frivolity.

Hunter:Thats true, but Ive finished my rant.

The photos stored on the hunters laptop included a meme of his father and President Obama, but also an n-word.

The meme, dated June 5, 2017, mentioned that Obama and Biden left the White House in 2016. The hunter was photographed in 2010 with his father and President Obama.

In October 2018, Mesiles sent hunter business partner Marvin Yang an invoice involved in a notorious deal with Chinese oil giant CEFC, and the lawyers hourly wage was $ 845.

Bills, including Hunters joint venture with Chinese, Telephone Conference with H. Biden on Hudson West, totaled $ 88,465 for 107 hours of work from August 2017 to April 2018.

Some of the photos stored on the hunters laptop contained memes containing n-words.

The hunter repeatedly described racist slander while talking to Chicagos corporate lawyer, George Messiah.

The June 5, 2017 meme included a photo of Joe Biden hugging Barack Obama and a caption explaining a joke conversation between the former and vice presidents.

Obama: Im lonely, man

Joe: Can I say that? only this time?

Obama: * Sigh * Please

Joe: Barack Obama

Its unclear why the hunter saved the meme on his computer.

Neither he nor Mesires responded to the DailyMail.coms request for comment.

The presidents son and the White House repeatedly did not respond to requests from the DailyMail.com for the material on his laptop.

His 51-year-old computer had a week-long internet browsing history from March 2019, but he abandoned it at a Delaware store.

Hunters father sought to make race a central issue in both the presidential campaign and his administration in a national protest against racism and police atrocities in 2020.

The message emerged a few days after Joe Biden gave a speech condemning racism to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre in Oklahoma.

Joe Biden said he had come to fill the silence in a speech last week following the Tulsa massacre, in which a white mob killed an estimated 300 blacks in Oklahoma.

Some injustices are so vicious, horrifying, so miserable that no matter how hard people try, they cant be buried, he said. Only truth can bring healing.

Biden has vowed to fight racism in police after George Floyds death and supports studies seeking compensation for slavery and other injustices against African Americans.

The president chose the first black vice president in the United States, and he himself was the vice president of the first black president.

In an interview with NBC Today Show in April, the president said he did not believe the country was racist.

The sentence may be embarrassing for the president, who has tried to portray racial justice as the administrations top priority.

I dont think America is a racist, he said. But I think there was a price to pay for the Jim Crow Law and earlier slavery.

400 years later, African Americans are far behind eight-ball in terms of education, health, and opportunity.

We have to deal with it.

Mr. Biden was previously the subject of slander alleging that he used n-word as an epithet of race.

Smia used a video of the 1985 Senate hearing, saying Biden I already have one mayor. I dont need to shoot any more big shots!

The senator at the time spoke that word, but in reality he quoted a member of the state of Louisiana and asked William Bradford Reynolds, who was appointed Deputy Attorney General at the time, why he was a member of the Diet. Asked if he allowed the gerrymandering to underestimate the black population, ignoring racist comments.

However, since the hearing in 1985, the attitude towards issuing n words, even quotes, has changed.

In October 2020, a freshman at Rutgers Law School in Newark used the term in a quote from a 1993 legal opinion in class to inform other students in advance that the quote contained a swearing. I warned you.

The student said: He uses racial language, uh, but its a quote. He said, I went to Trenton and came back with n *****. I will.

A line of competition broke out last month when her fellow students sent a petition to her and her professor to apologize.

The New York Times reported that university officials had discussed banning the use of the term in class at a series of meetings.

Hunter Biden uses n-word multiple times in casual conversations and text messages show

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Clack: Remember these other massacres of Blacks, too – San Antonio Express-News

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Danzig

Editors note: This is the second of two columns on the Tulsa massacre.

By this date in 1921, the thick black smoke from arsonists on the ground and in the sky that hovered over Tulsas Greenwood district had cleared, revealing the smoldering ruins of a Black community destroyed by hate.

Today, the history of the Tulsa Race Massacre is seen in stunning clarity, its centennial surrounded by unprecedented media coverage including a spate of documentaries, books, and newspaper, magazine and online articles.

But Tulsa wasnt an aberration, an atrocity never seen before or since. It wasnt the only Black community in the United States to be attacked by white supremacists. Still shrouded and buried deep in our history are other datelines of racist mob violence.

It was a violence rooted in the institution of slavery. John Locke, the 17th-century English political philosopher, wrote that when a man enslaves another man, he has entered a state of war with him. After emancipation and the Civil War, Black people sought to raise families, own land, build businesses, create safe and self-sustaining communities, and live in freedom and peace.

But Jim Crow, Black Codes and white mobs, especially in the South, continued to wage war on them.

During Reconstruction, on Easter Sunday in 1873 in Colfax, La., armed Black men whod gathered to defend a courthouse surrendered to a white paramilitary group known as the White League. Upon surrender, as many as 150 of the Black men were killed, some after being held prisoner for several hours.

In 1898, Wilmington, N.C., was a city with a Black majority, Black elected officials who served as part of a multiracial government and a prosperous Black middle class. On Nov. 10, white supremacists declared a White Declaration of Independence, overthrew the local government and murdered 60 to 300 Black residents. David Zucchino, author of Wilmingtons Lie: The Murderous Coup Of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy calls it Americas first and only armed overthrow of a legally elected government.

In Slocum in East Texas, whites in July 1910 went on a rampage against Black residents, shooting them down, torching their homes and running them out of town. No one knows how many were killed. It could be in the dozens. It could be 100 to 200. As is often the case in these massacres, bodies were buried in mass graves or thrown into rivers.

The year 1919 was so bloody with racial violence across the United States that it was called the Red Summer. That July in Longview, white people burned down homes and business of Black residents, killing one. In September in Elaine, Ark., a white mob attacked Black farmers attempting to unionize, killing up to 200 Black residents.

Before Tulsas centennial, the 1923 murders of 150 Black people in Rosewood, Fla., may have been the better known of the massacres because of John Singletons 1997 film Rosewood.

There were other massacres, along with more than a century of domestic terrorism lynchings, and Black citizens being run out of towns, and Black citizens having their land confiscated. Animating all these attacks were white supremacy and the desire to suppress the rights and ambitions of Black citizens.

Beyond terrorizing Blacks, these were assaults on democracy, a decades-long campaign of pillage and plunder that, paired with the use of laws, limited the opportunities of African Americans to fully participate in the political system and create generational wealth.

This isnt Black history that should be taught and known. This is American history that should be taught and known. The only reason for not wanting to learn all your nations history, the ugly as well as the glorious, is that you dont want to feel uncomfortable or be held accountable.

Our intelligence agencies warn that white nationalist groups are the greatest threat to the nation. In 1921, white supremacy destroyed Black Tulsa. In 2021, white supremacy threatens to destroy the United States. This time, as violence escalates and democracy is dismantled, Black people wont be the only ones who suffer.

Whatever discomfort we feel learning unpleasant facts about our history pales to the pain well feel in refusing to learn from that history.

Cary.Clack@express-news.net

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Clack: Remember these other massacres of Blacks, too - San Antonio Express-News

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