EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP Daily Tech Analysis August 5th, 2020 – FX Empire

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For the day ahead

Ethereum would need to move through the $391.38 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $402.08.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ethereum to break back through to $400 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level should cap any upside.

A fall through the $391.38 pivot would bring the first major support level at $379.11 into play.

Barring an extended sell-off, however, Ethereum should steer clear of sub-$360 levels. The second major support level at $368.41 and the 38.2% FIB of $367 should limit any downside.

First Major Support Level: $379.11

Pivot Level: $391.38

First Major Resistance Level: $402.08

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $257

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $367

62% FIB Retracement Level: $543

Ripples XRP fell by 2.90% on Tuesday. Partially reversing Mondays 7.58% rally, Ripples XRP ended the day at $0.30124.

A bullish start to the day saw Ripples XRP rise to an early morning intraday high $0.3190 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.3249, Ripples XRP fell to an early afternoon intraday low $0.29026.

While steering clear of the first major support level at $0.2892, Ripples XRP fell through the 23.6% FIB of $0.3134.

Finding late support, Ripples XRP recovered to $0.30 levels to cut the deficit on the day.

At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was down by 1.46% to $0.29685. A bearish start to the day saw Ripples XRP fall from an early morning high $0.30239 to a low $0.29418

Ripples XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

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EOS, Ethereum and Ripple's XRP Daily Tech Analysis August 5th, 2020 - FX Empire

Ethereum Is the Best-Performing Asset Class of 2020 – Cointelegraph

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The average performance across Ethereum (ETH)-based assets has been a nearly 130% year-to-date (YTD) gain, according to data published by market data aggregator Messari.

The data provides an overview of the 178 assets that currently exist on Ethereum, totaling a combined market capitalization of $63.7 billion just shy of 20% of the entire crypto capitalization.

Including stablecoins, 124 of the assets have posted a YTD gain, meaning that 70% of Ethereum-based tokens have increased in value despite the shocks felt across the global economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

10 ETH-based tokens have posted YTD gains exceeding 500%, including major decentralized finance protocols Bancor (BNT) and Kyber Network (KNC).

One-third of Ethereum-based markets have more than doubled in value since the start of the year, with Ether ranking as the 41st-strongest performing asset with YTD gains of 142%.

15 tokens have suffered single-digit percentage losses, while nine assets have shed over half of their value during 2020 so far.

Excluding Tether, only Ether and Crypto.com Coin (CRO) sit among the top 10 crypto assets by market cap, closely followed by the 12th-ranked Chainlink (LINK).

Bitfinexs Unus Sed Leo (LEO) token and the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin are also ranked among the 20-largest cryptocurrencies.

The rankings highlight Ethereums popularity among stablecoin issuers, with seven of the 25-largest ETH-based assets comprising stable tokens.

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Ethereum Is the Best-Performing Asset Class of 2020 - Cointelegraph

Ethereum Doubled in Price In Less Than a Month More Upside to Come – InvestingCube

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The second-biggest cryptocurrency following Bitcoin, Ethereum is on a tear higher this year. So as to celebrate its fifth year of existence, Ethereum doubled in value in the second half of July and the start of August. It rose from the $200 area to over $400, in a move with little pullbacks, filled with continuation patterns only.

Is it the demise of the USD that drives the price higher? Or the investors search for a new alternative for their investments? Or, even more, the excitement about the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 set to go live in 2020?

The Ethereum 2.0 project, to launch in phases (the first phase due out this upcoming fall), aims at challenging the Bitcoins blockchain dominance. Ethereum supporters argue that the Bitcoin blockchain is already too old for the current needs of society.

Ethereum 2.0 allows better scaling of the original projects capabilities by improving some of its features such as abandoning proof-of-work and introducing sharding, a technology improving Ethereums speed considerably.

Regardless of the fundamental reason lying behind Ethereums meteoric rise in 2020, it even outpaced Bitcoin in terms of market performance.

Since it broke higher in the second part of July, Ethereum did not look bank a bit. With the exception of a sharp sell-off triggered by Bitcoin after it broke the $12,000 mark, Ethereum evolved in a strong bullish trend.

Speaking about the rising trend, it is still visible. The series of higher highs and higher lows continues, arguing for more strength moving forward.

Initially, Ethereum formed a pennant. A continuation pattern, it reached the measured move after the pennant broke higher.

Following the measured moves completion, the flash crash generated by Bitcoin sent Ethereum back to support. On its bounce higher, it forms another triangle as a continuation pattern a sign that more strength is about to come.

To trade it, place a pending order to buy at the recent highs, with a stop-loss at the lowest point in the new triangular pattern. Next, measure the distance from the entry to the stop and project it twice to the upside to find out the target for a 1:2 risk-reward ratio.

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Ethereum Doubled in Price In Less Than a Month More Upside to Come - InvestingCube

XRP Daily Trade Volume Increases by Over 400% in Q3, 2020 – Ethereum World News

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In summary:

The digital asset of XRP has had an eventful first half of the third quarter of 2020. July 1st found XRP trading at around the $0.17 support zone. Since then, the digital asset has since broken out of a two-year-long falling wedge first identified by the veteran crypto analyst, MagicPoopCannon. Furthermore, XRP has since reclaimed its number 3 spot from Tether (USDT) on Coinmarketcap.

XRPs upward momentum has resulted in a local peak of $0.327 on the 2nd of August. In the same time period, the daily XRP trade volume has increased from $1 Billion to $5.17 Billion. The latter value was attained on the same date of August 2nd and after the local top was achieved. This is an increment of 417% since the beginning of the third quarter of 2020.

The chart below by Santiment.net provides a better visual cue of the increment in daily trade volume.

At the time XRP was attempting to claim the $0.30 resistance level, the team at Ripple released the Q2 XRP market report. One key takeaway from the document is the announcement by Ripple, of the sale of $32.55 Million in XRP during the second quarter of 2020.

The sale of the aforementioned XRP was Over-The-Counter and thus did not affect the crypto market value of the digital asset. The team at Ripple further elaborated on this fact as follows.

In Q2 2020, total XRP sales were $32.55 million (USD) vs. $1.75 million the previous quarter. Ripple continued the pause of programmatic sales, focusing solely on its over-the-counter (OTC) sales as part of providing increased XRP liquidity to RippleNets On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) customers. This added liquidity is vital as ODL continues to evolve and expand into new corridors.

Summing it up, if the current bullish crypto market environment prevails, XRP looks set to continue on its upward trajectory and possibly hit the $0.77 value predicted by Magic.

As with all analyses of XRP, traders and investors are advised to have an eye out for any sudden price movements by Bitcoin that might affect the crypto markets.

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XRP Daily Trade Volume Increases by Over 400% in Q3, 2020 - Ethereum World News

‘Ethereal Sessions’ focuses on Ethereum-based gaming – Decrypt

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Gamersthis one's for you. Thursday nights Ethereal Session focuses on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and Ethereum-based decentralized gaming.

The free event kicks off at 7 PM EST with virtual discussions among Alex Connolly CTO of Immutable (creators of Gods Unchained), Marguerite Decourcelle, CEO of Blockade Games, and Nicolas Julia, Co-Founder of SuperRare. This session is sponsored by Gods Unchained, Immutable, Gitcoin, SuperRare,and Consensys(which funds Decrypt.)

Ethereum unlocks new opportunities for gamers to become creators, entrepreneurs, and even service providers, Brian OHagan of SuperRare, told Decrypt. Web3 technologies are evolving the nature of gaming by providing four new features: Digital ownership, scarcity, provenance, and peripheral markets.

Ethereal Sessions is an every-few-weekly series of virtual events that brings together builders and others interested in the decentralized future. Its goal is to examine how decentralized technology impacts peoples lives around the world. The sessions are recorded and available for playback.

No registration is required. For more information, go to etherealsummit.com

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'Ethereal Sessions' focuses on Ethereum-based gaming - Decrypt

Coinbase struggles to keep up with Ethereum flash crash – Decrypt

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Crypto exchange Coinbase has struggled to keep up with Ethereums flash crash.

As Ethereums price briefly hit levels unseens since August 2018, and associated ERC-20 tokens spiked in price, Coinbases servers hit some snags.

Both Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, as well as all ERC20 tokens, including those of DeFi protocols Compound, Maker and Chainlink, now suffer from degraded performance, Coinbase wrote on its website.

The issue, as reported in a Coinbase Incident report, concerns delayed withdrawals and deposits.

The problems hit ETH and ERC-20 tokens first, at 5.52am (UTC) on Sundayjust after the flash crash, during which the price of ETH fell from its peak of $411 to $370 within five minutes.Then at 10.50am, Coinbase recognized an issue with delayed Ethereum Classic deposits.

For whatever reason, Coinbases servers couldnt handle it.

It could be the case that lots of people tried to sell off their ETH to prevent further losses. At the time of the crash, daily trading volume on Coinbase rose from $822 million to $1.1 billion within half an hour, according to metrics site Coin Gecko. Another reason could be that traders were busy converting their money into other, more stable currencies.

Coinbase resolved the Ethereum Classic issue within a couple of hours, but the site still lists the coin as suffering from degraded performance. As for ETH and its ERC-20 brethren, the message posted seven hours ago still remains: The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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Audius Rallies EDM Artists, Crypto VCs to Back Vision for Music Payments on Ethereum – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

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Music is back on the blockchain.

Audius, a streaming service that connects music fans directly with artists, has raised $3.1 million in a strategic round co-led by Multicoin Capital and Blockchange Ventures, with participation from Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures.

Audius has now raised a total of $8.6 million as the platform prepares for prime time, having grown in less than a year to over 250,000 monthly users and 40,000 artists. EDM artists seem to be the sites burgeoning specialty with notables including RAC, deadmau5, Lido, 3LAU, Zeds Dead, Mr. Carmack and REZZ all signed on.

The blockchain use case for music is a familiar one: the inequity and tardiness of the revenue model of streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify.

It shouldnt take a year and a half to get paid, and its just crazy that the people creating the music only take 12%, Audius CEO Roneil Rumburg said in an interview. After this extreme time delay, the artist just gets this check, so they dont actually see whos listening to them. There is no visibility because the artist doesnt own their own data or their audience.

The Audius P2P network allows artists to be paid in full by their fans, directly and instantly for every stream with the ability to cash out daily or hourly if they want, Rumburg added.

Fair trade but for music

Ethereum-based Audius picks up the mantle carried by ConsenSys-backed Ujo Music and groundbreaking projects like Imogen Heaps Mycelia, which the artist described as fair trade music.

Indeed, folks such as Jesse Grushack, co-founder and CEO of the now-shuttered Ujo Music, have helped and advised Audius, as has Ujos former artist-in-residence, Andr Allen Anjos, better known by his stage name RAC, a Grammy Award winner who has remixed the likes of New Order, Lady Gaga and the Kings of Leon.

Anjos, who worked with Ujo for over a year and released an album on Ethereum, said the problem was the complexity of onboarding users.

We used to kind of joke that it could take like 36 steps to get ether into MetaMask, Anjos said in an interview. Just to interact with these systems you needed to go through this crazy setup, and I think Ujo kind of suffered from that. But today, if you go to Audius its a pretty similar experience to any other platform, arguably better. That initial barrier to entry is not a problem anymore.

Audius, which was founded in 2018 by Stanford University buddies Rumburg and Chief Product Officer Forrest Browning, has benefitted from a kind of diaspora of talent that had already been working on this problem, said Rumburg.

Back in 2016, when these projects came about, was just really early, he said. The amount of stuff that [ConsenSys founder] Joe [Lubin] had to build from scratch was just this astronomical ask.

The Audius team may have built the music player with a user interface that looks and feels like Spotify or SoundCloud, but it couldnt be more different under the hood.

Decentralized streaming

The network consists of indexing nodes, which provide a discovery service, and content-posting or creator nodes. This intersection of fans, artists and infrastructure providers who host and index content (stakers in blockchain parlance), uses both the Ethererum public blockchain (which is where all the staking and look-up nodes are running) and a second, permissioned network where the uploaded content lives.

Its fully community-operated and hosted, said Rumburg. Today, if we shut down Audius, the company, all of this could keep working and keep running so long as the community wants to keep it up and running.

Following on from a minimum viable product mainnet launch in the next couple of months, the next stage is to add instant payments for monetized content, which will use a system of stablecoins and be in place before the end of the year, said Rumburg.

Payments will be done with a kind of stablecoin mechanism. So thats not like an Audius native token, but a basket of third-party tokens. Itll probably be a couple of the bigger ones, he said. Were looking for good fiat to crypto on-ramp options. From the users perspective, they dont even know this is happening. They just put in a credit card and top up that account and see a balance.

The user interface for artists is just as simple, said Audius CPO Forrest Browning.

As an artist, if you decide to monetize some of your content, your Audius dashboard might show you have $500 or whatever is your local currency, and with a one-click direct deposit you can pull that out, without knowing a stable token system was integrated, Browning said.

Deep cuts

Music distribution on the internet has moved on since the time of Napster, but when an artist is signed to a label the label owns the rights to the artists master copies and gets to decide where that content is distributed. There seems to be more opportunity for negotiation these days, particularly between artists and forward-thinking independent labels.

The majority of our usage right now is coming from independent artists who are not signed, said Rumburg. Those that are signed to progressive labels have gone and got permission from their label. I think the mentality is, the sooner you sign up to a system like this, the more following and momentum you build, similar to early accounts on SoundCloud or anything else like that.

RAC, who is signed to iconic U.K. indie label Ninja Tune, said the conversation about him releasing an album on Ethereum back in 2017 was very easygoing, because the label is tech savvy.

The way to go is obviously to ask the label for permission, but I feel like it would be a non-issue in most cases. I think most labels would say, Why not? and just approach this as another distribution platform, he said.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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CREATION OF INVESTMENT COURT IN UKRAINE WILL HELP DOING BUSINESS – Ukraine open for business

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The creation of an investment court, an idea promulgated by Ukraines Justice Minister Denys Maliuska, could facilitate doing business in Ukraine, Omerta Organized Law Group head Yevhen Fedoseyev has said.The declared creation of an investment court will greatly facilitate doing business in Ukraine, because if investors have a virtually unconditional guarantee that in any case, their property rights and interests are practically not threatened, they will start investing more in our country, he told Interfax-Ukraine.The lawyer noted that this initiative is not new, and similar courts already exist in a number of countries.Investors from all over the world are increasingly turning to investment arbitration as a way of resolving a dispute with the state every year. This mechanism for protecting the rights of an investor has proved to be effective, which is confirmed by both the number of international bilateral and multilateral agreements containing clauses on investment arbitration, and the number of initiated cases, he said.Fedoseyev recalled that a permanent arbitration institute, the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has been operating in Ukraine for more than 25 years, however, appeals to him are not too popular, since none of the Ukraine agreements concluded on mutual assistance and protection of foreign investment provides for the ICAC at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry as an institution for resolving investment disputes, as well as because of general legal nihilism. Of course, the new court in Ukraine will need to develop a practice that has been built in the courts of Western Europe for decades, however, the transparency of the creation of such a body, its competence, objectivity can create a positive image not only for the body itself, but also for the state as a whole, which will ensure inflow of new investors into the country, the lawyer emphasized.As reported, in early July at a meeting with European business representatives, Maliuska announced an initiative to create a concept for creating a separate court that would deal with investors cases arbitration or a separate court that would consider cases with the participation of business.

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BUSINESS, INVESTMENT COURT

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CREATION OF INVESTMENT COURT IN UKRAINE WILL HELP DOING BUSINESS - Ukraine open for business

Coast Guard: Fisherman with eye injury rescued 150 miles offshore of Yaquina Bay – KPTV.com

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Coast Guard: Fisherman with eye injury rescued 150 miles offshore of Yaquina Bay - KPTV.com

Fugro conducts remote inspection of O&G platform offshore UK – Offshore Technology

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]]]]]]>]]]]>]]> Fugro has performed first 'fully remote' platform inspection on UK continental shelf. Credit: Fugro.

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Dutch geological survey firm Fugro has performed a full remote inspection of an oil and gas platform in the UK waters.

The inspection, which the company claims is a first for the UK sector, has been conducted using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and Fugros remote operations centre (ROC) in Aberdeen.

The entire jacket structure of the platform, located 250km east of Scotland, has been inspected remotely.

This operation demonstrated the companys capabilities in performing remote operations.

Fugro Europe IRM services director Karl Daly said: This innovative approach allowed for efficient scope delivery and demonstrates to all our clients the opportunities for maximising operational windows while reducing offshore HSSE exposure, which is always important but even more so during the current pandemic.

The company said that it initially planned to trial the remote inspection provision of the platform during the campaign.

Due to Covid-19, only one engineer with offshore inspection expertise was present to mobilise the platform.

Fugros Aberdeen ROC based inspection engineers were brought in to help deliver the whole project remotely on-time.

According to the company, the ROV was equipped with dedicated remote systems for visual inspection, cathodic protection, as well as flooded member detection.

The Dutch firm also transacted a component orientated anomaly-based inspection system (COABIS) database across the offshore and onshore locations.

This allowed the companys client and ROC staff to access data acquired by the remotely operated vehicle in near real-time.

Last month, Fugro completed the first phase of its offshore site investigation for LNG firm Qatargas North Field production sustainability compression phase.

In June,Fugro secured an inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM) contract from Seamecto support the latters asset management project for Indias ONGC.

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Fugro conducts remote inspection of O&G platform offshore UK - Offshore Technology

Vento Maritime Joins MMT on US Offshore Wind Project – Offshore WIND

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MMT US Inc. has awarded Vento Maritime with a contract for MetOcean forecasts and weather support at Equinors Beacon Wind project offshore Massachusetts.

Earlier this year, Equinor Wind US contracted MMT for geophysical survey services at the offshore wind lease area in New England.

The project covers high resolution geophysical, benthic surveys and shallow subsurface surveys for project planning and engineering.

Work will be performed by the Stril Explorer, which is expected to arrive in the U.S. in a few days and is planned to run continuously to Q2 next year, Vento Maritime said.

The company is also providing tropical storm warnings, a service that has been in effect the last couple of days as ex-hurricane Isaias passed inland along the U.S. East Coast.

In early 2019, EquinorsecuredLease OCS-A 0520, now known as Beacon Wind, offshore New England for USD 135 million.

The area covers 128,000ha and is located approximately 20 miles south of Massachusetts and 70 miles east of New York.

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Vento Maritime Joins MMT on US Offshore Wind Project - Offshore WIND

Fraunhofer IWES Forms Offshore Wind Ties in Japan – Offshore WIND

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Tsubasa Windfarm Design (TWD), Fraunhofer IWES, and Kobe University have started collaborating to provide wind farm design services for projects offshore Japan.

Fraunhofer IWES is specialized in offshore layout optimization and has been actively developing its own wake models which take into account atmospheric stability conditions.

According to the German research centre, Prof. Dr. Teruo Ohsawa from Kobe University is the leading expert and has over 15 years of experience in using the weather research and forecasting model (WRF) for predicting Japans offshore wind conditions.

Dr. Ohsawa was also the technical head responsible for the national offshore wind speed map project NeoWins.

This collaboration allows us to implement the best methods of wind field variational analysis in space and time on advanced optimization methods, said Dr. Bernhard Stoevesandt, Head of Department Aerodynamics, CFD and Stochastic Dynamics of Fraunhofer IWES.

Even as the wind conditions are strongly influenced by the land sea transition in many cases, the expected yield in Japan is quite promising.

The partners have already evaluated wind farm designs for major players in the Japanese market such as Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), SB-Energy, and Japan Renewable Energy (JRE), Fraunhofer IWES said.

It is a great example of how research and industry can work hand in hand to foster future development to produce highly efficient offshore wind farms, said Graham Li from TWD.

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This startup’s ‘reef cubes’ could be a plastic-free way to protect marine biodiversity and offshore wind turbines – GreenBiz

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Artificial reefs play an important role in protecting offshore installations such as wind farms. Unprotected, the turbine masts are exposed to tidal scouring, undermining their foundations.

Engineers often use undersea concrete "mats" composed of large blocks to protect the bottom of these towers on the seabed. There are 40,000 of them in the waters around the United Kingdom alone.

Wind farms are an important part of our transition to a low-carbon economy. But many concrete defenses submerged to protect them contain plastics and are considered by environmental groups to be marine litter. This often needs to be removed, recycled or disposed of.

One start-up has developed an alternative. ARC Marines reef cubes are made from recycled aggregate and sand that is a byproduct of the quarrying industry. The company says this reduces carbon emissions by 90 percent compared to the processes used to make common types of cement.

The cubes interlock, leaving larger living spaces for fish, crabs and lobsters, and their porous surface is designed to allow marine plants to establish easily and grow. The aim is for these alternative reefs to protect vital offshore installations from storms and erosion while also encouraging marine biodiversity.

The cost of removing the existing concrete mats is estimated at $32 million for each gigawatt of a wind farms output, according to ARC Marine. Reef cubes are designed to be left in place even after a farm has been decommissioned.

Around 70 percentof coral reefs are under threat, whilstrock reefs also sufferfrom damage due to practices such as trawling and dredging.

Its an urgent problem. Around 70 percent of coral reefs are under threat, whilst rock reefs also suffer from damage due to practices such as trawling and dredging. The United Nations has warned that half of all marine species could be on the brink of extinction by the end of this century.

Tom Birbeck, CEO and founder of ARC Marine, has called the reef cubes "building blocks for the ocean" and said they were inspired by the belief that every offshore and coastal project can have a positive impact on ocean health. The company added that it can help with meeting five of the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals, primarily goal 14: conserving life below water.

"Reef cubes accelerate reef creation and help repair ecosystems that have been destroyed from centuries of bottom trawling and dredging," he said.

The global increase in offshore wind demand provides an unprecedented opportunity to rebuild rocky reef habitats around offshore construction projects which historically have caused damage and often deploy toxic and plastic-laden materials.

By restoring the marine environment, the cubes also can encourage sustainable fishing and eco-tourism, he says. And if coupled with a ban on trawling in areas where they are submerged, they could help fish stocks to recover.

The team behind the cubes was shortlisted for the 2020 Offshore Achievement Awards often dubbed "the offshore Oscars" for their work on the project.

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This startup's 'reef cubes' could be a plastic-free way to protect marine biodiversity and offshore wind turbines - GreenBiz

More lease areas are needed to maximize US offshore wind potential, says Wood Mackenzie – Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine

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Offshore staff

WASHINGTON, D.C. The United States has an opportunity to accelerate offshore wind energy growth, and benefit from 28 new gigawatts of clean energy and $1.7 billion in US Treasury revenue by 2022, according to a new study from Wood Mackenzie.

Findings from this study confirm additional lease areas are needed to meet demand, reduce energy costs, increase competition, and ultimately generate thousands of jobs and billions in investment. Additionally, the findings offer guidance to decision-makers about new offshore wind leases, which can be a short-term solution to jump start recovery from a coronavirus pandemic-driven economic slowdown.

Commissioned by four energy industry groups, American Wind Energy Association, National Ocean Industries Association, New York Offshore Wind Alliance, and the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind at the University of Delaware, the study dives into the economic impact of offshore wind activities as a result of potential Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) lease auctions in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Based on existing activities and policy assumptions for future offshore wind development, two million acres of federal waters in the New York Bight, which includes parts of New Jersey, as well as California and the Carolinas, could be auctioned for commercial leases as early as this year as well as in 2021. According to Economic Impact Study of New Offshore Wind Lease Auctions by BOEM, such leasing could support 28 GW of offshore wind development and generate $1.2 billion in US Treasury revenue. Other auctions for lease areas in the Gulf of Maine and areas in California could happen in 2022 and would generate an additional $500 million in US Treasury revenue.

Significant capital investment will be put into the US economy to support offshore wind activities, the study finds. Total investment in the US offshore wind industry will be $17 billion by 2025, $108 billion by 2030, and $166 billion by 2035. From 2022 to 2035, capital investment of $42 billion will go to turbine manufacturers and the supply chain, $107 billion will go to the construction industry, and $8 billion will go to the transportation industry and ports. Annual capital investment for operations and maintenance activities will increase to $2.4 billion in 2035.

In addition to delivering clean energy to millions of households, the study indicates the offshore wind industry will also contribute a variety of economic benefits to the US economy, including supporting tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in capital investment. If the assumed BOEM auctions in 2021 and 2022 happen, total full-time equivalent job creation from the resulting offshore wind activities, including development, construction, and operation will be about 80,000 jobs annually from 2025 to 2035.

NOIA President Erik Milito said: American offshore wind is a generational opportunity. Infrastructure spending, energy security, and shovel-ready jobs with good wages will be unleashed. Importantly, offshore wind development will support jobs throughout the entire US. The same shipbuilders, heavy lift vessel operators, steel fabricators and countless other companies who built the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas sector stand ready to lend their expertise to the American offshore wind industry.

08/04/2020

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More lease areas are needed to maximize US offshore wind potential, says Wood Mackenzie - Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine

Shell and Eneco’s offshore wind farm to include floating solar and hydrogen production – CNBC

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Wind turbine from different perspective.

fernando arias | Moment | Getty Images

A consortium made up of Shell and Eneco is to develop an offshore wind farm that will incorporate a range of "technology demonstrations" including floating solar and hydrogen produced by electrolysis.

The 759 megawatt (MW) Hollandse Kust (noord) facility will be subsidy free and able to produce at least 3.3 terawatt hours annually, according to Eneco, a Rotterdam-headquartered firm whose shareholders are the Mitsubishi Corporation and Chubu Electric Power Co. The project will use 69 turbines from Siemens Gamesa, which will have a capacity of 11 MW each.

The CrossWind joint venture, as it's known, is aiming for the project which will be located in waters approximately 18.5 kilometers off the coast of the Netherlands to be up and running by the year 2023.

While the scheme will not be the biggest offshore wind farm around Hornsea One, in waters off Yorkshire, England, has a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts (GW), for example it will do more than just produce wind power.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Netherlands' Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy said CrossWind would "test a variety of innovations in the field of energy storage and flexibility, with the possibility of rolling them out on a larger scale at other wind farms in the future."

According to Eneco, the demonstration projects will include, among other things, "short-term battery storage", floating solar technology and so-called "green hydrogen" generated by electrolysis. Green hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced using renewable sources such as wind power.

Reacting to the news on Thursday, industry body WindEurope emphasized the multi-faceted nature of the CrossWind scheme.

"In terms of sheer size, Hollandse Kust Noord is smaller than the Hollandse Kust Zuid 1-4 project, which, with around 1.5 GW wind capacity, will be the largest offshore wind project worldwide when fully operational," it said.

"Nevertheless, Wednesday's announcement is notable: the Crosswind consortium was awarded the right to develop the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm because its winning bid included several elements of system integration and storage."

The Dutch government is looking to ramp up its offshore wind capacity in the next few years. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, it will reach 11 GW by 2030, up from approximately 1 GW today.

Thursday saw Royal Dutch Shell report adjusted earnings of $638 million for the second quarter of 2020. That compared to net profit of $3.5 billion over the same period a year earlier and $2.9 billion in the first three months of 2020.

CNBC's Sam Meredith contributed to this report

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Shell and Eneco's offshore wind farm to include floating solar and hydrogen production - CNBC

To offshore, or to onshore, that is the question before Indian IT companies in the US – Moneycontrol

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The Covid pandemic continued to batter the US economy, with the countrys GDP shrinking 33 percent in the April-June quarter to record its worst contraction since World War 2. Unemployment, too, is at its worst level since that war. With a presidential election around the corner, the rhetoric around jobs for Americans, predictably, is again rising. On cue, President Donald Trump has announced further restrictions on people with H-1B visas, preventing them from working in federal contracts.

In June, the American President banned workers on H-1B visas from entering the US till the end of the year. Theres nothing new here, however. Restricting guest worker visas has been a part of Trumps Buy American, Hire American agenda since his inauguration in January 2017.

As V Ramakrishnan, CFO of TCS pointed out in an earlier interview with Moneycontrol, companies will always figure out a way to work within the rules, though it may not always be the most efficient way.

Trumps clampdown since taking over has already resulted in increased localisation in the US, with top Indian IT firms now having more than 60 percent of their employees in the US as locals. Indian firms visa dependency has also come down in the last three years.

Even so, given that the US is the largest market for Indias IT services firms, more restrictions will impact their ability to cater to the market in the long run. They will therefore need to look at others options that offer them stability.

Yugal Joshi, Vice President of IT consulting firm Everest Group, said: Besides the political rhetoric given the election and ongoing pandemic, the direction of such a move (ring-fencing federal contracts) is problematic for any skill-based industry and this isnt limited to India-based IT service firms.

What impact will the restrictions have?

Experts believe that offshoring will rise as will localisation as firms seek to further reduce their dependence on US visas. The US will consequently lose out on innovation as well as research and development, IT services industry lobby Nasscom said in a statement.

While billing from federal contracts may not be huge, Joel Yanovich, Attorney at Murthy Law firm, a US-based immigration firm, said the number of H-1B workers Indian IT services companies deploy on such contracts is not insignificant. And from here on, these firms will have to use American workers for federal government projects.

Krishnan Venkatachary, Chief Financial Officer, Cigniti Technologies, said that the company is currently in talks to close a federal project. If the project goes through, we will be employing American workers instead of H-1Bs, he added.

Offshoring

According to Venkatachary, though the restrictions might be challenging, the company is talking to clients about moving projects offshore. This is the option most IT firms are likely to explore. Offshoring refers to movement of resources from a high-cost area to the area that is more cost efficient. Here the move will be to India.

In terms of the resource mix, Cigniti has about 74 percent its people off shore and 26 percent on site. We are looking at 80-20, where 80 percent will be offshore and the rest onsite, he added.

Other firms, too, are looking at improving their offshore mix. In a recent conversation with Moneycontrol, Manoj Bhat, CFO, Tech Mahindra, said the company is in discussions with clients to move work offshore.

Milind Lakkad, Human Resources head, TCS, told Moneycontrol that the pandemic has made it a challenge but TCS is always looking for an opportunity to move work offshore.

HCL Tech started moving work offshore for a large client in January, said Prateek Agarwal, the companys CFO, during a recent interaction. With remote working becoming the norm, clients are more understanding about moving work offshore, he added.

Challenges

But all this will come with its own challenges. In the short-term, with visa extensions taking time, projects will suffer since firms might not be able send resources onsite or assign an H-1B resource instantly.

Also, without visas, thousands of techies will be forced to return home. This would inflate the local labour market in India, Joshi said.

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To offshore, or to onshore, that is the question before Indian IT companies in the US - Moneycontrol

Apache and Total Strike Oil Offshore Suriname – Rigzone News

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Apache Corp. and Total S.A. Wednesday afternoon reported a major oil discovery in Block 58 offshore Suriname.

Drilled to approximately 21,800 feet (6,645 meters) using the Noble Sam Croft drillship, the Kwaskwasi-1 well encountered at least 912 feet (278 meters) of net oil and volatile oil/condensate pay in two intervals, Apache noted in a written statement emailed to Rigzone. The firm added that its third consecutive discovery offshore Suriname confirms a world-class hydrocarbon resource.

Operator Apache and Total each hold a 50-percent working interest in Kwaskwasi-1.

We are thrilled with the results from the Kwaskwasi-1 exploration well, remarked Apache CEO and President John J. Christmann. This is the best well weve drilled in the basin to date, with the highest net pay in the best quality reservoirs.

Apache noted the wells shallower Campanian interval contains 207 feet (63 meters) of net oil pay and 282 feet (86 meters) of net volatile oil/gas condensate pay. It stated that samples show API gravities ranging from 34 to 43 degrees. The deeper Santonian interval holds 423 feet (129 meters) of net hydrocarbon reservoir, and personnel continue to collect data on API oil gravities in the interval, the company added.

While we have a lot more work to do, a discovery of this quality and magnitude merits a pace of evaluation that enables the option of accelerated first production, continued Christmann.

Encompassing 1.4 million acres, Block 58 presents significant potential beyond the discoveries at Kwaskwasi, Sapakara West and Maka Central, stated Apache. The company noted that it has identified at least seven distinct play types and more than 50 prospects within the thermally mature play fairway.

Once operations conclude at Kwaskwasi-1, the Sam Croft will head to Keskesi the fourth Block 58 prospect, located approximately nine miles (14 kilometers) southeast of Sapakara West-1, Apache stated. It added the Keskesi exploration well will test oil-prone upper Cretaceous targets in the Campanian and Santonian.

In a separate written statement, Total noted that it will take over as Block 58 operator after the next and fourth exploration well at Keskesi is drilled. The company added an appraisal campaign in early 2021 will better characterize this year's discoveries. Also, it stated an additional exploration campaign is planned.

"We are very pleased to announce a third discovery in a row, following the two oil discoveries at Maka Central and Sapakara West this year," stated Kevin McLachlan, Total's senior vice president for exploration. These "very encouraging results confirm our exploration strategy in this prolific zone, which targets large volumes of resources at low development costs."

To contact the author, email mveazey@rigzone.com.

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Apache and Total Strike Oil Offshore Suriname - Rigzone News

Bucking trend, offshore wind builds with unions – Axios

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Unions are going offshore to find a receptive renewable energy.

Driving the news: Americas nascent offshore wind industry, which requires uniquely complex infrastructure, is being built out with strong labor agreements that were largely absent from their onshore counterparts.

Things are changing with offshore wind, which is going to be a big job creator on the East Coast, said Phil Jordan, vice president at BW Research. Most of those projects are going to be or already have been under project labor agreements, so a much higher percentage of those workers will be union members.

The intrigue: In my recent column on how Joe Bidens climate plan is trying to bring unions into clean-energy industries, numerous union officials and other experts said the main exception to the trend that renewable energy lags on union representation was offshore wind.

How it works: The reason is threefold, according to union representatives, state officials and other experts.

There is no doubt an offshore wind project is a large infrastructure to the greatest degree, Doreen Harris, acting director of NYSERDA, told me recently. The complexity and need for safety is in even sharper focus for the offshore wind industry than the land-based [wind] might be.

Go deeper: Joe Bidens climate plan tries to bring unions into the clean-energy revolution

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Bucking trend, offshore wind builds with unions - Axios

Netherlands investigates innovative privacy technology SSI – ComputerWeekly.com

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Dutch research organisation TNO is investigating concrete applications of self-sovereign identity (SSI) technology to make citizens lives easier, and enable organisations to make considerable savings in administrative processes.

SSI offers new ways for citizens to manage their privacy, eliminates the need to log in with passwords, and speeds up transactions over the internet and in real life.

We are investigating how SSI can be made suitable for applications, said Rieks Joosten, senior scientist in business information processes and information security at TNO. Perhaps the most important application is the electronic filling of administrative forms. If you want to apply for a mortgage, you need to gather all sorts of information to submit to the lender. Not only do you often have to fill in the same data repeatedly, you also need authorised documents, from your employer and the bank, for example.

Midway through last year, the Netherlands national ombudsman published a report, Keep it simple, which looking at the red tape that citizens face when doing business with government departments and businesses. The report showed that such processes are often time-consuming and frustrating for citizens.

But it is also costly for the parties who have to validate these forms, said Joosten. We estimate that Dutch organisations spend more than 1bn a year on validation.

Using SSI, this can be done more efficiently and effectively in the future. Behind it lie cryptographic technologies, for instance public-key cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs and often blockchain. These technologies give the user control over which personal data is shared with whom, while the recipient can quickly verify this data electronically.

This enables secure and efficient exchange of digital information, said Joosten. Parties can now get quality data that provably originates from organisations that they trust, and hasnt been changed in transit.

SSI can help companies to comply with European privacy legislation and save considerable costs on administrative processes. For citizens, the system saves a huge amount of time and frustration, and can prevent people from giving up in a complex administrative process and therefore not getting what they are entitled to. Also, they no longer have to log in with usernames and passwords.

Joosten added: You fill in a form because you want to get something, say a parking permit or a mortgage. This form is designed so that the provider can get answers to three questions. One, what do I get from you and what do you get from me? Two, do I value what I get more highly than what I give? And three, is the risk Im taking with this transaction acceptable to me?

This allows the provider to decide whether or not to provide what is requested, he said. SSI adds the ability to electronically annotate the form, allowing the provider to specify which organisations it trusts to provide what data.

The users SSI app can read these annotations and, after obtaining the users consent, gets that data from the users digital wallet and sends it to the providers web server, including electronically verifiable proofs of provenance and integrity. So the provider obtains quality data from a source that he or she trusts, said Joosten.

Several local solutions already exist that do this, he added. In the Netherlands, we have IRMA, in Belgium Its Me, and similar initiatives exist in other countries. They support local SSI markets, have their own infrastructure, their own governance and their own forms of credentials.

It resembles how data networks worked in the early days of the internet. We had local area networks [LANs], each using its own protocol. With the advent of IPv4, it became possible to send data across different LANs, all over the world. We are looking for an SSI network infrastructure that is not owned by a single party, and does for local solutions what IPv4 did for LANs.

Although the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium are leading the way in Europe with the development of SSI research and applications, Joosten sees the necessity of collaboration. Individual parties, large and small, need to contribute to the bigger picture, he said. We not only need technicians, but also visionaries and people with political and business knowledge.

Some of them will contribute to the horizontal SSI infrastructure, others to vertical SSI markets, and still others to make it all work together, so that SSI can grow organically. We work with lots of parties in communities such as the Dutch Blockchain Coalition or Techruption, consortia such as uNLock, programmes such as EBSI/ESSIF, in events such as Odyssey.org or Rebooting Web of Trust, and others.

Within its SSI Lab in Groningen, TNO works on components that could become part of the SSI infrastructure, integrating where possible with components that others are developing. Also, applications are being developed to support SSI marketplaces and for demonstration purposes.

The SSI Lab is not just for TNO, said Joosten. It provides a safe environment for other organisations to experiment with several technologies, allowing them to experience the state of the art and build a business case for themselves. Also, the SSI Lab develops mental models and other stories for the purpose of aligning the currently different and non-interoperable ways in which people think about SSI.

However, many technological and organisational challenges remain to be resolved before citizens, businesses and public authorities can benefit from SSI. We need to understand exactly how different individuals and organisations will use the same technology, and what needs have to be catered for, said Joosten. We must provide assurances regarding the security and integrity of the various user- and business apps, that can be verified at the business level. To find answers, we work together with many other parties.

Since November last year, the eSSIF-Lab has been launched, with European Union funding available for small enterprises and startups that want to build or improve SSI components. The aim is to create multiple open source interoperable SSI components that are actually used, said Joosten. In fact, the SSI Lab is entering Europe in this way.

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Netherlands investigates innovative privacy technology SSI - ComputerWeekly.com

Parrish named acting secretary of NC technology agency – The Coastland Times – The Coastland Times

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A deputy within North Carolina Gov. Roy Coopers agency managing information technology for state government is now the departments acting secretary.

Cooper announced this week that Thomas Parrish IV will fill the Cabinet position vacated by Tracy Doaks, who was secretary for five months before taking another job at a nonprofit.

Parrish has most recently been serving as deputy chief information officer within the Department of Information Technology. Hes had 27 years of local and state government experience.

The acting secretary title means Parrish wont be subject for now to any confirmation vote by the state Senate.

Doaks predecessor, Eric Boyette, moved over to the Department of Transportation and was confirmed as DOT secretary by the Senate in June.

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