EOS, Ethereum and Ripples XRP Daily Tech Analysis July 30th 2020 – Yahoo Finance

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EOS

EOS rose by 0.79% on Wednesday. Following on from a 5.06% rally on Tuesday, EOS ended the day at $3.0292.

It was another mixed start to the day. EOS fell to an early morning intraday low $2.9560 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $2.8319, EOS rallied to a late morning intraday high $3.1603.

EOS broke through the first major resistance level at $3.1288 before falling back to an afternoon low $3.0200.

Steering clear of sub-$3.00 levels, EOS found late support briefly revisit $3.11 levels before wrapping up the day at $3.02 levels.

At the time of writing, EOS was down by 0.48% to $3.0148. A bearish start to the day saw EOS fall from an early morning high $3.0286 to a low $2.9762

EOS left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

EOS would need to avoid a fall through the $3.0485 pivot level to support a run at the first major resistance level at $3.1410.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for EOS to break back through to $3.10 levels.

Barring another extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $3.1410 would likely cap any upside.

Failure to move through the $3.0485 pivot would bring the first major support level at $2.9367 into play.

Barring an extended sell-off, EOS should steer well clear of sub-$2.90 levels and the second major support level at $2.8442.

First Major Support Level: $2.9367

Pivot Level: $3.0485

First Major Resistance Level: $3.1410

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $6.62

38% FIB Retracement Level: $9.76

62% FIB Retracement Level: $14.82

Ethereum rose by 0.20% on Wednesday. Reversing a 1.49% fall from Tuesday, Ethereum ended the day at $318.16.

A mixed start saw Ethereum fall to an early morning intraday low $312.66 before finding support.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $306.81, Ethereum rose to an early afternoon intraday high $325.85.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $327.86, Ethereum fell back to sub-$320 levels before finding late support.

A move back through to $323 levels was brief, however, with Ethereum falling back to sub-$320 late in the day.

At the time of writing, Ethereum was down by 0.35% to $317.06. A bearish start to the day saw Ethereum fall from an early morning high $318.16 to a low $315.38.

Ethereum left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Story continues

Ethereum would need to move through the $319 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $325.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ethereum to break back through to $325 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Wednesdays high $325.85 should cap any upside.

Failure to move through the $319 pivot would bring the first major support level at $312 into play.

Barring an extended sell-off, however, Ethereum should steer clear of the second major support level at $306.

First Major Support Level: $312

Pivot Level: $319

First Major Resistance Level: $325

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $257

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $367

62% FIB Retracement Level: $543

Ripples XRP rallied by 5.57% on Wednesday. Following on from a 2.67% gain on Tuesday, Ripples XRP ended the day at $0.2437.

A bullish start to the day saw Ripples XRP rally to an early morning high $0.24459 before easing back.

Ripples XRP broke through the first major resistance level at $0.2379 before falling to an afternoon low $0.2369.

Finding late support, however, Ripples XRP rallied to a late intraday high $0.24988. Ripples XRP broke through the first major resistance level and the second major resistance level at $0.2451 before pulling back.

The late pullback saw Ripples XRP fall back through the second major resistance level.

At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was down by 1.48% to $0.24010. A bearish start to the day saw Ripples XRP slide from an early morning high $0.24382 to a low $0.24010.

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

Ripples XRP will need to move back through the $0.2412 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.2530.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripples XRP to break out from Wednesdays high $0.25049.

Barring another broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level should cap any upside.

In the event of a breakout, Ripples XRP should test the second major resistance level at $0.2622 before any pullback.

Failure to move back through the $0.2412 pivot would bring the first major support level at $0.2320 into play.

Barring an extended crypto sell-off, Ripples XRP should avoid sub-$0.23 levels and the second major support level at $0.2202.

First Major Support Level: $0.2320

Pivot Level: $0.2412

First Major Resistance Level: $0.2530

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.3638

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $0.4800

62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.6678

Please let us know what you think in the comments below.

Thanks, Bob

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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EOS, Ethereum and Ripples XRP Daily Tech Analysis July 30th 2020 - Yahoo Finance

First Mover: Ethereums Transition to Staking Could Push More Traders to Use Derivatives – Yahoo Finance

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Ethereums biggest-ever upgrade is supposed to make the blockchain network faster and more efficient. But the new staking system could lock up so many of the networks native ether tokens that investors who want to trade them may have to rely on derivatives markets.

The blockchain, the worlds second-biggest, currently uses a validating mechanism similar to larger Bitcoins known as proof-of-work, where new data blocks and transactions are confirmed via power-hungry computers solving complex cryptographic puzzles.

Under Ethereums multi-year upgrade now underway, the network would shift to a proof-of-stake model, where investors validate transactions by staking ether on the blockchain in exchange for token rewards. Its a bit like depositing dollars into a bank account for interest, paid out in dollars.

Related: Bitcoin Price Rises 3% as Gold Trades Above $2K for First Time

A possible consequence, though, is the new staking system could soak up as much as 30% of the ether tokens in circulation, based on estimates from Adam Cochran, a partner at MetaCartel Ventures, a decentralized investment firm. An address needs to stake at least 32 ether tokens, worth about $12,400 at the current price, to become a validator in the proof-of-stake model.

Its possible to see a future scenario where the incentive to keep assets locked up on-chain is so great as to remove some liquidity from the market, says Diogo Monica, co-founder and president of the digital-asset custodian Anchorage, told CoinDesk in an email.

In May, a survey by the Ethereum developer Consensys found that 65% of ether investors were planning to stake the cryptocurrency under the new system, known as Ethereum 2.0, and half of those wanted to run validator nodes.

Most staking mechanisms have a lock-up period. Rocket Pool Staking, an Ethereum 2.0 staking service, offers staking terms ranging from three months to a year.

Related: US Lawmakers Don't Want Proof-of-Stake Networks to Get Overtaxed

Some ether tokens might get locked in staking as the network upgrade proceeds. Ethereum 2.0 is being rolled out in three phases of what could end up being a multiyear process, with the original proof-of-work blockchain running in parallel until the two networks are merged at Phase 1.5.

Wilson Withiam, a research analyst at the cryptocurrency data firm Messari, told CoinDesk that ethers sent to the deposit contract will likely remain locked up until Phase 1.5, and that could cause a decline in the amount of ether readily available.

Cryptocurrency analysts say ether-staking yields of 3% to 5% would be so tantalizing at a time when government bonds carry near-zero or even negative yields that few investors would opt to leave their tokens in Uniswap or other decentralized trading systems where they could be accessed by traders.

In that case, people will have an incentive to create ways to buy and sell ether shares that abstract whether the underlying asset is currently being staked, Monica said.

Derivatives might be a solution.

Fixed income from staking could even be packaged as a distinct product. Holders who stake their coins could create voucher tokens representing a claim on the stake. Then they could trade the tokens for ether or other cryptocurrencies. So buyers could capture the yield without having to own the underlying asset.

As an alternative to selling voucher tokens, holders could deposit ether as collateral on decentralized lending and borrowing platforms.

Messaris Withiam says he thinks staking derivatives are inevitable.

It will give traders access to tradable assets so that they can continue to do what they do best, Withiam said. Exchanges will be able to offer new markets around these assets and potentially lock customers within their product suite if the synthetic assets arent transferable outside of the exchange.

For now, all this really just amounts to speculation over how speculators will want to speculate on ether.

But theres no lack of motivation: Plenty of cryptocurrency analysts say its possible ethers price could jump as demand increases for tokens to stake. Ethers price has tripled this year to about $390. Such returns far exceed bitcoins 56% gain on the year.

Story continues

Financial incentive to buy and hold both increases the security of the network, and could lead to dramatic price appreciation, said Connor Abendschien, an analyst at the research firm Digital Assets Data.

BTC: Price: $11,509 (BPI) | 24-Hr High: $11,521 | 24-Hr Low: $11,045

Trend:Bitcoin is showing signs of life with a near 3% rise to over $11,500 on Wednesday after a lackluster day yesterday.

The bulls will be hoping to maintain a foothold above $11,400, having failed to keep gains above that level in the previous two trading days. If successful, stronger buying interest may emerge, pushing prices to the psychological hurdle of $12,000 last put to test on July 27.

However, if the market fails to absorb selling pressure above $10,400, a re-test of the daily chart support at around $10,900 may be seen.

A continued bullish scenario looks likely with gold, an inflation-hedge, rallying to record highs above $2,000 and the U.S. dollar losing ground across the board. Both bitcoin and gold have recently moved in tandem, with Goldman Sachs warning that the greenback could lose its global reserve status.

The overall bias will stay bullish as long as prices are held above the former hurdle-turned-support at $10,500 (February high).

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First Mover: Ethereums Transition to Staking Could Push More Traders to Use Derivatives - Yahoo Finance

BNB Investors Remain Bullish on the Pending Binance IEO Announcement – Ethereum World News

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In brief:

Back in mid-July, CZ Tweeted that the Binance Launchpad team was reviewed a list of promising crypto projects in hopes of selecting one as the next IEO on the platform. The last time the Binance Launchpad hosted a crowdfunding event was in April. As a result, Binance Coin (BNB) investors have been waiting paitently for an announcement from the team providing details of the next one.

Since the initial announcement by CZ, Binance Coin investors have expressed their optimism with respect to the upcoming IEO. Furthermore, some have taken to social media to remind the Binance team of their promise to announce the details of the next crowdfunding event on the platform as can be seen in the following Tweet.

Additionally, speculation is high that the next Binance Launchpad IEO will be a DeFi project

The excitement and anticipation of a new Binance Launchpad IEO has positively affected the value of Binance Coin (BNB) in the crypto markets. When CZ made the announcement that an IEO was in the pipeline, Binance Coin (BNB) was valued at $17. A quick glance at the BNB/USDT chart reveals that Binance Coin has since broken the $19 and $21 resistance level with the digital asset now consolidating at the $22 price level.

With the details of the Binance IEO yet to be announced, the value of Binance Coin (BNB) could continue on its upward trajectory. If the general crypto-market environment is maintained, BNB could possibly break other resistance levels such as $23, $24.5, $26.2 or even the February peak of $27.3.

As with all analyses of Binance Coin (BNB), traders and investors are advised to have an eye out for any sudden Bitcoin price movements that might affect their trading positions. Furthermore, stop losses and low leverage are advised to protect trading capital from sudden volatility.

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BNB Investors Remain Bullish on the Pending Binance IEO Announcement - Ethereum World News

Ethereum Price Hits $392 And Confirms Monthly Uptrend Not Seen Since 2017 – CryptoTicker.io

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Ethereum had a massive breakout today above a long-term resistance level at $366 on Binance and $363 on Bitfinex. This breakout confirms a monthly uptrend for the Ethereum price, something not seen since 2017. Of course, the month has just started and Ethereums price still needs to close above this resistance level at the end of the month, however, its a crucial first step to reach the all-time high again.

ETH is obviously overextended now but FOMO is definitely playing a big role in keeping the bullish momentum alive. Ideally, the bulls would like to see Ethereums price breaking $400 before a healthy consolidation. They would also love to see a clear monthly close above $360 and absolutely confirm that monthly uptrend.

Looking at the monthly chart, we can observe basically no resistance levels to the all-time high above $1,400. ETH price might encounter a slight resistance point at $838, established in May 2018.

So, the monthly chart is not showing a lot of resistance, what about the weekly chart? The next resistance level seems to be located at $515,28, quite far from the current Ethereum price at $387. Bulls will also encounter some resistance at $838 as we mentioned before and then $979 before the all-time high.

Of course, psychological levels are important, especially $1,000 but shouldnt be a problem for the bulls considering the current momentum. The weekly chart has an overextended RSI, something that also hasnt happened since December 2017 when Ethereum crashed down to $83, months later.

The most important positive factor for Ethereums price is the increasing bull volume on the weekly chart after smashing all the important resistance levels. While the overall trading volume is still on the low end, it is increasing which is a positive sign for the bulls.

Perhaps the most significant metric is the huge increase in market dominance by Ethereum. On January 2020, Ethereum had a 7.3% market dominance and has now peaked at 12.22%, a massive surge compared to Bitcoin which lost 7 points.

We know the price of Ethereum is eventually going to see a pullback. However, its really hard to predict since FOMO is continuously pushing the price of Ethereum up. The daily chart is again extremely bullish and showing an increase in trading volume again. The RSI remains massively overextended at 90 points but a similar overextension was seen in February 2020.

If Ethereum starts consolidating, the nearest support level is located at $327,53, the 12-EMA, and then $293,38, the 26-EMA. There is also a $306 low formed on July 28. Considering how fast Ethereum went up, there are not many support levels below but EMAs should be enough for the bulls.

Buyers could also form another daily bull flag and consolidate only down to $360 before another leg up to convincingly close above $360 and confirm that monthly uptrend.

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Ethereum just managed to briefly climb above $360, hitting $360,52 on Binance before a slight rejection towards $357. Currently, Ethereum

Today we are going to be talking about 5 major cryptocurrencies that already have a high market capitalization, yet still

The cryptocurrency market is running as if to meet the moon. Almost all the coins are performing well. The Bitcoin

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Ethereum Price Hits $392 And Confirms Monthly Uptrend Not Seen Since 2017 - CryptoTicker.io

Ethereum and Reddit: The 5-day challenge and solutions – Somag News

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Four possible applications could answer Reddits challenge to protocol developers on Ethereum. Until the deadline, which ended on July 31, a large number of proposals were observed by them.

Although most of the developers of applications on the Ethereum network did not present viable solutions, there are others that seem to be quite attractive. Some of them meet expectations and may be approved.

Reddits challenge to Ethereum users and developers is to provide an answer or solution to various network problems. Some are proposed to handle 100,000 specific claims, 25,000 subscriptions, 75,000 one-off point burns and 100,000 transfers.

The difficulty of this Reddit challenge to the Ethereum community increases with the short time they put in for a solution. Despite this, there are some proposals that seem to bring solutions.

Aztec is the first of the platforms to present possible solutions. To do this, they propose the implementation of a private Zk-Rollup package. This consists of, for example, the transactions that Reddit needs, are made through the Ethereum Blockchain network.

The weak point of this would be that the Gas charged for each movement would be higher than the cost of the transactions that are generally made of ETH.

Building transactions can take, in the longest case, up to 40 seconds. These require up to 3 minutes to be fully completed. The project promises an effort to improve interactions.

Another proposal for Reddits challenge to the Ethereum community comes from the OMG protocol, formerly OmiseGo. This consists of the use of plasma side chains to solve scalability problems.

It should be noted that Plasma has a functionality similar to Bitcoins Lightning Network. Both consist of improving the scalability of the Blockchain network. In the case of Plasma, it has existed since 2017 as a proposal of the founder of this network Vitalik Buterin together with Joseph Poon.

The functionality of this proposal of the Ethereum OMG protocol to Reddits challenge, is to create parallel chains of plasma. To do this, the application creates a Chrome extension, which can be adapted to the Reddit interface.

For its part, the Skale protocol proposes a decentralized cloud computing platform. It is a high performance proposal which is primarily designated by cloud computing.

Skale assures that, responding to Reddits challenge to the Ethereum network, involves providing attractive solutions. One of them is to eliminate transaction fees. In this way, the operation would be similar to what exists on the Amazon platform.

To do this, Reddit should create its own platform on the Skale Blockchain network and reimplement its Community Points logic. For the company it could have a cost between $ 350 and $ 44,000 USD. All this, they explain, depending on the size of the chain.

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Ethereum and Reddit: The 5-day challenge and solutions - Somag News

For Some Arrested At Portland Protests, Release Is Conditional On Not Attending More – NPR

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Protesters gather in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland, where some demonstrators have been arrested and others released from jail on the condition that they not attend any more protests. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

Protesters gather in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland, where some demonstrators have been arrested and others released from jail on the condition that they not attend any more protests.

A number of people arrested at demonstrations in Portland, Ore., say the terms of their release prevent them from attending protests going forward, a stipulation First Amendment experts have called cause for concern.

ProPublica reported on Tuesday that at least a dozen protesters arrested in recent weeks are prohibited from attending demonstrations within city or state limits, or in general, while they await trials on federal misdemeanor charges. Protesters say this was one of several conditions including abiding by a curfew, avoiding the area surrounding the federal courthouse and appearing for court dates that they had to agree to in order to leave jail.

Bailey Dreibelbis, 23, is one such protester. He told NPR's Vanessa Romo that he was arrested on the evening of July 22 and released the following afternoon on certain conditions, including that he would not attend any more protests in Portland.

Of the terms of his release, Dreibelbis said his public defender was "pretty clear that if I wanted to be out of there that day, that I would have to take them."

"She kind of chuckled with me, because I didn't do anything illegal upon arrest," he added. "I did not assault an officer, I did not set anything on fire."

Dreibelbis said he entered an open fence outside the federal courthouse, noting he did not see signs or hear announcements about that area being off limits. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office said Dreibelbis was charged with failing to comply with a lawful order, which is a class c misdemeanor.

Like Dreibelbis, other protesters are facing charges in connection with petty offenses that took place on federal grounds.

According to ProPublica, 18 of the 50 protesters charged in Portland are accused of only minor offenses under federal law that criminalizes certain actions when they happen on federal property or against people on that property. These behaviors include "failure to obey a lawful order" and "disorderly conduct."

Fourteen protesters were charged with "failing to obey a lawful order" between July 21 and July 24 alone, ProPublica found.

Orders setting conditions for release, reviewed by ProPublica, were signed by a federal magistrate in Portland. Kevin Sonoff of the U.S. Attorney's Office said in an email to NPR that the prosecutors didn't seek the "no protest" restriction, that it was added by the court. He said the office did ask for those released to be barred from a five-block limit around the federal courthouse.

"This morning, we joined the Federal Public Defender's Office in jointly recommending to the court that these additional release conditions be modified," Sonoff said.

Dreibelbis told NPR he hadn't initially planned to attend a protest that night he said he roller skates after work and ended up in that part of town and is now barred from attending any other protests.

Legal experts told NPR that such a stipulation almost certainly violates individuals' First Amendment rights to free assembly.

"These conditions are deeply troubling and likely unconstitutional," Ramya Krishnan, staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, wrote in an email. "A blanket ban on attending future protests in the city seriously infringes on the First Amendment right to free assembly, and isn't reasonably related to any legitimate goal of pretrial release."

Enrique Armijo, a law professor at Elon University, explained that it is not uncommon for criminal defendants to give up certain rights as a condition of their release, but those conditions are typically very narrow, in the interest of public safety and tightly connected to the basis of prosecution.

The agreements in Portland, he said, are overly broad in that they do not show a clear public safety connection between the right the person is being asked to give up and the harm that person is alleged to have committed.

"There's no way you can say that because of something you may have done with respect to federal property, a federal court is going to say you cannot engage in First Amendment-protected activity in the entire city in which that federal property is located," Armijo said. "That's just the definition of what First Amendment law considers overbreadth: What you're being asked to give up is much, much greater from a constitutional perspective than that which you are alleged to have done."

Elizabeth Goitein, who codirects the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty & National Security Program, said this kind of "blanket First Amendment restriction" violates one of the most core constitutional rights.

"The fact that these people may or may not have committed a misdemeanor is irrelevant, they certainly haven't been tried or convicted of any such offense and they are presumed innocent until proven guilty," she said. "Even after someone has been convicted of an offense, that does not mean that the government can require them to give up First Amendment freedoms going forward."

Goitein also noted that this practice raises red flags even beyond Portland because it could potentially happen in other cities.

"It's a problem if it happens once," she said. "And if it's happening systemically across a major city in this country, we need to be extremely concerned."

People have gathered for demonstrations against racism and police violence in Portland every night since the death of George Floyd in May, with tensions escalating after the Trump administration deployed federal agents to the city to protect the federal courthouse there earlier this month. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said federal agents will begin a phased withdrawal on Thursday.

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For Some Arrested At Portland Protests, Release Is Conditional On Not Attending More - NPR

Court Upholds $400000 Jury Award to Superintendent Ousted Amid Discord – Education Week

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A federal appeals court has upheld a $400,000 jury award to an Illinois school superintendent whose contract was not renewed amid turmoil that started with her effort to have an audit of district finances.

The superintendent, Denean Adams of the 2,200-student Harvey school district in suburban Chicago, alleged in court papers that after she started the process for the audit in 2015, one school board member phoned her and said Adams was "itching for an ass-kicking."

Adams filed a complaint with the police, and after a period of further discord in which the superintendent suspended the business manager for alleged financial irregularities, the board informed Adams that her contract would not be renewed. She took medical leave in 2016 and did not return.

Adams sued the board, alleging retaliation for exercising her First Amendment free speech rights. A federal district court jury ruled for Adams and awarded $400,000 in damages. The trial judge added some $190,000 in attorneys' fees.

The school board appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, in Chicago, arguing that a police report is a personal grievance, and not a matter of public concern, and thus was outside the scope of First Amendment protection.

In its Aug. 3 decision in Adams v. Board of Education of Harvey School District No. 152, a three-judge panel of the court ruled unanimously that Adams's report to the police was protected by the First Amendment and that the jury reasonably concluded that the report played a role in ending her employment.

While a police report might normally be considered a personal grievance, the court said, Adams's report was not a straightforward report of a crime.

"It was a report by the superintendent of a school district that she had been threatened with violence by a member of the school board," the opinion said, adding that "a potential for physical altercations between public officials (the superintendent and an elected member) implies that an important public institution was not working properly. This is a legitimate subject of public concern."

Further, the discord began when Adams proposed a forensic audit, and that idea "seems to have unsettled at least one member of the board."

The appeals court opinion suggests that much of Adams's speech during the episode was related to her job, and under Supreme Court precedent the board could have argued the speech was unprotected by the First Amendment on that basis.

"Almost everything that happened in this dispute is on-the-job speech within the scope of the superintendent's and members' duties," the appeals court said. But the board had failed to raise an argument under the Supreme Court's 2006 decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos until it was too late, the appeals court said.

The appeals panel rejected a cross-appeal from Adams seeking an increase in attorney's fees from the $190,000 that was awarded to $485,000, calling the request "outlandish."

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Court Upholds $400000 Jury Award to Superintendent Ousted Amid Discord - Education Week

This Week in Technology + Press Freedom: Aug. 2, 2020 – Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

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As we transition to a new team of fellows this fall, and celebrate almost one year of publishing this newsletter, wed love to learn more about you and get your feedback on how we can improve This Week in Technology and Press Freedom. Please take a few moments tofill out this surveyto help us understand what content you want to see, when you want to hear from us, and more. The survey should take about five minutes, and well keep it open until 5 p.m. ET on Aug. 24. We really appreciate your feedback!

Heres what the staff of the Technology and Press Freedom Project at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is tracking this week.

On July 23, TPFPs Linda Moon joined author and digital strategist Tim Schwartz for a presentation titled Press Rights and Digital Safety During Pandemic and Protest.

During the virtual discussion hosted by Alley, a digital consulting firm, Moon and Schwartz discussed source protection, the right to record police and protests, and collaborating with colleagues safely while working from home.

All the legal protections for journalists and sources do not change because youre working remotely or outside of your newsroom, Moon said. Everything that applied before still applies in the remote setting.

The protections do vary, however, depending on where you are and who is interested in the materials you want to keep confidential. California and New York, for example, have strongshield laws, but there is no federal shield law that applies to federal law enforcement just federal case law, which varies by jurisdiction, and the Justice Departments internal media policy.

The pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests have also raised questions about the legal right of reporters to travel and report during coronavirus lockdown orders and protest-related curfews, althoughmost orders have included exemptionsfor newsgathering. Courts have not squarely addressed whether such orders are required to exempt journalists, but Moon said a lockdown order without a media exemption may violate the First Amendment.

Working from home highlights the risk that law enforcement can seize a journalists communication records from electronic service providers without the journalist knowing about it.Thats becausegag orderscan prevent the service providers from informing the reporter that their information has been shared.

Law enforcement tools and discovery orsubpoenasin civil suits can be used to compel disclosure of sensitive information, and journalists have also beensubject to malware attacks.

In the face of these challenges, Schwartz, author of A Public Service: Whistleblowing, Disclosure and Anonymity, said that information control is key to preserving source confidentiality.

For communicating securely with sources, Schwartz recommended using systems, like Signal or Wire, that have end-to-end encryption, limit logging, and have a track record of publicizing any requests they receive from law enforcement.

Finally, Schwartz encouraged people to think about the security of their phones when they are at a protest, including how it unlocks (it is easier to forcefully unlock a phone that uses facial recognition than one with a passcode) and whether to leave metadata on or use a burner.

The most important thing, though, is to think about security ahead of time and practice it.

Make it a priority to talk about security with those you work with, whether its sources or those you collaborate with at work, Schwartz said. Make it a top-down and bottom-up priority.

Register hereto watch the entire webinar.

Abe Kenmore

On July 23, a Superior Court judge in King County, Washington, ruled that the Seattle Times and four local TV stationsmust comply with a Seattle Police Department subpoenafor unpublished photos and video taken during a May 30 protest against police brutality. The news organizations argued that the subpoena would harm journalists by making them seem like an extension of law enforcement rather than neutral observers. Attorneys for the Reporters Committee filed afriend-of-the-court briefarguing the subpoena would violate the First Amendment and state law in addition to putting reporters at risk.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorseyapologized on July 23for a security breach that allowed hackers, as part of a bitcoin scam, to access 130 accounts and tweet from 45 of them. The hackers also viewed private messages for 36 of the accounts. Dorsey said the company is cooperating with the FBI to investigate the incident, which allegedly occurred after the manipulation of several Twitter employees.

Seventeen internet freedom organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Wikimedia, filed afriend-of-the-court briefin a case againstMichael Pack, the newly appointed head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, for exceeding his authority when he fired the directors of the Open Technology Fund. Their brief emphasizes the importance of OTFs independence from the government to ensure it can fulfill its anti-censorship mission worldwide.

According to Department of Justice emailsreleasedin response to a Freedom of Information Act request, a DOJ official told Neil McCabe, a One America News Network reporter, that McCabe should reach out to FBI in response to McCabes email asking if the DOJ was cool with National Public Radio hosting an encrypted tip line. How is it then, that federal government employees could be running their own private silo for information about crimes or national security risks? McCabe asked in one email to the DOJ, mistakenly referring to NPR reporters as government employees.

A federal judge issued atemporary restraining orderbarring federal law enforcement in Portland from arresting and enforcing dispersal orders against journalists and legal observers. As Judge Michael Simon wrote, Without journalists and legal observers, there is only the governments side of the story to explain why a riot was declared and the public streets were closed and whether law enforcement acted properly in effectuating that order.

Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, who has critically covered President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs, moved to dismiss asecond cyber libel complaintfollowing her conviction for an initial cyber libel charge in June, both filed by the same business executive. The basis for the second complaint is a tweet Ressa posted, after being arrested for the first charge, linking to a 2002 news story about the executive that alleged he was involved in a murder. The Reporters Committee has previouslydetailedthe problematic implications when governments invoke cybercrime laws like the one here to silence reporters and their sources.

In written testimony submitted ahead of a House Natural Resources Committee hearing, Major Adam DeMarco of the D.C. National Guard said thatpolice sped up clearing efforts and used excessive forceon protesters in Lafayette Square on June 1. Contradicting statements from Park Police and Attorney General William Barr,DeMarco said the planwas initially to clear out protesters after the 7 p.m. curfew, but was carried out earlier for President Trumps photo op. The Reporters Committeesent a letterto the committee in connection with an earlier hearing, expressing concern about the Park Polices attack against an Australian news crew.

Smart read

Speaking of legal protections for journalists, thisarticleargues that in cases implicating First Amendment concerns similar to those in leak prosecutions, those considerations have historically been a mitigating factor at sentencing.

Gif of the Week:Trying to explain some of this social media news to our older relatives.

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The Technology and Press Freedom Project at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press uses integrated advocacy combining the law, policy analysis, and public education to defend and promote press rights on issues at the intersection of technology and press freedom, such as reporter-source confidentiality protections, electronic surveillance law and policy, and content regulation online and in other media. TPFP is directed by Reporters Committee Attorney Gabe Rottman. He works with Stanton Foundation National Security/Free Press Fellow Linda Moon, Legal Fellows Jordan Murov-Goodman and Lyndsey Wajert, Policy Interns Abe Kenmore and Joey Oteng, and Legal Intern Sasha Peters.

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This Week in Technology + Press Freedom: Aug. 2, 2020 - Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

False Information in the Time of Coronavirus: Law and Regulation in the U.S. and Australia – Just Security

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False or misleading information in the media is not a new phenomenon but during the coronavirus pandemic, governments around the world have sought to enact new laws and regulations, or to strengthen existing rules, in order to address it. Here, we compare the rules governing print and broadcast news media (as distinct from social media) in the United States of America and Australia (the jurisdiction in which the authors write). Although laws and regulations often aim to strike a fair balance between upholding a right to communicate ideas[1] and a right to make informed decisions based on fact,[2] regulation and freedom of speech are uneasy bedfellows. Lawmakers must be ever mindful to ensure that intervention is reasonably adapted to achieving its stated aims.

The United States of America: First Amendment protects false speech in marketplace of ideas

In the United States, any attempt to govern the information marketplace will inevitably come up against First Amendment protections and a relatively weak regulatory framework. Despite concerns over false information arising out of the coronavirus pandemic, content-based speech regulation that survives the scrutiny of judicial review remains thin on the ground.

FOX News early downplaying of COVID-19 sparked debate in the United States. FOX presenters Sean Hannity and Trish Regan claimed the danger posed by the coronavirus was being overblown by critics of the Trump administration. On April 2, a not-for-profit organization called the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics (WASHLITE) sued FOX News Media in Washington State Court.

WASHLITE argued that FOX News Channel, FOX Business, and other cable television companies were liable under state consumer protection legislation and had committed the tort of outrage by intentionally and recklessly inflicting emotional distress. WASHLITE also sought an injunction to prohibit FOX from interfering with reasonable and necessary measures to contain the virus by publishing further false and deceptive content.

FOX News General Counsel Lily Fu Clafee was quoted in the Times of San Diego as saying [w]rong on the facts, frivolous on the law. We will defend vigorously and seek sanctions as appropriate.[3] FOX News was supported by an amicus brief filed by the Internet and Television Association, an organization that represents cable programmers and distributors including their rivals, along with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. WASHLITE made the radical argument that First Amendment protections didnt extend to FOX News because they were a cable television channel. Georgetown Professor of Law Erin Carroll wrote in Just Security that despite any visceral appeal to this suit (or the others that could follow), it is unlikely to be legally successful.

As predicted, the claim against FOX News ran up against the gold standard of positive free speech protection. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution bars liability against publishers even if it was foreseeable that the information they disseminated might be used in a negligent or dangerous manner. Superior Court Judge Brian McDonald labelled the lawsuit laudable but ultimately struck out WASHLITES claim, noting that:

if there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

Free speech protections are not the only thing standing in the way of the success of claims like WASHLITEs. These claims will also fail in tort where they seek to establish a duty of care to the public at large or fail to make out the requirement of causation.[4] Other regulations in the United States would also be of little use in similar circumstances. The Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) broadcast hoax rule and a news distortion policy may be used to target broadcasting false information in a pandemic. In adopting the broadcast hoax rule in 1992, the agency noted that the First Amendment does not preclude civil liability for broadcasts that create a foreseeable risk of personal injury.[5] However, in practice, the context or disclaimers suggested by the broadcast hoax rule are rarely followed and the FCC has been criticised for its inaction relative to other regulators. In her piece for Just Security, Carroll notes that:[6]

[T]he FCC has no direct authority over network news providers like FOX, ABC, NBC, or CBS. Any legal action under the broadcast hoax rule would need to be taken against the stations that carry FOX News, making such an action more difficult. The news distortion policy is just that, a policy, and while violation of it can inform the FCCs licensing decisions, it otherwise has limited bite.

Australia: Self and co-regulation without equivalent free speech protection

Australia is different to the United States as we lack constitutional protection for free speech that is equivalent to a positive personal right. Although we also have a regulatory framework that is not overly interventionist, future attempts to govern the field of false information may have the potential to alter the delicate relationship between the press and the State.

Similar claims to the FOX News suit would also fail in the current legal and regulatory landscape in Australia. This is true in tort law for the same reasons explained above, and also in consumer law. Although we have a robust consumer protection framework, practically speaking, unless false or misleading representations were made in advertisements or self-promotions, the media would be able to defend such claims.

The U.S. Constitution was referred to by the framers of the Australian Constitution, and our High Court has been influenced by American constitutional jurisprudence and free speech tradition.[7] Our system of law and regulation has evolved without a personal right of free speech equivalent to the First Amendment but the High Court has recognised that an implied freedom of communication exists under the Australian Constitution in relation to political and government matters.[8] The lack of personal free speech protection has generally allowed firmer constraints on speech and freedom of the press than in the United States, but the accuracy of print and broadcast reporting has not been heavily regulated.

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliances (MEAA) Journalist Code of Ethics is an instrument which informs journalists ethical practice and more formal accountability schemes are found in the codes of practice of the Australian Press Council (APC) and the Independent Media Council (IMC) for print and online publishers, and in the broadcasting codes of practice registered with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Television and radio broadcasting have historically been burdened with more regulation than the publishing sectors.[9] Insofar as false or misleading information is concerned, reporting errors of news publishers are generally self-regulated by the APC and complaints about news broadcasts on television and radio are subject to co-regulation through an industry code overseen by ACMA. Neither the APC nor ACMA have the power to order compensation, fines or other financial sanctions for false or misleading statements in the news.

The kinds of actions taken by regulators are minimal and center mainly on the compliance pull of censuring media organizations. For instance, in March 2020 ACMA ruled that Seven News in Queensland misled viewers when it said a local council member was cleared of allegations made against him when in actual fact the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission decided not to investigate the council member.[10] Seven will circulate a copy of ACMAs investigation report to its Queensland editorial staff and include the decision in future training sessions to ensure compliance.[11] In-house counsel at media companies view these rulings as a form of moral or reputational hazard, rather than legal hazard.

ACMAs website claims that accuracy and accessibility of news and other critical information broadcast on commercial and national broadcasters remains essential during the pandemic and promises to prioritise investigating allegations of inaccuracy of news content that directly relate to COVID-19 during this time.[12] Despite ACMAs undoubted readiness to look into the problem of false information during the pandemic, the outcomes of their accuracy and impartiality investigations into television[13] and radio broadcasting[14] have not yet cited any COVID-19 related content. Australian Press Council adjudications in 2020 have similarly not cited any COVID-19 related content.[15] It must be noted regarding ACMA that complaints may only be made after first complaining to the broadcaster and either not receiving a satisfactory response or not receiving a response within 60 days.[16] With respect to the APC, complaints may be made directly to the Council but in some circumstances, the Council may ask the complainant to raise the complaint directly with the publication and then come back to the Council if its further involvement is sought.[17] Plainly, it does not necessarily follow that a lack of adjudications on COVID-19 means there has been no misleading or inaccurate reportage of the pandemic in Australia. However, grievances that are in the public domain (whether the subject of an adjudication or not) appear to be on the lower end of the scale of severity or unrelated to public health.[18] That very few complaints have attracted regulatory or public attention would seem to suggest that Australian media (like the government on which it reports) have largely avoided disseminating false information that would attract citation.

Self-regulation has historically been the object of some derision in Australia as a toothless tiger beholden to industry. The APC was first established in 1976 on a purely voluntary basis and is funded by its members. The media mogul Kerry Packer said before the House of Representatives Committee into the Print Media in 1991 that the APC was a complete and absolute piece of window-dressing. It has, however, in recent years greatly strengthened its capacity and independence by increasing its funding and membership, requiring members to enter into contracts which require commitment and funding for three years, and requiring members to prominently advertise APC complaints procedures and publish APC adjudication decisions that exactly conform to required words and placement.[19]

Like other governments, Australia has undertaken a number of reviews into media regulation in recent years. In 2012, the Finkelstein Review called for a government funded super regulator, the News Media Council, to be created in order to set and enforce journalistic standards across all media.[20] In 2013, then Communications Minster Steven Conroy attempted unsuccessfully to establish more government control over independent bodies regulating the media, including through the introduction of a Public Interest Media Advocate that would have been responsible for overseeing self-regulatory bodies.[21] More recently, the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) examined digital platforms and their impact on the supply of news and journalistic content and recommended that digital platforms with more than 1 million monthly active users in Australia should implement an industry code of conduct to govern the handling of complaints about disinformation in relation to news and journalism.[22]

Calls for more regulation will continue to surface but the model for print and broadcast regulation has thus far endured due to concern over government interference or oversight. Recent legislative attention has focused not on print or broadcast media but on ensuring greater transparency about who is behind a political message[23] and on the vexed issue of false information on social media,[24] including that disseminated by foreign actors.[25] In a recent position paper, ACMA supported an industry code to govern online misinformation on the basis that false and misleading information has been shown to have real-world consequences, including personal illness and damage to property.[26] This is true as a general statement about attendant harm, but this position paper, like many other writings on the subject, appears to conflate the potential harm of misinformation with its mooted impact on the broader Australian community.[27] Surveys, examples of fertile circumstances for the spread of misinformation, and the language of an infodemic may not be sufficient to convince Australians of the acute and chronic harms that require a particular remedy.[28]

Of course, we should avoid complacency on false information, most notably on digital platforms due to their distributed and networked nature, and their inherent vulnerability to foreign actors who may seek to disrupt Australias democracy and values. We should not, however, imagine that the potential harm of false information is exactly the same the world over, or forget that Australia has, by global standards, an educated and engaged population and a less partisan print and broadcast media than other countries.

Judges and bureaucrats are not experts at the difficult fact finding mission that may be required under more expansive regulatory frameworks, and while nobody is suggesting that we would follow countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Russia and Fiji and enact fake news legislation that could be used to severely curtail free speech, Australia is not immune to restrictive laws. This is evidenced by a raft of legislation introduced in recent years which undermines protections for journalists, whistle-blowers and confidential sources. We must be aware of the possibility that intervention with noble intentions may have unintended consequences. For instance, in Germany, fake news laws implemented in 2018 led to difficulties with enforcement and unintentionally targeted legitimate content, prompting a government review and complaints from the German Federation of Journalists.[29] Unlike in the United States, the impact of any regulatory encroachment on freedom of speech could be magnified in Australia in the absence of comparable constitutional safeguards.

The regulation of our media has always been an intensely political question on which reasonable minds may differ. It is the authors view that a multifaceted approach that supports existing self and co-regulatory schemes, education and independent fact checking organizations can help to ensure that we are all able to make informed decisions in the marketplace of ideas. Whatever the threat, we must not trespass on the more sensitive aspects of relations between the press and the State without first examining whether the cure may be worse than the disease.

***

[1] Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. London: Longman, Roberts & Green, 1869.

[2] Kant, Immanuel, James W. Ellington, and Immanuel Kant. Grounding for the metaphysics of morals ; with, On a supposed right to lie because of philanthropic concerns. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co, 1993.

[3] See https://timesofsandiego.com/business/2020/04/02/washington-state-group-is-1st-to-sue-FOX-news-for-calling-coronavirus-a-hoax/.

[4] See Carroll, Erin. Lawsuit against FOX News over Coronavirus Coverage: Can it succeed? Should it?, Just Security 10 April 2020. Available at https://www.justsecurity.org/69556/lawsuit-against-FOX-news-over-coronavirus-coverage-can-it-succeed-should-it/.

[5] Amendment of Part 73 Regarding Broadcast Hoaxes, MM Docket No. 91-314, Report and Order, 7 FCC Rcd 4106, 10 11 (1992), Available at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-92-208A1.pdf.

[6] See Carroll, Erin. Lawsuit against FOX News over Coronavirus Coverage: Can it succeed? Should it?, Just Security 10 April 2020. Available at https://www.justsecurity.org/69556/lawsuit-against-FOX-news-over-coronavirus-coverage-can-it-succeed-should-it/.

[7] For a detailed exposition, see Stone, Adrienne. Freedom of Political Communication, the Constitution and the Common Law [1998] UMelbLRS 1. Available at http://138.25.65.17/au/journals/UMelbLRS/1998/1.html#fn3.

[8] Nationwide News Pty Ltd v Wills (1992) 177 CLR 1. See also see Stone, Adrienne. Freedom of Political Communication, the Constitution and the Common Law [1998] UMelbLRS 1. Available at http://138.25.65.17/au/journals/UMelbLRS/1998/1.html#fn3.

[9] ACMAs industry responsibilities in television and radio are governed respectively by the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (Cth) and the Radiocommunications Act 1992 (Cth). This more extensive regulation was formerly justified on the basis of the airwaves being a scarce public resource and due to the special power of broadcast media to influence public attitudes, but this distinction is becoming less relevant over time. Broadcasters must obtain licences and comply with complex, sector-specific rules under a co-regulatory regime.

For more information, see Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Digital Platforms Inquiry, Final Report, June 2019. Available at https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries/digital-platforms-inquiry/final-report-executive-summary.

[10] Investigation Report no. BI-521 5 March 2020, the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Available at https://www.acma.gov.au/publications/2020-03/report/bi-521-investigation-report.

[11] See https://mumbrella.com.au/acma-rules-seven-news-queensland-misled-viewers-620009.

[12] See Investigations into TV broadcasters, Australian Communications and Media Authority, accessed 15 June 2020. Available at https://www.acma.gov.au/investigations-tv-broadcasters.

[13] Investigations into TV broadcasters, Australian Communications and Media Authority, accessed 15 June 2020. Available at https://www.acma.gov.au/investigations-tv-broadcasters.

[14] Investigations into radio broadcasters, Australian Communications and Media Authority, accessed 15 June 2020. Available at https://www.acma.gov.au/investigations-radio-broadcasters.

[15] Adjudications and other outcomes, Australian Press Council, accessed 15 June 2020. Available at https://www.presscouncil.org.au/adjudications-other-outcomes/.

[16] See https://www.acma.gov.au/complain-about-program-tv-or-radio.

[17] See https://www.presscouncil.org.au/making-a-complaint/.

[18] See e.g. this post about a Sky News Headline https://twitter.com/beneltham/status/1248423674987679745. The Sky News headline discussed was promoting the following story https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6148457238001. See also the Murray Darling Basin Authority have written to Nine Entertainment complaining about alleged factual errors in reportage about water management in the pandemic, Available at https://www.mdba.gov.au/media/mr/complaint-60-minutes-coronavirus-growing-pain.

[19] Podger, Andrew. Fake News: Could Self-Regulation of Media Help to Protect the Public? The Experience of the Australian Press Council. Public Integrity Volume 21, 2019. Available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10999922.2018.1549341.

[20] Finkelstein, Ray. Report to Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Independent Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation, 28 February 2012.

[21] See https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-12/conroy-announces-media-reforms/4567550?nw=0.

[22] See Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Digital Platforms Inquiry, Final Report, June 2019. Available at https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries/digital-platforms-inquiry/final-report-executive-summary. Recommendation 15

suggests that such codes should be registered with and enforced by an independent regulator, such as the

Australian Communications and Media Authority.

[23] For example, under the Commonwealth Electoral (Authorisation of Voter Communication) Determination 2018 (Cth), all online advertisements that deal with electoral matters must include the name and address of a person responsible for the advertisement.

[24] See Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Digital Platforms Inquiry, Final Report, June 2019. Available at https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries/digital-platforms-inquiry/final-report-executive-summary. See also the Australian Governments response to the Digital Platforms Inquiry at https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2019-41708.

[25] See https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/11/home-affairs-flags-steps-to-help-australians-identify-fake-news-by-foreign-powers. See also https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/alarm-sounds-over-foreign-social-media-platforms-20200318-p54b78.

[26] Misinformation and news quality on digital platforms in Australia A position paper to guide code development, Australian Communications and Media Authority, June 2020. Available at https://www.acma.gov.au/australian-voluntary-codes-practice-online-misinformation.

[27] Misinformation and news quality on digital platforms in Australia A position paper to guide code development, Australian Communications and Media Authority, June 2020. Available at https://www.acma.gov.au/australian-voluntary-codes-practice-online-misinformation.

[28] Misinformation and news quality on digital platforms in Australia A position paper to guide code development, Australian Communications and Media Authority, June 2020. Available at https://www.acma.gov.au/australian-voluntary-codes-practice-online-misinformation.

[29] See https://www.djv.de/startseite/profil/der-djv/information-in-english.html.

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False Information in the Time of Coronavirus: Law and Regulation in the U.S. and Australia - Just Security

House Blocks AOC’s Amendment To Bar U.S. Military From Recruiting On Video Game Streaming Sites Like Twitch – Forbes

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TOPLINE

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday blocked an amendment to its Defense Appropriations bill for fiscal 2021 that would have barred the U.S. military from recruiting on video game streaming sites like Amazon's Twitch, with the amendment's author Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) saying on the floor, "War is not a game."

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 14: Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) speaks at a press conference ... [+] at Corona Plaza in Queens on April 14, 2020 in New York City. Ocasio-Cortez was joined by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) at the conference, where both called for the Federal Emergency Management Administration to fund funeral costs in low-income communities of color during the ongoing amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Scott Heins/Getty Images)

"This amendment is specifically to block recruitment practices and funding for recruitment practices on platforms such as Twitch.tv, which are live-streaming platforms which are largely populated by children well under the age of military recruitment rules," Ocasio-Cortez said.

While Republicans unanimously opposed the measure, Democrats were split, with Ocasio-Cortez taking to Twitter during the vote to say, "Imagine trying to explain to your colleagues who are members of Congress what Twitch is."

The U.S. Airforce, Army and Navy all sponsor esports teams with members streaming to Twitch, but recent controversies prompted concerns over the recruitment practice.

Twitch stepped in to stop the Army from using a faux giveaway to redirect viewers to a recruitment form, and lawyers from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University demanded that the Army and Navy reverse bans on their Twitch channels against a user who asked about U.S. war crimes in the channels' chats.

Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.), who chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, spoke out against the amendment during debate, saying, "The United States Military is a very special place...we oughta cast a very wide net to encourage young Americans to serve their country in the military."

Visclosky argued the military conducts educational programs for young people, but Ocasio-Cortez responded, "Children on platforms such as Twitch are bombarded with banner ads that link to recruitment sign up forms that can be submitted by children as young as 12 years old. These are not educational outreach programs but recruitment forms."

Referencing first-person shooter games popular with military members streaming on Twitch, like Call of Duty, Ocasio-Cortez said, "We cannot conflate war and military service with this kind of gamified format." She later tweeted, "Its totally fine if you dont know what Twitch is, but tech literacy is becoming an [sic] growing need in Congress so we can legislate to protect peoples privacy."

Using games as a means to recruit young people into the U.S. military isnt new. In 2002, the Army launched the America's Army series of video games, the latest being the free-to-play America's Army: Proving Grounds. "Funded by the Army Marketing and Research Group, America's Army, the official game of the U.S. Army, delivers an authentic and entertaining Army experience by reflecting the values, training, technology, skills and career advancement of a United States Army Soldier," the official video game page reads. Proving Grounds is rated Teen, meaning the content in the game is suitable for people ages 13 and older.

Following the accusations that the U.S. Army violated the first amendment right to free speech by banning a Twitch user from its channeljust as President Trump is restricted from blocking Twitter usersthe military branch told GameSpot that it would pause activities on the platform and "review internal policies and procedures, as well as all platform-specific policies, to ensure those participating in the space are clear before streaming resumes. The "About" page for the Navy's esports channel reads, "Other people will tell you not to stay up all night staring at a screen. Well pay you to do it."

Continued here:

House Blocks AOC's Amendment To Bar U.S. Military From Recruiting On Video Game Streaming Sites Like Twitch - Forbes

VERIFY: Is the Port Neches-Groves ISD parent code of conduct new this year? – 12newsnow.com KBMT-KJAC

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PORT NECHES, Texas A screenshot showing a code of conduct policy for Port Neches-Groves ISD parents is getting a lot of attention online.

12News Investigates looked into the origins of the policy.

Is the PNGISD parent code of conduct a new policy?

Our source is PNG ISD assistant superintendent Julie Gauthier.

She says the policy has been in place since 2018, and sent 12News a copy of the code of conduct dated 2018.

It's the same parent code of conduct parents are being asked to sign this year.

Do other school districts have a parent code of conduct?

Beaumont ISD's parent code of conduct is very similar, and can be found on the district's website. Hamshire Fannett also has a code of conduct.

While it's hard to say exactly how many schools have adopted a parent code of conduct, 12News can verify that several Southeast Texas schools do implement them.Will this infringe on parent's first amendment rights if they choose to post something negative about the school on social media?

Gauthier says the policy isn't meant to take away anyone's freedom. Instead, it's a proactive approach the school district has adopted to make sure the district and parents are working in the best interest of the child.

Also on 12NewsNow.com

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VERIFY: Is the Port Neches-Groves ISD parent code of conduct new this year? - 12newsnow.com KBMT-KJAC

Invergordon Development Trust gives free school lunch boxes to all primary pupils in Invergordon, Ross-shire; collection of boxes later this week -…

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South Lodge Primary School.

A COMMUNITY trust is giving away free lunch boxes to every child who attends a primary school in Invergordon.

With schools due to return shortly, the Invergordon Development Trust has sourced the free lunch boxes for local youngsters.

"In line with guidance from schools and Highland Council, they are hard shell with no fabric so are completely safe to use for the return to lessons," said a trust spokesman.

"If your child/children will be in P1 to P7 at South Lodge, Park or Newmore then they will have a lovely lunch box gifted from IDT."

To claim your child's free lunch box send a private message to Invergordon Development Trust's Facebook page, including information about which primary the youngster attends, and their school year.

The boxes will then be available for collection from Mike Ross Arts in High Street, Invergordon, on Thursday (August 6) between 4pm and 8pm.

Click here to read more Ross-shire news.

In these testing times, your support is more important than ever. Thank you.

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Invergordon Development Trust gives free school lunch boxes to all primary pupils in Invergordon, Ross-shire; collection of boxes later this week -...

Brexit chaos: MPs will get vote to block post-Brexit trade deals and halt progress – Daily Express

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The international trade secretary says that parliament is entirely able to block post-Brexit trade deals. This is despite warnings from Conservative MPs that their counterparts in Washington and Brussels will have more say. However, ministers say they would not drop a ban on chlorinated chicken and that any deals must protect our NHS.

Britain is currently chasing deals with the United States, Japan and the European Union.

Senior Tories have demanded specific votes on future accords.

However, international trade secretary Liz Truss, who flew to Washington at the weekend for talks, said that MPs were already free to block the ratification of pacts.

Last week, she said: Its an important principle" that parliament can block a given free trade agreement.

She said this can be done through the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act process.

She added: "Its entirely possible for parliament to block any free trade deal.

"In addition, parliament could also not vote for the domestic legislation, any domestic legislation required as well.

"Parliament is entirely able to do that if it does not support a given free trade agreement.

JUST IN:China's military spending SOARS as experts call for de-escalation

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act does not provide binary votes on treaties.

However, MPs can stymie ratification by passing opposition motions.

Ms Truss said Britain will be at pretty much the same level as Canada in terms of parliaments ability to scrutinise pacts.

However, she said Britain will have stronger system of checks and balances than Australia and New Zealand.

READ MORE:

Brexit POLL: Should Boris walk away from trade talks with EU? VOTE[OPINION]Remainers spectacularly wrong as EU fails to sign vaccine deal[REVEAL]Tice savages 'petrified' EU's Brexit plot and warns UK of error[EXCLUSIVE]

Ms Truss said that she was in her job to get a good deal for Britain.

The international trade secretary said she wants a deal that will benefit British farmers, business, and consumers.

She said: "I dont want to strike a deal that is not going to command the support of parliament, but there is that check and balance in the system that parliament can block the ratification of a free trade deal.

This comes after Jonathan Djanogly, a former Conservative justice minister, launched an unsuccessful attempt to ensure that all trade agreements faced a parliamentary vote before they were signed last month.

A dozen Tory rebels backed his proposal, including Theresa Villiers, the former cabinet minister.

Mr Djanogly complained that the procedures highlighted by Ms Truss were hopelessly out of date.

He said: Now that we have left the EU, the idea that we should have less scrutiny than the EU is a poor one.

"All of the legislators in the US, the EU and Japan will have more access rights to negotiation papers than UK MPs and they will get a vote on approval of the draft deal.

"We should have the same.

The UK and EU finished the latest round of talks about the future trading relationship between the two entities in London last week.

The UKs chief negotiator David Frost said the UK must face the possibility that it will not agree a deal on its future relationship with the EU by the end of the year.

Mr Frost said with less than six months to go until the end of the Brexit transition period, the UK must "continue preparing for all possible scenarios" for once that deadline passes.

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Brexit chaos: MPs will get vote to block post-Brexit trade deals and halt progress - Daily Express

As covid-19 continues to bite, council turns attention to Brexit and ‘mystery’ over funding – Teesside Live

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Mystery about how Brexit will hit the coffers of a Teesside council has prompted pleas for answers from the Government.

Responding to the coronavirus crisis has taken up most of the attention of authority chiefs in 2020.

But council account sheets still indicate the situation is unclear when it comes how the UKs exit from the European Union will impact local authorities.

Middlesbrough Councils draft accounts for 2019/20 showed how covid-19 has superseded Brexit during the first half of this year.

However, officials have warned the countrys future relationship with the European Union was still unclear.

The report added: Planning still continues within the council - particularly around a 'no deal' scenario with contingency plans already developed

What the eventual agreed arrangement will be, and what this might mean in financial terms, subsequent risks and impacts on the councils budget, and (its) financial plans are still unclear.

Labour councillor Denise Rooney asked about the risks Brexit could bring to the authority at the latest corporate audit and governance committee.

Council accounts chief Justin Weston said Brexit had taken a back seat but hadnt had a massive impact on the councils finances in 2019/20.

However, Cllr Teresa Higgins feared there was no detail of what was replacing EU funding in the region.

Its been promised for years and its so important for the Tees Valley, she said.

We need to find out where the Government is going to produce money - particularly in the Tees Valley.

We got quite a lot of money and thats going to stop - Im a bit concerned there is still no detail of a replacement."

The Labour councillor later added: I understand theyve found a few money trees - I wish theyd shake a few branches down this end.

The Tees Valley was allocated 173m from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) between 2014 and 2020.

This saw the region rank among the top in the UK for EU funding.

The UK formally left the European Union on January 31 and is still in an 11-month transition period.

This is set to end on December 31 when a new trading relationship will begin under a new UK-EU deal, or there will be a no deal scenario if no agreement is reached.

Negotiations are continuing.

When it came to future funding after Brexit, the Government says a Shared Prosperity Fund will replace EU structural funding in a bid to tackle deprivation over a number of years.

Meanwhile, the UK will continue to be part of EU programmes in the wider Multi-annual Financial Framework in the coming years.

A spokesman from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: We have left the EU, but we continue to participate in EU funding programmes as these wind down.

Projects will receive funding until the end of the current programme in 2023.

We will target the UK Shared Prosperity Fund at the UKs specific needs, and will, at a minimum, match the size of European structural funds in all four nations.

We are working closely with interested parties across the country as we develop this fund and to allocate all remaining EU funding.

Figures from the House of Commons library showed the Redcar constituency backed Leaving the EU most strongly on Teesside in 2016 - with 67.7% voting for Brexit.

Middlesbrough (64.5%), Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (65.3%) and Stockton North (66.3%) and Stockton South (57.8%) were all above the national average for voting leave.

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As covid-19 continues to bite, council turns attention to Brexit and 'mystery' over funding - Teesside Live

Protection for UK Victims while in EU to Disappear after Brexit Transition Ends – Byline Times

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David Hencke reports on the decision of the Government and EU not to include the current EU Victims Rights Directive as part of the Brexit negotiations

Survivors and victims of domestic violence and other criminal attacks will no longer receive the protection afforded to them by British courts when they are in the EU once the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December, a Government minister has informed MPs.

Both the UK Government and the EU have decided not to include the current EU Victims Rights Directive as part of the negotiations with the European Commission.

The directive allows any UK court order, including restraining and stalking orders, to be automatically applicable in the 27 EU countries, including when a person was on holiday there, without having to resort to separate civil action.

So far, it has not been used heavily but MPs on the European Scrutiny Committee say that, when new domestic abuse orders come into force under legislation now going through Parliament, it would have applied across the whole of the EU.

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Alex Chalk, a junior minister at the Ministry of Justice, told MPs that neither the EUs nor the UKs draft legal texts on future law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation make any reference to the European Protection Order.

He said that there is no comparable fallback option after transition as the European Protection Order is a unique European Union law-based mechanism. As a consequence, an individual seeking a protective order after transition will need to secure a domestic (civil) protection order from the EU member state that they are visiting.

Bill Cash, Conservative chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee, said: From 1 January 2021, it will no longer be possible for orders made by UK courts to safeguard an individual against a criminal act that may endanger their life, physical, psychological or sexual integrity, dignity or personal liberty to be recognised and enforced in a foreign jurisdiction if that individual moves (even temporarily) to an EU member state

There will no longer be a relatively simple mechanism for ensuring, for example, that the domestic abuse protection orders envisaged in the Domestic Abuse Bill will be recognised and enforced within the EU.

The minister has said that protection for victims will continue in the UK as the Government intends to incorporate the directive into retained EU law in England Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

MPs on the committee are not pursuing the matter further but have alerted Parliaments Women and Equalities Committee, the Justice Committee, the Home Affairs Committee, and Joint Committee on Human Rights about the change.

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Protection for UK Victims while in EU to Disappear after Brexit Transition Ends - Byline Times

Coronavirus and Brexit causing increased costs for produce importers – The Grocer

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The spectre of food price increases is hanging over the fresh produce category, despite the easing of lockdowns in both the UK and in mainland Europe, importers have warned.

Low flight capacity among the major carriers has forced fruit & veg importers to rely on more expensive modes of getting produce into the UK. That issue had been further compounded by the lack of clarity from government over post-Brexit trade arrangements, said fresh-cut fruit supplier Blue Skies.

The business, which relies on air services to fly its produce from sites across the globe, warned the sector expected increased costs to continue as scheduled flights had not come back online as quickly as it had hoped.

It is a little more expensive to operate, said Blue Skies CEO Hugh Pile. We have been using freighters and ghost flights, which are more expensive than using an airline carrying passengers.

Although costs had started falling from a peak of 50% higher than normal in May, it was still about 25% more expensive to ship produce, Pile added, due to the need to often bring produce by road to the UK from the European airports that had welcomed the ghost flights.

He stressed Blue Skies remained in a strong position, despite these logistical challenges. However, he warned the added complexity of shipping produce to the UK could ultimately lead to more difficulties once the UKs Brexit transition ended in December.

The level of nervousness increases as you get closer to that date and that combines with the fact information [from government] is just too vague, Pile said. We could go in a myriad of directions at the moment.

One point of clarity thats needed is on the freedom of movement of produce. We need confidence in a seamless customs process for fresh produce. We all know the strict nature of grocer depot times. If there was a 6pm deadline but the stuff gets there at 10pm, thats a write-off of those goods hours are critical.

Blue Skies has also called for clarity from the government on the status of migrant labourers, with 98% of its UK workforce coming from eastern Europe. More detail was also required on tariffs, as it was currently in the process of negotiating tenders with retailers.

His concerns were echoed by perishable logistics company PML, which warned cost increases for imported produce were inevitable due to the need to add on the cost of customs clearance.

If you look at Dover, its not ready for inspections at the moment, said PML sales director Nick Finbow.

Its all assumption at the moment. Are inspections going to be allowed to take place inland? Theres talk of this truck stop in Ashford. Whats going to be at that stop? Are they going to have customs and plant health people there? Its a catch-22 situation which is very frustrating for the industry.

One positive on the horizon, however, was that some airfreight could ultimately become lower in the long-term as carriers mothballed or retired older aircraft.

More fuel-efficient aircraft are being put in place British Airways have started to use Airbus A350s for long-haul flights and the Boeing 787s. So rates can come down to more manageable levels, said Finbow.

PML has even moved to set up its own air charter service to fill the current gap in the market for fresh produce carriers, though the service was in its early stages, Finbow stressed.

The news comes after the publication of a report from the Efra committee, which warned a disorderly end to the transition period could pose an even bigger danger to UK food security than coronavirus.

Originally posted here:

Coronavirus and Brexit causing increased costs for produce importers - The Grocer

Brexit fisheries fury: French fishermen vow to ruin UK fishing industry in punishment plot – Express

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French fishermen have vowed to retaliate against the UK by blocking French ports and stopping British ferries in French waters. The shock threat comes amid increasing furore over the Brexit fishing talks. Speaking to Al Jazeera, French fishermen in Normandy threatened to stop British fishermen from getting their fish into the European shops.

They warned "no British boats or fish will reach French soil" unless a deal is agreed.

French fisherman Jerome Vicquelin admitted that his colleagues are "scared" of a no deal scenario.

He told Al Jazeera: "We are scared because British waters represent 40 to 60 percent of our revenue, so for us it would be catastrophic. It is unimaginable."

Al Jazeeras Natacha Butler, reporting from Normandy, said: "If the UK and EU fail to reach a deal by the end of the year, French fishermen could be barred from fishing off the UK coast."

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She added: "Being denied access to British waters would be particularly devastating to the fishermen from the Normandy coast because so many of the boats are family-owned small businesses.

"Many of the fishermen vow not to give up their livelihoods without a fight."

Vicquelin explained the French punishment threat: "The British export some 70 percent of their fish to the EU.

"If we get to December 31st and they throw us out of their waters, then we will block our ports and stop the ferries. No British boats or fish will reach French soil."

However, Dimitri Rogoff, head of the Normandy Fishing Committee, said while the UK reliance on the EU as an export market is a valuable bargaining chip in the Brexit talks, it is not "a winning hand".

He said: "The EU market needs fish, it imports it. France imports 80 percent of the seafood it consumes so we need UK fish.

"So, although we can pressure the British and threaten tariffs and border controls, its not a long-term solution."

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Earlier this week, an Irish industry group warned that a no deal Brexit could result in the loss of up to 5,000 jobs in the fisheries sector

The Killybegs Fishermen's Association said many of the jobs would be lost in coastal communities, which are highly dependent on the sector.

Irish industry experts fear "chaos at sea," since EU vessels may move into waters off the Irish coast following Brexit.

France is also concerned about losing access to British waters, as the new French European affairs minister Clement Beaune vowed to be "intransigent" on the issue.

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Brexit fisheries fury: French fishermen vow to ruin UK fishing industry in punishment plot - Express

China Aims to Be the Worlds Dominant Blockchain Power With Help From Google, Amazon and Microsoft – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

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A state-backed blockchain infrastructure project from China aims to be the dominant internet services provider for decentralized applications (dapps). Its first-mover advantage is significant, as are the geopolitical risks.

The project, called the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), is expanding globally as U.S.-China relations become increasingly tense. BSN is a Chinese state-sanctioned blockchain project, but few may realize the network is supported by U.S. technology companies.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google are among the major cloud service providers for BSNs overseas data centers.

This arrangement is notable, given the U.S. governments hawkishness on Chinese technology. The Trump administration is considering a ban on Chinese social media app Tik Tok, Congress approved $1 billion for rural telecom carriers to ditch services from Huawei and the U.S. Commerce Department restricted semiconductor companies from providing chips to Huawei.

At Wednesdays House antitrust hearing, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg painted the China-U.S. tech competition as a zero-sum game. According to Zuckerberg, China is building its own version of the internet focused on very different ideas, and they are exporting their vision to other countries.

This charged environment could potentially spell trouble for BSN. China tries to grab the lead in blockchain and dominate this domain and that may end up putting this BSN project further into the spotlight of the U.S.-China tech competition, said Paul Triolo, practice head of geotechnology at Eurasia Group.

This would be the perception in places like Washington, he added.

U.S.-China technology competition has been ongoing for decades, but the focus is shifting from search engines and social media to more fundamental levels of technology like telecom equipment provided by Huawei, Triolo said.

Tension between the U.S. and China reached fever pitch earlier this month as the U.S. shut down the Chinese consulate in Houston and China took over the U.S. consulate in Chengdu in retaliation. In a recent speech, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed U.S.-China engagement as a failure.

Its unclear whether these tensions will calm in the near future, even if a new U.S. president is elected.

Even if we get a new administration in the U.S., for example, under [former Vice President and Democratic nominee Joseph] Biden, there is still going to be a lot of scrutiny on China from the technology front, Triolo said.

There is a real risk that technology that doesnt present a national security risk will nonetheless be banned because of politics, said Graham Webster, China digital economy fellow at New America, a think-tank with a focus on public policy issues.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft did not return requests for comment by press time.

Containment

One way to limit Chinese tech companies from growing and developing global services is to pressure their suppliers to sever ties with them.

The U.S. prohibited Huaweis major provider Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) from using American tools to make chips if it produces any product for Huawei. The Chinese company denounced the move as a pernicious decision.

BSN could potentially end up in a similar situation, given the prominence of American firms as its overseas data center hosts.

The Chinese network does not build or own any of the data centers where it runs its technical infrastructure; 90% of BSNs domestic data centers are provided by the telecom company China Mobile. Most overseas data centers will be provided by Amazons AWS, given the scope of the cloud services providers operations across the globe, according to BSN.

BSN pays these cloud services providers to use their servers and integrates the servers with their software.

The network has two data centers hosted by AWS in China. It also uses a few global data centers built on Microsofts cloud computing arm and Google Cloud Platform. BSN has one data center from Google Cloud based in Tokyo, one from Microsoft in Johannesburg and two from AWS in Paris and California.

Dapp developers can more quickly and easily access services from BSN if they use a data center that is physically close to them. Thats why overseas data centers are crucial in terms of providing internet services for the global blockchain community.

If I were the Chinese company, I would be careful about setting up a system that really depends on continued services in the U.S., Webster said. Anybody who wants to use the global version of this Chinese network should take into account the risk that a data center in the U.S. could get taken off the network because of geopolitics.

One motivation for curbing Chinese tech companies global expansion is data security concerns.

Blockchain technology clearly provides a structurally unusual level of security and integrity, but there is a battle going on over data localization and cloud services, said James Mulnevon, director of intelligence integration at SOS International, a Washington, D.C.-based defense and intelligence company that supports U.S. government agencies.

The world is clearly becoming a splinternet with national boundaries and domestic regulations overturning the previous techno globalism motif, Mulnevon said.

U.S. cloud providers offer services to a wide range of clients and it is hard to tell what specific cyber security concerns would exist if they allow Chinese companies to use their services, Webster said.

No immediate threat

So far, BSNs global expansion has not met with challenges from U.S. regulators, perhaps because it is relatively new. Or maybe its just that few Washington lawmakers can actually make sense of it.

Part of the reason that BSN has not met with challenges from the U.S. policy makers as the other emerging technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence is that blockchain technology is not well understood, Triolo said.

The U.S. government is considering restricting Chinese cloud services companies from operating in the U.S., but has yet to address the question of U.S. companies hosting applications that have a China connection.

Last May, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) denied China Mobiles application to operate telecommunications services in the U.S. This could mean Chinese businesses trying to build cloud-based networks in the U.S. need to be aware of the geopolitical risk, said James Mulvenon, director of Intelligence Integration at SOS International, a DC-based defense and intelligence firm.

I would be wary about big investments in these kinds of transnational cloud networks because regulators seem very grumpy about them right now, Mulvenon said.

Lawmakers who do have concerns might be reassured by the fact that even if the Chinese government does ask for data from BSN nodes hosted overseas, it may not be able to get it.

The Chinese government has a very expansive view of extraterritoriality, Mulnevon said.

The Chinese government certainly believes that Chinese companies operating abroad (even when they are incorporated abroad) are subject to Chinese law, he said.

Theoretically, the Chinese government would solicit data from a Chinese company like the one behind BSN regardless of where it is run, meaning it could ask for data stored in the networks overseas data centers. However, Red Date, the tech firm that architected BSNs technical framework, has claimed the network does not have access to user data, due to its technical structure.

Red Date CEO Yifan He previously told CoinDesk that BSNs technical framework fully protects its users data privacy and functions like an adapter that better connects developers with data centers where they can run nodes and build applications. He even invited skeptics to examine the networks code for themselves.

The China connection

The BSN Development Association is led by the State Information Center of China (SIC), a public institution under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the highest economic planning committee in China. State-owned tech conglomerates China Mobile and China UnionPay are also deeply involved in building the network.

It is certainly rare to get a government affiliate to endorse and lead the effort for a large-scale blockchain infrastructure, and for two of the largest Chinese tech giants to support the network. However, unlike Chinas national digital currency, higher-level government agencies such as the Chinese central bank and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT) do not appear to be involved in BSN yet.

The precise nature of the relationship between the Chinese government and BSN is not clear. But given BSNs state connection, its reliance on major U.S. cloud services providers could be a point of contention on the Chinese side as well.

No foreign firms sit on any BSN leadership committees. As stated in official documents, Beijing intends for BSN to be a global infrastructure network autonomously innovated by Chinese entities, according to a May report from Eurasia Group.

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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China Aims to Be the Worlds Dominant Blockchain Power With Help From Google, Amazon and Microsoft - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Animoca Brands and Atari expand strategic partnership to introduce blockchain gaming to the masses – Small Caps

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Blockchain-focused gaming developer Animoca Brands has unveiled an expansionary development regarding its existing partnership with cult classic gaming company Atari.

Supplementing an existing agreement dating back to December 2018, Animoca Brands said the new amendment expands its access to an additional 15 Atari games on any platform and any distribution channel, inclusive of blockchain products, for a term extending through to 31 January 2025.

Animoca Brands and Atari confirmed they amended their existing license agreement to expand the number of channels and intellectual property (IP) made available for Animocas platform.

Moreover, the significant expansion means Atari will grant Animoca Brands the right to develop and distribute an additional 15 classic Atari arcade games, including highly popular titles such as Asteroids, Pong and Centipede.

Animoca Brands will also obtain the right to develop and publish blockchain versions of all of Ataris previously released titles including the integration of novel features such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

As a guarantee to ensure future revenue payments, Animoca Brands has decided to issue 18.7 million shares at $0.21 per share and stated the entirety of this license fee is recoupable against royalties paid to Atari from the revenue generated by Ataris gaming titles.

Another benefit of the expanded partnership for Animoca Brands is the ability to become a non-exclusive distributor of Ataris games in Asia and an exclusive provider of blockchain content globally for the Atari VCS console.

We are thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Animoca Brands, whose vision for the integration of blockchain technology into video games is perfectly aligned with ours, Atari chief executive officer Frederic Chesnais said.

When we signed the initial agreement, we always envisaged to expand it to the most iconic games of the Atari catalogue to turn them into blockchain games.

Our ambition for the Atari VCS is to develop an ecosystem that gives users access to the largest number of tools for creation and entertainment. Blockchain games inside a virtual world are a perfect example for the types of entertainment that we want to propose to the Atari VCS userbase, Mr Chesnaid added

It was the natural choice to ask our partner Animoca Brands, whose leadership in blockchain gaming is unquestioned, to offer their blockchain gaming content directly on the Atari VCS, he said.

According to a statement to the market, the amended deal grants Animoca Brands non-exclusive distribution rights in Asia, but excludes Australia and New Zealand, for the upcoming Atari VCS game console. As a solution, Animoca Brands has announced it will set up and operate its own online retail store focusing on the Oceanic region through to 30 September 2022.

Animoca Brands will be the exclusive blockchain gaming content provider for the Atari VCS console until 30 September 2022, including the right to incorporate its preferred blockchain technology solutions such as crypto wallets, thereby making the VCS the worlds first dedicated blockchain gaming game console, the company said.

As consideration for the exclusivity for Ataris VCS game console, Animoca Brands has agreed to pay a minimum guarantee against future revenues of US$320,000 (A$441,000), payable before 31 July 2021 or through the issuance of 2.2 million Animoca shares at A$0.21 per share.

In December 2018, Atari and Animoca Brands first announced their commercial partnership a joint venture to develop a variety of virtual worlds built on crypto assets and blockchain technology.

The burgeoning partnership was further strengthened in April 2020 after Animoca Brands conducted its own foray into blockchain gaming with the launch of The Sandbox and an accompanying token presale worth $700,000.

The Sandbox is a virtual world where players can build, own and monetise their own voxel gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain. The company said its vision is to offer a deeply immersive metaverse in which virtual worlds and games will be created collaboratively and without a central authority.

Classic arcade titles such as Asteroids,Centipede,Pong andRollerCoaster Tycoon were all announced as titles that would make a new-age comeback with Atari hinting it will create an online theme park that users can not only visit, but also, commoditise.

Given the dovetailing ambitions from both companies, combining forces to establish a blockchain gaming hub makes strong commercial sense.

To further streamline their co-development, Animoca Brands has the option to exchange five games for other Atari titles until 31 December 2020 and upon meeting revenue milestones, stands to gain the rights to an additional 13 Atari games at no extra charge.

The amendment announced today grants Animoca Brands the right to distribute Ataris games through the platforms of its subsidiaries and affiliated entities, principally Gamee and Quidd.

Animoca Brands acquired Gamee in July this year for just over $8 million a social gaming platform with more than 80 game titles, 13 million registered users and 1.3 million active monthly users primarily via social media apps such as Telegram.

Quidd is a leading global marketplace for buying and selling branded digital collectables.

Animoca Brands has declared it intends to launch all of its blockchain games on Gamees mobile, web, and desktop platforms while simultaneously offering digital collector assets via its subsidiary Quidd.

This significant expansion of our partnership with Atari allows Animoca Brands to leverage some of the greatest ever classic games into our blockchain strategy and on our popular platforms, including the hyper-casual gaming platform Gamee and the digital collectables platform Quidd, Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu said.

We are very excited at the opportunity to catapult these nostalgic, history-making games into the future, he added.

Excerpt from:

Animoca Brands and Atari expand strategic partnership to introduce blockchain gaming to the masses - Small Caps

Blockchain Technology Market Is Set To Experience Revolutionary Growth By 2025 – Market Research Posts

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Blockchain Technology Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data:Company, Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors, Product Category, Application and Specification with Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin, Main Business/Business Overview.

The report presents a highly comprehensive and accurate research study on the globalBlockchain Technology market. It offers PESTLE analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis, Porters Five Forces analysis, and absolute dollar opportunity analysis to help players improve their business strategies. It also sheds light on critical Blockchain Technology Marketdynamics such as trends and opportunities, drivers, restraints, and challenges to help market participants stay informed and cement a strong position in the industry. With competitive landscape analysis, the authors of the report have made a brilliant attempt to help readers understand important business tactics that leading companies use to maintainBlockchain Technology market sustainability.

Download Premium Sample Copy Of This Report:Download FREE Sample PDF!

Global Blockchain Technology Market to reach USD 51045.4 million by 2025.

Global Blockchain Technology Market valued approximately USD 242.4 million in 2016 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 81.2% over the forecast period 2017-2025. The driving factor for Smart Lock market is One of the latest trends gaining traction the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). BT powered by AI is the most advanced IT development taking place in the blockchain and cryptocurrency market. AI is providing several features to manage decentralized monetary systems. AI algorithms should be used to predict the value of bitcoins, which can help bitcoin traders to handle bitcoin transactions, it will also help the customers to have an easy access to a comparative information and will allow many investors to get better informed before deciding about their financial plans. This, in turn, will strike growth in the global BT market during the forecast period.

The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players. The detailed segments and sub-segment of the market are explained below:

oBy Application

oPayments

oExchanges

oSmart contracts

oDocumentation

oDigital identity

oSupply chain management

oGovernance, risk and compliance management

oBy Provider

oApplication and solution provider

oMiddleware provider

oInfrastructure and protocol provider

oBy Organization Size

oSmall and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

oLarge enterprises

oBy Industry Vertical

oBanking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI)

oMedia and entertainment

oTransportation and logistics

oReal estate

oIT and telecommunications

oTravel and hospitality

oRetail and eCommerce

oHealthcare and life sciences

oGovernment and public sector

By Regions:

oNorth America

oU.S.

oCanada

oEurope

oUK

oGermany

oAsia Pacific

oChina

oIndia

oJapan

oRest of the World

Furthermore, years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year 2015

Base year 2016

Forecast period 2017 to 2025

Some of the key manufacturers involved in the market are AWS, IBM, Microsoft, Ripple, Chain, Inc, arthport, Coinbase, Bit fury, BTL Group, Digital Asset Holdings, Abra, Factom, Alphapoint. Acquisitions and effective mergers are some of the strategies adopted by the key manufacturers. New product launches and continuous technological innovations are the key strategies adopted by the major players.

Target Audience of the Global Blockchain Technology in Market Study:

oKey Consulting Companies & Advisors

oLarge, medium-sized, and small enterprises

oVenture capitalists

oValue-Added Resellers (VARs)

oThird-party knowledge providers

oInvestment bankers

oInvestors

Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement?Ask Our Industry Experts!

Table of Contents:

Study Coverage:It includes study objectives, years considered for the research study, growth rate and Blockchain Technology market size of type and application segments, key manufacturers covered, product scope, and highlights of segmental analysis.

Executive Summary:In this section, the report focuses on analysis of macroscopic indicators, market issues, drivers, and trends, competitive landscape, CAGR of the global Blockchain Technology market, and global production. Under the global production chapter, the authors of the report have included market pricing and trends, global capacity, global production, and global revenue forecasts.

Blockchain Technology Market Size by Manufacturer: Here, the report concentrates on revenue and production shares of manufacturers for all the years of the forecast period. It also focuses on price by manufacturer and expansion plans and mergers and acquisitions of companies.

Production by Region:It shows how the revenue and production in the global market are distributed among different regions. Each regional market is extensively studied here on the basis of import and export, key players, revenue, and production.

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Blockchain Technology Market Is Set To Experience Revolutionary Growth By 2025 - Market Research Posts