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Bankruptcy and the coronavirus: Part II – Brookings Institution

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

As the pace of extraordinary intervention by regulators and lawmakers to help consumers and businesses stave off economic collapse slows, and the economy begins to open up, the initial fallout of the crisis will become clearer. Many businesses that do not survive may simply stay closed, paying their creditors (either in full, or under renegotiated terms) and shutting down. According to one new study, the number of incorporated business owners has fallen from 5.8 million to 4.7 million,[1] which suggests this has already begun. Bankruptcy filings also are likely to increase dramatically, as consumers and businesses seek either to restructure their debt or to turn over their assets to the court and leave their current obligations behind.

An earlier report, released a few weeks after the start of the coronavirus crisis, considered some of the bankruptcy implications of the crisis.[2] After discussing evidence that bankruptcy courts are less effective when they are congested, the report suggested a variety of strategies regulators and lawmakers might use to adapt the bankruptcy process to the coming wave of cases. The report also advocated measures (such as temporary new bankruptcy judgeships) to expand the capacity of the bankruptcy system, a recommendation also made by other bankruptcy scholars.[3]

This report begins with an update on the question of whether a bankruptcy wave is in fact materializing. The report then takes a closer look at two key features of the bankruptcy process: the standstill that goes into effect when a debtor files for bankruptcy and the debtors access to financing for the bankruptcy process. In each context, scholars and other commentators have advocated COVID-19-specific adjustments to the ordinary bankruptcy rules. The report will briefly assess the current proposals, concluding that an expanded standstill is not necessary but enhanced access to financing is.

Read the full report here.

The author did not receive financial support from any firm or person for this article or from any firm or person with a financial or political interest in this article. He is currently not an officer, director, or board member of any organization with an interest in this article.

Bankruptcy and the coronavirus: Part II - Brookings Institution

‘The whole truth’: Bankruptcy judge urged to unseal records of alleged abusive New Orleans priest – NOLA.com

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Attorneys for a manwho alleges he was preyed upon by a New Orleans priest wants a federal bankruptcy judge to unseal reams of confidential documents outlining how the Archdiocese of New Orleans handled accusations against the cleric.

The plaintiffs attorneys first asked an Orleans Parish Civil District Court judge in early March to allow for the public release of those documents, and The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, along with WWL, WDSU and WVUE, joined in the request, arguing that the documents held information which community members could use to protect themselves from the still-living priest, Lawrence Hecker.

But the archdioceses decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections halted that push indefinitely, along with lawsuits from the plaintiff and dozens of others whose cases were automatically stayed and transferred from state court to federal court.

Late Thursday, the plaintiffs legal team filed a motion requesting that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill, whos presiding over the archdioceses reorganization filing, make the documents "immediately available to the public.

Knowing the whole truth without limitation is an important part of clergy abuse survivors ability to retake control of events that caused so much pain they have been forced to carry in silence for so long, said the motion, prepared by attorneys Richard Trahant, John Denenea and Soren Gisleson, who represent dozens of clerical molestation claimants.

The motion acknowledges that bankruptcy judges can protect scandalous or defamatory matter contained in any paper.

Though information on priests accused of molestation may be embarrassing for the church, the motion argues, the plaintiff says that Grabills releasing the documents on Hecker would be appropriate because the content of the documents is true and relevant to the case.

Archdiocese attorney Mark Mintz late Friday filed a response opposing the motion, calling it an attempted "end run" around a protective order previously imposed by Civil District Court Judge Nakisha Ervin-Knott. Among other things, Mintz argued it is Ervin-Knott who should decide whether the Hecker documents should stay sealed.

Grabill hasn't ruled on the plaintiffs motion. Hearings in the bankruptcy cases are tentatively scheduled July 16 and Aug. 20.

In his lawsuit, the plaintiff who is not named in the court filings said Hecker fondled him and other boys at St. Joseph School in Gretna in 1968. Though Hecker was a serial pedophile who abused countless children, supervisors never turned him over to law enforcement authorities to be prosecuted for crimes that have no statute of limitation and for which he could still be punished, the plaintiff argues.

The plaintiffs legal team says the evidence against Hecker lies in documents that the archdiocese handed over in the discovery process but which they marked confidential to place them under seal. Law enforcement could subpoena those documents from the plaintiff's lawyers, but they say that hasn't happened.

Hecker denied the plaintiffs claims and skipped a scheduled deposition, saying he would simply invoke his right against self-incrimination. The claimant's lawyers asked that Hecker be held in contempt.

Before the bankruptcy filing stopped the case in its tracks, a church attorney disclosed in open court that church officials first learned of a molestation allegation against Hecker in 1988, and that the archdiocese has since paid out at least four abuse settlements involving him.

Yet it wasnt until 2002 that Hecker retired from the ministry. Though transparency policies which U.S. bishops had adopted by then appear to have required his immediate unmasking, it wasnt until 16 years later that the archdiocese publicly acknowledged it suspected Hecker was a child molester when it listed him in a 2018 roster of dozens of clergymen who had faced credible sex abuse allegations.

Separately, the church continued providing him with the financial support usually given to retired priests, including money for living expenses.

Grabill ordered a stop to those payments after the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy, claiming financial strain from litigating abuse cases as well as the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The request for Grabill to release the archdioceses records on Hecker was part of an objection to the churchs recent request of the judge to let it pay certain attorneys who had done work prior to the bankruptcy filing.

The plaintiff says the conduct of the attorneys whose names are redacted is at issue in separate filings under seal. Without elaborating, it alleges the attorneys are accused of helping the church cover up the truth about Hecker and other alleged clergy predators.

The plaintiff argues that unsealing the Hecker documents would let him share them with a committee of mostly clergy abuse survivors representing the interests of creditors in the archdiocese's bankruptcy case.

Whatever the church was to pay these professionals would be better served paying sexual abuse claims, the plaintiff said.

Note: This post was updated to add Mintz's response after filed into the court record late Friday.

All the Household-Name Companies That Have Filed for Bankruptcy Due to Coronavirus – New York Magazine

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Brooks Brothers filed for Chapter 11 protection. Photo: Alex Edelman/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Thousands of businesses have been driven to bankruptcy by the coronavirus, and youve likely never heard of most of them. But a handful of household names, many of them already struggling before the pandemic, are among the firms closing stores, laying off employees, and restructuring due the economic turmoil created by the virus. And while bankruptcy doesnt often spell death for large companies, it can sometimes lead to liquidation of the business.

In the first half of 2020, more than 3,600 companies filed for bankruptcy, according to Epiq. Just over 600 filed in June, up 43 percent from June of last year. And experts predict that things are only going to get worse, the Times reports:

Edward I. Altman, the creator of the Z score, a widely used method of predicting business failures, estimated that this year will easily set a record for so-called mega bankruptcies filings by companies with $1 billion or more in debt. And he expects the number of merely large bankruptcies at least $100 million to challenge the record set the year after the 2008 economic crisis.

Here are some of the biggest name firms to file for bankruptcy in 2020:

Diamond Offshore and Whiting Petroleum: The two oil companies cited a steep decrease in demand during lockdown and the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

J.Crew: The Times called J.Crew the coronaviruss first major retail casualty when its parent company filed for Chapter 11 protection in early May. The company has said day-to-day operations will continue.

Golds Gym: The gym chain proactively closed 30 company-owned gyms in April before declaring for bankruptcy in May. It said the decision will not prevent us from continuing to support our system of nearly 700 gyms around the world.

Neiman Marcus: After years of building an unsustainable debt burden, Neiman Marcus was brutalized by the coronavirus, which caused all of its 43 stores to temporarily close. The luxury chain is now considering closures around the country, including in Manhattan, where it opened a three-story, 188,000-square-footbehemoth at Hudson Yards just last year.

J.C. Penney: Prior to coronavirus, the footprint of the once-iconic mall retailer had fallen to less than a quarter of what it was in 2001. After its mid-May bankruptcy filing, its going to fall more. The company is planning to shutter 154 stores.

Hertz: If no one is traveling, no one needs to rent a car. Car rental giant Hertz was dealt a rapid, sudden and dramatic blow by the coronavirus, the company said in May, leading to the biggest bankruptcy filing of 2020.

Tuesday Morning: Pandemic-inspired shutdowns created an insurmountable financial hurdle for the off-price retailer, which is planning to close more than 200 of its 700 stores.

PQ New York: The owner of Le Pain Quotidien closed all 98 of its U.S. locations during the pandemic and sold them to another restaurant company that will reopen 35 of the locations and, presumably, close the rest.

GNC: The 85-year-old vitamin retailer saw 30 percent of its stores in the U.S. and Canada temporarily close during the height of the pandemic. The dramatic negative impact of these closures led to a bankruptcy filing in late June. Roughly 20 percent, or 1,200 of its 5,800 retail stores will close.

24 Hour Fitness: After its bankruptcy filing on June 14, 24 Hour Fitness will transition 133 of its locations to Zero Hour Fitness. That is to say, theyre closing.

Chuck E. Cheese: On the same day that CEC Entertainment, which owns 550 Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza locations, reopened 266 venues, it also filed for bankruptcy. The company said the filing will allow it to strengthen our financial structure as we recover from what has undoubtedly been the most challenging event in our companys history.

Lucky Brand: Founded in 1990, the denim company Lucky Brand will close 13 of its 200 stores after filing for bankruptcy brought on by the coronavirus. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted sales across all channels, interim CEO Matthew Kaness said in a statement. It also announced plans for a sale to SPARC Group, which owns the brands Nautica and Aeropostale.

Brooks Brothers: The iconic clothing company isnt calling it quits, but it is up for a major restructuring after a bankruptcy filing on July 8. Owner Claudio Del Vecchio told the Wall Street Journal that the pandemic ravaged revenues for a company already struggling amid a national shift to more casual dress. Its three U.S. factories are slated to close in mid-August and the company will search for a new buyer.

Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.

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All the Household-Name Companies That Have Filed for Bankruptcy Due to Coronavirus - New York Magazine

AMC nears deal to avoid bankruptcy – The Real Deal

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

The financing deal comes after AMC theaters have been shuttered for months due to the coronavirus pandemic. (iStock)

AMC is trying to stave off the final curtain.

The movie theater chain is close to hammering out a restructuring deal that would save it from bankruptcy, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The deal involves bondholders providing a $200 million senior loan and exchanging their unsecured claims for second-lien debt at an undisclosed discount. Meanwhile, Silver Lake Group, a private equity firm that has a seat on AMCs board, will move into a first-lien position with its $600 million in convertible bonds.

AMCs senior lenders, a group that includes Apollo Global Management, submitted their own counterproposal. Their deal would see the lenders fork over an additional $200 million in senior debt, in addition to the $200 million from bondholders, and block Silver Lakes exchange into a first-lien position. But AMC is close to rejecting that proposal, according to the Journal.

The financing deal comes after AMC theaters have been shuttered for months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The chain expects to reopen most of its 600 U.S. theaters by July 30. [WSJ] Erin Hudson

AMC nears deal to avoid bankruptcy - The Real Deal

The Drive-Thru: Mask drama at Starbucks, Costco, and more bankruptcies – Business Insider – Business Insider

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Happy Friday! This was another big week for bankruptcies, as well as a rough week for retail workers forced to face off against anti-mask customers.

If this e-mail was forwarded to you, welcome to The Drive-Thru, BI Retail's weekly newsletter that fills you in on everything you need to know in retail from the c-suite to the checkout cashiers. Subscribe here to get me, Kate Taylor, and my colleague, Shoshy Ciment, in your inbox every Friday.

Here's what you need to know this week.

Alex Tai/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

It was another week packed with bankruptcies including:

The pandemic played a significant role in all four bankruptcies. However, COVID can't completely explain the companies' financial troubles. People may have ditched "hard pants" and suits while in quarantine, but as Bethany and Madeline report both Lucky Brands and Brooks Brothers have struggled to stay relevant in recent years as trends shift.

To quote Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, on Brooks Brothers: "Its formal, old-school approach found favor among mature and more traditional demographics, but it has become increasingly out of step with a new generation of consumers who are looking for a more edgy approach to smart casual."

You can keep track of the more than 20 retailers and restaurant companies that have filed for bankruptcy so far this year here.

People dine out in Austin, Texas, June 28, 2020. Sergio Flores/Reuters

As BI's science team reports, masks are crucial in stopping the spread of the coronavirus. But, convincing customers to wear masks is creating its own set of problems.

This week, I covered viral tantrums in stores like Costco and Target as customers refused to wear masks. Late last week, I spoke with a McDonald's worker in California who was assaulted and had to go to the hospital. She told me she asked a customer to wear a mask, and he responded by grabbing and hitting her through the drive-thru window.

What are some solutions? Starbucks announced a national mask policy on Thursday, becoming the first restaurant chain to do so and following in Costco's footsteps. The chain is emphasizing de-escalation and promoting other ways anti-mask customers can place orders, in an effort to avoid conflict.

But, some restaurants have decided the harassment is simply too much. Restaurants in states including Texas, California, and Michigan have announced plans to once again shutter dining rooms, blaming rude customers who refused to wear face coverings.

Read the full story on restaurants and masks here.

Graham Johnson

Whole Foods is facing backlash after sending workers home from a Milford, Connecticut store for wearing shirts printed with the phrase "racism has no place here."

"We believe we are being targeted for speaking up about the injustices that are going on right now," Graham Johnson, one of the reprimanded workers, told Hayley. "We've never had an issue with dress code at our store before now."

The backlash in Connecticut is on top of the reports of almost daily protests at a store in Massachusetts over its dress code.

Read the full story here.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images

Irene wrote about a type of business that can have a direct impact on police brutality corner stores that have often been sites of conflict and police violence. She talked with the Inner-city Muslim Action Network, or IMAN, about how the group tries to start conversations that make communities safer.

"We're agitating storeowners to, in this moment, not be people who just self-identify as Muslim, but to really live that out in the way they practice their business, to be advocates for restorative justice in their neighborhoods at a time like this," said IMAN deputy director Shamar Hemphill.

Read the thoughtful piece here.

Courtesy of McDonald's

Irene also took us inside the solar-powered McDonald's that just opened in Disney. Disney World isn't quite open yet, but the solar-powered McDonald's is already open for drive-thru and delivery service.

The photos are fantastic take a look here.

Burger King

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The Drive-Thru: Mask drama at Starbucks, Costco, and more bankruptcies - Business Insider - Business Insider

The Old Guard Review: Netflixs comic book action-drama is a character study that shows what weve been missing – KENS5.com

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

By all account the summer's biggest blockbuster, "The Old Guard" plunges into questions of mortality, expectation and duty.

For how much the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come to be one of the last consistent channels of mass-consumed entertainment and how many billions of dollars its made at the box office (or, more accurately, because of it), weve gotten comfortable with how those spandex-wearing, one-liner-quipping heroes represent characters whose motivations have less to do with character and more to do with the unassailable appeal of altruistic duty. Even as Tony Stark and Steve Rogers bicker over the ethics of becoming bureaucratic pawns in Captain America: Civil War, what differentiates them isnt really a matter of I do or dont want this or that so much as whats the most sensible method of fighting the enemies that will continue to come their way. The foe is always as much a driving force, if not more, than the selfit wouldnt be an MCU movie otherwise, with the exception of the multilayered politics of Black Panther.

And thats all OKif only because thats what we want. Packed theaters (oh, how they are missed) and merchandise sales and Halloween costumes are more than enough to shield Kevin Feige and Co. against any other suggestion.

Leave it to Netflix, then, to bring us a comic book actioneer that shows us what the genre is missing, and in a year where weve reached July with nary a Wonder Woman or Black Widow to cheer on, no less. A movie about superpowered beings that was probably made for the cost of catering on the set of an Avengers movie, but exponentially more considered about the emotional and psychological toll of being a superpowered being, The Old Guard is the rare comic book adaptation (Id call it a superhero movie, but things are more complicated than that) where the quiet moments are more interesting than the loud ones.

Youll find all the familiar tropes the novice hero, the flying fists, the moustache-twirling villain, etc. to sustain you over the prolonged gap of time to the next Marvel or DC comics film, but Gina Prince-Bythewoods latest directorial effort prods deep enough to reset our expectations in the meantime. With its diverse cast and a fresh sprinkling of nihilism, The Old Guard puts character over spectacle, in the process asking questions the genre hasnt been all that interested in asking as of late.

The Old Guard opens on a small team of covert mercenaries led by Andy (Charlize Theron, subtly continuing a hot streak of performances after Tully, Long Shot and Bombshell). As she gazes at a news channel toggling between headlines of crisis in Syria and unrest in Haiti, her eyes betray weariness at a world that is decaying faster than they can smooth out the rough patches. Some good means nothing, she croaks out in one early scene, a line with more implications about the relationship between servitude and exhaustion than most superhero/comic book movies serve up in two-plus hours.

The uninitiated to The Old Guard may wonder how long, exactly, Andy and her team have devoted their lives and bodies to the pursuit of heroic ends. Youll get your answer about 15 minutes in, when an ostensible mission to save some kidnapped girls is revealed to be a trap, and rifle-toting goonies make swiss cheese out of Andy and her co-warriors. Its a grisly scene (the movie makes good on its R rating).

But moments later, the bullets pop out. Their wounds are healed. The squad stands up, and swiftly proceeds to turn the tables on their ambushers. Andy, Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli) are immortal, it turns outand theyve been at this for decades. Or, in the case of Andy (full name: Andromache the Scythian), for centuries.

The premise is one that The Old Guard fascinatingly explores in shades of grey, contextualizing Andys world-weariness with seeds of reservation that have been festering over time. While the traditional contemporary comic book movie expends minimal energy contemplating what heroes think what they actuallythink about the emotional fallout of fighting new menace day after day after day, The Old Guard plunges into those questions as forcefully as Andy plunges her battle ax into an enemys neck. And she does so in the shadow of secrecy, with no one to acknowledge her but the creeping suspicion that if the world hasnt gotten any better, perhaps she shouldnt waste her time (the film can certainly be read as a commentary on gender expectation).

Its a startlingly human moment when she admits that none of it means anything anyway, and makes one consider the numerous kinds of stories comic book movies refuse to tell, in favor of destroying made-up European countries and fighting giant purple aliens. The Old Guard provides first-person perspective at a time when the genre is viewed increasingly through the lens of corporatism, both in the context of the actual stories and of those who make them. Ironically, or intentionally, that same profits-driven corporatism proves adversarial when a big pharma bro-preneur, Merrick (Harry Melling, a seeming representation of Mark Zuckerberg with his curly hair and ego), seeks to capture and harvest the team of whatever in their biology makes them immune to bullets and stabs. Were morally obliged to take it, Merrick says, a sentiment that is more fully realized in the conflicted CIA agent anxiously helping him, Chiwetel Ejiofors Copley.

The film also represents a landmark moment for Black filmmakers; Prince-Bythewood, who previously made Love & Basketball and The Secret Life of Bees, is now the first Black woman to helm a comic book movie. Its an overdue deviation from an unfortunate norm, a change in perspective thats striking to see play out in the films astute observations of what one owes the world when one gets nothing in return. It certainly helps that The Old Guard was penned by the same writer of the source material, Greg Rucka, who restrains himself from getting too muddled in lore (although one particular backstory is haunting) for the sake of providing an audience proxy in KiKi Laynes Nilea Marine who discovers her own immortality while on duty, and is soon gathered by the team after a psychic episode alerts them to another of their kind.

The parallels to X-Men are obviousand that superhuman family certainly makes sense as a thematic overlap, not to mention the Wolverine-like abilities of the titular old guard. But unlike that Marvel gang, theres no School for Gifted Youngsters here, and no William Stryker to direct their rage at. Theyre constantly on the run, only relying on each other. Theyre not outfitted in brightly colored costumes, dont come equipped with adamantium shields or the ability to shoot deadly beams of light from their hands or the support of national security budgets. The result is a careful and legitimate humanizing of the movies diverse characters, a sneaky achievement of drama that far outweighs forgettable action sequences and the occasionally bland aesthetic (the movies song choices are legitimately baffling). Ive got people that love mepeople that are going to worry, Nile responds when Andy encourages her to follow their path. The Old Guard isnt particularly subtle, but that opens up avenues to explore the painful implications of mortality through a moral lens.

As long as the movie interrogates the genre confines its operating within, we can, of course, interrogate the moments when it deviates into familiar territory. While the stakes thankfully remain grounded in the final act actively subverting heroes-save-the-world expectations in the process theres a cognitive dissonance thats hard to shake when the bodies of faceless goons start piling up. One of my favorite scenes in a film whose characters constantly converse about inevitable endings comes earlier as Niles confesses that, while the military has trained her to subdue her foes, it cant prepare her for living with what comes after the blood-letting. Its slightly jarring, then, to remember that position when shes mowing down enemies with seemingly no misgivings and no remorse in the climactic shoot-em-up, beat-um-up sequence.

At the same time, its refreshing as hell to see a young Black woman with real agency making major life-or-death decisions in a movie of this caliber. And Prince-Bythewood knows it; the movie is punctuated by an act of coming into ones own that absolutely brims with catharsis for us as movie-watchers and for Nile herself that brings the films message about self-fulfillment to the fore.

The world of The Old Guard by all indications, its ourworld is one that doesnt deserve the heroism of those whose selfless efforts it cant recognize. That alone feels like a novel idea teeming with possibility for the genre, let alone a timely sentiment in the age of COVID-19. As we argue consequentially about the simple issue of wearing a mask, an individual act thats been proven to be able to save lives, The Old Guard confronts the notion that the work of the individual can never be enough to cause vital change. Perhaps not.

But heroism goes far beyond putting in the work and waiting to be praised when the meteor has been stopped, the villain extinguished, the virus mitigated. True heroism is as much about the subdued commitments we make in the face of cataclysmic uncertaintywhen intention outweighs expectation.

"The Old Guard" is rated R for sequences of graphic violence, and language. It's streaming on Netflix now.

Starring: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood

OTHER SCREEN TEST REVIEWS:

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The Old Guard Review: Netflixs comic book action-drama is a character study that shows what weve been missing - KENS5.com

New report aims to help prevent incels from turning to violence – Folio – University of Alberta

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Two political science students at the University of Alberta have written a background report to help social workers, psychologists and other practitioners prevent involuntary celibates, or incels, from turning to violence.

The report was released this month by theOrganization for the Prevention of Violence, an Edmonton-based think tank that aims to counter violent extremism in Canada through psychosocial intervention. It is funded by Public Safety Canada and co-founded by the organizations executive director and U of A adjunct political science professor John McCoy.

A lot of times there's a tendency to paint the whole community of incels as violent, or like some variant of white supremacists, said masters student David Jones, who was co-author of the guide with Zoe Hastings, a recent political science graduate.

I think we have enough data to challenge those two assertions and approach it in a more nuanced way, said Jones.

Those identifying as incels tend to be young men who feel victimized by feminism and their own unattractiveness, blaming both for their inability to form relationships with women, said the reports authors.

From this grievance, they have developed an ideology that encompasses anti-feminism, misogyny, nihilism and self-abasement, they wrote.

Since 2009, there have been at least 13 public attacks by incels in North America. In Canada four resulted in deaththree in Ontario and one in Alberta.

Last February a 17-year-old male armed with a machete stabbed two women and a man at a massage parlour in Toronto, killing 24-year-old Ashley Noell Arzaga. The police later declared it anact of terrorism, because it was inspired by an identifiable ideology.

Despite these high-profile cases, however, the vast majority of incels are not violent, said Jones and Hastings, but could become so without intervention from psychologists or social workers.

This is a very isolated group of individuals, especially outside of their online community, said McCoy, who supervised Jones and Hastings in the writing of Involuntary Celibates: Background for Practitioners.

For them, building awareness of the availability of social servicesin a way that is anonymous, accessible and as free from stigma as possibleis an important first step, he said.

The goal of practitioners is to understand the perspective of incels, to address it in a way that is not confrontational or dismissive of their views, but slowly pursues disengagement from the ideology and builds pro-social connections.

Jones and Hastings culled their data from online incel platforms that conduct their own surveys, posting the information online.

The results debunk the common assumption in media reports that incels are closely allied with far-right, white-supremacist ideology, said Jones. While there is indeed some overlap and sharing of anti-feminist and misogynistic narratives, one poll revealed that only 55 per cent of incels were white.

The authors also found 64 per cent of those using online incel platforms were under 25 and 100 per cent identified as male.

A majority reported very high levels of negative mental health, according to Jones and Hastings. About 71 per cent reported being bullied as a child, and 74 per cent said they suffer from long-lasting anxiety, stress or emotional distress.

Eighty-eight per cent said they were unhappy and 77 per cent expressed pessimism about the future.

In an October 2019 poll, 68 per cent said they had seriously considered suicide, and 72 per cent reported they were on the autism spectrum.

These data suggest incels constitute a community with an apparent set of needs who can benefit from the support of human service and mental health practitioners, wrote Jones and Hastings.

They offer a number of suggestions to help practitioners build trust with incels and provide social support, such as seeking to understand their underlying mental health issues without rejecting their belief system.

Those on the autism spectrum, for example, given their struggles with social competency, may be easier to manipulate online, rendering them more susceptible to ideology.

The authors urge practitioners to help their clients engage in offline, healthy self-improvement activities that naturally align with their own goals and strengths.

Encouraging the development of natural community connections may also serve to create feelings of acceptance and self-worth outside of the incel ideology and community.

McCoy stressed that the overall intention of his organization is to design practical intervention programming rigorously informed by evidence.

We want to make sure it translates into the real world and aids practitioners who are on the front line, he said.

Continued here:

New report aims to help prevent incels from turning to violence - Folio - University of Alberta

UK clothing unit with Indian workers faces slavery probe – The Tribune

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

London, July 5

A clothing factory named Jaswal Fashions based in the eastern England city of Leicester faces a modern slavery investigation after an undercover reporter alleged sweatshop-like conditions and below minimum wage payments to its workers, many of them from India.

According to The Sunday Times, its undercover reporter found that workers were being paid as little as 3.50 pounds an hour as against the UKs legal minimum wage of 8.72 pounds an hour and was also operating last week during the localised coronavirus lockdown imposed on the city.

Wont tolerate labour exploitation

The allegations are truly appalling. I will not tolerate sick criminals forcing innocent people into slave labour and a life of exploitation. Let this be a warning to those who are exploiting people in sweatshops. Priti Patel, UK Home Secretary

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel described the allegations as truly appalling and commended the undercover investigation for its role in uncovering such abhorrent practices. I will not tolerate sick criminals forcing innocent people into slave labour and a life of exploitation, said Patel. Let this be a warning to those who are exploiting people in sweatshops like these for their own commercial gain. This is just the start. What you are doing is illegal, it will not be tolerated and we are coming after you, she said. Last week, the senior Cabinet minister had directed the UKs National Crime Agency (NCA) to investigate modern slavery allegations in Leicesters clothing factories after alarm was raised that they were a key source of the spike in coronavirus infections in the region, which led to Englands first localised Covid-19 lockdown for the city.

Within the last few days NCA officers, along with Leicestershire police and other partner agencies, attended a number of business premises in the Leicester area to assess concerns of modern slavery and human trafficking, the NCA said, which is looking into the undercover reports.

The newspapers undercover reporter spent two days at Jaswal Fashions, a factory which supplies garments to one of Britains fastest-growing online retailer Boohoo. PTI

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UK clothing unit with Indian workers faces slavery probe - The Tribune

Reparations must be made for the toxic legacy of West Indian slavery – The National

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

UNDER the rubric of Black Lives Matter (UK limited) it is time that the objective of the discourse and movement is swiftly moved on from felling statues and begins to confront the political, moral and historical consequences of the terrible reality of West Indian enslavement.

Caricom, the 20-member association of Caribbean states (all but two, Haiti and Suriname, were former British colonial territories) have since 2104 submitted a 10-point reparations programme to the EU and specifically the UK Government.

Before laying out the details of the Caricom document that needs much greater popular support, allow me to indulge my personal/political reflections.

My partner of 40 years from Barbados can trace her mothers family back to enslavement (but not yet to Africa), all of whom either as chattle-slaves or low-wage labour worked the land on a Drax plantation in St John, Barbados. The Drax family, through James Drax, was the first to introduce chattel African enslavement in 1650 in Drax Hall, Barbados.

READ MORE:Gerry Hassan: A Scottish Border or a Great Divide?

His brother William established a huge slave property in Jamaica, again Drax Hall, while Henry Drax (an 18th-century MP for Dorset) established the St John plantation. The Drax family had a keen interest in protecting the West Indian plantocracy with a very long line of members of parliament. Indeed Richard Drax currently sits on the family seat in Dorset as a backbench Tory member. Some statues live.

Barbados is per capita one of the worlds centres for diabetic amputations after centuries of harmful diets of heavily imported salted fish, starches and sugar. My partners mother, a wonderful woman who after years of night school left the fields, lost half a leg (below the knee) and her left foot. Aunt Shirl went blind and lost both legs. The grandmother who helped raise my wife was wheelchair-bound for more than 30 years. My partner, with hypertension, had a triple bypass three years ago and my eldest son is already a diabetic. I want to expose these details so that when the 10-point declaration is raised, in which the Caribbean public health crisis is brought up, be assured black lives do matter.

Point five of the Caricom Reparation Commission declaration states: The African descended population in the Caribbean has the highest incidence in the world of chronic diseases in the forms of hypertension and type two diabetes. This pandemic is the direct result of the nutritional experience, physical and emotional brutality, and overall stress profiles associated with slavery, genocide, and apartheid.

Over 10 million Africans were imported into the Caribbean during 200 years of slavery. At the end of slavery in the late 19th century less than two million remained. The chronic health condition of Caribbean blacks now constitutes the greatest financial risk to sustainability in the region. Arresting this pandemic requires the injection of science, technology, and capital beyond the capacity of the region.

There is so much more. Below is a summary of the proposals submitted

and asserts that these several actions could constitute crimes against humanity.

The Caricom Reparation Commission asserts that European governments:

l Were owners and traders of enslaved Africans and instructed genocidal actions upon indigenous communities

l Created the legal, financial and fiscal policies necessary for the enslavement of Africans

l Defined and enforced African enslavement and native genocide as in their national interests

l Refused compensation to the enslaved with the ending of their enslavement

l Compensated slave owners at emancipation for the loss of legal property rights in enslaved Africans

l Imposed a further 100 years of racial apartheid upon the emancipated

l Imposed for another 100 years policies designed to perpetuate suffering upon the emancipated and survivors of genocide

l And have refused to acknowledge such crimes or to compensate victims and their descendants.

READ MORE:Revealed: Scottish landowners bid to shoot more birds to save salmon

Some of us may still need reminding of the atrocities and injustices perpetrated in the Caribbean.

When Columbus found the archipelago (and the figures are only for the island chain) there was an estimated 4 million Taino, Carib or Arawak indigenous people . By the time Cromwell sent in his troops in 1665 there were an estimated 2.5 to 3 million (Caricom figures). Today there are less than 30,000 across the 30-plus island archipelago.

Caricom estimates an approximate total of 10 million Africans were imported as enslaved labour in around 200 years. At Emancipation in the 1830s (later in French territories and Cuba) the figure was less than two million. More precise figures for Barbados indicate a total African population of 660,000 (from 1650 -1807) with 84,000 left in 1834. That is genocide in Holocaust dimensions.

This long Caribbean (the sea of the Caribs) chapter in European history with Spain in the vanguard followed by France, England then Scotland, Wales and Ireland joining in plus Denmark, and The Netherlands all have to answer to history and begin the process of healing. Scotland, with a historically long list of around 30 major enslavement investors and another several thousand second-tier participants, will need to address the Caricom concerns.

There are challenges to overcome. Why should we socialise the blame and reparations when it was private gain that lead the charge, supported by pro-enslavement Westminster Governments?

When enslavement has to be compensated in some form, what about shameful imperial commercial activity in other distant parts of the Empire? There is quite a catalogue.

While Scotland seeks its own road to some form of anti-imperialist sovereignty it must come to terms with its own historic commercial imperialism.

Thom Cross

Carluke

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Reparations must be made for the toxic legacy of West Indian slavery - The National

Mark Andrews on Saturday: There’s no such thing as a free lunch, Rishi – expressandstar.com

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

We hear a lot about modern slavery these days, but what does it actually mean?

Well, a fly-on-the-wall documentary following police in Derby last week gave a telling insight. The inspector leading a 'multi-agency initiative' appeared to suggest the term applied to anybody paid below the minimum wage. Now that may be wrong and illegal, but it's not slavery as most people understand it.

The officer said anyone charging less than 7 to wash a car was viewed with suspicion. Which I guess means bob-a-job week has gone by the board.

He added that it was difficult making charges stick as many workers were quite content earning 45 a day, and didn't want to put their jobs at risk. So why is this a police matter?

Now I'm sure modern slavery exists, and should be dealt with seriously. But the police surely have more pressing things to do than checking pay rates at car washes.

Which brings us to the officers from Staffordshire Police who, on receiving complaints about unruly behaviour and criminal damage by travellers in Great Wyrley, did they (a) investigate the allegations, and arrest those involved, or (b) escort them to a school playing field in Willenhall where they caused more trouble?

I guess that's what they call 'neighbourhood policing' pass the trouble onto your neighbours up the road.

Like many people, I joined in with the weekly 'Clap for Carers' at the height of the pandemic. But I'm afraid I gave Sunday night's applause to mark the 72nd anniversary of the NHS a miss.

It's one thing showing our appreciation for all the NHS workers who put their lives on the line to help others, as well as all the medical staff and care workers outside the NHS. But standing on your doorstep to applaud the birthday of a government institution? That feels just a little authoritarian, a bit 'Soviet Union' for my tastes. What next cheering the completion of a five-year plan?

Arboricultural genius Rishi Sunak, whose cultivation of The Magic Money Tree has proved more fruitful than anyone could have imagined, has just grown another 1.57 billion to support the arts. Some of this will be handed out to theatres and concert halls, so that they can afford to stay shut.

Great news for Wolverhampton Civic. Just a shame they didn't start it five years ago.

And yes, you did hear that right. The Chancellor really is doling out 10 vouchers to anybody who fancies a cheap meal down the pub. What next? Free champagne flutes at every petrol station? Green Shield stamps?

And there is still the small matter of us supposedly being in the middle of an obesity epidemic.

Of course, none of this is really free, we will all have to pay for it one way or another. Still, Rishi might as well have gone the whole hog. And delivered his 'Summer Statement' in a gold lam suit.

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Mark Andrews on Saturday: There's no such thing as a free lunch, Rishi - expressandstar.com

Why Progressives Wage War on History – National Review

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Outside Princeton Universitys Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 2015.(Dominick Reuter/Reuters)Erasing all memory of our founding principles would pave the way for a socialist future.

Princeton Universitys decision to remove the name Woodrow Wilson from its School of Public and International Affairs is a big win for progressive activists, and the implications will extend far beyond the campus.

It hardly surprises me, in todays polarizing environment, that my alma mater caved to pressure from radical progressives. What is surprising, however, is that the school caved now, after resolutely standing against the pressure for so many years.

Five years ago, as part of a broader nationwide effort to rewrite American history, Princeton students mounted a campaign to remove President Woodrow Wilsons name from the school because of his racist views and his efforts to prevent the enrollment of black students. In response, the Board of Trustees formed a committee to review the matter. The following year, the board released a report detailing how to handle President Wilsons legacy.

The 2016 report drew this important conclusion:

The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Woodrow Wilson College should retain their current names and . . . the University needs to be honest and forthcoming about its history. This requires transparency in recognizing Wilsons failings and shortcomings as well as the visions and achievements that led to the naming of the school and the college in the first place.

How refreshing a recognition that the school should be honest and forthcoming about its history and employ a sophisticated approach to reconciling Wilsons moral failings with his accomplishments for the university.

Princetons own statement tacitly acknowledges the key factor here. It was not the name Woodrow Wilson that was under attack; history itself was the target. As we see across the nation, progressives now use Alinsky tactics on history itself. Saul Alinskys formula of picking a target, freezing it, personalizing it, and finally polarizing it is no longer reserved for living people; historical figures and even episodes in history receive the Alinsky treatment.

Back in 1852, Daniel Webster delivered a speech to the New York Historical Society, on the importance and dignity of history. The dignity of history, he orated, consists in reciting events with truth and accuracy. History is unapologetic in its presentation of facts. History demands that we examine facts and incidents that make us uncomfortable. Such study challenges us, inspires us, and serves as a call to action in our own lives. The progressive pressure campaign is not about progress. Rather, it is an attempt to erase parts of history leftists do not like. This is a slippery slope, as many left-wing activists are even attempting to tear down statues of Abraham Lincoln, the president who ushered in the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves.

History, it turns out, is little concerned with our comfort level.

In the speech, Webster also explained that historys main purpose is to illustrate the general progress of society. History and progress are inextricably linked. History tells the story of progress, and progress is possible by studying history and, in some cases, learning from past mistakes.

What the Princeton incident reminds us of, however, is how little progressives care for progress. They are unable to recognize the progress the university has made, which the school noted in its 2016 report, in rejecting Wilsons racist policies and championing the enrollment of black students. Former first lady, Michelle Obama, a Princeton graduate, frequently cites her experience at Princeton as an empowering opportunity one that was possible only through the schools progress.

How do we celebrate Americas accomplishments if we do not acknowledge where we started?

The Princeton name change is part of a larger movement of destruction. As Americans watch in horror and disbelief while statues, national monuments, and even war memorials are removed and defaced, we are left to wonder: What is the end goal of all of this destruction? When will it stop?

Elihu Yale, an early benefactor of Yale University, actively participated in trading slaves, including purchasing and shipping slaves to the English colony of St. Helena. American universities are littered with this type of racism: William Marsh Rice, the Lowell family of Boston, Thomas Jefferson, and Jesuit priests in Maryland all used the profits derived from slave labor to build some of the most prestigious universities in the country. Will tearing down these institutions achieve progressives goal?

Will changing a colleges name or removing the statue of a Founding Father change a Klansmans deeply held racist beliefs? Will erasing certain books and movies from our public lexicon truly change the hate in someones soul? These changes might appease progressives for now, but their goal is much larger.

In my forthcoming book, The Capitol of Freedom: Restoring American Greatness, I explore this very topic. Progressives are determined to destroy not just statues, but historical memories, because they know American history is incompatible with their goals. Americas founding documents, and even the stories behind the statues in the U.S. Capitol building, tell the story of American greatness and offer a roadmap for us to renew our commitment to our founding principles.

Slavery is a dreadful part of our history. Despite what progressives say, the abolition of slavery occurred because of, not in spite of, our history and foundation. A nation that was formed with liberty as the chief objective of government was on the right path. The 19th century improved what the 18th century got horribly wrong, and the 20th century continued to build upon the 19th centurys advancements. With each century that passes, we move toward a more perfect union. That is progress.

From its founding, our nations history is the story of individual freedom and personal responsibility, with limited government as a means for accomplishing both. Our Constitution simultaneously protects individual liberty and thwarts the progressive agenda. Progressives are constantly frustrated in their attempts to remake America into a socialist and godless society because of our Constitution. Is it any wonder that they devote so much of their energy to undermining, subverting, and circumventing the Constitution?

Progressives know that what can be erased can be replaced. Knocking down statues and removing names of institutions are the necessary first step in reshaping Americas future.

For Americans hoping to stop the progressives destruction, Princeton provides the answer. No, not the Princeton of 2020 with its disappointing decision to abandon Woodrow Wilsons name, but the Princeton of 2016 that recognized the importance of being truthful about our history.

In our fight against the progressive agenda, our history is not only what we seek to protect it is also our primary weapon.

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Why Progressives Wage War on History - National Review

Care home manager invites Boris Johnson to ‘come and apologise to my staff’ over comments | ITV News – ITV News

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

A care home manager - whose reaction to Boris Johnson's comments on the sector were quoted in the Commons - has invited the Prime Minister to "come and apologise" to staff at her facility.

Debbie Adams called the PM a "joke"after the prime minister suggested too manycare homesdid not properly follow procedures during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Johnson has since avoided apologising for his comments, despite coming under sustained criticism during Prime Minister's Question on Wednesday.

Speaking to ITV News, Ms Adams said: "I think the prime minister needs to apologise.

"I'd invite him down to come and apologise to my staff - definitely."

She added: "He needs to actually try to make right what he said.

"If we go back to the words that he said, that 'we didn't follow procedure'... Really Boris Johnson?"

The care home manager said the sector adhered to the guidance the government gave them, but criticised it for "not knowing what the procedure was".

After Mr Johnson stopped short of a full apology in the Commons, Ms Adams branded the PM "very insincere" adding: "My staff are absolutely fuming and I don't blame them they've worked very very hard."

Care home manager Debbie Adams says the PM 'blamed the care homes'

Earlier on Wednesday, the Prime Minister dodged requests from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to backtrack on his criticism of the social care system.

Sir Keir said: On Monday, when asked why care home deaths had been so high the Prime Minister said, and I quote, too many care homes didnt really follow the procedures in the way that they could have.

That has caused huge offence to frontline care workers.

"It has now been 48 hours.

"Will the Prime Minister apologise to care workers?

Mr Johnson provided a carefully worded response to Sir Keir, but stopped short of saying sorry for his remarks.

The last thing I wanted to do is to blame care workers for what has happened or for any of them to think that I was blaming them because theyve worked hard, incredibly hard, throughout this crisis, looking after some of the most vulnerable people in our country and doing an outstanding job," Mr Johnson replied.

And as he knows, tragically, 257 of them have lost their lives.

And when it comes to taking blame, I take full responsibility for what has happened.

Mr Johnson was pushed by Sir Keir to reverse his comments about those working in a sector which has undergone a tough time during the pandemic.

Sir Keir added: By refusing to apologise the prime minister rubs salt into the wounds of the very people that he stood at his front door and clapped.

The prime minister and the health secretary must be the only people left in the country who think they put a protective ring around care homes.

"Those on the front line know that wasnt the case.

After Sir Keir quoted a frustrated care home manager interview by ITV News, Mr Johnson told the Commons that the government appreciates the incredible work of care home workers before pledging to reform the sector.

'A joke': Watch care home manager Debbie Adams' reaction to Boris Johnson's comments

The Prime Minister said he hoped it would be on a cross-party basis to which Sir Keir agreed, although noted: His government has been in power for 10 years with no plan no White Paper.

"Of course well join in plans for reforming social care but 10 years wasted.

Sir Keir Starmer said more than 19,000 care home residents have died from Covid-19, adding: Overall around one in 20 care home residents are estimated to have died from the virus. Its chilling.

These are extraordinary numbers but the prime minister has consistently ducked responsibility for this.

"Will he accept it isnt care workers who are to blame, its his government?

Boris Johnson accused the Labour leader of reading out pre-prepared questions, adding: Ive made it clear this government takes responsibility for everything that weve done throughout this crisis.

Sir Keir said the PM continues to insult those on the frontline by not taking these issues seriously, before adding huge mistakes have been made.

He went on: The decision to discharge 25,000 people to care homes without tests was clearly a mistake.

"Will the Prime Minister simply accept his government was just too slow to act on care homes?

Mr Johnson said the understanding of the disease changed dramatically over recent months and defended the governments action plan.

In other matters raised, Labours Anna McMorrin questioned the PM on the issue of modern slavery in fast fashion clothing factories.

Ms McMorrin said: I am shocked and angered at workers in UK clothing factories like Boohoo being paid a mere 3.50 an hour and being forced to work in totally unacceptable conditions.

In the 21st century there must be no room for exploitation and modern slavery, we must call time on fast fashion for the sake of people and our planet.

So my question is simple what will the Prime Minister do about it?

Mr Johnson replied: First of all it is this Conservative Government that set up laws against modern slavery, its this Conservative Government that massively increased the living wage, not only instituted the living wage, but massively increased it.

And we would hope that it would be the Labour mayor of Leicester who would stand up for the interest of the workforce in his community and thats what we will do.

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Care home manager invites Boris Johnson to 'come and apologise to my staff' over comments | ITV News - ITV News

8 Awesome Games Based on Movies, TV Shows, and Books – Gizmodo UK

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Board games are a great way to pass the time, especially during social distancing. Sometimes, in the case of more difficult board games or tabletop roleplaying games, its great to have a baseline of knowledge about the source material. Thats where these titles come in. If youre already a fan of Game of Thrones, The Expanse, Alien, or even the Dark Universe (RIP), here are some games to help bring you into the worlds you love.

A look at the box art and board for Jaws.Image: Ravensburger

Ravensburgers Jaws is hands-down one of the best board game adaptations out there. It combines strategy-type guessing with roleplaying game battle mechanics to make something thats suspenseful and action-packed. One player takes on the role of the shark, secretly swimming around the island eating swimmers, as one to three more players work as Quint, Hooper, and Brody to stop the carnivorous creature. It all ends in a high-stakes battle on a boat, trying to stop the shark for good... or be turned into chow.

Some of the gorgeous artwork created for the Alien roleplaying game. Image: Free League Publishing

The Alien franchise has gone in some, well, interesting directions over the past several years. But lets not forget the fact that it started as a series about a bunch of blue-collar workers in space being forced to fight aliens. This tabletop roleplaying game from Free League Publishing heads back to Aliens pre-Ill do the fingering days, with players working together as space truckers and marines just trying to get by during a horrific crisis. Whats great about this RPG is that it features a cinematic mode, which turns a session into a single-play experience where characters may likely die by the end. But thats all part of telling a good story.

Dunes cover art looks sublime. Image: Gale Force Nine

This board game is truly a tale of survival against all odds fitting considering what its based on. The Dune board game from Avalon Hill has players taking on the role of different noble houses from Frank Herberts series, fighting each other for control of Arrakis and the legendary spice. The game first came out in 1979, but it didnt see a boost from the David Lynch film so it fell into obscurity. However, the game kept a devoted following for being one of the best adaptations of Herberts saga, eventually becoming a collectors item. Last year, Gale Force Nine released a remake of the classic game, ensuring its place among the stars. The spice (and dice) must flow.

Set phasers to play! Image: Modiphius Entertainment

There have been plenty of games set in the world of Star Trek, and the still-ongoing roleplaying series Star Trek Adventures from Modiphius stands out among them. Its an incredibly rich and dense world that lets players create the Starfleet officers and teams theyve always dreamed of seeing. The game can be intimidating to play at times; it has a pretty dense corebook with a lot of rules to follow. However, once youve gotten over the hurdle of learning how everything works, it can provide months if not years of entertainment.

Imagine the complex horrors within. Image: Fantasy Flight Games

Fair warning before starting this game: It may destroy friendships. Fantasy Flight Games A Game of Thrones is brutal and intense. Its also the only way to truly immerse yourself in the Game of Thrones experience. Every player takes on a different House, trying to gain control of Westeros through wars, alliances, betrayals, and perhaps a red wedding or two. It will take several hours and you will most likely hate everyone around you by the end of it, but its worth it to feel like a true Khaleesi.

Two teams enter, one team leaves. I mean, both technically leave but only one is the winner. Image: IDW Games

Its really hard to recreate the feeling of being a bender anyone who pretended to waterbend against their elementary school classmates can attest to that! IDW Games The Legend of Korra: Pro-Bending Arena turned the art of bending fights into a two-player battle royale, with players using various bending skills to overtake the other team and force them off the grid. Its a surprisingly complex strategy game, and comes with some fantastic (and paintable!) miniatures. Theres no better way to spend time while waiting for Netflixs live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender show to finally come out.

The skys the limit. Literally. Image: Green Ronin Publishing

Whats great about The Expanses roleplaying game from Green Ronin is how open it is. The world of James S.A. Coreys book series and Amazon Primes television show is Game of Thrones-levels of massive, covering everything from space exploration to interplanetary politics. This provides a lot of possibilities for characters, locations, and scenarios, which make for some fascinating player choices. Theres also a free quickstart version with pre-made characters and a campaign scenario, for anyone curious to try it out.

They did the Monster Mash. Image: Ravensburge

Okay, so this last one is a bit of a cheat, as its technically a shared-universe game based on Universals movie monsters. However, given how many crossovers we got in that franchise Dark Universe (RIP) notwithstanding it makes sense to put all of these monsters together in a single game. Horrifiedfrom Ravensburger is a cooperative board game where players fight one or more Universal movie monsters while trying to protect themselves and the citizens of the town. Each monster comes with their own skills and objectives, along with a unique way to defeat them. The variety of monsters and monster combos provides for several games worth of experiences. Plus, the artwork is just second to none.

Featured image: Ravensburger, Green Ronin Publishing, Free League Publishing, Gale Force Nine

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8 Awesome Games Based on Movies, TV Shows, and Books - Gizmodo UK

Is DeFi the next bubble to strike cryptocurrency? – Yahoo Finance

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Decentralised finance, commonly abbreviated to DeFi, has been one of the most notable developments in the cryptocurrency industry this year, with companies like Compound soaring in popularity alongside a host of other start-ups.

The rise in notoriety of DeFi is eerily reminiscent of the ICO bubble in 2017, which saw hundreds if not thousands of companies raise millions of Dollars in capital.

The bubble historically burst in the early stages of 2018 with the majority of ICOs losing more than 95% of value within the space of a year.

The issue was that most companies opted for the ICO route to bypass the heavily regulated and screened IPO structure, which meant that tokenisation simply wasnt needed for the company to be a success.

Whitepapers that promised to revolutionise respective industries was commonplace, which in hindsight only contributed to one of the largest bubbles in recent history.

As the hype began to subside so did the companies that raised millions in 2017, with the likes of Pillar CEO David Siegel admitting to the complexities of operating a business during a gruelling bear market.

Another cornerstone of the ICO bubble was the flock of social media influencers that became overnight cryptocurrency advisors and whitepaper authors on social media websites like LinkedIn.

Fast-forward three years and another wave of social media aficionados are coming to LinkedIn but this time around they have taken ICO out of their bio and replaced it with DeFi.

This time around the sentiment is very similar, with people hailing DeFi as being a catalyst for change within the financial sector, ignoring the fact that the financial sector is in no desperate need of decentralisation.

It may be difficult for those who have invested too much capital into cryptocurrencies, but it remains extremely unlikely that a pseudo-sector like DeFi will be the saving grace that will drive mass adoption.

It does, however, have the potential of damaging the sector if the inflating bubble pops later this year as it was warn off another group of investors.

The Compound chart is a fine example, it surged by 167% just days after it was listed on major exchanges before falling by more than 50%, demonstrating how fragile this immature market still is.

At this stage, while many will disagree, DeFi seems like a new buzzword that applies to cryptocurrency companies in the lending space, which from an ethical standpoint isnt the right way to go in terms of achieving mainstream adoption of digital assets.

For more news, guides and cryptocurrency, click here.

The views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of Coin Rivet.

Is DeFi the next bubble to strike cryptocurrency? - Yahoo Finance

Explainer: What is ‘LBCOIN,’ the new Lithuanian state-backed cryptocurrency? – Euronews

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of digital currencies by central banks in a bid to encourage people to turn to cashless payments.

One such project is being led by Lithuanias Central Bank, which will open a pre-sale for the worlds first digital collector coins - dubbed "LBCOINs" - on July 9 as part of its trial of blockchain technology and digital currencies.

The Bank of Lithuania (BoL) has been developing the project since March 2018 and is now entering the final phase of the trial.

The project is more of an experiment rather than the official launch of a tradeable currency. 24,000 digital LBCOINs will go on pre-sale this week, sold in packs of 6 for 99. Each token will feature a portrait of one of the 20 signatories of Lithuania's declaration of independence signed in 1918, which have been divided into six categories: priests, presidents, diplomats, industrialists, academics, and municipal servants.

Collectors will be able to trade tokens then exchange a specific set a token from each of the six categories for a physical silver coin worth 19.18. The BoL explained that their use as a means of payment will not be encouraged as it is meant to engage more people, especially the youth, in coin collecting while gaining valuable experience and knowledge in the field of digital currencies.

Decentralised, secure, and encrypted, a blockchain is a time-stamped series of data that is shared and authenticated by a cluster of computers. The technology is considered to be revolutionary because it helps reduce risks, affords transparency, and is not owned by one single entity.

According to Sinop Conseil consultant Florence Presson, the need for blockchain originates from the loss of trust between citizens and institutions. People tend to trust a stranger more than an institution, says Presson. She advocates for trust devolution based on blockchain technology and believes both administrations and citizens could really benefit from it when it comes to official records: birth certificates, deeds of sale, and so on.

Blockchain Partner co-founder, Alexandre Stachtchenko argues that blockchain also tackles other shortcomings of the Internet: how to transfer value and depict something as rare when it is not unique. Unlike an e-mail, once youve sent out a bitcoin, you cannot access it anymore, he explains. The blockchain expert notes with regret that the monetary discussion has been overshadowing the technical one, with blockchain often being associated with cryptocurrencies with much-publicised bitcoins.

Stachtchenko believes that the BoL's interesting, unpretentious initiative will fuel the debate about cryptocurrencies and deal with the elephant in the room. With developments like Facebooks cryptocurrency Libra, which should be launched by the end of the year, governments sovereignty is now being challenged with one of their main prerogatives: the establishment and the management of currency.

There is no doubt that other countries will be following this experiment closely as the race for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is accelerating. In a report published on July 2, the Bank of Japan announced moving towards a testing phase aiming at introducing a CBDC eventually.

A survey conducted in January 2020 among 66 central banks by the Bank for International Settlements showed that more than 80 per cent of them were developing a central bank digital currency.

In a speech at the Consensus 2020 virtual conference on May 11, Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), Yves Mersch recognised that Europe will need to be ready to embrace financial technological innovation which has the potential to transform payments and money faster, and in more disruptive ways, than ever before."

This represents a sea change with ECB leaders, particularly given that former President Mario Draghi stated in 2017 that no member state can introduce its own currency; the currency of the eurozone is the euro in response to Estonian government's proposition to promote the circulation of a new cryptocurrency.

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Explainer: What is 'LBCOIN,' the new Lithuanian state-backed cryptocurrency? - Euronews

Cryptocurrency-Focused Docuseries Airs to Millions of Viewers via the Discovery Science Channel – Bitcoin News

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

A new docuseries called Open Source Money recently aired on July 4 and premiered on the Discovery Science channel. The new show gave millions of Discovery viewers information concerning bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, and blockchain technology. The cryptocurrency-focused show airing on Discovery will continue this summer with a number of episodes broadcasting once a week.

Open Source Money is the name of a new docuseries that aired on Saturday and premiered on the Discovery Science channel and the on-demand television provider Philo. The new series gives viewers insight into the cryptocurrency ecosystem by talking with a number of digital currency experts and luminaries like Brock Pierce and Charles Hoskinson.

The focus of the story is mainly about the Dragonchain (DRGN) initial coin offering (ICO) and how the projects creators had to deal with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Dragonchain was also initially developed in 2014 at the Walt Disney Company branch in Seattle, but since 2016, the project and Disney severed relationships. The series Open Source Money was produced by the firm Vision Tree and the company raised $1 million via a variety of cryptocurrencies for filming.

The episodes feature Dragonchains issues with the SEC when the U.S. regulators deemed the project an unlicensed security. The episodes also feature the Chamber of Digital Commerce founder Perianne Boring, the notorious John McAfee, and Celsius Networks Alex Mashinsky.

Reports say that Patrick Byrne will also star in one of the five parts filmed for the series. Despite the fact that the filmmakers follow the Dragonchain creators around for a bit, the first episode also acts as a Bitcoin 101 lesson.

The shows theme also focuses on the current regulatory attitude toward cryptocurrencies in the United States. The show will air on Discovery Science and Philo at 10 a.m. ET every Saturday until the finale.

Discovery is an extremely popular channel with an 81 million U.S. network audience and six million in Canada. Outside the U.S., 2019 data shows that the Discovery network has well over 450 million viewers worldwide. Discovery Science is a subset of the official Discovery network of channels and can be found in most locations worldwide.

The San Francisco-based and Mark Cuban-backed on-demand streaming network, Philo has roughly 50,000 subscribers.

Each episode highlights major contributors in the cryptocurrency revolution, including notable figures Patrick Byrne, Brock Pierce, Joe Roets, and companies the likes of Disney, Facebook, and more, explains the Open Source Money website. The websites welcome page adds:

Overall humanity is at a crossroads and the future of money as we know it will be transformed by Blockchain and the new internet of Value. The only question is, where will the US stand in the Space Race of our generation when the dust settles?

The website also notes that theres a provably fair 500,000 DRGN giveaway and viewers need to find clues each week in order to win. According to the Open Source Money docuseries web portal, after each episode the clues can be used to find the elusive treasure.

This weeks question has a number of keywords and numbers that the viewer must choose in order to participate in the contest.

Words and numbers featured this week included: 1776, Pizza, Nascar, Cheesballs, Disney, Ramen, Beaxy, Hyundai, Seattle, or Avacodo Toast. After each episode, a weekly prize winner will be selected, explains the docuseries producers. All correct answers, from the start of the contest, are entered into the Grand Prize drawing.

The Open Source Money trailer can be seen below, while Philo and Discovery Science subscribers can watch from those channels.

What do you think about the Open Source Money docuseries? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, opensourcemoney.tv

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Cryptocurrency-Focused Docuseries Airs to Millions of Viewers via the Discovery Science Channel - Bitcoin News

Fast Pace of Cryptocurrency Adoption in Latin America May be due to Dramatic Rise in Smartphone Users, Bitso Executive Reveals – Crowdfund Insider

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Bitso, one of Latin Americas largest digital asset exchanges, has reportedly reached 1 million users before its planned launch in Brazil.

Santiago Alvarado, director of international payments at Bitso, recently talked about how cryptocurrencies might help with settling cross-border transactions in Latin America. Alvarado, whose comments came during a Unitize panel (held on July 8, 2020), was joined by Craig DeWitt, the director of product at American Fintech firm Ripple, and Reed Cataldo from the Prysm Group.

Alvarado confirmed, during the discussion, that Bitso has surpassed 1 million users. Bitso has been offering crypto-related services in Mexico and Argentina. The company is now preparing to enter the Brazilian markets.

Launched in 2014, Bitso is notably the first digital currency exchange established in Mexico. Its also the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the $1 trillion+ economy. Bitso is also reportedly the biggest crypto-asset exchange in Argentina after introducing services in February 2020.

Alvarado said that Bitso has been able to attract a large number of crypto traders in Argentina in a very short period of time. This may be attributed to the rising demand for affordable or more convenient methods for making cross-border payments and remittances.

Alvarado noted that Argentina has a very large and active crypto community. The country also has many freelancer workers, who might be accepting payments in cryptocurrencies which have become a popular alternative to fiat money in countries with high levels of inflation or too many restrictions on using the traditional financial system.

Alvarado also mentioned that the fast pace of digital currency adoption in Latin America may be due to the dramatic rise in the use of smartphones and the development of distribution infrastructure.

He revealed that around 50% to 60% of the people living in Latin America now have a bank account and around 80% are using mobile phones. He added that smartphones will play a big role in helping users with conveniently accessing modern financial services.

Crypto traders based in Argentina traded 92 Bitcoins (BTC), valued at around $850,000, via P2P exchange LocalBitcoins during the week ending on July 7, 2020. This is notably the highest BTC trading volume in the country since 2016.

Coinbase and Ripple have invested in Bitsos operations in order to help the exchange with expanding operations into Argentina and Brazil.

As reported in May 2020, Ripples (on-demand liquidity) ODL solutions volume in Mexico may have increased because of Ripples partnerships with Bitso and MoneyGram. Ripple introduced its ODL services in Mexico, in 2019, with the help of Bitso, which serves as its exchange partner.

In February 2020, Bitso revealed it had captured a little more than 2% of the remittance market from the United States to Mexico in 2019 and now aims to gain a 20% market share by the end of this year.

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Fast Pace of Cryptocurrency Adoption in Latin America May be due to Dramatic Rise in Smartphone Users, Bitso Executive Reveals - Crowdfund Insider

Trumps Former Sanctions Chief Joins Bitcoin Investigation Firm Advisory Board As Part Of Expanded $49 Million Investment – Forbes

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Sigal Mandelker, then-U.S. Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, speaks ... [+] during a 2018 conference on cyber law enforcement at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Justice Department charged nine Iranian citizens with hacking hundreds of companies and academic institutions to steal more than $3.4 billion in trade secrets and other data on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

U.S. President Donald Trumps former Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, has revealed her first project since leaving Trumps Treasury and joining venture firm Ribbit Capital earlier this year. In addition to joining the expanded $49 million Series B in cryptocurrency investigation startup Chainalysis, Mandelker will work on the startups board of advisors.

Mandelkers firm and actor-turned investor Ashton Kutchers Sound Ventures participated in a $13 million extension to the previously announced Series B, as part of a larger push at the startup to deepen its government relationships and focus on using transactions paid for in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to track human rights abuses and other illicit activity. Cryptocurrency use for illicit purposes more than doubled to $11.5 billion in 2019, still only accounting for little more than 1% of the total transactions.

While the investment is doubly-notable in that it is both Mandelkers first public work since leaving the Treasury Department, and it is in a company that works with bitcoin, ethereum, XRP and 96 other cryptocurrencies, it is also notable for the continuation of an increasingly clear trend of influential regulators joining the cryptocurrency companies they once oversaw. Former deputy assistant to U.S. President George W. Bush, Juan Zarate, joined another Ribbit portfolio company, Coinbases advisory board in 2014; former chairman of the influential New York Department of Financial Services PNC , Ben Lawsky joined Stone Ridge Asset Management LLC, a $15 billion advisor with ties to multiple bitcoin funds in 2017; and most recently the law firm of the former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Chris Giancarlo, was hired by Ripple this year.

As part of the investment, which values the company at less than $1 billion, Mandelker, 48, will meet with the Chainalysis team on an as-needed basis to share with them insights gleaned from her own past experience investigating crime that relies on blockchain, and to help them build out new partnerships in both the public and private sectors. The fact that they're building relationships, terrific relationships, both with financial institutions and with the government sector, including with law enforcement, is going to be really important for the future of this industry, says Mandelker.

Born in Chicago, in 1971, Mandelker earned a Bachelors Degree from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, before serving as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. After six years working at various government agencies, she moved to the private sector as a partner at law firm Proskauer Rose LLP.

Then, in March 2017, Trump appointed Mandelker as Treasury under secretary where she oversaw the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control, (OFAC), the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, and the Treasurys Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which identifies and maps illicit transaction networks.

Mandelker had her first big success using digital currencies to trace illicit activities in 2008, when a Department of Justice team she led helped convict the directors of pre-blockchain digital currency company, E-Gold for their role helping launder funds used to buy child pornography and more. In September 2019, Mandelker made one of her biggest cryptocurrency investigation breaks with the announcement of sanctions against three hacker groups that helped the North Korean government steal and launder billions of dollars in cryptocurrency funds.

Mandelker says she first met Ribbit cofounder Micky Malka earlier this year. Malka sold his first company, a digital wallet called Lemon in 2013 for $46 million, using the funds to become an early investor in bitcoin startups, Coinbase, Robinhood and Xapo. The two hit it off, bonding in part over both having immediate family who survived the holocaust and their desire to fight injustice in the world, she says. She was officially brought onboard in April as a general partner.

In addition to her role helping build relationships as an advisor to Chainalysis, Mandelker will focus on a more full-time basis helping Ribbit identify new investment opportunities, answering regulatory questions for other portfolio companies, and looking for new ways to connect regulators with a wide range of financial technology, thinking through how to help build bridges between the fintech world and the regulator community, whether it's here or abroad, she says.

The New York-based company has now raised a total of about $66 million, from investors including Accel, Benchmark and Digital Currency Group, employs 158 people, and has 295 clients, including the Bank of Montreal and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, which is managed by Mandelkers former employer, the U.S. Department of Treasury, through a different department.

The company isnt revealing its most recent revenue, though in 2018, it generated $8 million selling services to investigators looking into cryptocurrency transactions and companies looking to ensure they comply with anti-money-laundering and know your customer requirements, enough to land it a place on the Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. Though the company isnt revealing the terms of the investment, CEO Michael Gronager says they havent quite achieved that milestone yet. We'll work hard to get there pretty soon, he says.

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Trumps Former Sanctions Chief Joins Bitcoin Investigation Firm Advisory Board As Part Of Expanded $49 Million Investment - Forbes

Latest News On The Cryptocurrency Market | Intel, CoinBase, BitGo, and Binance – Market Research Publicist

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

A recent report published by QMI on cryptocurrency market is a detailed assessment of the most important market dynamics. After carrying out a thorough research of cryptocurrency market historical as well as current growth parameters, business expectations for growth are obtained with utmost precision. The study identifies specific and important factors affecting the market for cryptocurrency during the forecast period. It can enable manufacturers of cryptocurrency to change their production and marketing strategies in order to envisage maximum growth.

Get Sample Copy of This Report @https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/request-sample-58594?utm_source=MR&utm_medium=Santosh

According to the report, the availability of the decentralized system and the absence of fees on transactions is expected to drive the growth of cryptocurrency market during the forecast period.

Cryptocurrency can be termed as a virtual currency that is used as a medium of exchange and transaction which is secured and has gained much popularity in todays economic world. Most of the important transactions have now shifted to the use of cryptocurrency and a huge segment of the market is now shared by these currencies.

Growth in the number of digital transactions and the availability of a much-secured transaction through cryptocurrencies are the key factors for the growth of Global Cryptocurrency Market. The absence of interest rates or exchange rates on transactions has enabled it to gain worldwide recognition and has led many people to invest in this market. Many other benefits like protection from fraud, low fees, quick international transfers and non-regulation of transactions have led to the growth of the global cryptocurrency market.

Make An Inquiry For Purchasing This Report @https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/enquiry-before-buying/enquiry-before-buying-58594?utm_source=MR&utm_medium=Santosh

Some of the key Impact Factors:o Secured transaction facilitieso Availability of decentralized system and absence of fees on transactionso Unavailability of Government regulations

Insights about the regional distribution of market:

The market has been segmented in major regions to understand the global development and demand patterns of this market.For cryptocurrency market, the segments by region are for North America, Asia Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Rest of the World. During the forecast period, North America, Asia Pacific, and Western Europe are expected to be major regions on the cryptocurrency market.

North America and Western Europe have been one of the key regions with technological advancements in ICT, electronics & semiconductor sector. Factors like the use of advanced technology and the presence of global companies to cater to the potential end-users are favorable for the growth of cryptocurrency market. Also, most of the leading companies have headquarters in these regions.

Speak To Analyst Before Buying This Premium Report:https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/request-toc-58594?utm_source=MR&utm_medium=Santosh

The Asia Pacific is estimated to be one of the fastest-growing markets for cryptocurrency market. Major countries in the Asia Pacific region are China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia. These economies in the APAC region are major contributors in the ICT, electronics & semiconductor sector. In addition to this, government initiatives to promote technological advancement in this region are also one of the key factors to the growth of cryptocurrency market. The Middle East and rest of the World are estimated to be emerging regions for cryptocurrency market.

By Application:RemittanceTradingE-commerceRetailPaymentOthers

By Process:TransactionMining

By Offering:HardwareGPUASICFPGAWalletSoftwareOthers

By Region:North AmericaBy Country (US, Canada, Mexico)By ApplicationBy ProcessBy Offering

Western EuropeBy Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Rest of Europe)By ApplicationBy ProcessBy Offering

Eastern EuropeBy Country (Russia, Turkey, Rest of Eastern Europe)By ApplicationBy ProcessBy Offering

Asia PacificBy Country (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, Rest of Asia Pacific)By ApplicationBy ProcessBy Offering

Middle EastBy Country (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Rest of Middle East)By ApplicationBy ProcessBy Offering

Rest of the WorldBy Region (South America, Africa)By ApplicationBy ProcessBy Offering

Companies:Bitmain, NVIDIA, Xilinx, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Ripple, Bitfury, Ethereum Foundation, CoinBase, BitGo, and Binance

Reasons to buy this report:Market size estimation of the cryptocurrency market on a regional and global basisThe unique research design for market size estimation and forecastsProfiling of the major companies operating in the market with key developmentsBroad scope to cover all the possible segments helping every stakeholder in the market

Customization:We provide customization of the study to meet the specific requirements:By segmentBy sub-segmentBy region/ country

Contact:Quince Market InsightsAjay D. (Knowledge Partner)Office No- A109Pune, Maharashtra 411028Phone: +91 706 672 4848 +1 208 405 2835 / +44 121 364 6144 /Email: [emailprotected]Web:www.quincemarketinsights.com

ABOUT US:QMI has the most comprehensive collection of market research products and services available on the web. We deliver reports from virtually all major publications and refresh our list regularly to provide you with immediate online access to the worlds most extensive and up-to-date archive of professional insights into global markets, companies, goods, and patterns.

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Latest News On The Cryptocurrency Market | Intel, CoinBase, BitGo, and Binance - Market Research Publicist

Exclusive: Who Will Win the Central Bank Cryptocurrency… – Coinspeaker

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

The rise in demand for digital payments during the COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the importance of CBDCs and intensified the global race between central banks. The question is which one will win?

Central banks all over the world have been developing their own state-issued digital currencies. According to a recent survey by Central Banking, 65% of the participants stated that they had been actively researching digital currencies, revealing a race between central banks to develop national cryptocurrencies. In fact, Kai Sheffield, the head of Visas cryptocurrency division, considers central bank digital currency (CBDC) one of the most important trends for the future of money and the payments industry for the next decade.

Furthermore, the rise in demand for digital payments during the COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the importance of CBDCs and intensified the global race between central banks.

Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director at CEX.IO has shared his own view on this matter exclusively for Coinspeaker.

He said that from China and Japan to the European Union and the United States, numerous nations work on creating their state-issued digital currencies.

From all the 46 countries that consider the development of a CBDC, China seems to be in the leading position to create the first state-issued cryptocurrency. In April, the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) was reportedly testing its CBDC, the digital yuan, in four cities.

Lets also not forget that the PBoC reported that it completed the back-end architecture development of the digital yuan last month, with draft laws ready to speed up the CBDCs implementation.

Anissimov stated:

Based on this information, we can safely say that China is leading the CBDC race, with even the Bank of America admitting the same.

He added that the Bank of Japan is also working on a central bank digital currency, announcing the start of the institutions experiments with a digital yen earlier this month.

While the two Asian nations state-issued digital currencies are on the way, the United States has yet to decide on it.

However, discussions on the matter have already started, with both the Congressional Task Force on Financial Technology and the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs holding meetings about CBDCs last month.

The institution had confirmed its work on the digital euro last year with the development of two potential versions (wholesale and retail) of the CBDC.

Sweden and the United Kingdom are also actively putting in efforts into researching and implementing digital currencies.

Sweden had first revealed its intentions to run an e-krona pilot program back at the end of 2019, and began running the tests in February 2020.

In the UK, the Bank of England is debating on the potential advantages of issuing a central bank digital currency.

In March, the Bank issued a discussion paper on how a CBDC could be introduced and integrated into the existing markets and is welcoming input from local companies.

Anissimov says that as central bank digital currencies are still under development, we can only guess their actual effects on the cryptocurrency market.

However, despite that CBDCs feature centralized architectures, they will likely have a positive impact on decentralized cryptocurrencies.

He stated:

Currently, cryptocurrencies are still very new, and they have not yet reached mass adoption. However, as soon as CBDCs hit the market, billions of consumers will use digital wallets to send, receive, and store them. As a result, consumers will get more familiar with the technology, which will likely speed up the adoption of decentralized cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, consumers preferring control over their data and finances may choose decentralized cryptocurrencies over CBDCs.

Anissimov says that with government measures such as lockdowns and travel restrictions to cut the spread of the virus, citizens worldwide are increasingly staying at home and limiting their visits to physical stores and venues.

He explained:

In general, this has resulted in a shift from offline to online activities among consumers. And these significant changes in consumer trends have impacted multiple markets and industries.

He warns that as the coronaviruss first and direct consequence, stock prices have started to fall rapidly between late February and March.

While both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by over 35% within this period, the crypto market also experienced a flash crash, driving down Bitcoins price from $10,000 to $4,850 between February 23 and March 12.

However, Anissimov noted, the cryptocurrency market recovered quicker than traditional financial markets with a crypto bull run following the crash.

He also added cryptos have demonstrated a rather high rate of recovery compared to traditional assets.

Following the collapse, Bitcoin grew by more than 100%, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones showed a growth of only 20%. In the future, we expect stabilization of all markets with a subsequent correction, as the positive factors at the moment are very fragile.

He concludes that as a form of digital payments in an era where both consumers and merchants are turning away from cash transactions, the COVID-19 pandemic could increase the crypto adoption rate in the future.

And this provides one more reason for central banks to develop their own digital currencies to suit the changing consumer trends.

Similarly to cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance applications, when CBDCs enter the market, they may offer access to distributed finance solutions, providing new financial products and services for the public, concluded he.

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