PayPal Goes after Crypto

PayPal (PYPL) Goes After 'Crypto-Curious' Custome

Source: lnvstopedia

PayPal Holdings, Inc.'s paypal interest in cryptocurrencyis not new, but over the past quarter the company has taken the plunge, introducing a range of new services and offerings for its customers. The digital payments company is looking to expand further in the first half of this year.

Back in October the company first allowed its U.S. users to trade cryptocurrencies on its platform. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin are the cryptocurrencies currently available through PayPal, according to its kpresentation to it's investors.

In the first half of 2021, PayPal will enable users to trade crypto in the U.K. and a number of additional international markets. It will also expand crypto offerings to Venmo, a payment app it bought in 2014. Earlier this month, PayPal announced that it has also established a crypto-focused business unit and is planning to allow users to make purchases through the app using cryptocurrency later this year.

"I would describe the type of user on our platform right now as more of the crypto-curious,"  said PayPal CFO John Rainey on the fourth quarter analyst call earlier this month. "We're not getting these heavy day traders in crypto – it's more a casual customer that is somewhat intrigued by this and now has a trusted digital platform where they can go out and buy this and hold this, and then eventually be able to use this as a form of payment." Rainey noted that PayPal has also set volume limits on its platform.

PayPal's rollout of crypto offerings is in line with its mission to become a one-stop shop, a closer competitor to a company like Alibaba Group Holding Limited's  AliPay in China offering a range of services. "That's really the promise of a super-app, where you can live a lot of your digital life on one app and then be able to manage all of your transactions in one place, track them all, and have personalized, customized recommendations," CEO Dan Schulman Market Watch. Last quarter, PayPal also made investments in TaxBit, cryptocurrency tax software, and Paxos, a blockchain platform that PayPal uses to provide crypto services.

PayPal's cryptocurrency expansion along with other market players like Visa Inc.  are likely to create the so-callednetwork effect and faster adoption rates. "We are eager to work with central banks and regulators around the world to offer our support, and to meaningfully contribute to shaping the role that digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce," Schulman said.

While companies like Square, Inc.  enabled Bitcoin trading years ago, PayPal's expansion has been more gradual. Now this expansion of services coincides with growth in consumer awareness and interest in crypto. The users who buy crypto on PayPal log back into the app at double the rate before purchasing cryptocurrency, the company said.

"One of the things that I particularly am most excited about is what we're seeing around the levels of engagement of these users," Rainey said. "This really fits with this thesis that we have around, as we add additional products and services that are attractive to our consumer base, it creates a stickiness to our platform where we really are going towards this everyday financial app, and we're quite excited about that."

For PayPal, it's still early days, but it may change as users are able to use cryptocurrencies to make purchases and crypto trading is available in more markets. Customers will be able to use crypto to pay for goods at 29 million merchant locations by the end of the first quarter, the company said.

"For us to see an outsized impact on our business certainly to the point where it's starting to move the dial on the overall growth numbers of our business we are a little bit of a ways out on that right now," Rainey told analysts. "When we allow our customers to use crypto to go shop at our merchants, our network of [nearly] 30 million merchants around the world, that's where this halo effect or indirect benefit, that's where it gets really attractive on a margin basis, because the funding cost of that being so low.

What is blockchain?

 Learn the basics of blockchain technology and why it can enhance trust in both record keeping and financial transactions.

Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system.

A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain. Each block in the chain contains a number of transactions, and every time a new transaction occurs on the blockchain, a record of that transaction is added to every participant’s ledger. The decentralised database managed by multiple participants is known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

Blockchain is a type of DLT in which transactions are recorded with an immutable cryptographic signature called a hash.

 

This means if one block in one chain was changed, it would be immediately apparent it had been tampered with. If hackers wanted to corrupt a blockchain system, they would have to change every block in the chain, across all of the distributed versions of the chain.

Blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are constantly and continually growing as blocks are being added to the chain, which significantly adds to the security of the ledger.

 

Why is there so much hype around blockchain technology?

There have been many attempts to create digital money in the past, but they have always failed.

The prevailing issue is trust. If someone creates a new currency called the X dollar, how can we trust that they won't give themselves a million X dollars, or steal your X dollars for themselves?

Bitcoin was designed to solve this problem by using a specific type of database called a blockchain. Most normal databases, such as an SQL database, have someone in charge who can change the entries (e.g. giving themselves a million X dollars). Blockchain is different because nobody is in charge; it’s run by the people who use it. What’s more, bitcoins can’t be faked, hacked or double spent – so people that own this money can trust that it has some value.

Understanding Libra

Understand how Facebook leveraged specific aspects of blockchain technology to launch a new cyrptocurrency called Libra, and its potential impact on the banking and finance sector.

Top 10 emerging technologies of 2019

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the emerging technology offering the greatest opportunities to create new business and revenues, according to CompTIA's second annual Top 10 Emerging Technologies report, released Monday.

The 10 technologies named in the report were ranked according to the near-term business and financial opportunities each creates for IT firms and other business technology companies, and selected by the organization's Emerging Technology Community.

1. IoT     { Internet of Things}

IoT is driving business changes by providing the data needed to improve marketing, increase sales, and decrease costs, the report found.

"Everybody in the technology world, as well as many consumers, is hearing the term Internet of Things," Frank Raimondi, a member of the CompTIA Emerging Technology Community leadership group who works in strategic channel and business development for Chargifi, said in a press release.

However, "to say it's confusing and overwhelming is an understatement," he added. "IoT may mean many things to many people, but it can clearly mean incremental or new business to a channel partner if they start adding relevant IoT solutions with their existing and new customers. More importantly, they don't have to start over from scratch."

2. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is already significantly impacting the way customers interact with businesses via intelligent websites and bots, and these tools are becoming increasingly commoditized and integrated into daily work, the report noted.

"The largest impacts across all industries—from retail to healthcare, hospitality to finance—are felt when AI improves data security, decision-making speed and accuracy, and employee output and training," Maddy Martin, community vice chair and head of growth and education for Smith.ai, said in the release. "With more capable staff, better-qualified sales leads, more efficient issue resolution, and systems that feed actual data back in for future process and product improvements, companies employing AI technologies can use resources with far greater efficiency. Best of all, as investment and competition increase in the AI realm, costs are reduced."

3. 5G

The rise of 5G networks is increasing our ability to move, manipulate, and analyze data across wireless platforms, according to CompTIA. As 5G rolls out more fully in the coming years, it will drive the development of more complex apps to solve problems and increase growth across industries.

"The development and deployment of 5G is going to enable business impact at a level few technologies ever have, providing wireless at the speed and latency needed for complex solutions like driverless vehicles," Michael Haines, community chair and director of partner incentive strategy and program design for Microsoft, said in the release. "Additionally, once fully deployed geographically, 5G will help emerging markets realize the same 'speed of business' as their mature counterparts. Solution providers that develop 5G-based solutions for specific industry applications will have profitable, early-mover advantages."

4. Serverless computing

Serverless computing allows organizations to create a NoOps IT environment that is automated and abstracted from underlying infrastructure, reducing operational costs and allowing businesses to invest in developing new capabilities that add more value, the report found.

Serverless computing was new on the list this year, along with robotics, replaced quantum computing, and automation, CompTIA noted.

5. Blockchain

More organizations are exploring and implementing blockchain to solve the increased need to secure and manage transactions across the internet.

"Blockchain came down crushing from its peak of hype cycle, and that's probably for the best," said Julia Moiseeva, a member of the community's leadership group and founder of CLaaS (C-Level as a Service) Management Solutions Ltd, in the release. "Now that the luster of novelty and furor of the masses are gone, the dynamic of work around blockchain took a complete U-turn, again, for the best."

6. Robotics

Robotics is automating routine processes by using machines to make businesses faster, less expensive, and more efficient, the report found.

7. Biometrics

Biometrics—including face, fingerprint, and retina scans—are becoming mainstream methods for verifying identity. These methods will form the secure foundation for solutions delivered by IT companies moving forward, CompTIA said.

8. 3D printing

3D printing offers a solution for the low volume manufacturing of complex parts, as well as fast local production of difficult-to-find products, the report noted. As more affordable products become available, opportunities for this industry will continue to grow, it added.

9. Virtual reality (VR)/Augmented reality (AR)

Using VR, AR, mixed reality, AI, and sensor technologies can help organizations improve operational efficiency and individual productivity, according to the report.

10. Drones

Drones enable robotic automation with fewer geographical restrictions, the report noted. Opportunities for development and integration are high for this market, it added.

   Source: techrepublic.com      By: Alison DeNisco Rayome

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NASA Live - Earth From Space (HDVR) ♥ ISS LIVE FEED #AstronomyDay2018 | ...

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How to Find Out Who’s Tracking You Through Your Smartphone

Safety should always be our top priority. With the help of just a few short codes, you can find out more about the settings of your phone and work out whether or not your messages and information are protected and whether you’re being tracked.

Bright Side has gathered together some of the most useful and important codes for smartphones all in one article, together with some instructions for those who’re worried about being tracked.

With this code, you can find out whether your calls, messages, and other data are being diverted. The status of the different types of diversions that are taking place along with the number the information is being transferred to will be displayed on your phone’s screen. This function is most often set up by either jealous partners or parents who are trying to protect their kids from spam or criminals. Elderly people often become victims of this practice when they lend their phone to a stranger to make a single call. If they do so, they risk having information about where they live, who their friends and family are, their habits and daily activites, and even their financial circumstances passed on to criminals.

Dial this code if you want to find out where calls, messages, and data are being redirected to if it seems that no one can get through to you. The chances are in this case that your voice calls are being redirected to one of your cell phone operator’s numbers.

This is a universal code for switching off all forms of redirection away from your phone. It’s a good idea to use this before you have to use roaming. In this case, money won’t be taken from your account for calls that are redirected by default to your voice mail.

With the help of this code, you can find out your IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identifier). If you know this number, you can find your phone if someone steals it. When switched on, its location is automatically conveyed to the network operator even if a different SIM card is inserted. If someone knows your IMEI number, they can find out the model and technical characteristics of your phone.

© facebook  

Special codes exist that allow someone to track your location and also to determine whether someone is following you. For this, you need the utility netmonitor. Type in one of the following codes:

for iPhone: *3001#12345#* 
for Android: *#*#4636#*#* or *#*#197328640#*#*

Step 1. Go to the section called UMTS Cell Environment, then UMTS RR info, and write down all the numbers under Cell ID. These numbers are the basic stations located nearby. Your phone will connect by default to the one that emits the best signal.

Step 2. Go back to the main menu, and click on the MM info tab, then on Serving PLMN. Write down the numbers under Local Area Code (LAC).

Step 3. With the help of these two numbers and an ordinary website (the fourth tab to the left), you can determine the location on the map of the basic station that your phone is connected to.

The ones to be suspicious of are mobile basic stations — this could be a truck or small bus with a large antenna. These kinds of vehicles are used at rock festivals and in places where Internet coverage is poor. If there’s one of them nearby, seemingly without any logical reason, it’s just possible that someone is engaged in spying.

If you use Android, you should periodically check your phone for viruses. PlaceRaider is one of the most dangerous ones that can infect your device. Developed by American experts, it was meant to show how vulnerable our devices are. Once it gets onto a phone, this Trojan takes a series of photographs of the surrounding area, creates a 3D model of the building you’re in, and then takes advantage of any Internet connection to send the data that it’s gathered, adding along with it all the data on the phone and your passwords.

• National security agencies in virtually all countries now cooperate with cell phone operators, who often provide the former with access to information on any of their customers provided they have a warrant from a court. As a minimum, they provide data from the last three months.
• If your phone has been tapped by a security agency, the chances are you won’t even notice. If a phone makes odd noises during a conversation, loses battery power rapidly, overheats, or unexpectedly restarts, this is merely an indication that you need to get it repaired rather than a telltale sign that you’re being listened to.
• People generally don’t reveal all that much in phone conversations, so from the point of view of those who want to listen in it’s much more worthwhile to set up special devices ("bugs") in someone’s home. Radio wave detectors can be used to work out whether such bugs are present in a building.

• Use messaging apps that are completely closed to outsiders, such as Telegram, Chare, Wickr, or Signal.
• Determine what information it’s safe to make accessible to all. Should everyone really be able to find out your phone number or have access to information about your family, loved ones, or your lifestyle? Be very careful when posting photographs of children.
• Don’t install unknown programmes on your phone, keep close track of the apps you have installed, and use multiple security locks wherever you can. Don’t click on unsafe links, and don’t connect your phone to suspicious "free" charging points.
• Only your cell phone operator should ever offer you tracking services, and they should only turn them on with your explicit agreement. Websites and applications that offer to find out the location of other people are almost certainly acting with criminal intent. Be careful!

10 radiation-emitting cell phone brands you need to throw out immediately

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We won’t leave the house without it. We panic when we can’t find it. We scurry to recharge it when the battery is low. We feel empty without it in our hands or nearby. We are constantly checking it. We are more attached to it than we realize. Our cell phones are becoming an extension of our bodies. Literally. They are giving us cancer-inducing radiation.

Electromagnetic Radiation From Your Cell Phone

There are two types of electromagnetic radiation:

1. Ionizing – high frequency and high energy (x-rays, cosmic rays, etc.)
2. Non-ionizing – low frequency and low energy (radio frequency, power frequency, etc.)

Cell phones transmit a form of non-ionizing radiation from their antennas. This transmittance is how wireless calls and WiFi connections occur. Body tissues close to it absorb this energy.(1)

The radiation is increased during active phone calls, but the exposure continues long afterward. A study was published in 2009 that measured the pelvic bone density in 150 men, all of whom wore their phones attached to their belt for 15 hours a day for about six years. The scientists found the bone mineral density was decreased on the side of the pelvis where the cell was carried.

In one case, a woman with no predisposition for cancer became afflicted with multi-focal breast cancer. Her cancer specialists connected the dots, and the pattern and distribution of the cancerous cells outlined the shape of her cell phone. This seemed peculiar enough; then the woman explained that she is continuously tucking her phone into her bra. (2)

The 10 Worst Cell Phones

The FCC created guidelines to measure the radiation in tissue by using the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR). The SAR set a maximum for legal cell phone radiation at 1.6 watts of energy absorbed per kilogram of body mass. This test uses the thermal effects of phone radiation.

The limit is 1.6, but some phones have come pretty close.

1. Motorola Droid Maxx – SAR 1.54
2. Motorola Droid Ultra – SAR 1.54
3. Motorola Moto E – SAR 1.5 (3)
4. Alcatel One Touch Evolve – SAR 1.49
5. Huawei Vitria – SAR 1.49
6. Kyocera Hydro Edge – SAR 1.48
7. Kyocera Kona – SAR 1.45
8. Kyocera Hydro XTRM – SAR 1.44
9. BlackBerry Z10 – SAR 1.42
10. BlackBerry Z30 – SAR 1.41
11. (ZTE Source – SAR 1.41)
12. (ZTE Warp 4G – SAR 1.41) (4)

Protection Yourself From Radiation

• First of all, get rid of those harmful phones if you have one. Every time you come into contact with it, you will receive an increased amount of radiation than other brands.
• Keep children safe. Children are more susceptible to radiation, and this can cause behavior difficulties, emotional problems, social issues, and hyperactivity.

Reduce your usage. Turn off your phone when you are not using it; don’t just flick it to sleep mode where it is still sending off carcinogenic energies.

• Only make phone calls with good reception. The weaker the connection is, the more power your phone is using, thus the dangerous waves can penetrate your body even more deeply.
• Don’t carry your phone on your body. Avoid putting it in your pocket, belt clip, or your bra like the cancer-ridden woman in the above study. Just keep it away from wherever you don’t want cancer to grow. The fewer layers between you and your phone, the more radiation is being shot into your body.
• Keep your phone six inches from your body when it is in use. This perimeter is the most dangerous zone from radiation. Stay away.
• Use a shielded headset or speakers. (5)

Stay Safe

We’ve gone too far to be capable of giving up cell phones entirely. Yet using them wisely can still spare us from unnecessary radiation. If you would incorporate healthier foods or habits into your life to protect yourself and your family from cancer, then putting boundaries on cell phone usage falls under the same category.

Sources: The World of knowledge