With the Crypto Market doing good and I think the Stock Market as well, do you guys think that it will also affect the value of public companies that are focused on blockchain technology?
There is BTCS Inc. in which I have read is one of the first publicly traded companies.
I know that there may be more others like them but my main question is would their price go up since they are connected to Blockchain? Or would it be totally unrelated and their price would not change?
I always felt like Crypto and the Stock market are very similar and I'm thinking about investing in both.

SINGAPORE — AnRKey X, the pioneering decentralized finance (DeFi) gaming platform, announces a new mainnet integration with the industry’s most widely-used oracle solution, Chainlink. The integration involves AnRKey leveraging the Chainlink Verifiable Random Function (VRF) to randomly select weekly prize winners of AnRKey X’s Rare and APY power boosted Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

These distribution transactions will be labeled as “Chainlink Verified’’, further emphasizing the technology’s core strength in powering a verifiably random and fair prize distribution mechanism to the benefit of all players. By using Chainlink VRF for in-game NFT drops, AnRKey X sets a new precedent in DeFi Gaming — combining blockchain technology, decentralized finance, and video games.

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“We’re excited to empower AnRKey X to pioneer completely new blockchain-based elements within the gaming industry by providing them with a provably secure and verifiable source of randomness. This allows AnRKey developers to guarantee the unbiased and tamperproof distribution of rare and highly valuable in-game NFTs, bringing more trust to the gaming industry and its in-game assets,” said Daniel Kochis, Head of Chainlink Business Development*.*

It's great to see the NFT industry finding other ways to collaborate with top notch platforms to improve their game.

The year 2020 made us realize that we should be prepared for anything. So many jobs have been lost, businesses and establishments were closing. Schools have closed entirely as well.

So we are now into this new age that most of the things we are doing are online. Food, grocery, shopping, and most importantly, education. Schools have created modules for what they call distant learning. I know this is not that new, but I am just curious to know if this pandemic will change everything we know about.

I am not new to crypto or blockchain but I don't have any extensive knowledge regarding the technicalities. Do you guys think that there is a use case for blockchain on online education?

[The KPA’s mission is to facilitate and accelerate the development of the Polkadot ecosystem in Korea.]

STP, RAI Finance and Cobak have joined together to form the Korean Polkadot Alliance (KPA), a non-profit consortium of industry-leading projects and teams in Korea that are building on Polkadot. Top Asia cryptofunds including NGC Ventures and GBIC are also initial founding members. The KPA’s mission is to facilitate and accelerate the development of the Polkadot ecosystem in Korea.

KPA Major Intiatives:

· The first major initiative will be to bid for a parachain slot on Polkadot utilizing the DOT from each foundation of our initial founding members STP, RAI Finance, Cobak along with capital from founding backers NGC Ventures and GBIC.
· The KPA will also facilitate Parachain Lease Offerings (PLO) where DOT holders from the Korean community can stake DOT to receive native tokens from KPA member projects. (More info to come on the mechanics of the PLO)
· The KPA will also help members prepare for the parachain auction process which includes ecosystem strategy, technical advisory, governance, fundraising strategy and awareness with the ultimate goal of securing and operating a successful parachain on Polkadot.
· The KPA is dedicated to building a vibrant and open community in Korea centered around Polkadot. The KPA will organize talks, discussions, meetups and events focusing on the Polkadot ecosystem in Korea.
The KPA encourages any Korean projects, teams and developers that are building on Polkadot to join us on our mission. Existing projects and teams looking to tap into the Polkadot ecosystem in Korea are also welcome!

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It's great seeing projects unite to improve ecosystem for their respective countries.

[What’s new]

The launch of NAV's very much awaited new private coin xNAV was kickstarted two weeks ago on January 1st with the publishing of the Navcoin Core 6.0 release candidate binaries.
After being able to get the builds battle-tested on mainnet during the testing period, the builds have shown to be stable and with no major reported issues.
As of today, NAv is ready to make the final version available for the community to download from their Github releases page.

What’s new
Nav's latest release brings improvements to governance and security, and also allows NavCoin to make significant upgrades to privacy and coin utility through the development of xNAV, their new private token. xNAV is supported by our novel blsCT protocol which brings an efficient and privacy-respecting currency to life, and allows anyone to take control of their financial transactions while retaining their anonymity.

User security is greatly enhanced by the introduction of full wallet encryption allowing wallet transaction data to be fully encrypted. This works in unison with our cold staking functionality, which allows staking to be carried out by offline wallets, further reducing the risk of security flaws and helping to secure all users’ funds.

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Cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer announced on the 8th about the opt-in support for "Symbol (XYM)" acquisition.

bitFlyer has announced on its official Twitter that NEM Group has announced that XYM's opt-in will start on September 15, 2020, and will consider a response policy that puts customer interests first.

Opt-in is a method of granting a new currency in which the NEM (XEM) holder voluntarily makes an "indication" to receive XYM, and the opt-in start means that the procedure of the user who wants to receive the new currency is started. means.

GMO Coin announced on August 26th, Zaif on August 28th, and Coin Check on September 4th, announced policies regarding opt-in support for "Symbol (XYM)" acquisition.

Source

NEM recently expressed that the Symbol Opt-in launch date is announced.  The opt-in opening date for Symbol is September 15, 2020.

The Opt-in date was on September 07, 2020; however, an additional 8 days have been allotted for testing in order to improve the UI/UX.  There are no new reported challenges as the testing seems to continue.

For those who do not understand opt-in, it is the method by which the existing XEM holders will be able to claim their XYM tokens at the point of Snapshot, which will take place prior to the new chain launch of Symbol, which is scheduled for December.

To place the claim on XYM users should understand and accept the terms and conditions which is available on the website.  This is a part of the process of Opt-in.

Of note, the Opt-in web pages and terms and conditions will also be going live on September 15, 2020.

At the point of snapshot, for those who do not opt in the XEM balance that is there, will be allocated with an equivalent amount of XYM in to the user’s wallet.  Thus, users will be able to Opt-in to their your XYM tokens for nearly 6 years after the launch date providing further details about how this might get shared in the near future.

Starting, September 15, 2020 users will be able to Opt-in using the NEM desktop wallet and the NEM mobile wallet for Android versions only. Notably, the single accounts, which can consist of namespaces & harvesting keys; and Multi Signature accounts, which can consist of namespaces and harvesting keys. Of note, they have also stated that the Multi Signature account Opt-in could only be initiated in the NEM desktop wallet.

Sydney Ifergan, the crypto expert, tweeted:  “It is Snapshot and NEM Opt-in time.  They state Binance have not yet announced support. They also say that the only way to absolutely receive XYM is to hold XEM in a wallet that is user controlled.”

The best option for now is to store the funds in the NEM desktop wallet.

NEM Cryptocurrency Reimagine 2020 v2.0 Workshop Series

In the Reimagine 2020 v2.0 Workshop series, Laura Angel, Business Development LATAM at u/NEMofficial have provided a general overview regarding the use cases about the two blockchains like NIS1 and Symbol.  The video is worth the watch by those who are trying to understand NEM.

The iOS is expected to be available on the Apple Store at a later date due to the centralized approval process.  For now users are to log into their NEM wallet and follow the instructions for the Opt-in.

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[1. Scalability]

Currently there are currently 3 main barriers to full adoption for organisations seeking to participate in DeFi:

1. Scalability 
Symbol can provide significantly more transaction throughput to help cater to the significant volume of DeFi users, from individuals to small businesses.
Because Symbol is a hybrid of both public and private blockchain, and it is designed for solutions to help enterprises avoid unnecessary cost and complexity, Symbol can help to avoid the poorly-scaling high fees of Ethereum smart contracts.
With its plugin-based business functions, Symbol is tested and instantly usable, making it easy to build quickly and cost effectively.    
Using Symbol will help to overcome the scalability challenge that can be experienced when building DeFi products and services.  

2. Liquidity and Collateral
DeFi is collateralised by Ethereum as well as Dai and USDC. However, this over reliance on Ethereum means that bringing other collateral types to DeFi, such as Bitcoin, via sidechains is an obvious answer to this bottleneck.
Symbol is built for cross-chain interoperability and, through atomic swaps and multi-level multi-sig features, can provide a ready made solution to assist with collateralising the DeFi system.

3. Reducing Volatility
Today, the primary use case for DeFi remains the facilitation of ‘longs’ on Ethereum – just buying the token and waiting for it to rise up in value. DeFi will only have broken through and created real value when more P2P
lending goes mainstream (think microfinance, small business lending, seed funding, etc).

Symbol is the most effective enterprise ready blockchain today. Designed for real world use, Symbol is the connector between business and blockchain because it is easy to work with and build from for any business seeking to create innovative DeFi products.  
In summary, Symbol is a great option to help maximise the potential of DeFi and to achieve the ambition of helping to make financial systems accessible to all quickly, efficiently and cost effectively.  
The combination of interoperability, ease of use, and hybrid private and public chain allows for secure, quicker and cheaper transactions at scale, and puts Symbol at the forefront of the next phase of DeFi development.  

Thoughts?

[Can solutions that blockchain provide help us get more awareness, or can these be solved by a simple server database?]

1. App allows device authorisation for scanning QR codes on products and geo-fencing for additional security. 

2. Each scan is then securely recorded on Symbol blockchain.

3. Sustainability metrics can then be presented in real time with tracked .data

A supply chain is a network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute a specific product to the final buyer. This network includes different activities, people, entities, information, and resources.

Can solutions that blockchain provide help us get more awareness, or can these be solved by a simple server database?

[Will this pluggable private network/blockchain attract more businesses to enter the blockchain space?]

One of the things that hinder businesses and major corporations to start using blockchain technology is the integration part. Even on the crypto side, these cryptocurrencies are unable to handle a large number of transactions in a fast and efficient way. Visa is handling from 2000 to 4000 transactions per second, PayPal - close to 450 transactions per second. While crypto has lower figures in that department.

The newly launched Symbol network will launch to create public-private hybrid deployment by syncing with the NIS1 publish chain. While Symbol, the enterprise-ready network, will function as the private plugin, the community-led and -validated NIS1 chain will operate as an ever-strong public network.

Will this pluggable private network/blockchain attract more businesses to enter the blockchain space?

- https://www.hindustantimes.com/brand-post/future-of-blockchain-based-enterprises-community-led-public-chain-with-a-pluggable-private-network/story-idfsdyGYDs5bZdqxC3wNsM.html

Logistics and fine wine has been open to exploitation for some time. There are multiple examples of wine tampering, theft, counterfeiting and passing that all undermine confidence in both the supply and demand of fine wine as an asset class around the world, costing producers millions of dollars in lost revenue.   

A recent Forbes article described wine fraud as an ‘epidemic’, with claims that over 50% of all wine exceeding $35 per bottle sold in China as being counterfeit. An estimated 30,000 fake bottles of wine are sold each hour in China alone.



A new initiative coming from NEM which is called "Symbol", helps wine growers and producers keep track of what’s happening with their raw materials and products at every stage of production and distribution, by using blockchain to track and verify the product as it leaves the vineyard, with all key information publicly available to reinforce the wine’s authenticity. If other industries such as food, agriculture, etc. started utilizing them this way, their token value will surely increase.

Will we see more of these scenarios in the next coming years?

This can be something that corporations may start to use, knowing that blockchain technology is the trusted, secure value exchange network for business. Symbol which is from NEM is aiming to reduce business friction, increase trust, and expand the flow of ideas to accelerate innovation. Enterprises and developers can now connect together, which open doors to more opportunity to the blockchain technology.

Will these kinds of movements by big players in the crypto space help mass adoption?

At EUROCRYPT 2015, Mironov and Stephens-Davidowitz introduced cryptographic reverse firewalls (RFs) as an attractive approach to tackling such questions. Intuitively, a RF for Peggy/Vic is an external party that sits between Peggy/Vic and the outside world and whose scope is to sanitize Peggy’s/Vic’s incoming and outgoing messages in the face of subversion of her/his computer, e.g. in order to destroy subliminal channels.

A nice feature of their design is that it is completely transparent, in the sense that our RFs can be directly applied to already deployed IPSes, without the need to re-implement them.

Source - https://medium.com/concordium/cryptographic-reverse-firewalls-for-interactive-proof-systems-b808b5af32e

Does this have any impact on how the future of crypto moves forward?

The codebase for the distributed ledger blockchain platform developed by AVA Labs Inc., a financial blockchain infrastructure development startup, officially became open source today and was released to the global community.

The AVA network uses a specialized system that allows permissioned, or private, and public blockchains to interoperate at scale. It is also the first system to employ the Avalanche consensus protocol, which was initially developed in 2018. Avalanche is a highly scalable, quick-resolution protocol for adding transactions to a blockchain while maintaining the security of the network.

AVA Labs also announced the launch of its Developer Accelerator Program designed to foster the next generation of engagement with the project’s growing community of creators, open-source developers, bug hunters and security engineers.

"Instead of one network with thousands of tokens, the AVA ecosystem is one platform with thousands of subnetworks and tokens on each subnetwork,” said Kevin Sekniqi, co-founder of AVA Labs.