Aurelia Butler

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    EU sues UK after plan to override deal on Northern Ireland

    The proceedings could result in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) imposing fines, although these would likely be more than a year away.London has proposed scrapping some checks on goods from the rest of the United Kingdom arriving in the British province and challenged the role of the ECJ to decide on parts of the post-Brexit arrangement agreed by the EU and Britain.European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, who oversees EU relations with former EU member Britain, said there was no justification for unilaterally changing an international agreement”Let’s call a spade a spade. This is illegal,” he told a news conference, adding it cast a shadow on relations at a time when international cooperation was even more important, a reference to the alliance against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said London was disappointed by the EU’s legal moves.”The EU’s proposed approach, which doesn’t differ from what they’ve said previously, would increase burdens on businesses and citizens and take us backwards from where we are currently,” he said, referring to EU proposals to ease post-Brexit trade problems with Northern Ireland.The three legal proceedings do not relate to Britain’s new plans, but to the EU belief that Britain has failed to implement the protocol that governs Northern Irish trading.The two new suits charge Britain with failing to ensure adequate staff and infrastructure to carry out checks in Northern Ireland and not providing the EU with sufficient trade data.The other, paused a year ago to improve the atmosphere around talks, relates to the movement of agri-food products. Sefcovic said the EU might take the case to the ECJ if Britain failed to address the EU’s charges within two months. Sefcovic said Brussels still wanted to resume talks with Britain to resolve difficulties in shipping British products to Northern Ireland.”We decided that our response should be measured, should be proportionate. And we are offering not only legal action here today but we’ve been fleshing out what concretely we could do,” he said.The British province is in the EU single market for goods, meaning imports from the rest of the United Kingdom are subject to customs declarations and sometimes require checks on their arrival. The arrangement was set to avoid reinstating border controls between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland, which were dropped after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.The arrangement has inflamed pro-British unionist parties by effectively creating a border in the Irish Sea.The Commission made a series of proposals last October to ease customs formalities and cut checks. More

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    China to ramp up support for economy, avoid excessive stimulus

    China’s economy showed signs of recovery in May after slumping in the prior month as industrial production rose unexpectedly, but consumption was still weak and underlined the challenge for policymakers.Authorities will seize the window of opportunity and “decisively enhance the strength (of policy), roll out all policy measures that are needed to stabilise the economy”, the cabinet was quoted as saying after a regular meeting. But such efforts should not lead to excessive money issuance and “overdraft of the future”, it said.The cabinet recently announced a broad package of economic support measures, although analysts say the official GDP target of around 5.5% for this year will be hard to achieve without doing away with the zero-COVID strategy.China will step up support for private investment, which accounts for more than half of the overall investment, selecting a batch of major infrastructure projects to attract private investors, the cabinet said. Financial institutions should support private investment by rolling over loans, while the government will provide financing guarantees for qualified projects involving private investors, it added.China’s private fixed-asset investment rose 4.1% in January-May from a year earlier, trailing a 6.2% rise in the overall fixed-asset investment, official data showed.The cabinet also reaffirmed its support for the “healthy development” of the platform economy, state media said. More

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    ECB to devise new tool to help indebted euro zone members

    Government bond yields have soared on the 19-country currency bloc’s periphery since the ECB unveiled plans last Thursday to raise interest rates in July and September to tame painfully high inflation that is at risk of becoming entrenched. The sell-off was exacerbated by the absence of any concrete plan from the ECB to limit this rise in borrowing costs, raising fears that policymakers were too complacent about the situation of more indebted nations like Italy, Spain and Greece. “The Governing Council decided that it will apply flexibility in reinvesting redemptions coming due in the PEPP portfolio, with a view to preserving the functioning of the monetary policy transmission mechanism,” the ECB said after a rare unscheduled meeting.PEPP is the ECB’s recently-ended pandemic support scheme.”In addition, the Governing Council decided to mandate the relevant Eurosystem Committees together with the ECB services to accelerate the completion of the design of a new anti-fragmentation instrument,” it added.Italian 10-year yields surged to 4.27% on Tuesday, their highest since early 2014 and 250 basis points more than 10-year German bonds, the euro zone’s benchmark.Markets calmed on Wednesday as news of the ECB’s extraordinary meeting emerged and Italy’s 10-year yield fell to 4%, helping narrow the Italy-Germany spread to 230 basis points.There is no universally accepted level for this spread but Carlo Messina, the CEO of Intesa, Italy’s largest bank, earlier on Wednesday said the country’s economic fundamentals would justify 100 to 150 basis points.The spread on 10-year Spanish bonds meanwhile narrowed to 127 basis points from 135 on Tuesday, while for Greece, the move was to 271 basis points from around 295.ECB President Christine Lagarde is due to speak at 1620 GMT in London in an engagement scheduled earlier. ECB board member Fabio Panetta will also speak at 1315 GMT, though his speech will be about a digital euro. Both are expected to be answering questions. More

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    ECB Announces New Tool to Address Fragmentation Fears

    Investing.com — The European Central Bank has said it will move to accelerate the completion of a new instrument designed to prevent a disorderly blowout in borrowing costs in weaker eurozone countries.In a statement following an emergency meeting of the ECB’s Governing Council to address the rise in borrowing costs on Wednesday, policymakers vowed to act against risks of this so-called financial “fragmentation.””The pandemic has left lasting vulnerabilities in the euro-area economy which are indeed contributing to the uneven transmission of the normalization of our monetary policy across jurisdictions,” the ECB said in the statement.The announcement comes less than a week after the committee’s last vote, which left some ECB watchers looking for more precise details about how the central bank planned to address fragmentation risks.The ECB also said it would apply “flexibility” when re-investing redemptions from its massive COVID-era bond-buying program to help bolster more indebted members.The Italian and German 10-year bond yields were both down by about 7%, following the ECB’s statement. The closely watched spread between the two benchmarks rose to about 243 basis points as of 09:08 EST (1308 GMT), a rise of 5.02% on the day – but still tighter than levels reached on Tuesday.Meanwhile, the euro pared back earlier gains on Wednesday to remain basically unchanged against the dollar.Looking ahead, ECB President Christine Lagarde is scheduled to speak in London later today, with Reuters reporting that she is expected to take questions. More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    McKinsey Debunks the Myth ‘The Metaverse Is Only for Gamers’

    McKinsey & Company reveals that although it’s a popular belief that the metaverse powers the future of gaming, it isn’t entirely true at least in today’s context. According to a recent report published by McKinsey, it is predicted that by 2030, $125 billion will be invested in the metaverse gaming industry, whereas e-commerce will see an impact of $2 to $2.6 trillion.The report further states that though the gaming industry remains at the forefront of the metaverse, it is evident that metaverse users do over-index as gamers. While play-to-earn (P2E) gaming is one of the leading experiences, consumers are increasingly looking for shopping, entertainment, networking, and dating in the virtual world.Data suggest that 1 in 5 metaverse users has attended virtual live events such as concerts and film festivals and 10% prefer metaverse dating over real-life ones and 20% say they spend most of their time exercising, shopping, reading, and working in the metaverse. However, the data also shows that metaverse gamers spend 1.5 hours more per week than the rest of the metaverse users.These insights are taken from two studies published by McKinsey this week — One titled ‘Probing reality and myth in the metaverse’ which aims to debunk six popular myths about the metaverse, and the second named ‘Value creation in the metaverse’ which tried to focus into the past, present and future of metaverse and business opportunities there.The first research surveyed 1,000 Americans aged between 13 and 70, besides interviewing subject-matter experts and advocates to understand the sentiment around the metaverse. The second survey had 3,104 participants from 11 countries and a poll of C-Level executives from 448 companies across 15 industries and 10 countries. The inputs were taken earlier this year.Continue reading on CoinQuora More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    The Death of Play-to-Earn: Addressing the Elephant(s) in the NFT Room

    In 2021, blockchain games have become the main attraction in the crypto space after Axie Infinity became a massive sensation. Its huge success was something that everyone – crypto supporter or otherwise – could not shrug off. Even Philip La, the product chief of global hit Pokémon GO, has later on become part of the Sky Mavis roster.Fast forward to 2022, and the game is floundering – daily average users (DAU) has plummeted from almost 3 million to less than 600,000; the floor price of Axies is less than $4 when they were around at least $400 during the game’s peak; the price of AXS is now less than $20 from its all-time high (ATH) of $160. Then there is the issue of the $600 million hack.Other NFT games experienced a similar narrative. Some game developers even resorted to abandoning their project given the current market sentiment.These events have prompted many people to question the feasibility and sustainability of the nascent game model. Is Play-to-Earn (P2E) really dead beyond resuscitation? What were the holes in the plan that weren’t addressed by pioneering projects? Where does the NFT community go from here?Pyramid Scheme With a New Packaging?Most P2E concepts have been dismissed as pyramid schemes. To bring the uninitiated up to speed, a pyramid scheme is an investment model that relies on money given by new recruits to provide profit to older investors. So, instead of delivering a product or service that will rake in money, investors have to rely on registration or entry fee paid by new members.According to Frank Muci, a fellow at the London School of Economics, Axie Infinity is an example of a pyramid scheme since there are no “structural sources of demand” for the game’s utility token Smooth Love Potion (SLP).Muci remarked:Last year, Axie Infinity experienced a situation that was barely under control. From an even ratio between the SLP tokens minted to those burned, the amount of SLP in excess production ballooned at a rate that caused massive outrage and panic. Sky Mavis, the company that developed the game, came up with multiple solutions, to no avail.According to Muci, Axie Infinity and the rest of the blockchain gaming space have to first address the issue of making their respective game fun, instead of coming up with another avenue for people to make money by recruiting more people to play the game.To be fair, Sky Mavis echoes the same sentiment. Philip La said in a tweet:La added that their goal is to come to a place where people would love to play the game and are willing to spend on in-game items like cosmetics, runes and charms, and upgrades just to accomplish missions and flaunt their progress across the gaming community.To Blockchain or To Not Blockchain?Another concern that some experts pointed out is the need for the use of blockchain technology. Some believe that not all games actually need to have a blockchain integration.Konstantin Dinev, CEO of Play-and-Earn platform TimeShuffle, argued that blockchain is not necessarily the core element for success. There are still game models that remain relevant today and are more suited for small-scale games.As a matter of fact, there are marketplaces where players can sell their in-game items such as cosmetics, weapons and armor, and even characters. One popular example is the Steam community marketplace, which enables players to buy and sell items from different games.However, Dinev pointed out that utilizing blockchain’s advantages to facilitate online purchases and protect the game database against cyber attacks is worth the trouble. He mentioned Proof of Stake (PoS) and other recent algorithms as energy-efficient, using “no more resources than regular Internet routing.”Overhyped and UnderwhelmingAnother problem that Dinev mentioned was that the first batch of NFT games have been overhyped. For example, people who otherwise had no interest in cryptocurrency instantly purchased their first NFTs, while unknown teams received huge funding for their project development even without having a good track record.Unfortunately, some projects have shipped underwhelming projects, to say the least. One NFT gaming project that grabbed the attention – and ire – of the crypto community is Pixelmon.Earlier this year, Pixelmon raised $70 million from the community after people minted their own NFTs. Afterward, Pixelmon made a sneak peek of the game, which received snarky remarks from the NFT space. Syber, Pixelmon’s Founder, acknowledged the comments, and said that they will work toward launching the Alpha version of the game later this year.Pixelmon is only one of the many P2E projects that have lost the interest of the NFT space. Even Axie Infinity is struggling to bring back its initial appeal to the masses despite the spate of game and marketplace updates that the team has released over the last year.“The P2E model started to become non-viable in less than a year,” Dinev pointed out. “Once the initial enthusiasm wore out, the game rewards fell down a cliff.”The Right ApproachOn a more positive note, most developers in the P2E sector are starting to shift to a more sustainable economic framework. There are, of course, other blockchain games that are being created by highly decorated game developers such as Illuvium and Star Atlas (NYSE:ATCO).As some experts have explained, blockchain gaming is a nascent sector in the crypto space, and P2E is rather part of a comprehensive trial-and-error process by most companies. One thing is certain: the blockchain community is one step closer to perfection.“There is no right answer, but this does not mean blockchain games are doomed, or that having blockchain add-ons will doom a game,” Dinev concluded. “There is plenty of interest and value to go around, while tapping the potential of both the booming traditional gaming market, and blockchain space.”Continue reading on CoinQuora More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    DEIP debuts first metaverse city for the creator community

    The metaverse has been touted as the next trillion-dollar industry, with analysts predicting that the market could reach $13 trillion by 2030. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that there has been a lot of action in the space of late.The DEIP Metaverse City is the first virtual city built by creators, meta-architects, and 3D artists. Built on Arhead Metaverse, the project will allow creators from across the globe to interact in the virtual world, as well as tap on DEIP technologies to facilitate the transition to Web3. Notably, creators will have access to the necessary tools needed to create businesses and tokenize, control, and monetize assets.The metaverse city is the result of a collaboration between Arhead Metaverse, BALAGAN creative agency, and ATRIUM architectural studio. Along with DEIP, the teams have worked to recreate a duplicate of the company in a virtual environment. And the outcome is a sequence of five unique typologies, including a three-story high exhibition space, a boulevard, a maze-like environment of many intersecting streets, tunnels, and a square with an amphitheater.“We like to create lively, visually diverse environments, where the city unexpectedly unfolds to the viewer and we have implemented these qualities in our project. Of course, we had much more flexibility compared to working in the physical realm. Overall, we’ve managed to bring together different kinds of urban spaces that visitors might find in some cities,” the ATRIUM architectural studio stated.Commenting on the protocol, the CEO and co-founder of DEIP, Alex Shkor, explained that his company was building the core infrastructure to power a seamless transition from Web2 to Web3. He said:Continue reading on BTC Peers More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Binance CEO plans to leverage crypto winter

    When asked how Binance will fare during the current crypto winter following reports of recruitment freezes at Gemini and Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), he answered confidently. Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph More