Blockpass and UREEQA Bring Identity Verification to Creators

indie 25 2 月

5 minutes

HONG KONG, Feb 25, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Blockpass is proud to reveal another new partnership this week which will see the integration of Blockpass' KYC solution into a brand new platform. This new expansion of KYC coverage comes to the UREEQA platform, which protects, manages and monetizes creative work. Both companies will work together to ensure that creators of unique works can identify themselves and claim ownership of their compositions, opening up greater opportunities for people to conduct business and pursue their goals.On UREEQA, users can pay a small fee to stake claim to their creative works, such as music, videos, eBooks, source code, art etc. In the future, UREEQA will expand to other forms of work including patents, trademarks and industrial design. Validators work to ensure that creative content on UREEQA is original, earning URQA tokens and a UREEQA Validator Rating (UV Rating) based on their performance. Once a creator's work has been successfully validated, a non-fungible token is generated; this token is the creator's immutable claim to the creation. The NFT then enters the UREEQA Premium Protected Collection - a dynamic online platform where the creation will...

SeaPRwire

New global R&D head for TikTok to be based in Singapore: Sources

elean 25 2 月

2 minutes

BEIJING (REUTERS) - ByteDance plans to move the chief of its Chinese news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, Zhu Wenjia, to Singapore to head global research and development for its hit short video app TikTok, two people familiar with the matter said. The role is newly created and would be the first senior R&D position for TikTok. Mr Zhu will be in charge of the app's product and technologies including its recommendation algorithms, the people said. His position will be parallel to TikTok's interim head, Vanessa Pappas, and will report directly to ByteDance founder and chief executive Zhang Yiming, they said. ByteDance declined to comment. The sources declined to be named as the information is not public. TikTok had come under pressure from the Trump administration in the United States to divest the app's US operations over concerns that user data could be passed on to China, which TikTok has repeatedly denied. Reuters reported last year that TikTok moved its key research capabilities outside China and had approached employees from tech giants. It also reported that ByteDance plans to invest billions of dollars and recruit hundreds of employees in Singapore, which it has selected as its Sou...

SeaPRwire

GameStop CFO to step down after Reddit driven stock rally

elean 24 2 月

2 minutes

NEW YORK (REUTERS) - GameStop chief financial officer Jim Bell will step down next month, the video game retailer said on Tuesday (Feb 23), as it focuses on shifting into technology-driven sales in the wake of headline-grabbing big betting in its stock. GameStop said Mr Bell's resignation was not due to any disagreement with the company relating to its operations, including accounting principles and practices. However, a source said that while Mr Bell's exit was unrelated to the recent wild swings in GameStop's stock spurred by retail traders on the Reddit social media site, his departure was initiated by the company. The source, a person familiar with the firm's thinking, said GameStop had become dissatisfied with Mr Bell as it works to transform into a technology-oriented business and was not confident he would be the right CFO moving forward. Mr Bell, who will leave the company on March 26, previously worked at brick-and-mortar retailers Gap and Coldwater Creek and restaurant chain P. F. Chang's China Bistro, according to his LinkedIn profile. He did not respond to requests for comment. Shares of GameStop fell about 5 per cent to US$42.75 in extended trading after the announceme...

SeaPRwire

Lucid Motors CEO aims to launch Tesla Model 3 rival in 2024 or 2025

elean 24 2 月

2 minutes

SAN FRANCISCO (REUTERS) - Lucid Motors chief executive officer Peter Rawlinson told Reuters on Tuesday (Feb 24) that the luxury electric car maker plans to launch a rival to Tesla's Model 3 in 2024 or 2025. The company led by the former Tesla engineer is following the same strategy as Tesla, starting with a luxury car to create a halo around the brand and then expand into the mass market. This week it announced plans to go public by merging with a blank check company, a move that indicated a market capitalization of $56 billion - before regular production of Lucid Motors' first model has begun. Scaling up production of a mass automobile is a major financial challenge, Mr Rawlinson said. "I can't wait to do that," he told Reuters, referring to the rival to Tesla's Model 3, it's least expensive sedan. But first Mr Rawlinson said he would for now focus on the luxury, bigger car, which paradoxically takes fewer resources. "To make a smaller car requires more capital, because you need a bigger factory and more automation," he said. Lucid Motors' first electric car, the luxury Air, won't go in production now until late 2021, later than the spring 2021 launch initially planned. Mr Rawlins...

SeaPRwire

Tesla briefly sinks below price at which it entered S&P 500 index

elean 24 2 月

2 minutes

NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - Tesla shares wiped out their year-to-date gains on Tuesday (Feb 23) and briefly traded below the level where they were when the electric-carmaker entered the S&P 500 Index in December. The stock dropped as much as 13 per cent to US$619 (S$817) in New York, its biggest intraday decline since Sept 8, before paring much of the loss to close down 2.2 per cent. The stock was down 31 per cent from its Jan 25 record intraday high at its lowest point on Tuesday. Tesla's early-week decline amid a wider market selloff was fueled in part by chief executive officer Elon Musk's comments over the weekend that the prices of bitcoin and smaller rival ether "do seem high." "Tesla is an EV play entering the golden age of EVs and there is a lingering worry that the Bitcoin sideshow could overshadow the overall EV growth story playing out for Tesla in 2021 and beyond," Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note to clients. The concerns over the value of the cryptocurrency helped erase some of bitcoin's gains, which had rocketed to new highs after Tesla announced two weeks ago it added US$1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency to its balance sheet. Bitcoin fell as much as 18 per cent...

SeaPRwire

13 months’ jail for 4th man involved in ruse that cheated WDA of $51,000

aseanpr 23 2 月

3 minutes

SINGAPORE - A 29-year-old man has become the fourth person to be sent to jail for his involvement in a ruse that cheated the now-defunct Workforce Development Agency (WDA) of $51,000 in total. Lim Biao, also known as Lim Qi Chuan, was sentenced on Tuesday (Feb 23) to 13 months' jail for the offences in 2016 against the WDA, now known as SkillsFuture Singapore. He pleaded guilty to 19 counts of engaging in conspiracy to cheat involving $4,500 and one count of obstructing the course of justice. Another 187 charges involving the remaining amount were considered during sentencing. Three other men had earlier been sentenced to between 24 weeks and two years' jail. They were Muhammad Hakimmul Hisham Razni, 35, as well as Tay Sheng Yang and Ng Yong Jing, both 28. The cases involving three alleged accomplices - Chia Bing Lun, 27; Sng Kee Jin, 28 and Joshua Tan Jun Liang, 29 - are still pending. The ruse involved the SkillsFuture Credits (SFC) scheme, launched in January 2016 to encourage individuals to take ownership of their skills development and lifelong learning. It gave all Singaporeans aged 25 and older an opening credit of $500 in their SFC accounts, which could be used to pay for a...

SeaPRwire

Bitcoin tanks after Elon Musk hints prices are excessive; Janet Yellen sounds warning

elean 23 2 月

3 minutes

NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - Elon Musk's embrace of bitcoin earlier this month rocketed the cryptocurrency almost 50 per cent higher to more than US$58,000 (S$76,600). His cold shoulder this weekend whipsawed the largest digital asset. Bitcoin was down about 5.6 per cent after plunging as much as 17 per cent earlier on Monday (Feb 22). The digital asset briefly drifted below US$50,000, giving up more than US$8,000 in a matter of hours after the world's richest man tweeted his concern that the price had risen too high too quickly. "Elon and his fleet have incredible power over market prices," said Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics, comparing Mr Musk's influence over the digital asset's price moves to Warren Buffett. Long-time bitcoin skeptic and now Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also offered a stark warning, saying at a New York Times conference on Monday that the token is an "extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions." Even other billionaires are weighing in on Mr Musk's comments. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Emily Chang that he isn't a fan of bitcoin, either for environmental reasons - it uses a lot of energy - ...

ACN Newswire

Black Spade Capital Aims to Build an SPAC-themed Portfolio

indie 22 2 月

5 minutes

HONG KONG, Feb 22, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - 2020 proved to be a great year for Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs). The market saw more high-profile investors joining the party while a record number of companies went public through this unique structure. With a whopping US$80 billion raised by over 230 blank-cheque companies, SPAC IPOs not only represented approximately 50% of total IPO issuance in the US in 2020, the massive amount raised by SPACs even eclipsed traditional IPOs last year. Mr. Dennis Tam, President and CEOSPAC Trend Continues To Heat UpWhile SPACs continue to be favoured by institutional and private investors alike in the US, they are also gaining momentum in Asia. Savvy investors in the East are catching up fast with the trend and among them is Black Spade Capital Limited, the family office of casino magnate Lawrence Ho Yau Lung. "We aim to be one of the first Asian family offices to build an SPAC-themed portfolio," said Mr. Dennis Tam, President and CEO of Black Spade Capital. He added that "of course, we have to be selective - only high-quality SPACs with great potential are considered".One catalyst, Two CriteriaMr. Tam considers the current close-to-ze...

ACN Newswire

Blockpass and Vortex DeFi Enter Strategic Partnership

indie 22 2 月

4 minutes

HONG KONG, Feb 22, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Blockpass is excited to announce Vortex DeFi, the one-stop simplified DeFi Asset management web-based application, as its latest partner. This new strategic partnership will see Blockpass' unique KYC solution used to secure Vortexdefi's platform and upcoming Initial Dex Offering. The two companies will work together to ensure that regulations are adhered to in the strongest possible manner to secure the space as they grow and expand.Vortex DeFi is a web-based platform that works to realise any and all DeFi-related opportunities in one place. It is a one-stop gateway to manage your investments for protocols on Ethereum and Polka networks. The Vortex ecosystem will provide a suite of applications to enable activities such as NFT asset tracking, lending, insurance of crypto assets, borrowing, and easy (cross-chain) swapping from one crypto asset to another. Vortex DeFi will be launching an Initial Dex Offering on the DuckStarter platform on Sunday, 28th February 2021.Blockpass is a digital identity verification provider which provides a one-click compliance gateway to financial services and other regulated industries. Through Blockpass, users...

SeaPRwire

Man loses $130k to fake bitcoin trader

elean 21 2 月

1 minute

If someone tells you that your investment has turned a tidy profit and that you should put in more money to earn even more, just say "no" until you can do your checks. Chances are the person who brings such "good news" has a motive to make you part with more cash because such a line, which is aimed at stoking greed, happens to be the most used ruse by cheats. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Get unlimited access to all stories at $0.99/month Latest headlines and exclusive stories In-depth analyses and award-winning multimedia content Get access to all with our no-contract promotional package at only $0.99/month for the first 3 months* Subscribe now *Terms and conditions apply.

SeaPRwire

Ex-NMP steps down from NUS alumni advisory board

aseanpr 21 2 月

3 minutes

Talk show host and former Nominated MP Viswa Sadasivan has stepped down as a member of the National University of Singapore (NUS) Alumni Advisory Board. This comes after allegations of sexual harassment made against him by two women. In an e-mail to its alumni yesterday evening, the university's Office of Alumni Relations said it would discontinue all projects with him and his communications consultancy firm, Strategic Moves. The NUS statement said this was in the light of the allegations made by stand-up comedian Sharul Channa and doctoral researcher Kiran Kandade against Mr Viswa. NUS said that "the university does not condone any behaviour or action that is disrespectful and disparaging of individuals, regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion or age". It added that the incident between Mr Viswa and Ms Sharul took place during the online interview series, Inconvenient Questions. The series is a collaboration between Strategic Moves and the National University of Singapore Society - a graduate club and registered society that is a separate and independent entity from NUS. Before interviewing Ms Sharul online about her profession and work on women's issues, Mr Viswa, 61, allegedly...

SeaPRwire

Helping large local enterprises grow as part of mindset change

aseanpr 20 2 月

3 minutes

Company bosses and workers have to transform their mindsets to ensure their businesses keep up amid the upheaval caused by the pandemic, experts said at a Budget discussion. They noted that part of this shift will include growing large local enterprises so that they become more attractive to job seekers and supporting them so that they can internationalise. Professor Hoon Hian Teck, dean of Singapore Management University's School of Economics and a Nominated MP, told the roundtable discussion organised by The Straits Times and UOB: "Going overseas can help them raise the productivity that can ultimately lead to better jobs and better pay." As these large local enterprises grow, graduates can also be drawn to start their careers with them rather than just aiming for multinational corporations, he added. "It can produce a little bit of signalling effect for our students, who might (find) it more exciting to join a large local enterprise because there is larger potential for them to express their creative ideas of how to break into overseas markets, for example." UOB economist Barnabas Gan agreed, saying: "Singapore cannot be inward-looking. We don't have... natural resources. But th...

SeaPRwire

Those vaccinated will be monitored for side effects and jab criteria refined

aseanpr 20 2 月

2 minutes

The Government will continue to observe and monitor people who were vaccinated to look out for those with side effects, collect this data and refine the criteria for vaccination. Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said this yesterday when asked about the 72-year-old man who suffered cardiac arrest on Tuesday night after getting his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in the morning. The patient, who was admitted to the intensive care unit at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), has a medical history of cancer, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia. Mr Gan reiterated TTSH's initial assessment that there was no indication the patient's cardiac arrest was due to the vaccination. "I want to assure Singaporeans that we will continue to monitor data not only locally, but also internationally, so that it is a continuous process that will refine our processes, refine our criteria to ensure that it is safe," he said at the Jalan Besar Community Centre. People getting vaccinated have to go through a thorough questionnaire to ensure that they do not have a contraindication. A contraindication is anything, such as a medical condition or symptom, that is a reason for a person to not receive a particular treatment....

SeaPRwire

GE2020 reports shine at SPH Chinese media awards

aseanpr 20 2 月

3 minutes

On June 27 last year, Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Nam Yunzhou, 31, and chief videographer Lim Seong Teik, 55, were the only journalists at the People's Action Party headquarters in Bedok when newly introduced candidate Ivan Lim announced he was withdrawing from contesting the July 10 General Election. Mr Lim pulled out just days before Nomination Day, after allegations about his past conduct emerged online. For their perseverance in tracking Mr Lim, the duo won the Best Scoop award at the annual awards of Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) Chinese Media Group (CMG), held online yesterday. Mr Nam said: "It's a tremendous privilege to have played a part in this story, and this accolade is also testament to the hard work and dedication the newsroom puts into presenting quality content to our readership." Correspondent Ng Wai Mun won the Best News Report award for her coverage of Workers' Party chief Pritam Singh apologising for not sending a Mandarin-speaking representative to a live TV debate in the lead-up to the election. "For many of our readers, this piece of news hit close to their hearts," said Ms Ng, 32, who added that many were curious about what the opposition party with younge...

SeaPRwire

Serial molester back behind bars for offences including outraging teen girl’s modesty

aseanpr 19 2 月

3 minutes

SINGAPORE - A serial molester who had earlier targeted eight women is back behind bars for offences including outraging a 13-year-old girl's modesty. In his latest string of offences, Lawrence Goh Koon Yong, now 39, also asked a 19-year-old woman to have sex with him and stole a pair of shoes from a third victim. The Singaporean was sentenced on Friday (Feb 19) to 2½ years' jail after pleading guilty to one count each of theft, molestation and insulting a woman's modesty. Deputy Public Prosecutor Genevieve Pang said that the 13-year-old girl was wearing her school uniform and walking home in Whampoa at around 11am on Oct 7, 2019 when Goh approached her from behind. The DPP added: "The accused followed the victim and asked if she wanted to go to a dark corner to study. "He also asked her if she had a boyfriend. As the victim wanted to protect herself, she told him that she had one." Undeterred, Goh went close to the girl and grabbed her waist. The terrified teenager pushed him away and ran home. In an unrelated incident, the 19-year-old woman was on her way home at around 10pm on Sept 2, 2019 and had entered a lift in a Sims Drive block of flats when Goh went up to her. He then touc...

SeaPRwire

Robinhood, Citadel chiefs spar with lawmakers over retail trading following GameStop frenzy

elean 19 2 月

6 minutes

WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) - House Democrats sparred with the leaders of Robinhood Markets and Citadel on Thursday (Feb 18), with lawmakers pressing the firms on whether they're profiting at the expense of retail investors and complaining that they got few satisfying answers. At a closely watched hearing before the Financial Services Committee, Robinhood's Vlad Tenev and Citadel's Ken Griffin took fire on issues ranging from trading halts provoked by capital shortfalls to whether "free trades" are really free. At times, the chief executives' long responses were cut off and met with derision. They were both adamant that their businesses have helped small-time investors access markets that were long the domain of Wall Street. "You are doing a great job of wasting my time," Representative Brad Sherman, a California Democrat, told Griffin as he demanded the hedge fund billionaire provide a more succinct answer on whether the brokers Citadel pays for orders get the best deals for their clients. Tenev, whose brokerage has attracted young investors with a simple mobile phone app and offer of commission-free trades, was accused of not fully informing its inexperienced clientele of the risks th...

SeaPRwire

BOSAGORA Unveils the T-Fi, a First Real Economy DeFi Financial Model

pandora 18 2 月

4 minutes

Seoul, Korea - BOSAGORA, a public blockchain platform, announced on February 17, 2021, the blueprint of 'T-Fi', a DeFi financial model with an advanced concept. Implying the 'true finance', T-Fi will present a new financial experience by connecting real economies such as securities and real estate with BOA, a coin of BOSAGORA. It also announced the roadmap that it will initiate a pilot operation on small scale in March and complete the decentralized finance (DeFi) on an incremental basis within this year when a trust contract with the Mainnet is concluded. According to BOSAGORA Foundation, T-Fi is an economic ecosystem that can create profits in a variety of ways. Profit creation means include the reward for block generation by operating nodes of BOA; fixed interest from the lending of staked BOA assets; and income dividend to be paid by taking part in security token offering (STO) projects that are exclusively partnered with BOSAGORA. T-Fi attracts attention from the market as it can generate profits by lending crypto assets already staked in the real economy, in addition to earnings gained through the operation of nodes and STOs that are well-known existing ways of creating value...

SeaPRwire

Man given probation for trespassing into NUS dorm, taking women’s undergarments

aseanpr 18 2 月

2 minutes

SINGAPORE - A man was given 21 months' probation on Thursday (Feb 18) for trespassing into a dormitory at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and taking items such as women's undergarments. Goh An Soon, 20, has to attend offence-specific treatment programmes and perform 60 hours of community service as part of his probation. He had pleaded guilty earlier to one count each of misappropriating property and trespassing. The court had heard that Goh went to the dormitory at King Edward VII Hall in Kent Ridge Road eight times between Dec 19, 2018, and Feb 1, 2019. At that time, he was a student at another school, which was not named in court documents. He would look for lingerie left unattended in washing machines at the dormitory's laundry areas, or among the clothes hung to dry in the common corridor. "He claimed that he would then take the undergarments to pantry rooms in neighbouring blocks of the campus to look at them up close, and that he left the undergarments behind in these rooms thereafter," Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei had said. Besides women's lingerie, he also stole items such as laundry bags containing male and female clothing, as well as a wallet with bank...

SeaPRwire

Bitcoin soars to new high above US$52,000; sustainability concerns rise

elean 18 2 月

3 minutes

NEW YORK (REUTERS) - Bitcoin surged to yet another record high on Wednesday (Feb 17), a day after the virtual currency vaulted to the US$50,000 (S$66,390) hurdle, even as analysts warned against the sustainability of such prices amid elevated volatility. The world's biggest digital currency, with a market capitalization of over US$900 billion, hit a record of US$52,577.50, fueled by signs it is winning acceptance among mainstream investors and companies, such as Tesla, Mastercard and BNY Mellon. Bitcoin was last up 6.3 per cent at US$52,233. Despite the flurry of mainstream acceptance this year, some analysts warned that bitcoin was still far from becoming a widely used form of payment. "Bitcoin presently is not an efficient manner for high-volume transacting, and it is certainly not a store of value as its price volatility at 80 per cent is a dozen times higher than the euro and sevenfold of the Russian rouble," said Harley Bassman, managing partner at Simplify Asset Management. "That said, it is a perfectly legitimate speculative asset, quite similar to Dutch tulips in 1636. Will it meet the same fate? That is unclear. As such, size your risk appropriately." Dutch tulips in the 1...

SeaPRwire

Jaguar Land Rover to cut 2,000 jobs globally

elean 18 2 月

2 minutes

LONDON (AFP) - Jaguar Land Rover on Wednesday (Feb 17) said that it planned to lay off around 2,000 staff in the next financial year. The largest car manufacturer in Britain, owned by India's Tata Motors, said in a statement: "We anticipate a net reduction of around 2,000 people from our global salaried workforce in the next financial year." Jaguar Land Rover has almost 40,000 employees worldwide, according to its 2019-20 annual report. It had announced Monday that the Jaguar brand would produce only electric vehicles by 2025 and that Land Rover would have its first fully-electric vehicle in 2024. The car maker said it would invest £2.5 billion (S$4.65 billion) annually under its 'Reimagine' plan, which aims for its supply chain and operations to become carbon neutral by 2039. It had said this plan would also involve substantially reducing its non-manufacturing operations. The radical overhaul comes under new chief executive Thierry Bollore, who joined in September. The statement released on Wednesday said that a "full review of the Jaguar Land Rover organisation is already underway". It said the organisation had already started to brief salaried staff on the job cuts, which do not...

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