Whose side are you on? Over the last two weeks, divisive views on the Russian-Ukraine conflict have been bombarding my feed on social media platforms. On one side, there is NATO and its allies, who believe that the invasion was not justified and assert their rights to intervene in a series of sanctions designed to cut Russia from the global economy. The other end, there is Russia, who feels threatened by what they deem as “broken promises” of NATO and its increasing sphere of influence across Eastern Europe. It is also worth noting that foreign powers have historically invaded Russia through Ukraine in both world wars.

The topic has polarized many people on social media into two camps on diametrically opposite ends of the spectrum. The outcome of this has also festered an extremist mindset of “either you are with or against us.” I am of the belief that a highly complex and nuanced situation requires a balanced assessment and careful consideration of both side’s perspectives. In this vein, I will be presenting opposing viewpoints in today’s topics and hope you will walk away with a better and more holistic understanding on each topic.

Today’s topics

The flip side of sanctions on Russia

Gold versus Bitcoin — which is the real safe haven? (Part 2)

The case for including BNPL into credit scores

If you like to discuss any of the themes, trends or topics further, please feel free to reach out. I would also love to get any thoughts and suggestions on the above.

ValerStudios (VLR) is a hatchery and a crypto-economy dedicated to the creation of dark abundance, as well as serving underutilized networks throughout the world. VLR’s 3-Stage Incubator design enables VLR to take on hatchery projects selected by the VLR people group each cycle. VLR then takes each project and author on a hatching expedition to create their own crypto-economy.

The goal of the ValerStudios Token (VLR) is to hatch and accelerate the entry of individuals, businesses, organizations, and countries into the crypto and blockchain ecosystems. VLR Token is ideal for organizers and financial backers alike due to the social benefits, venture capital opportunities, and utility that VLR provides.

INCUBATOR VLR’s mission is to foster financial security in persecuted networks. Whether it’s guiding organizations through the hatchery or providing instruction, data, and access to help them achieve financial stability, VLR is here to assist.

CAUSES SOCIALApart from the 80 percent of total expenses that will be reinvested in the marking pool, another 7% of total expenses will be allocated to a special wallet for charitable purposes. Combat social injustice alongside VLR!

CREATOR OF GENERATIONAL BLACK WEALTHAccording to Citigroup’s review, social orders that build foundations and strengthen their weakest members experience the most development. VLR is constructing the next 100 years, and you are a part of it.

BLACK WEALTH CRYPTO ECONOMYThe VLR Token introduces and accelerates individuals, organizations, associations, and nations into the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. By connecting their current economy to the crypto-climate, they create an extraordinary path and allow capital to flow in a significantly more integrated manner.

STAKING POOLStakes in VLR can be made through the VLR Staking pool. VLR token holders will be able to receive tokens from other projects and stake them in each project’s staking pool as part of the staking pool mechanism.

The Platform And Staking PoolVLR has recently fostered the VLR’s DeFi marking pool, which will be airdropped into the Metamask wallets of all current holders. VLRs’ initial four projects will launch in Q4 2021. The VLR group would love for you to join the hatchery or purchase VLR, as VLR has a permanent impact on the world.

What is the VLR Token?An incubator that focuses on empowering oppressed communities to build their own wealth.Starting with disruptive concepts that help to boost the economy of black and underserved communities worldwide, ValerStudios’ ecosystem gets its start. The goal of our organization is to provide governance, services, and infrastructure to each project..

DETERMINATIONAs a decentralized finance pioneer, Valer has a clear vision for the future of the industry: The kind that will benefit future generations for the next century’s worth of generations.

EMPOWERMENTPeople, projects, businesses, and countries can all benefit from Valer’s incubation and acceleration into the crypto and blockchain ecosystem.

INTERDEPENDENCEValer understands the value of belonging to a group. Each project’s staking pool is open to VLR token holders, and they can vote on the allocation of their staked VLR tokens.

SUSTAINABILITYAn economy built around people is what Valer values. In addition to donating 7% of its fees to charity, Valer gives back to the black and underserved communities.

VLR is available for purchase at panacakeswap.com, and it’s simple to do so. https://bscscan.com/token/0xe99c458f443ebfb5476502a1798f8fcdb72cc3aa

TokenomicsToken Name : VLRTotal Supply:1,000,000,000 VLRContract:0xe99c458f443ebfb5476502a1798f8fcdb72cc3aaDecimals:18

Conclusion

ValerStudios_ are really in discussion about the blockchain, for individuals who are anticipating attempting their hand at investing, pondering getting into crypto, wanting to venture more cash into their Crypto portfolio or considering how to build your own crypto-economy, VLR could be an incredible open entryway for you.

WebsiteLink: https://valerstudios.io/Instagram Link: https://instagram.com/valerstudios_Telegram Group Link: https://t.me/valerstudiosTwitter Link: https://twitter.com/valerstudiosFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/valerstudios

Forum Username: claudi0cynthya04Forum Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3402187 Telegram Username: @claudiocynthyaBSC 20 : 0x7B413E6A7Ffa501Ad08bd56d684c30D92486630c

According to the data from Glassnode, Ethereum mining difficulty has reached a new all-time high on February 1st, 2022. [1] Previous mining difficulty ATH was observed just a week earlier, on January 23rd, 2022.

Key facts: [2]

ETH mining difficulty adjusts over time, depending on the average time required for finding a new block. The difficulty is proportional to the hash rate. If the number of miners on the network increases, the hash also increases and the new block is found quicker. As a result, the difficulty increases so miners require more time to find a new block.

Traditionally, an increase in mining difficulty signals a bullish trend for crypto prices. ETH price increased by 13.9% over the last week, pushing ETH to approximately $2,787 at the time of writing.

The second-largest cryptocurrency is currently going through a period of great uncertainty. [3] The number of new blockchains offering users quicker and cheaper transactions is on the rise. Last week, for the first time ever, Fantom’s transactions surpassed Ethereum’s transactions. [4] Ethereum needs to solve its scalability issues if it hopes to retain the leadership among the smart contract projects. A positive price moment followed by a mining difficulty new ATH is definitely a step in the right direction.

In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Virginia-based MicroStrategy, which owns more Bitcoin than any other corporation in the world, disclosed it purchased approximately 660 bitcoins for about $25 million in cash. [5]

On February 1, 2022, MicroStrategy Incorporated (the “Company”) announced that, during the period between December 30, 2021 and January 31, 2022, the Company purchased approximately 660 bitcoins for approximately $25.0 million in cash, at an average price of approximately $37,865 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses.MICROSTRATEGY INCORPORATED, UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, February 1, 2022

According to the CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, the company now owns more than 125,000 BTC, acquired for approximately $3.78 billion.

India’s government on Tuesday announced plans to impose a 30% tax on income gained from digital assets like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), in a move that will assuage earlier concerns about the country imposing an outright ban on cryptocurrencies. [6]

Recently there was a lot of FUD on India planning to completely van cryptocurrencies, but it seems that heavy taxation is more likely than an outright ban. Tax-on-gain is typically set around 15%, so India is definitely aiming for extremely high taxation on crypto. For perspective, the current tax-on-gain in India is set to 15% for traditional investments. [7]

The country is planning to launch a digital rupee sometime in 2022, so a tighter regulation in crypto was expected.

“The introduction of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will give an enormous boost to the digital economy.”Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister of India

The CBDC will likely be designed for total control by the government. It is still not entirely known if India will allow other cryptocurrencies to coexist with the digital rupee.

For more articles, analysis and news, follow Ground Zero on Telegram and Twitter.

Cheers,

References:

This is what the Italian singer Francesco Guccini sang in a famous song about this country, so as a good nomad, with Southeast Asia still semi-closed and with strict restrictions, the destinations for this winter were definitely reduced, so I let myself be charmed by the charm of this South American country, which I wanted to visit since a long time but I never had the opportunity.

(see below images for screenshots of all numbered steps)

The Exchange transaction requires a small amount of Testnet STX to be executed. If you do not have any Testnet STX, only tALEX, this is because of resets to the Testnet for upgrades. Please click “Send me test tokens” on the Faucet page. If for any other reason you do not have any Testnet STX, please speak to our community managers on our Discord or Telegram.

How to purchase STX:

You can purchase STX on the following exchanges:

OKcoin: https://www.okcoin.com

Binance: https://www.binance.com/en

Blockchain.com: https://exchange.blockchain.com/

KuCoin: https://www.kucoin.com/

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/eea/

FTX: https://ftx.us/

OKEx: https://www.okex.com/

Upbit: https://sg.upbit.com/home

This technological innovation has been revolutionary and, consequently, we have seen massive fundamental news over the last 6 months indicating that the conventional gaming industry is preparing to onboard GameFi into their metaverses. One of the most exciting news of which included Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to change his company’s name from Facebook to Meta, and explicitly saying that his team is actively working on integrating cryptocurrency within their metaverse.

However, as with any technological feat, there will always be derivatives that will fill niches to problems we currently have throughout the world. One of which is the progressive failing of school in educating students, both from a construct validity perspective but also from a purely economical standpoint. The reality is that schooling is becoming a ‘rich man’s game’ in many parts of the world, and the schooling of which often lacks in educating their students on pragmatic or modern-day problems we often face in the world nowadays.

With that said, there is a growing need for technology to fill this widening gap within conventional schooling, and it looks like Blockchain, and specifically GameFi, is the technology most appropriate for restoring faith in the learning process.

This idea of a Blockchain game acting as a medium for players to learn derives from the ingenuity behind the Ertha project, a learn-to-earn MMO metaverse where one must consider all real-life scenarios of running a country to ensure the prosperity of their citizens. The uniqueness behind Ertha revolves around their choice of development, in that all game requirements are highly reflective of what one would actually need to consider if tasked with this problem in modern society.

This includes the consideration of resource supplies for the production of essential goods within one’s country, ensuring a portion of the populace is undergoing scholastic research development so that technological innovations can regularly refine a country’s product development efficiency, and countless more scenarios that will teach you how modern life actually operates effectively.

Now that you have the general overlay of what Ertha represents, let’s get into exactly what this metaverse entails for a new user.

The story of Ertha is largely based around human’s continuous warfare causing destruction to their planet ‘Ertha’. Following this devastation, players will be tasked to inhabit this apparent wasteland in an effort to rebuild society from the ground up.

Upon entering the world, you will be required to choose a Land NFT ‘Hex’ which will represent the space in which your society will call home.

Once your Hex is established, you will soon realize that there are numerous resources that’s required to ensure the prosperity of your citizens.

First, you will need food (let’s use the example of bread), which will require wheat crops to be established, manufacturing facilities to refine those grains and ferment it into fresh bread, and finally you must have distribution outlets such as a grocery store to ensure the final connection between the goods and your country’s people.

However, you quickly realize that the rate of crop growth, manufacturing efficiency, or distribution capacity of your bread is sub-par relative to a neighboring Hex. Your neighbor, knowledgeable of this difference, chooses to sell his bread at a discounted price to your country, thereby siphoning potential profits you could be making to evolve your country.

This presents a problem that requires a pragmatic solution, one of which you have to consider against other potential decisions. Would you:

1. Assess the relative difference in the performance of your bread supply chain, and train up Scholars to create innovative technology to eventually improve this supply chain’s performance.

2. Develop your Fighters’ skills and threaten/go to war against your neighboring Hex.

3. Decide that bread can be provided from another country, and that you will instead concentrate on other goods to be produced and sold within your country.

4. Which option is best you ask?

5. The answer is all of them could be, considering the specific context you are in within the metaverse. While the entirety of which you can learn within Ertha is outside of the scope of this introductory article, the above example represents one of many critical choices you will be making within the Ertha world.

6. A component that makes Ertha particularly interesting for a school teaching medium is the learn-to-earn characteristic of it, in that real-world value can be gained within this game based on the success of a player when undergoing tasks. This means that instead of one’s finances going solely into a fund for tuition that allows a student to take part in a school course, we could live in a society where one’s learning is actually partially subsidized by the same ecosystem that is facilitating these teachings!

7. With the ever changing environment of much of the world’s economics, Blockchain and GameFi technology can be strategically leveraged to make schooling not only economically accessible, but even economically profitable for students seeking to learn.

8. Ertha is the first to embark on the learn-to-earn GameFi revolution, and may represent the primary driver in the future evolution for how we deliver school across the world.

9. To learn more about the underlying technicalities governing Ertha, check out their whitepaper.

10. Website | Telegram | Twitter | Discord | Medium | Facebook | LinkedIn | Youtube

11.