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Riot Blockchain Acquires 32,280 Bitmain S19 Antiminers, Chibi Finance Rug $3M on Arbitrum

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

Riot Blockchain, a leading cryptocurrency mining company, announced today that it has acquired 33,280 Bitmain S19 Pro Antminers for its Rockdale, Texas facility. The purchase is part of Riot’s strategic expansion plan to increase its bitcoin mining capacity and operational efficiency.

Riot Blockchain is a Nasdaq-listed company that focuses on bitcoin mining and supporting the bitcoin network. The company also holds a diversified portfolio of blockchain assets, including a stake in Blockstream Mining, a minority stake in Coinsquare, and a majority stake in Whinstone US.

According to a press release, the new miners are expected to be deployed between October 2023 and June 2023, adding approximately 3.8 exahash per second (EH/s) to Riot’s current hash rate of 2.4 EH/s. By the end of 2023, Riot anticipates achieving a total hash rate capacity of 7.7 EH/s, consuming approximately 257 megawatts of energy.

The Rockdale facility, which is currently under construction, will be one of the largest and most advanced bitcoin mining operations in North America. Riot has partnered with Enigma Digital Assets AG and Lancium LLC to provide hosting and power management services for the facility. The facility will also leverage renewable energy sources and innovative cooling technologies to minimize its environmental impact.

Riot’s CEO, Jason Les, commented on the acquisition: “We are excited to continue our growth and execute on our long-term vision of becoming one of the most relevant and significant companies supporting the Bitcoin network and greater Bitcoin ecosystem. We are happy to have secured this latest purchase, especially given that the available supply of mining hardware continues to become increasingly scarce.”

Chibi Finance Allegedly Executed a Rugpull on Arbitrum

Chibi Finance, a decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Arbitrum Chain, has been accused of executing a rugpull, a type of scam where the developers drain the liquidity pool and run away with the funds. According to reports, the DEX’s website, Twitter account, and Telegram group have all been deleted, leaving investors with no way to contact the team or access their tokens. The total amount of funds lost is estimated to be around $3 million.

Rugpulls are one of the most common and devastating risks in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, especially on BSC, which has lower security standards and less oversight than Ethereum. Many projects on BSC and Arbitrum are clones or forks of existing protocols, with little innovation or originality. Some of these projects are launched by anonymous or inexperienced developers, who may have malicious intentions or lack the skills to maintain the code and ensure its security. Investors are lured by high returns and attractive features but end up losing their money when the project collapses or gets hacked.

Chibi Finance was one of these projects, promising to offer a gamified DEX with NFTs and a governance token called CHIBI. The project claimed to have a unique mechanism to reward holders and burn tokens, creating a deflationary and sustainable economy. However, these claims turned out to be false, as the developers apparently exploited a vulnerability in the contract and withdrew all the liquidity from the pool. The price of CHIBI plummeted from $0.07 to $0.0002 in a matter of minutes, wiping out the value of investors’ holdings.

The incident has sparked outrage and frustration among the DeFi community, who have condemned Chibi Finance as a scam and warned others to avoid similar projects. Some investors have also reported the project to BSCScan, the block explorer for BSC, and requested to blacklist the CHIBI token. However, it is unlikely that the victims will be able to recover their funds or hold the developers accountable, as there is no legal recourse or regulation in the DeFi space.

The Chibi Finance rugpull serves as a harsh reminder of the dangers and challenges of DeFi, especially on BSC and Arbitrum. Investors should always do their own research and due diligence before putting their money into any project and be aware of the risks involved. They should also diversify their portfolio and only invest what they can afford to lose. DeFi is still a nascent and experimental field, with great potential but also great pitfalls.

WhatsApp Business Crosses Over 200 Million Monthly Active Users

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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4

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp Business has recorded a significant increase in its user base, after it crossed over 200 million active users.

The increase in the user base has been attributed to the improvements implemented on the WhatsApp business platform by Meta.

As part of its improvement on the platform, the company recently disclosed that WhatsApp Business users will be able to create “click-to-WhatsApp” ads without a Facebook account.

The company noted that sellers can create, purchase, and publish ads for Facebook and Instagram directly from within the app.

WhatsApp business is also adding another paid feature that lets merchants automate the process of sending personalized messages to their customers. The company however didn’t reveal the pricing details as it disclosed that it will start testing the feature soon.

The social messaging app has also taken major steps to foster its payments business on the platform. In April this year, the company introduced the ability for users to directly pay businesses through chat in Brazil enabling end-to-end shopping. Also, in May, it rolled out the same feature in Singapore.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that the company is building out a number of tools around business messaging so that people can follow up and complete transactions and get support through messaging, and then payments, so that people can complete transactions too.

He added that business messaging is going to be the next major pillar of the company’s goal as it is ongoing to monetize WhatsApp and Messenger more.

Launched in 2018, WhatsApp Business allows companies to be easily found by users on the platform. This enables users to initiate a conversation with companies holding a business profile in a seamless way, without the need to download an extra app or switch programs.

The app which is available as a free download on Google Play and App Store helps merchants have a business presence on WhatsApp and manage conversations with their customers by using tools to automate, sort, and quickly respond to their messages.

WhatsApp Business, the messaging platform tailored majorly for small businesses, has no doubt been on a positive growth trajectory, as its number of active users keeps increasing, surpassing the number of the previous year. More than 40 million people reportedly view a business catalog on WhatsApp each month.

In 2020, there were more than 50 million WhatsApp Business app users. In 2021, the number of global consumers and companies using WhatsApp Business was estimated to surpass 1.2 billion users. It was estimated that WhatsApp Business generated around 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in revenue worldwide.

The Asia-Pacific region and the Latin American region, which include some of WhatsApp leading global markets such as India and Brazil, were estimated to have the highest number of users of WhatsApp business.

In 2022, global users amassed approximately 283.5 million downloads of WhatsApp Business, up by 35 percent compared to the previous year. In the same year, it generated $906 million, almost all from the WhatsApp business platform.

Why Consumers and Businesses Use WhatsApp Business?

  • 64% of WhatsApp users agreed that WhatsApp fosters a personal connection to businesses.
  • A large percentage of WhatsApp users say the platform is the easiest method of contacting a business.
  • 65% of WhatsApp users say they feel more confident messaging businesses compared to when sending a mail.
  • A large percentage of WhatsApp users reveal that WhatsApp business builds long-lasting customer relationships.

With the recent economic downturn that has impacted several businesses across the globe, small, medium, and large businesses have continually worked on their customer support services to meet the demands of their customers and WhatsApp business has been very effective this period.

The future no doubt looks bright for WhatsApp business as it continues to record a new milestone each passing year. Research suggests that by 2024, the total spending on the popular instant messaging app business platform is expected to amount to 3.6 billion U.S. dollars.

E-Commerce Startup Shop Zetu, Secures $1 Million Pre-Seed Funds to Expand Portfolio And Product Offerings

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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0

Kenyan fashion technology company that provides an e-commerce marketplace, infrastructure, and tools for fashion vendors, Shop Zetu, has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to expand its portfolio and product offerings.

The funding round was led by Chui Ventures, with participation from Launch Africa.

The pre-seed round also saw participation from Angel Investors which include Ben Munoz, the co-founder and CEO of Nadine West, Patricia Ithau, Kendall Tang, the CEO of RT Knits; Sumit Bhasin of Estee Lauder Inc; the CEO of WPP Scangroup, and Peter Njonjo, the co-founder and CEO of Twiga Foods.

In its plan to become a one-stop shop, Shop Zetu intends to use the funds raised to increase its offerings in skincare, Beauty, home decor, and hair categories.

This is because the startup is currently scaling regional delivery services in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, scaling beyond Kenya, over the next few months. It is also striving to recruit worldwide fashion companies and more than triple the number of sellers on its platform to 1,000.

Speaking on the funds raised Shop Zetu CEO Marvin Kiragu said,

“The goal is for ShopZetu to become the leading lifestyle platform. We are looking to expand our beauty, skincare, hair, and home décor offerings, which are all expressions of one’s identity. We want to become a one-stop shop.

“Our goal is to reduce the barriers to starting and scaling a fashion brand by leveraging ShopZetu’s reach and resources. We have good case studies of brands that were incubated and launched on ShopZetu before scaling online and establishing physical stores”.

Founded in December 2019, as a multi-brand, multi-vendor online fashion marketplace for affordable and trendy fashion, footwear, beauty, and accessory brands, Shop Zetu seeks to power online fashion retail in Africa.

The startup offers vendors a variety of services such as content, digital marketing, warehousing, last-mile delivery, and returns management.

Catering to Women, Men & Kids, the e-commerce platform is particularly excited to carry a large range of global as well as African-owned brands and is always looking for new brands to bring on its marketplace. Shop Zetu wants vendors selling on its platform, to be well-stocked with high-quality products, and offer inclusive sizing, among other things.

The online marketplace currently serves over 200 fashion and beauty brands and over 30,000 customers in Kenya. Also, it was reported to have sold over 100,000 products in the last two years, with a 400% rise in monthly orders since January 2021.

Notably, in April 2023, Shop Zetu announced its partnership with Safaricom to launch the Shop Zetu Mini App on the M-PESA Super App. The collaboration will enable more than 7 million M-PESA Super App customers to access and shop for women’s and men’s fashion from over 200 vendors within the e-commerce app.

The team at Shop Zetu will dispatch and deliver items to customers across Kenya within three days of placing an order, and customers will receive an SMS with a tracking link to monitor their shipment’s progress.

Also, M-PESA customers can access the Shop Zetu Mini App under the “Services” option on the M-PESA Super App. Through this partnership, Shop Zetu aims to help its vendors expand their market share by tapping into M-PESA’s Super App reach.

The e-commerce startup is building Africa’s largest fashion e-commerce company providing a marketplace connecting fashion vendors to customers across the continent. Its mission is to make fashion accessible across Africa.

Velocity of Goodness and the Making of a Happy Society

By
Tiamiyu Ismail
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0

Velocity of goodness is a phrase I have adapted from the economics of money to describe how non-monetary values such as a simple act of kindness and goodwill can be spread and help individuals to build social capital for social progress. The velocity of goodness can be defined as the rate at which good deeds flow and change hands in society.

Goodness, or an act of kindness is not a static but an investment whose value or dividends appreciate as it is continually being used up in circulation.

Here is how it may work out:

Supposing you are currently in a comfortable condition or you are in school or you are working diligently in pursuit of your finest aspirations.  Your potential helper,   currently unknown to you, is somewhere else and is probably not in as admirable condition as you are at the moment. If you had been aware of his existence and his potential role in your life, you would probably have loved to locate him and offer him your token with every sense of responsibility.

However, you do not have to know your potential helper, nor do you have to reach him in person. You only need to dispense good deeds at every opportunity you get. This will get to every necessary person that connects to your potential helper.

Essentially, the ideal of the velocity of goodness like that of money is not in its face value but the rate at which it flows and changes hand in circulation.

The Age of House Demolitions in Nigeria

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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1

If you check 2,000 years of global GDPs, you will see an inflection point for all developed nations. Yes, once any nation has a functional system that protects property rights, the nation begins to develop. No country has become developed without a strong property rights regime. Property rights (physical, intellectual, etc) is the most fundamental element in the rise of nations.

I call all politicians in Nigeria to show compassion and work with their citizens on this house demolition thing. While there could be safety reasons for some demolitions, that must also be put within the context of the law. In most countries, if a house is considered unlivable, the city regulator will send it a notice, and depending on the gravity, the sheriff (the police) will go and seal the property and evict the residents. Once that is done, the landlord is provided a remediation plan to fix whatever has to be fixed. 

But rarely do you see a government moving into bulldozing houses without going through the law even if the government had sent a letter. Imo state did that and Lagos is doing the same, leaving behind its excellence of following due process which has made it the nation’s finest opportunity place.

Kano has something I do not understand. Even if the previous government sold state land, bulldozing those houses by fiat does not seem fair to the citizens as some paid for the land, and followed what they thought was a fair and transparent process, executed by the previous state government. Nigeria needs to excel on building, over tearing down without compassion!

If  residents of Salanta Quarters in Kano followed due process for these lands, as stated by a previous government, it is just bluntly unfair to punish them this way. Why not go to the Court and give them the space to defend their rights? It is either Nigeria wants to advance or move backwards. But one thing is clear: jungle destruction will bring more hatred and animosity.

In Uwadiegwu, an Igbo novel, a man said that he borrowed only from his kinsmen because that insured his family. Why? If you borrow from your kinsman and the loan goes bad, he can lock you up, but at the same time, he will be responsible for the wellbeing of your family. (The Igbos name “Nwaoha” meaning a child belongs to the community, not just the parents.)  But what happens when your government is the one kicking you out, is the government responsible for your wellbeing? We need compassion please.

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