DD
MM
YYYY

PAGES

DD
MM
YYYY

spot_img

PAGES

Home Blog Page 4904

United Airlines Invests $15m into Electric Taxi Startup, Eve, to Purchase 200 Air Taxis

0

United Airlines is letting $15 million into Eve Air Mobility, an electric aviation startup owned by Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, which manufactures air taxis.

Under the deal, United will have to buy 200 of Eve’s electric air taxis as part of its efforts to support transition to environmentally friendly mobility. The company said on Thursday that it has option to purchase 200 more.

The announcement comes on the heels of United’s agreement to purchase 100 electric aircraft from Archer Aviation along with a $10 million deposit.

Eve Air Mobility develops small, electric vertical takeoff and land known as eVTOL, which can seat four passengers and take off and land vertically like a helicopter.

eVTOLs are designed in such a way that they can navigate through dense cities as taxi service, flying from one rooftop to the other.

But so far, federal aviation regulators have given approval for none of the air taxis to fly passengers.

Eve, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in May, may have to meet certain benchmarks before fulfilling its order with United, as the airline described it as a “conditional purchase agreement.”

United did not give details on the conditions but said it expects the first deliveries of the aircraft as early as 2026.

Eve’s eVTOL has a range of 60 miles.

United has a net zero emissions goal by 2050 that it plans to reach without the use of traditional carbon offsets. The investment will be pulled from the company’s venture subsidiary, United Airline Ventures, which it has been using to chase its net zero emissions goal.

United said it is investing in Eve primarily due to its ties to Embraer, which can provide access to parts and supplies for its air taxi service. But the company has had plans to invest and purchase eVTOLs from startups like Eve. Last year, the airline said it would purchase 15 supersonic aircraft from Boom Supersonic, with an option to increase that order to 50 jets.

However, these investments underscore an interest surge in electric air taxis.

In March, NetJets said that it’s buying 150 Lilium eVTOLs, which it plans to operate as Part 135 charter aircraft. The eVTOLs will be based in Florida where Lilium intends to build an eVTOL network serving central and southern parts of the state.

Other airlines including American have also invested in or committed to purchasing air taxis. They said the new technology could reduce emissions, particularly on short routes such as commutes to the airport.

Michael Leskinen, president of United Airlines Ventures, expected the one-way cost to the airport to be about $100 to $150.

Sebastien Borel, Lilium vice president of business said; “The U.S. market will be a good test for us to see how far we can go. But it’s meant to be global, and we’re confident this will drive us to be global.”

Big Eyes Could Become A Top-Rated Metaverse Coin Like Decentraland And Axie Infinity

0

After meme coins showed the potential to make thousands of millionaires in the last bull run, the attention on meme coins has gone up an exciting notch. Many investors and enthusiasts have become more interested in them than ever before. And it seems like many creators and developers are well aware of this fact because now and then, a new meme coin is being introduced to the market with the promise of giving you 10X or 100X ROI.

On the flip side, not all of these new projects have the potential to do well in a bear market or even make you a fraction of your capital. This brings us to the question of which new meme coin is worth the investment in 2022.

Decentraland(MANA) is the second-largest gaming cryptocurrency in the market, and it remains an appropriate investment choice for many. With its biggest competitor, Axie Infinity, these cryptocurrencies have succeeded in redefining GameFi and standing out as a P2E gaming network.

Big eyes(BIG) is a new cat-themed cryptocurrency changing the perception of meme coins in the cryptocurrency market. And a project currently on its presale with a higher potential of maximizing your profits. It could become a top-rated metaverse coin like Decentraland, and Axie Infinity.

Decentraland(MANA)

Decentraland(MANA) is an ERC20 token and one of the first experimental game ecosystems fusing blockchain and virtual reality. The project was initially a 2D experience game in 2016 before fully developing into a fully customizable 3D environment with land, art, digital assets, events, and much more.

The platform uses distinct Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the blockchain in carrying out some of its activities. The game features 90,000 land parcels, each represented by an NFT. This feature has been a critical selling point for Decentraland because it allows users to acquire inexpensive land characterized by NFTs and profitably sell them. Users can build their virtual real-estate empire and decide to increase the value of their land by making it more unique or attractive.

The network’s token MANA has a live price of $0.78, a 24hr trading volume of $86 million, and a market cap of $1.4 billion.

Axie Infinity(AXS)

Beyond being amongst the most popular play-to-earn (P2E) games available, Axie Infinity(AXS) is also one of the largest NFT-based projects in the community. Upon its introduction in March 2018, Axie Infinity introduced users to an opportunity that almost sounded too good to be true: making real money while playing games.

In the network’s play-to-earn online game, Axie Infinity, players collect, breed, and mint creatures known as Axies before using them in competitions and combats in the system’s metaverse. It operates on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing for simple access for potential players and reducing transaction delays and fees with the aid of the sidechain Ronin. Currently, at a live price of $13.86, predictions state that axie could climb up to $40 in 2025. Therefore, it could be an excellent long-term investment choice. AXS has a 24 hr trading volume of $68 million and a market cap of $1.2 billion.

Big Eyes(BIG)

Big Eyes coin is a new meme coin bringing friendliness and fun to the DeFi sector. The network provides a range of opportunities for users to earn as it promises to transfer wealth into DeFi. Users can benefit from the ecosystem through the wide range of features it provides for its community. With its plans to launch a unique NFT collection, experts believe it could become a mainstream metaverse coin with high potential in 2022.

The network also aims to introduce charity incentives by donating 5% of its profits to preserve marine life. Prominent investors are gravitating towards this new meme coin for the utilities, roadmap, and incentives it offers users. The network has launched its first presale stage soon, allowing you to buy your tokens at the lowest prices. There’s no better time to join the Big Eyes network than now.

For More Information On Big Eyes (BIG):
Website: https://bigeyes.space/
Telegram: https://t.me/BIGEYESOFFICIAL
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BigEyesCoin

Big Eyes Coin Continuous To Aim Towards A Potential 10X Return, While The Metaverse Giant Decentraland Suffers Alongside Strong Protocols Like Near Protocol

0

Despite the unwanted hate around meme coins, there have been some rays of hope for emerging community-based cryptocurrencies that aim to solve real-world issues. While technical cryptocurrency projects aim to bring structural changes, projects like the Big Eyes Coin (BIG) are succeeding with the target of revolutionizing the restoration efforts for our beloved ocean. So let’s dive deep into the article and enrich ourselves with what’s happening in the community-based cryptocurrency market.

Big Eyes Coin (BIG): Next Generation Meme Coin

Big Eyes Coin (BIG) is one of the latest additions to the cryptocurrency world of meme and community-driven projects. According to the project’s representatives, the project’s sole purpose is to develop a standardized mechanism that will work as a cash funnel for the DeFi ecosystem. Since utility is an essential element in cryptocurrency projects, BIG has a significant utility in protecting the ocean. Our oceans are an undisputed essential component of the global environment and deserve our undivided attention. For this reason, Big Eyes Coin (BIG) is on a mission to improve its health by dedicating 5% of its total supply of BIG tokens. The project has a dedicated plan to distribute these tokens to reputable Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) working in the marine restoration niche.

Although the project has dedicated a specific percentage for the cause, the administrative body of the project has planned to develop a self-sustainable income stream. For this reason, they came up with the idea of creating NFTs that will work as a self-propagating platform that will support the cause throughout the project’s journey.

How To Buy Big Eyes Coin (BIG) Tokens?

Big Eyes Coin (BIG) Token stands out from its competition by providing a seamless presale platform that will notify you of your purchase of the presale as soon as it’s over and the tokens are available for public trading. This will result in heavy profits for people getting into the project early. We suggest you get registered in the Big Eyes (BIG) Token’s mailing list to ensure you stay up to date on what’s new in the project.

Is Big Eyes Coin (BIG) Token a Good Investment?

The community-based cryptocurrency Big Eyes Coin (BIG) has a dedicated aim of restoring the quality and health of the with the help of preventative and restorative measures. For this reason, they require a significant amount of monetary help. Hence, the establishment of this platform ensures there is a seamless in-flow of cash in their DeFi ecosystem. All we need to do is support this grassroot level DeFi system that is primarily focused on succeeding in its charitable ventures. Moreover, the meme coin has the prettiest mascot in the cryptocurrency market which serves as a major reason to believe this project will be big.

Decentraland (MANA): The Best Metaverse Game

Decentraland offers its users a new artistic medium to express themselves; one can even use the platform as a means of a business opportunity or even a source of entertainment. Content creators, business owners, or just basically anyone can participate. Metaverse or the Decentraland comprises 90,601 separate LAND parcels; an NFT token ERC-721 presents each. The area of a single LAND is equal to 256 square meters and has specific coordinates within the Metaverse.

Though LAND owners have complete freedom to develop their plots into whatever they want, much of the Metaverse is split into various districts, each with its size and concept. Individual crowd sales for MANA tokens were used to create these districts, and LAND parcels in these districts cannot be sold.

LAND and MANA Tokens

Decentraland uses two tokens: MANA and LAND. In order for users to purchase non-fungible ERC-721 LAND tokens, they are required to burn the ERC-20 token, MANA. Moreover, holders can explore the Decentraland marketplace when they are holding MANA tokens to shop from a variety of items that include avatars, wearables, names, and other items.

LAND’s proximity to other points of interest, its capacity to host apps, and its identity mechanism are all benefits. Developers and other content creators need LAND to extend and reach their audiences. Even though customers can purchase all unclaimed LAND at the same exchange rate (1000 MANA = 1 LAND), LAND packages can be distinguished and swapped on different marketplaces at different rates.

How Is the Network Secured?

MANA is a cryptocurrency based on Ethereum (ERC-20). It’s decentralized because it’s built on the Ethereum blockchain. A massive decentralized network of miners protects Ethereum from attacks, collaborating with thousands of nodes to ensure the Ethereum blockchain—and hence the MANA tokens—is secure. Because it is one of the most battle-tested blockchains currently in use, Ethereum is the most preferred network for cryptocurrencies that do not have their original blockchain.

Where To Buy Decentraland (MANA)?

The MANA cryptocurrency currently has significant liquidity and can be purchased, traded, or sold on over 100 exchange platforms. The “Markets” section contains a complete list of available markets. MANA can currently be purchased with a variety of fiat currencies, including KRW and USD, and traded against Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), and Ethereum (ETH).

NEAR Protocol (NEAR): Layer-1 Blockchain Network

Alex Skidanov and Illia Polosukhin founded NEAR in the summer of 2018 after deciding to leave their prior entrepreneurial venture. As soon as Misha left MemSQL, the team grew from a few to nine employees in three days in August. The original squad consisted of seven engineers, with Erik in charge of company operations and Sasha in charge of market research. Today, the NEAR Collective is a worldwide spread set of teams of many different organizations and contributors who self-organize to deliver this innovation to reality. It isn’t a business meeting or anything close to that. Consider it in the same way as groups of individuals manage major open-source software projects.

The NEAR Protocol (NEAR) uses the NEAR native token, which lets users pay trading fees, operate apps, and spend space. For any data they keep on the system or for computations, NEAR programs must pay warehousing costs to the NEAR Protocol. The network partially “burns” or removes these tokens from circulation, limiting the availability of NEAR tokens in circulation. Exchanges are reliable and known to verifiers thanks to computers that run the NEAR Protocol (NEAR) software. Validators are rewarded for staking their tokens upon this NEAR blockchain to ensure its safety and authenticity. Each year, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) raises its token quantity by 5%, with validators receiving 90% of the newly released tokens. The rest goes to the blockchain’s treasury, which will fund platform growth.

Project Vision

The NEAR token, the native token of the NEAR protocol ecosystem, provides access to every user on the platform. These tokens are nearly similar to Ether. Thus it is a unique digital asset. NEAR Protocol strives to stand out in the competitive marketplace of Web 3.0 infrastructure providers by providing customized developer and user-friendly capabilities. The network participates in the governance and management processes and procedures that would influence the asset distribution and ensure the secure future of the technology. The NEAR token allows for cost-effective network synchronization and innovative behaviors throughout apps built on top of the graph.

The NEAR token can be earned by engaging in programming incentives, running a community that allows workers to develop on NEAR, winning a NEAR hackathon, or simply being an active user. The founders had the primary goal of creating an internet that brings every application on a decentralized platform that the community manages by itself and with no upper authorities to keep eyes on them.

Food For Thought

With the widespread acceptance of strong meme coins like Big Eyes Coin BIG) and industry leaders Dogecoin (DOGE) & Shiba Inu (SHIB), it’s a positive sign that the world realizes the importance of community-centric cryptocurrencies. Their acceptance is inevitable and needs to be normalized as soon as possible to ensure the money flow isn’t disturbed. Moreover, technically-strong cryptocurrencies with useful utilities like Decentraland (MANA) with its metaverse development and NEAR Protocol (NEAR) are transforming the ecosystem into a healthy place for crypto enthusiasts.

For More Information On Big Eyes (BIG):
Website: https://bigeyes.space/
Telegram: https://t.me/BIGEYESOFFICIAL
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BigEyesCoin

How Africa Will Develop: Europe/US Outsourced Factory Jobs to China; Africa Will Export Digital Skills to Them

5

Europe and the United States contributed to the development of China when they outsourced low-level factory jobs to China. China’s industrialization policy would not have worked if it had not become the manufacturing capital of the world.

For years, African leaders have been plotting a strategy to clone that trajectory, expecting that it could disintermediate the linkage between Europe/USA and China by inserting itself, as an outsourcing hub, as wage rises in China, when compared with Africa.

In this Harvard Business Review article, I posited that it would be a huge mistake if Africa tries to pursue the same strategy which had worked for China. The core of my thesis is that what worked for China has expired since the factory jobs of the future in Europe and the US would be done by robots and AI systems. Consequently, African policymakers must develop a new developmental playbook that takes into realities of the present state of Africa.

Over the last few years, we have collected enormous data for Tekedia Capital for our investments. Among many options, Africa’s path to development will come by deepening its digital infrastructure around its young people. And once it does that through quality digital education and skill, it can remotely offer services to Europe and North America. In other words, while Europe and the US outsourced factory jobs to China, in the near future, they will outsource “digital jobs” in multifaceted ways to Africa. Yes, we will export digital creatives and remote work to them.

The implication is that young Africans will not need to leave the continent but would earn income remotely, and upon importing the income, many economies would be transformed at scale.  If we can educate more into the higher capability skills of AI, Africa will develop and in less than 25 years, we will experience industrialization. Nigerian youth alone can earn 3x Nigeria’s revenue from oil if a national policy on exporting digital skill is enacted and implemented.  That policy will rest on top-grade education with digital infrastructure to accelerate our evidential comparative advantages on creativity.

Feedback on Feed

Comment 1: Well written, Prof! Also, I think that one of the main factors that spurred China’s economic growth was import substitution industrialization, in which they replaced foreign goods with goods manufactured locally. This economic policy encouraged domestic infant companies and made the country less reliant on foreign goods. If this policy could work in China and other places, it definitely will work in Africa.

My Response: China’s local consumption was insignificant to have lifted it. That was not what transformed China. Understand that China was not a member of WTO before the rise. So, it never had a problem of having to replace foreign goods because it imported few. What changed China was when it joined the WTO, it found a way to use its highly educated youth to make things for the world (not to replace imports). China has 99% primary education enrollment (it does not pay attention that much to university education, only 10% attainment. It puts all the good funds in basic education).

Comment 1a: Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe I agree with you that China’s economy was not driven by consumer spending. However, by implementing ISI, China was, in part, able to become an export-oriented economy. This, in addition to US outsourcing jobs to China and China’s admission into the WTO, as you mentioned, influenced the country’s economic growth.

My Response: The use of the phrase “import substitution” in China could be problematic because China never really imported much. You could write “self reliant” making the case that it produced what it needed without a need for import. That distinction is important.

Comment 2: The solution to ASUU strike is AUTONOMY. Each University should be operated independently with IGR contributing 70% of its revenue and Government contributing 30% grant. The Universities will pay its staff salaries according to its revenue capacities with a cap on the minimum wage a lecturer should be paid.T SA will no longer apply to an autonomous University!
At the end of the year, each University will declare profit or loss and its balance sheet be publicly declared. The EFCC will be called and external auditors invited to scrutinize the accounts.
This way there will never be a national strike again. There can be local problem with a University, but it will be limited to that University and be resolved at that level.

My Response: “The solution to ASUU strike is AUTONOMY” – that is a political decision since that will mean schools not coordinating admissions from JAMB. JAMB needs to conduct the exams as they do with SAT in US, and leave the rest to schools. But politicians will be concerned.

Nigeria Uncovers 54,000 Payroll Fraud In IPPIS

0

The federal government of Nigeria recently stated that it has uncovered about 54,000 fraudulent payroll fraud in its Integrated Personnel And Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

This was disclosed by the National security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd) at the National policy dialogue on corruption and security, organized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

The IPPIS is a uniform payroll payment system that was introduced in Nigeria in 2006, designed for the civil service and managed by the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, to ensure centralized payment of salaries, ease convenient staff remuneration payment with minimal wastage, updating, and retrieval of personnel records for administrative and pension processing, aid manpower planning and budgeting, among others.

While speaking on the 54,000 payroll fraud uncovered, Gen. Monguno attributed the discovery to the expansion of the coverage of IPPIS against stiff opposition from some quarters in the country, for example, the Academic Staff Union Of Universities(ASUU).

He further revealed that corruption had hindered the government’s ability to offer a better life for its citizens, and this has negatively affected the country.

Monguno noted that despite stiff opposition to the system, the Buhari-led administration will not change its judgments on the use of IPPIS, adding that the Treasury Single Account saves N4 billion per month, which he alleged could have been stolen by corrupt individuals.

In his words;

For instance, the dogged implementation of the Treasure Single Account in which more than 90% of all Ministries Departments and Agencies of the Federal government has resulted in the consolidation of more than 17,000 bank accounts previously spread across deposit money banks in the country, leading to monthly savings of about N4bn in bank charges.

Furthermore, the expansion of coverage of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System against stiff opposition from some quarters and deployment of the Bank Verification Number to validate federal government payroll on the IPPIS platform has led to the detection of almost 54,000 fraudulent payroll entries.

The whistleblower policy has also facilitated the cleansing of IPPIS compliance on TSA and saving of huge sums of money.

“Meanwhile, the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption in the discharge of its mandate was also the system anti-corruption agency to obtain forfeiture of assets suspected to have been fraudulently acquired from the state treasury before the culprits are prosecuted.”

He further disclosed that the Buhari-led administration is still committed to eliminating corruption in both the public and private sectors and that its anti-corruption campaign is still effective.

See what he said;

At this juncture, permit me to emphatically state that successive governments in Nigeria have over the years risen to the occasion through emplacements of various measures and policies as well as the establishment of statutory institutions such as the ICPC and EFCC to combat this problem.

”The anti-corruption stance of the present administration of President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) is firmly anchored on his fore-mentioned assertion and it is vigorously being pursued across all spheres of governance including the private sector with appreciable outcomes”.