Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

With fears about Covid-19 grounding flights, keeping Chinese consumers homebound, and halting goods coming out of China, investors may be worried about how Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) can continue its growth efforts in that region. These fears may be or may not be unfounded, but Chinese sales are less likely to have an effect on the coffee giant's overall condition than doomsayers realize. Starbucks' U.S. growth has remained phenomenal over the past few years. Customers are happy: That's what's been fueling the company's outstanding growth, and that's what will continue to boost its numbers and shareholder value long-term, despite any potential Covid-19 (also referred to as the coronavirus) headwinds. Need proof? Keep reading. Why the domestic numbers matter more There can be no global expansion if there isn't strength back home. And if there is, even if there are hiccups globally, the company can remain strong to eventually push the borders again. Starb...

By  Adrian Zmudzinski Walmart   China  plans to track  food  through its  supply chain  with  VeChain ’s Thor  blockchain , reveals a VeChain press release  published  on June 25. Per the release, the Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform (WCBTP) will be a joint venture by Walmart China, VeChain, PricewaterhouseCoopers ( PwC ), cattle company Inner Mongolia Kerchin, and the China Chain-Store & Franchise Association. WCBTP has been reportedly announced at the 2019 China Products Safety Publicity Week Traceability System Construction Seminar jointly organized by Walmart China and the CCFA in  Beijing . Walmart China already revealed 23 product lines that the system will track and plans to release another 100 products for further inclusion, covering more than 10 product categories. The press release claims that the company expects that tracked sales will be significant in volume: “It is expect...

By Paul Lilly It wastes energy and pollutes the environment, China says. The government agency that is in charge of China's macroeconomic planning is recommending new rules that would effectively ban cryptocurrency mining in the country, or at least make it very difficult, provided the measures are actually enforced. China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) outlined the proposed decree in a draft amendment to the Catalog for Guiding Industrial Restructure, as reported by South China Morning Post . It's sort of an outline of economic policy that groups industrial sectors into three main categories: ones the agency wishes to encourage, restrict, or eliminate. The amendment recommends eliminating "virtual currency mining, such as the production process of Bitcoin" right away. Residents in China have until May 7 to submit feedback on the draft proposal, sometime after which the rules would be finalized (or scrapped). B...

By Jamie Redman News.Bitcoin.com According to reports from cybersecurity researchers, there’s a new ransomware virus on the loose that’s targeting bitcoin miners. A file locking program called H-Ant has allegedly infected certain Antminer models in China and if the ransom is not paid the software aims to destroy the infected machine. New Ransomware Called H-Ant Attacks Mining Rig Operators in China Ransomware creators have found a new target to attack in the form of bitcoin mining operations. Unlike most traditional ransom attacks, where victims have to obtain coins in order to pay the ransom, victims of the H-Ant ransomware have cryptocurrencies on hand to pay the malicious attackers. The H-Ant ransomware that specifically targets certain Antminer brand rigs was first discovered by cybersecurity experts back in August 2018 but the malware did not become prevalent until this month. H-Ant can attack an S9 model, T9, and possibly even L3 Antminer brand litecoin miners. There have a...

The Chinese tech giant has announced the universal accessibility of its Blockchain Service (BCS) platform, following its debut in China, to deploy blockchain apps at scale Huawei has announced that its Blockchain Service (BCS) platform, which has been designed to support and enable business to develop blockchain-based applications, has been made available on a global scale following its commercial launch in China in October. According to Huawei, the BCS platform, hosted on the Huawei Cloud website, offers decentralization, tamper resistance, traceability and transparency in transactions, providing businesses with the ability to "create, deploy and manage blockchain applications quickly and at minimal cost on Huawei Cloud". The BCS platform can be used for various use cases such as data, IoT and finance-related applications, as well as data transactions, identity authentication, proof of information (such as real estate and education), remote healthcare, food sou...

by   Nick Chong North Korea Still In Love With Bitcoin, Crypto Due to the decentralized, borderless, and censorship-resistant nature of  Bitcoin  and related technologies, North Korea, the world’s most well-known hermit state, has taken a liking to this decade-old innovation. But some would argue that North Korea has taken its crypto penchant a bit too far, with a multitude of reports indicating that the nation is leveraging cryptocurrencies for dubious financial gain. As reported by  Ethereum World News  in mid-October, Lazarus, a supposed North Korea-based hacker consortium, was found to be responsible for five cryptocurrency exchange hacks, including the now-infamous $500 million breach of CoinCheck. A report from cybersecurity firm Group-IB, who first divulged this information, indicated that Lazarus’ constituents used social engineering, phishing, and malware to forcefully visit pertinent databases and access points. Now, per the  South Chi...

By Moris Beracha .-  For several months, different companies in China have been recruiting Blockchain experts, due to the significant restoration of the lost confidence of users and financial institutions in these technological processes. It should be noted that Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that securely and immediately processes economic transactions, making intermediaries unnecessary. According to some human and labor resources organizations, the annual wage for this type of professional profiles is 223,000 euros. The Blockchain, together with the developers of Clouds and Artificial Intelligence, are the sectors of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) with a greater future and a growth outlook for the next 10 years. In this regard, it should be noted that Hong Kong seeks to attract skilled professionals, and thanks to the country’s particular immigration policy, talented workers with experience in Blockchain techn...

By  Nikhilesh De The Republic of India may be taking a deeper look at how it can use blockchain technology. India's Union Cabinet – an executive decision-making body composed of senior government officials and led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – said it would allow the nation's Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) to conduct research on distributed ledger and blockchain technology in partnership with banks in the BRICS economic bloc, of which India is a member, alongside Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa. The approval is ex-post facto, meaning that Exim Bank has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, the Business Standard reported. As such, the research has already begun, and is being conducted with the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social from Brazil, the China Development Bank, Vnesheconombank from Russia and the Development Bank of South Africa, according to a statem...

Soluna says its new business model can be good for blockchains and clean energy development. By Mike Orcutt It’s undeniable: Bitcoin’s energy guzzling is a growing environmental problem. It’s been estimated that the network uses nearly as much electricity as all of Ireland, raising alarms about its carbon footprint. In theory, though, it doesn’t have to consume nearly as much fossil-fuel-based power as it does today—and a new renewable-energy company has an ambitious plan to prove it. The firm, called Soluna , has acquired a 37,000-acre wind-farm site in Morocco that it says has the potential to host up to 900 megawatts of power-generating capacity. (A recent estimate (PDF) suggests that the Bitcoin network uses at least 2.55 gigawatts.) Development of the site began nine years ago, but progress stalled under its previous owners. Soluna, which has teamed with the German wind-power developer ALTUS AG , aims to build at least 36 megawatts of capacity by...

 By Joseph Young The Chinese government has banned all commercial crypto and blockchain-related events in the region, after encouraging local financial authorities to speed up the development of blockchain technology. Red Li, the co-founder of 8BTC and Chinese cryptocurrency researcher, shared a document released by the Chaoyang District government in Beijing, which ordered local financial authorities and police to ban offices and hotels from hosting crypto-related events. Why the Ban? Previously, crypto-related events were shut down by local police, during a period in which the government was in process of implementing new regulatory frameworks surrounding cryptocurrency trading. At the time, the government clarified its stance on crypto trading and reaffirmed that while the country supports the development of blockchain technology, it is firmly against trading digital assets on cryptocurrency exchanges. Analysts suggested that the ban was imposed as a part of a larger initi...

By Olga Kharif and Eric Lam in Bloomberg Cryptocurrencies extended their rebound on Wednesday as Bitcoin traded above $7,500 for the first time in a month, shrugging off security and regulatory concerns that have plagued the digital currency for much of this year. Bitcoin climbed as much as 3.1 percent to $7,543, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. Rival cryptocurrencies including Ripple, Ether and Litecoin also advanced. Bitcoin remains more than 60 percent below its all-time high in December. The cryptocurrency last traded above $7,500 on June 8, before getting caught in a sector wide sell-off that erased about $42 billion of market value the following weekend. Some observers pinned that retreat on an exchange hack in South Korea, while others pointed to lingering concern over a clampdown on trading platforms in China. Cryptocurrency venues have come under growing scrutiny around the world in recent months amid a range of issues including thefts, market manipulation and ...

The deal volume, however, rose 22% to 165 transactions during the period due to increased deal activity on the Internet and computer software segments. By DEEPTI CHAUDHARY Private equity investments in the first half of this year fell by almost 39% in value to $2.8 billion compared with the same period a year ago, according a Thomson Reuters data released on Tuesday. The deal volume, however, rose 22% to 165 transactions during the period on the back of heightened deal activity on the Internet and computer software segments, in continuation of the investment trend seen in 2017 as well. India has been a hub of private equity transactions. The first half of 2014 saw 169 deals worth nearly $2.53 billion. The January to June period of 2015 saw 231 deals worth about $6.9 billion, while the same period in 2016 saw 134 transactions to the tune of nearly $2.3 billion. Investors are optimistic that things will get better in the remaining months of the year, particul...