Is Web3 like playing Minecraft?

How Orange Bikes are Changing Africa

After a steep contraction resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, sub-Saharan economies are expanding, leading to a boom in the logistics sector as the need for transportation rises. However, more than half of active vehicles in the region are inefficient 2-stroke petrol-powered motorcycles, primarily used in taxi and delivery services that drive hundreds of kilometers per day. The fuel they burn is costly for drivers and produces large quantities of toxic CO2 and fine particulate emissions. Recognizing the need for cheaper and more efficient transportation solutions, Bob Eco Ltd., a rapidly-growing electric vehicle and clean energy company, entered the African markets with a line of orange-clad electric two and three-wheelers designed for the needs of taxi and delivery drivers. Since the first one hit the road in October of 2020, Bob Eco’s bikes create a total of 2.6 jobs per bike and save 5 tons of CO2 emissions from being released into the atmosphere every year. Able to save on fuel costs, drivers who switch to one of Bob Eco’s vehicles nearly quadruple their take-home pay on average – enabling them to support their families and equip their homes with basic necessities like running water. Further, Bob Eco provides its bikes on a lease-to-own basis, giving drivers the chance to accumulate wealth once they pay off their rides. Being the clear choice for both drivers and the environment, Bob Eco has attracted the attention of African governments, leading to several state-level partnerships, including an order for 232,000 vehicles from the Senegalese government. Bob Eco signed a 200-million-dollar production deal with manufacturing juggernaut Jincheng Suzuki for annual volumes reaching 200,000 units to keep up with demand. Bob Eco has also recently opened a manufacturing facility focused on producing tricycles and Tuk Tuks, popularly used for comfortably transporting voluminous goods and larger groups of people. This facility has an annual production capacity of 1,500,000. The electric vehicles produced by this facility alone can save over 1,500,000 tons of CO2 emissions by 2024. Using the UN Environment eMob calculator, scenario calculations show that 11 billion tons of emissions could be saved by 2050 with a global shift to 90% battery-electric motorcycles. Given the rapid growth of two and three-wheelers in Africa, Bob Eco is focused on areas where it can make the most significant impact. However, Bob Eco is not fighting only for the environment. Bob Eco also runs several social programs in Africa serving people in need. These programs include feeding hungry children nutritious meals via planting fruit trees and rearing animals, building new water sources for local communities, providing schools with scholarships and resources, and providing shelter solutions for those without any. To do good in more places, Bob Eco launched its BobCoin (BOBC) STO on the primary market in March of 2021. As Bob Eco sold 24% of all Bobcoins for tens of millions of dollars to investors in over 40 countries, the STO can be considered a massive success. Bob Eco’s drift to expand has led Bob Ultee (CEO of Bob Eco) to announce that Bob Eco is “going public” in March with an ICO-WA. Bob Eco will sell BOBC on the primary market in this second round of funding, which is already accessible to retail investors via presale on the reputable www.Knaken.eu crypto platform. The expected listing valuation is $1.45 billion to $1.5 billion.    

Ethereum Sees Biggest Exchange Withdrawals This Year – A Bump In ETH Price In The Offing?

Over 180,000 Ethereum (ETH) tokens have been pulled out from centralized exchanges in the last 24 hours, as traders seek to preserve their cryptocurrency in expectation of bullish price action. According to a March 18 tweet from crypto market analysis site IntoTheBlock, more than $500 million worth of Ethereum was withdrawn on March 16 across a number of different CEXs (including Binance, Kraken, and Crypto.com). Given that the price of one ETH was $2,590.40 on the date of the analysis, the value of the tokens withdrawn was more than half a billion dollars, the highest withdrawal of the year. Ethereum Outflows A Bullish Sign According to the company, this figure reflects the greatest aggregated exchange withdrawal of ETH since October of this year. At the time, total ETH withdrawals coincided with a 16% increase in the cryptocurrency’s price during a ten-day period. Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, behind Bitcoin. Related Article | Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak ‘Feels’ Bitcoin Will Be Worth $100,000 It is a decentralized computing platform capable of running a broad range of applications, including a plethora of decentralized finance (or DeFi) apps and services. On the Ethereum blockchain, everything from financial tools and games to complicated databases is already functioning. And its future possibilities are only constrained by developers’ ideas. As the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization, puts it: “Ethereum is more than just a payment system. It’s a marketplace for financial services, games, and applications that cannot steal your data or censor you.” Ether investors are having a difficult time in 2022, with ETH down 25% year to date as of March 17. Nonetheless, the cryptocurrency has recovered many times in the last couple of months near $2,500, indicating a strong support level. Since then, ETH has risen to $2,934 as of March 19. ETH total market cap at $351.68 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com Blockchain To Proof Of Work Tim Beiko, developer of the Kiln testnet — formerly Ethereum 2.0 — reported on March 15 that the Ethereum “Merge” had been successfully completed. The procedure entails separating Ethereum’s Execution Layer from the existing proof-of-work layer and combining it with the Beacon Chain’s Consensus Layer. The ultimate objective is to convert the blockchain to a proof-of-stake network. Meanwhile, ETH has increased by 18% over the last week, making it the only top-10 cryptocurrency by market cap to notch double-digit percentage gains, aside from Avalanche (AVAX). Ethereum Market Cap Swells The announcement of Ether’s largest outflow came just one day after Finbold reported on Ethereum’s market capitalization increasing by more than $20 billion in a week. As of Saturday, the market cap of the second biggest crypto was $350.65 billion, CoinMarketCap data show. Related Article | Ripple Welcomes More Than 4,000 Artists Into Its New NFT Platform Featured image from nippon.com, chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin Price Prediction: Analyst Lowers The Forecast

It’s always a great time to be alive when you’re predicting the future of bitcoin. Panelists from various industries and fields have revised their predictions with us again, but they still think this cryptocurrency will hit new highs by 2022. Cryptocurrencies are not for the faint-hearted, but experts believe that record highs await us in 2022. Bitcoin has seen a significant drop in value this week, with prices currently sitting at around 50% of their all-time high. However, it has recovered slightly after reaching as low as $33K on Monday morning and is worth about $37K. Related Post | Bitcoin Recovers From Seven Month Low Of $33K Analysts are split on whether or when to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency. However, more than half believe this is a good time for buyers, with only 45% disagreeing. It is interesting to see how different groups respond when given an investment opportunity. In this case, 29% of those surveyed said they should neither buy nor sell, while 10% thought investors should sell.  Bitcoin Price Predictions By the end of 2022, experts from the top 33 fintech predict that the bitcoin price will reach an all-time high. The prediction is $93 717 – more than $20,000 higher than its current all-time high in November. The panel predicts that by the end of 2025, bitcoin will trade on $192,800 and mount to $406,400 by 2030. While these predictions may seem lofty goals at first glance- they’re significantly less than what experts predicted back in July 2021 when their last forecast said bitcoin price could reach $265k and $706K, respectively. Fred Schebesta, co-founder of Finder.com, said; “Cryptocurrencies are proving to be a staple competitor to the traditional financial infrastructure of the world, and many projects are now well beyond the theoretical realm of potential value.” Another statement by Dr. Iwa Salami, an associate professor in law at the University of East London, explain;  “Increased interest from retail and institutional investors cannot be overlooked, and yes, while there are still huge regulatory gaps, the potential of this emerging industry to transform business and finance and to facilitate financial inclusion mustn’t be overlooked or undermined.” According to other survey respondents, the latest bear market may not yet be over, with economic uncertainty looming as an additional threat to the industry. Lee Smales, an associate professor at the University of Western Australia, added; “Bitcoin seems to be bracing for a large fall. We might be witnessing the end of one era and the beginning of another. A ‘double top’ seems to have formed, with prices giving up all their gains from last year; however, I wouldn’t put money into this until there are more useful/efficient alternatives available because nothing lasts forever.” Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com