Could Blockchain Technology Thrive Without Crypto?



Image Credit: beatingbetting.co.uk


Could Blockchain Survive if Unchained from Digital Currency?

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and even Dogecoin would not exist without blockchain technology. But can blockchain technology exist without cryptocurrencies? Cryptocurrency has been having a bad year; most of the currencies hit a high against the USD in November of last year and have slid to a fraction of that high point since. A research director at CoinDesk named Nolan Bauerle says 90% of cryptocurrencies today will not survive a crash in the markets. He does, however, believe that the few survivors will thrive. But there are naysayers like Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Munger, who said he “admires the Chinese” for banning cryptocurrencies. Munger has also been quoted as saying that digital currency “is going to zero” and has described it as a “venereal disease.”

Recent problems with bitcoin (BTC.X) and smaller cryptos, including price-driven margin calls, central bank interference, the SEC and other regulators exploring ways to tighten controls, a failed bitcoin-based bond offering in Ecuador, and current investor fear put the future in question. Hypothetically, what if bitcoin and all non-central bank-sponsored digital currency disappeared? Would blockchain technology still have blossoming applications in other areas?

 

About Blockchain

The technology now serves a very wide range of applications. At its core, blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that forever stores data of any kind. A blockchain can record unique information about cryptocurrency transactions, non-fungible token (NFT) ownership, DeFi smart contracts, and far more.

While any conventional database can store this sort of information, blockchain is unique in that it’s completely decentralized. Rather than being maintained in one location by an administrator, many identical copies of a blockchain database are held across a network (nodes).

The majority of nodes must verify and then confirm back the legitimacy of new data before a new block can be added to the ledger. For a cryptocurrency, this protects against fraud and confirms that a coin has not been spent more than once by the holder. Transactions are kept secure using cryptography at the node level.

Blockchain Use Beyond Cryptocurrency

The theory that created blockchain is rooted in the theoretical
paper
that launched bitcoin. Since then, the security and verifiability of ownership provided have caused its applications to spread from everything from agriculture to fine wines. The most widespread non-crypto adoption is in banking, payments or asset transfer, contracts, supply chain oversight, voting, and NFT art. These are the larger current uses explained.

Banking, blockchain is being used to process
transactions
in fiat currency, like US dollars and euros. This is often faster than sending money through a bank or other financial institution as the transactions can be speedily processed even outside of normal business hours.

Asset Transfers, blockchain can also be used to record and transfer the ownership of different assets. This is popular with digital assets like NFTs, a representation of ownership of digital art, videos, in-game items or anything else deemed unique.

The technology is also used to process the ownership, like the deed to real estate, vehicles, and other “titled” assets. In a transaction, both parties would first use the blockchain to verify that one owns the property and the other has the money to buy; then, they could move forward and complete and record the sale on the blockchain.

Using this process, there is the ability to transfer titles without manually submitting paperwork to update any government records; it would be simultaneously updated in the blockchain.

Contracts (Smart Contracts), another innovation, is self-executing contracts commonly called “smart
contracts
.” These digital contracts are executed automatically once conditions are met. For instance, a payment might be released instantly once the buyer and seller have met all specified parameters for a deal.

Supply Chain Monitoring, supply chains involve massive amounts of logistics and information, especially when it involves several stops around the globe, as a computer chip does. With traditional data storage methods, it can be hard to trace the source of problems and slowdowns. Storing this information on the blockchain would make it easier to review. There are products in use today that monitor food stages from harvest to just before consumption.

Voting, as blockchain is a superior verification system, it is being considered to be implemented to prevent fraud in voting. In theory, blockchain voting would allow people to submit votes that couldn’t be tampered with. 

Blockchain Companies With Low Cryptocurrency Baggage

One company early-stage company that exemplifies what it is to have a primary focus on non-currency products but instead embrace future efforts like Web 3.0, Staking, gaming, NFTs, DeFi, and metaverse applications is Tokens.com ($SMURF). Read the most recent analyst
report on SMURF
from the Noble Capital Markets analyst that covers this industry.

Another is TAAL Distributed Information Technologies ($TAALF). TAAL, blockchain services, provides professional-grade, highly scalable blockchain infrastructure and transactional platforms that support businesses building solutions and applications and developing, operating, and managing distributed computing systems for enterprise users. Read the most recent analyst
report on TAAL
from the Noble Capital Markets analyst that covers this industry.

 

Take-Away

The technology that gave birth to cryptocurrency has taken on a life of its own, it provides efficiency in asset transfer, added security against fraud, ownership verification, round-the-clock and round-the-globe transactions, proof of stake, and proof-of-work, like no other system or technology. It’s likely to expand as it finds its way into helping our lives improve and will certainly be a staple in business dealings in the near future. And it can do this with or without private cryptocurrencies or stablecoins.

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

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https://www.makeuseof.com/what-would-happen-bitcoin-price-zero/

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Release – Voyager Digital Provides Update on Asset and Risk Management

 



Voyager Digital Provides Update on Asset and Risk Management

Research, News, and Market Data on Voyager Digital

NEW YORK, June 14, 2022 /CNW/ – Voyager Digital Ltd. (“Voyager” or the “Company”) (TSX: VOYG) (OTCQX: VYGVF) (FRA: UCD2), one of the fastest-growing consumer cryptocurrency platforms in the United States, and one of the first public companies in the crypto industry, today provides an asset and risk management update in light of changing market conditions. As a public company, Voyager operates with a consistently high level of transparency, providing regular quarterly financial statements detailing the company’s financial position and financial statement disclosure surrounding risk management practices and counterparty exposure.

Voyager differentiates itself through a straightforward, low-risk approach to lending and asset management by working with a select group of reputable counterparties, which are all vetted through extensive due diligence by its Risk Committee. The company does not participate in DeFi lending activities, algorithmic stablecoin staking and lending, or derivative assets, such as stETH. One of Voyager’s important objectives is to make crypto as simple and safe as possible for consumer use. With that mission in mind, safeguarding customer assets is a top priority.

Although Voyager announced a prior partnership with Celsius in 2019, due to the company’s ongoing due diligence and risk management process, Voyager currently has no customer assets at Celsius.

“Voyager holds a strong position in the crypto industry. Not only were we among the first to go public and provide full balance sheet transparency, our leadership also has deep financial expertise across the sector and has led companies through multiple market cycles,” said Steve Ehrlich, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Voyager. “The company is well capitalized and in a good position to weather this market cycle and protect customer assets. It is Voyager’s goal to continue to build secure products and services, as well as build trust and leadership in the cryptocurrency industry.”

About Voyager Digital Ltd.

Voyager Digital Ltd.’s (TSX: VOYG) (OTCQX: VYGVF) (FRA: UCD2) US subsidiary, Voyager Digital, LLC, is a fast-growing cryptocurrency platform in the United States founded in 2018 to bring choice, transparency, and cost-efficiency to the marketplace. Voyager offers a secure way to trade over 100 different crypto assets using its easy-to-use mobile application. Through its subsidiary Coinify ApS, Voyager provides crypto payment solutions for both consumers and merchants around the globe. To learn more about the company, please visit https://www.investvoyager.com.

The TSX has not approved or disapproved of the information
contained herein.

SOURCE Voyager Digital (Canada) Ltd.

For further information: Press Contacts, Voyager Digital, Ltd., Voyager Public Relations Team, pr@investvoyager.com


Release – Voyager State Orders Update Voyager Continues to Operate the Voyager Earn Program in all States Except Kentucky

 



Voyager State Orders Update Voyager Continues to Operate the Voyager Earn Program in all States Except Kentucky

Research, News, and Market Data on Voyager Digital

June 09, 2022 04:05 PM EST

Voyager Digital Ltd. (TSX: VOYG) (OTCQX: VYGVF) (FRA:UCD2) (“Voyager” or the “Company”), through its operating subsidiaries, is at the forefront of innovation in the rapidly evolving crypto industry, and is committed to providing the best experience for its customers.

This is an update to announcements Voyager made on March 30, 2022 and April 5, 2022 regarding certain orders the Company received from the state securities divisions of several states. These orders concern only one benefit of customer accounts permitting customers to earn rewards on their balances of certain crypto assets (“Voyager Earn Program”). Since these announcements, Voyager has received additional orders from California and South Carolina with similar concerns about the Voyager Earn Program. All but one state, Kentucky, continue to permit customers to participate in the Voyager Earn Program. Voyager continues to engage in dialogue with several states in order to pursue an acceptable regulatory solution.

“It is encouraging that all states, other than Kentucky, have allowed Voyager to continue to operate the Voyager Earn Program. Based on the continued operation of the Voyager Earn Program and similar programs across the industry, I am hopeful that an acceptable path forward can be agreed upon to ensure that our customers can continue to be rewarded for their loyalty to Voyager in these inflationary times and to keep the US crypto asset industry at the forefront of crypto adoption and innovation. Voyager’s ethos has been, and will continue to be, about giving our customers the most accessible and rewarding experience possible,” said Stephen Ehrlich, CEO and co-founder of Voyager.

About
Voyager Digital Ltd.

Publicly traded, Voyager Digital Ltd.’s (TSX: VOYG) (OTCQX: VYGVF) (FRA: UCD2) US subsidiary, Voyager Digital, LLC, is a fast-growing cryptocurrency platform in the United States founded in 2018 to bring choice, transparency, and cost efficiency to the marketplace. Voyager offers a secure way to trade over 100 different crypto assets using its easy-to-use mobile application. Through its subsidiary Coinify ApS, Voyager provides crypto payment solutions for both consumers and merchants around the globe. To learn more about the company, please visit https://www.investvoyager.com

Forward
Looking Statements

Certain information in this press release, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the Company’s interpretation of the orders received, the intent, terms and effectiveness of the orders, the expectation of clarification of such orders from the applicable states, the outcome of the discussions with the regulators, the timing for the imposition of restrictions and the terms of such restrictions, the impact of the orders on the other products and services offered by the Company, the success of the Company’s business strategy, future changes in laws and regulations or the interpretation thereof, the Company’s success and legal strategy in response to stat orders, future legislative change, the status and operation of the Voyager Earn Program, future growth and performance of the business, momentum in the businesses, future adoption of digital assets, and the Company’s anticipated results may constitute forward looking information (collectively, forward-looking statements), which can be identified by the use of terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate,” “intend,” “continue” or “believe” (or the negatives) or other similar variations. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Voyager’s actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any of its future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward- looking statements. Moreover, Voyager operates in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for Company management to predict all risks, the interpretation or application of existing laws by regulators, nor can Voyager assess the impact of all factors on Voyager business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements Voyager may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, the future events and trends discussed in this press release may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are subject to regulatory risks, regulatory actions and claims, the risk of changes of laws or the interpretation or application thereof, the risk that the global economy, industry, or the Company’s businesses and investments do not perform as anticipated, that revenue or expenses estimates may not be met or may be materially less or more than those anticipated, that trading momentum does not continue or the demand for trading solutions declines, customer acquisition does not increase as planned, product and international expansion do not occur as planned, risks of compliance with laws and regulations that currently apply or become applicable to the business or the interpretation or application of laws and regulations by regulatory authorities, and those other risks contained in the Company’s public filings, including in its Management Discussion and Analysis and its Annual Information Form (AIF). Factors that could cause actual results of the Company and its businesses to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Company to continue offering Voyager Earn Program and to offer products and services consistent with past offerings and continue to offer new and innovative products and services, a decline in the digital asset market or general economic conditions; changes in laws or approaches to regulation or the interpretation or application thereof, regulatory investigations, enforcement actions or other regulatory action or sanction or proceedings, the failure or delay in the adoption of digital assets and the blockchain ecosystem by institutions; changes in the volatility of crypto currency, changes in demand for Bitcoin and Ethereum, changes in the status or classification of cryptocurrency assets, cybersecurity breaches, a delay or failure in developing infrastructure for the trading businesses or achieving mandates and gaining traction; failure to grow assets under management, an adverse development with respect to an issuer or party to the transaction or failure to obtain a required regulatory approval. In connection with the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made assumptions regarding the terms and conditions of the orders, its ability to continue the dialogue with the regulators, its ability to seek clarification, its ability to continue with the Voyager Earn Program, the timing for the imposition of restrictions and the terms of such restrictions, the impact of the orders on the other products and services offered by the Company, its success in responding to any orders or other regulatory enquiries, actions or claims and the applicability, interpretation and application of existing laws and regulations. Forward-looking statements, past and present performance and trends are not guarantees of future performance; accordingly, you should not put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, current or past performance, or current or past trends. Information identifying assumptions, risks, and uncertainties relating to the Company are contained in its filings with the Canadian securities regulators available at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements in this press release are applicable only as of the date of this release or as of the date specified in the relevant forward-looking statement and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after that date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. The Company assumes no obligation to provide operational updates, except as required by law. If the Company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements, unless required by law. Readers are cautioned that past performance is not indicative of future performance and current trends in the business and demand for digital assets or in the application or interpretation of laws and regulations may not continue and readers should not put undue reliance on past performance and current trends. All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

The TSX has not approved or disapproved of the information contained herein.

Press Contacts

Voyager
Digital, Ltd.

Kevin Rodriguez Investor Relations
(212) 547-8807

krodriguez@investvoyager.com

Voyager Public Relations Team
pr@investvoyager.com


Release – TAAL to Webcast Live at the OTCQX Best 50 Virtual Investors Conference June 16



TAAL to Webcast Live at the OTCQX Best 50 Virtual Investors Conference June 16

Research, News, and Market Data on TAAL

TAAL invites individual and institutional
investor as well as advisors and analysts to attend the interactive
presentation at VirtualInvestorConferences.com

TORONTO, June 9, 2022 /CNW/ – TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc. (CSE:TAAL) (FWB:9SQ1) (OTC:TAALF) (“TAAL” or the “Company”), a vertically integrated blockchain infrastructure and service provider for enterprise, announces that CEO Richard Baker will present live at the OTCQX Best 50 Virtual Investors Conference on June 16, 2022 at 11am Eastern Time (details below).  Mr. Baker will also host 1×1 investor meetings through the event.

“TAAL is building the infrastructure needed to power the next generation of the internet,” said CEO, Richard Baker. “We believe in a future beyond block subsidy rewards where revenues are driven by transaction processing and we are on a path to become a major network provider for Web 3.0 and the digital economy; I look forward to sharing this and more with investors at the OTCQX Best 50 conference.”   

Recent Company Highlights

  • Gross revenue from hashing operations was $8.7 million, a $7.8 million increase from $0.9 million compared to the first quarter of the prior year (“Q1 2021”). 
  • Adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.9 million versus a $3.5 million loss in Q1 2021.
  • TAAL processed over 232 million transactions within 9,595 blocks on the BSV network for the quarter, earning almost $0.3 million in additional rewards from transaction processing, representing 3% of total revenue.
  • Future growth secured with deposits for plant and equipment of $34.7 million to expand hashing fleet and a clean energy data center in New Brunswick, Canada.
  • As of March 31, 2022, TAAL had about 23,000 BSV, 600 BCH and 0.5 BTC in coin treasury.

TAAL Investor
Presentation Webcast

DATE: Thursday June 16, 2022

TIME: 11:00am EST
LINK: https://bit.ly/3MB962u

Available for 1×1 meetings: Friday June 17, 2022.

This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the Company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.

It is recommended that investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.

Learn more about the event at www.virtualinvestorconferences.com.

About TAAL Distributed
Information Technologies Inc.

TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc. delivers value-added blockchain services, providing professional-grade, highly scalable blockchain infrastructure and transactional platforms to support businesses building solutions and applications upon the BitcoinSV platform, and developing, operating, and managing distributed computing systems for enterprise users.

Visit TAAL online at www.taal.com/investors 

About Virtual Investor
Conferences
®

Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.

Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access.  Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.

SOURCE Taal Distributed Information Technologies Inc.

For further information: Media and Investor Contact: TAAL, Richard Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Office: (437) 826-8889, Richard.Baker@taal.com; Sophic Capital, Sean Peasgood, President & Chief Executive Officer, Office: (437) 826-8889, Sean@SophicCapital.com


Artificial Intelligence Language Translation Involves Machines First Hallucinating


Image Credit: Lauren Hinkel (MIT)


Machine Hallucinating to Better Translate Languages

Lauren Hinkel | MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab

As babies, we babble and imitate our way of learning languages. We don’t start off reading raw text, which requires fundamental knowledge and understanding about the world, as well as the advanced ability to interpret and infer descriptions and relationships. Rather, humans begin our language journey slowly, by pointing and interacting with our environment, basing our words and perceiving their meaning through the context of the physical and social world. Eventually, we can craft full sentences to communicate complex ideas.

Similarly, when humans begin learning and translating into another language, the incorporation of other sensory information, like multimedia, paired with the new and unfamiliar words, like flashcards with images, improves language acquisition and retention. Then, with enough practice, humans can accurately translate new, unseen sentences in context without the accompanying media; however, imagining a picture based on the original text helps.

This is the basis of a new machine learning model, called VALHALLA, by researchers from MIT, IBM, and the University of California at San Diego, in which a trained neural network sees a source sentence in one language, hallucinates an image of what it looks like, and then uses both to translate into a target language. The team found that their method demonstrates improved accuracy of machine translation over text-only translation. Further, it provided an additional boost for cases with long sentences, under-resourced languages, and instances where part of the source sentence is inaccessible to the machine translator.

As a core task within the AI field of natural language processing (NLP), machine translation is an “eminently practical technology that’s being used by millions of people every day,” says study co-author Yoon Kim, assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with affiliations in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. With recent, significant advances in deep learning, “there’s been an interesting development in how one might use non-text information — for example, images, audio, or other grounding information — to tackle practical tasks involving language” says Kim, because “when humans are performing language processing tasks, we’re doing so within a grounded, situated world.” The pairing of hallucinated images and text during inference, the team postulated, imitates that process, providing context for improved performance over current state-of-the-art techniques, which utilize text-only data.

This research will be presented at the IEEE / CVF Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference this month. Kim’s co-authors are UC San Diego graduate student Yi Li and Professor Nuno Vasconcelos, along with research staff members Rameswar Panda, Chun-fu “Richard” Chen, Rogerio Feris, and IBM Director David Cox of IBM Research and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab.

 

Learning to Hallucinate
from Images

When we learn new languages and to translate, we’re often provided with examples and practice before venturing out on our own. The same is true for machine-translation systems; however, if images are used during training, these AI methods also require visual aids for testing, limiting their applicability, says Panda.

“In real-world scenarios, you might not have an image with respect to the source sentence. So, our motivation was basically: Instead of using an external image during inference as input, can we use visual hallucination — the ability to imagine visual scenes — to improve machine translation systems?” says Panda.

To do this, the team used an encoder-decoder architecture with two transformers, a type of neural network model that’s suited for sequence-dependent data, like language, that can pay attention key words and semantics of a sentence. One transformer generates a visual hallucination, and the other performs multimodal translation using outputs from the first transformer.

During training, there are two streams of translation: a source sentence and a ground-truth image that is paired with it, and the same source sentence that is visually hallucinated to make a text-image pair. First the ground-truth image and sentence are tokenized into representations that can be handled by transformers; for the case of the sentence, each word is a token. The source sentence is tokenized again, but this time passed through the visual hallucination transformer, outputting a hallucination, a discrete image representation of the sentence. The researchers incorporated an autoregression that compares the ground-truth and hallucinated representations for congruency — e.g., homonyms: a reference to an animal “bat” isn’t hallucinated as a baseball bat. The hallucination transformer then uses the difference between them to optimize its predictions and visual output, making sure the context is consistent.

The two sets of tokens are then simultaneously passed through the multimodal translation transformer, each containing the sentence representation and either the hallucinated or ground-truth image. The tokenized text translation outputs are compared with the goal of being similar to each other and to the target sentence in another language. Any differences are then relayed back to the translation transformer for further optimization.

For testing, the ground-truth image stream drops off, since images likely wouldn’t be available in everyday scenarios.

“To the best of our knowledge, we haven’t seen any work which actually uses a hallucination transformer jointly with a multimodal translation system to improve machine translation performance,” says Panda.

 

Visualizing the
Target Text

To test their method, the team put VALHALLA up against other state-of-the-art multimodal and text-only translation methods. They used public benchmark datasets containing ground-truth images with source sentences, and a dataset for translating text-only news articles. The researchers measured its performance over 13 tasks, ranging from translation on well-resourced languages (like English, German, and French), under-resourced languages (like English to Romanian) and non-English (like Spanish to French). The group also tested varying transformer model sizes, how accuracy changes with the sentence length, and translation under limited textual context, where portions of the text were hidden from the machine translators.

The team observed significant improvements over text-only translation methods, improving data efficiency, and that smaller models performed better than the larger base model. As sentences became longer, VALHALLA’s performance over other methods grew, which the researchers attributed to the addition of more ambiguous words. In cases where part of the sentence was masked, VALHALLA could recover and translate the original text, which the team found surprising.

Further unexpected findings arose: “Where there weren’t as many training [image and] text pairs, [like for under-resourced languages], improvements were more significant, which indicates that grounding in images helps in low-data regimes,” says Kim. “Another thing that was quite surprising to me was this improved performance, even on types of text that aren’t necessarily easily connectable to images. For example, maybe it’s not so surprising if this helps in translating visually salient sentences, like the ‘there is a red car in front of the house.’ [However], even in text-only [news article] domains, the approach was able to improve upon text-only systems.”

While VALHALLA performs well, the researchers note that it does have limitations, requiring pairs of sentences to be annotated with an image, which could make it more expensive to obtain. It also performs better in its ground domain and not the text-only news articles. Moreover, Kim and Panda note, a technique like VALHALLA is still a black box, with the assumption that hallucinated images are providing helpful information, and the team plans to investigate what and how the model is learning in order to validate their methods.

In the future, the team plans to explore other means of improving translation. “Here, we only focus on images, but there are other types of a multimodal information — for example, speech, video or touch, or other sensory modalities,” says Panda. “We believe such multimodal grounding can lead to even more efficient machine translation models, potentially benefiting translation across many low-resource languages spoken in the world.”


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TAAL Distributed Information Technologies (TAALF) – Results Below Expectations in Challenging Crypto Market

Tuesday, June 07, 2022

TAAL Distributed Information Technologies (TAALF)
Results Below Expectations in Challenging Crypto Market

TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc. delivers value-added blockchain services, providing professional-grade, highly scalable blockchain infrastructure and transactional platforms to support businesses building solutions and applications upon the BitcoinSV platform, and developing, operating, and managing distributed computing systems for enterprise users.

Joe Gomes, Senior Research Analyst, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Joshua Zoepfel, Research Associate, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

1Q22 Results. TAAL reported first quarter 2022 revenue of $8.7 million, up from $0.9 million in the year ago quarter but down from 4Q21 of $14.7 million. The sharp drop is due to the difficult operating conditions in the crypto market, including both declining values and reduced trade volumes. We had projected revenue of $12 million. TAAL reported a net loss of $12.7 million, or $0.33 per share, mostly driven by a sharp increase in non-cash share-based payments. We had estimated a net loss of $700,000, or $0.02 per share.

Operating Environment. Declining prices and lowered volumes as a result of overall economic conditions have pushed expected operating growth to the right. BSV is currently selling for about $58, down from $121 at the beginning of the year. Total crypto volume declined to $2.25 trillion in the quarter, down from $3.73 trillion in the fourth quarter….

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Industries that Benefit from Digital Twin Applications


Image Credit: Science.org


Computer Modeling Experts Explain the Benefits of Digital Twins

A digital twin is a virtual representation of a real system – a building, the power grid, a city, even a human being – that mimics the characteristics of the system. A digital twin is more than just a computer model, however. It receives data from sensors in the real system to constantly parallel the system’s state.

A digital twin helps people analyze and predict a system’s behavior under different conditions. The systems being twinned are typically very complex and require significant effort to model and track.

Digital twins are useful in a wide variety of domains, including supply chains, health care, buildings, bridges, self-driving cars and retail customer personas to improve efficiency and reliability. For example, a warehouse operator can optimize a warehouse’s performance by exploring the response of its digital twin to various material handling policies and equipment without incurring the cost of making actual changes.

Even a wildfire can be represented by a digital twin. Government agencies can predict the spread of the fire and its impact under different conditions such as wind velocity, humidity and proximity to habitats, and use this information to guide evacuations.

Why Digital Twins Matter

Digital twins are often used to model, understand and analyze complex systems where performance, reliability and security of the system are critical. In such systems it is paramount to test any changes, whether planned or unplanned.

In order to accurately test changes to the state of the actual system and the effects of any possible stimulus, the digital twin must accurately represent the physical system in its current state. This requires the digital twin to receive continuous updates from the physical system via fast and reliable communications channels.

Creating and maintaining digital twins often involves vast amounts of data to represent various features of the real system. Collecting and processing this data requires advanced communication and computing technologies. Communication support typically involves high-speed internet connections and wireless networks such as Wi-Fi and 5G. Computational support is typically in the form of servers, either in the cloud or closer to the physical system.

This article was republished with permission from The Conversation, a news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by and represents the research-based opinions of Amlan Ganguly, Associate Professor of Computer Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology and Nalini Venkatasubramanian, Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine.


We and other faculty members at Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of California, Irvine are starting the Center for Smart Spaces Research, a research center sponsored by the National Science Foundation. One of the primary ongoing projects within this center is building the basic technologies for creating digital twins in a variety of applications.


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Blackboxstocks (BLBX) – First Quarter 2022 Results

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Blackboxstocks (BLBX)
First Quarter 2022 Results

Blackboxstocks, Inc. is a financial technology and social media hybrid platform offering real-time proprietary analytics and news for stock and options traders of all levels. Our web-based software employs “predictive technology” enhanced by artificial intelligence to find volatility and unusual market activity that may result in the rapid change in the price of a stock or option. Blackbox continuously scans the NASDAQ, New York Stock Exchange, CBOE, and all other options markets, analyzing over 10,000 stocks and up to 1,500,000 options contracts multiple times per second. We provide our users with a fully interactive social media platform that is integrated into our dashboard, enabling our users to exchange information and ideas quickly and efficiently through a common network. We recently introduced a live audio/video feature that allows our members to broadcast on their own channels to share trade strategies and market insight within the Blackbox community. Blackbox is a SaaS company with a growing base of users that spans 42 countries; current subscription fees are $99.97 per month or $959.00 annually. For more information, go to: www.blackboxstocks.com .

Joe Gomes, Senior Research Analyst, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Joshua Zoepfel, Research Associate, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

1Q22 Results. Revenue was $1.272 million, down from $1.489 million in the year ago period and below our estimate of $1.9 million. Although Blackboxstocks passed the 6,000 subscriber base in the fourth quarter of 2021, growth in 1Q22 was due to a promotion that reduced estimated revenue. The Company reported a loss of $1.2 million, or $0.09 per share, in the quarter, compared to net income of $12,555, or breakeven, last year. 

Margin Compression. Blackboxstocks ran a successful one-month promotion in March, ending the quarter with 7,400 members, compared to a first quarter average count of 5,709. However, this came at a cost as gross margin fell to 54.4% in the quarter from 63.7% last year. Revenue per average subscriber in the quarter was $222.89 compared to $266.51 in the year ago quarter….

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Item 9 Labs (INLB) – Slowly Building Up

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Item 9 Labs (INLB)
Slowly Building Up

Item 9 Labs Corp. (OTCQX: INLB) is a vertically integrated cannabis operator and dispensary franchisor delivering premium products from its large-scale cultivation and production facilities in the United States. The award-winning Item 9 Labs brand specializes in best-in-class products and user experience across several cannabis categories. The company also offers a unique dispensary franchise model through the national Unity Rd. retail brand. Easing barriers to entry, the franchise provides an opportunity for both new and existing dispensary owners to leverage the knowledge, resources, and ongoing support needed to thrive in their state compliantly and successfully. Item 9 Labs brings the best industry practices to markets nationwide through distinctive retail experience, cultivation capabilities, and product innovation. The veteran management team combines a diverse skill set with deep experience in the cannabis sector, franchising, and the capital markets to lead a new generation of public cannabis companies that provide transparency, consistency, and well-being. Headquartered in Arizona, the company is currently expanding its operations space by up to 640,000-plus square feet on its 50-acre site, one of the largest properties in Arizona zoned to grow and cultivate flower. For additional information, visit https://investors.item9labscorp.com/.

Joe Gomes, Senior Research Analyst, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Joshua Zoepfel, Research Associate, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

2Q Results. Item 9 Labs’ management announced total revenue of $6.6 million, an increase of 6% or $0.5 million over the prior year’s $6.1 million. We had forecasted $7.3 million. Gross profit was $2.7 million versus the prior year of $3.0 million. Net loss for the quarter was $3.9 million, or $0.04 per share, from last year’s net income of $49,020, or breakeven. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $1.9 million to a loss of $0.9 million from income of $1.0 million last year.

Down the Path of Unity Rd. Highlights for Unity Rd. for the quarter include approval for plans and permitting for a dispensary in Maine, the expansion into Oklahoma in January, the first corporate owned Denver dispensary, and the asset purchase agreement for the Company’s future flagship dispensary and cultivation facility in Denver. All these events give credence to Item 9 Labs’ franchise growth strategy….

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

AI Navigating Intersections Through Trial and Error


Image Credit: MIT News


On the Road to Cleaner, Greener, and Faster Driving

No one likes sitting at a red light. But signalized intersections aren’t just a minor nuisance for drivers; vehicles consume fuel and emit greenhouse gases while waiting for the light to change.

What if motorists could time their trips so they arrive at the intersection when the light is green? While that might be just a lucky break for a human driver, it could be achieved more consistently by an autonomous vehicle that uses artificial intelligence to control its speed.

In a new study, MIT researchers demonstrate a machine-learning approach that can learn to control a fleet of autonomous vehicles as they approach and travel through a signalized intersection in a way that keeps traffic flowing smoothly.

Using simulations, they found that their approach reduces fuel consumption and emissions while improving average vehicle speed. The technique gets the best results if all cars on the road are autonomous, but even if only 25 percent use their control algorithm, it still leads to substantial fuel and emissions benefits.

“This is a really interesting place to intervene. No one’s life is better because they were stuck at an intersection. With a lot of other climate change interventions, there is a quality-of-life difference that is expected, so there is a barrier to entry there. Here, the barrier is much lower,” says senior author Cathy Wu, the Gilbert W. Winslow Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a member of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) and the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS).

Intersection Intricacies

While humans may drive past a green light without giving it much thought, intersections can present billions of different scenarios depending on the number of lanes, how the signals operate, the number of vehicles and their speeds, the presence of pedestrians and cyclists, etc.

Typical approaches for tackling intersection control problems use mathematical models to solve one simple, ideal intersection. That looks good on paper, but likely won’t hold up in the real world, where traffic patterns are often about as messy as they come.

Wu and Jayawardana shifted gears and approached the problem using a model-free technique known as deep reinforcement learning. Reinforcement learning is a trial-and-error method where the control algorithm learns to make a sequence of decisions. It is rewarded when it finds a good sequence. With deep reinforcement learning, the algorithm leverages assumptions learned by a neural network to find shortcuts to good sequences, even if there are billions of possibilities.

This is useful for solving a long-horizon problem like this; the control algorithm must issue upwards of 500 acceleration instructions to a vehicle over an extended time period, Wu explains.

“And we have to get the sequence right before we know that we have done a good job of mitigating emissions and getting to the intersection at a good speed,” she adds.

But there’s an additional wrinkle. The researchers want the system to learn a strategy that reduces fuel consumption and limits the impact on travel time. These goals can be conflicting.

“To reduce travel time, we want the car to go fast, but to reduce emissions, we want the car to slow down or not move at all. Those competing rewards can be very confusing to the learning agent,” Wu says.

While it is challenging to solve this problem in its full generality, the researchers employed a workaround using a technique known as reward shaping. With reward shaping, they give the system some domain knowledge it is unable to learn on its own. In this case, they penalized the system whenever the vehicle came to a complete stop, so it would learn to avoid that action.

Traffic Tests

Once they developed an effective control algorithm, they evaluated it using a traffic simulation platform with a single intersection. The control algorithm is applied to a fleet of connected autonomous vehicles, which can communicate with upcoming traffic lights to receive signal phase and timing information and observe their immediate surroundings. The control algorithm tells each vehicle how to accelerate and decelerate.

Their system didn’t create any stop-and-go traffic as vehicles approached the intersection. (Stop-and-go traffic occurs when cars are forced to come to a complete stop due to stopped traffic ahead). In simulations, more cars made it through in a single green phase, which outperformed a model that simulates human drivers. When compared to other optimization methods also designed to avoid stop-and-go traffic, their technique resulted in larger fuel consumption and emissions reductions. If every vehicle on the road is autonomous, their control system can reduce fuel consumption by 18 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent, while boosting travel speeds by 20 percent.

“A single intervention having 20 to 25 percent reduction in fuel or emissions is really incredible. But what I find interesting, and was really hoping to see, is this non-linear scaling. If we only control 25 percent of vehicles, that gives us 50 percent of the benefits in terms of fuel and emissions reduction. That means we don’t have to wait until we get to 100 percent autonomous vehicles to get benefits from this approach,” she says.

Down the road, the researchers want to study interaction effects between multiple intersections. They also plan to explore how different intersection set-ups (number of lanes, signals, timings, etc.) can influence travel time, emissions, and fuel consumption. In addition, they intend to study how their control system could impact safety when autonomous vehicles and human drivers share the road. For instance, even though autonomous vehicles may drive differently than human drivers, slower roadways and roadways with more consistent speeds could improve safety, Wu says.

While this work is still in its early stages, Wu sees this approach as one that could be more feasibly implemented in the near-term.

“The aim in this work is to move the needle in sustainable mobility. We want to dream, as well, but these systems are big monsters of inertia. Identifying points of intervention that are small changes to the system but have significant impact is something that gets me up in the morning,” she says. 

Reprinted with permission of MIT News (http://news.mit.edu/)


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Tokens.com Corp. (SMURF) – First Quarter Results

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Tokens.com Corp. (SMURF)
First Quarter Results

Tokens.com Corp is a publicly traded company that invests in Web3 assets and businesses focused on the Metaverse, NFTs, DeFi, and gaming based digital assets. Tokens.com is the majority owner of Metaverse Group, one of the world’s first virtual real estate companies. Hulk Labs, a wholly-owned Tokens.com subsidiary, focuses on investing in play-to-earn revenue generating gaming tokens and NFTs. Additionally, Tokens.com owns and stakes crypto assets to earn additional tokens. Through its growing digital assets and NFTs, Tokens.com provides public market investors with a simple and secure way to gain exposure to Web3.

Joe Gomes, Senior Research Analyst, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Joshua Zoepfel, Research Associate, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

1Q22 Results. Tokens.com reported revenue of $326,320 in the first quarter of 2022, flat sequentially. We had estimated revenue of $550,000. The operating loss was $631,856 in the quarter, compared to an operating loss of $3.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, which was impacted by higher professional fees and listing expenses. Tokens.com reported net income for the quarter of $7.8 million, or $0.08 per share, driven by a gain on the revaluation of warrant liability.

Moving Forward. Tokens.com continues to make inroads in the Web 3.0 universe. The Metaverse Group had a successful Fashion Week and is now generating revenue from leases. Hulk Labs has been successfully launched in the play-to-earn gaming space. And Tokens.com continues to stake various cryptos.

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Voyager Digital (VYGVF) – Announces $60 Million Raise; Reports 3Q22 Results

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Voyager Digital (VYGVF)
Announces $60 Million Raise; Reports 3Q22 Results

Voyager Digital Ltd.’s (TSX: VOYG) (OTCQX: VYGVF) (FRA: UCD2) US subsidiary, Voyager Digital, LLC, is a fast-growing cryptocurrency platform in the United States founded in 2018 to bring choice, transparency, and cost-efficiency to the marketplace. Voyager offers a secure way to trade over 100 different crypto assets using its easy-to-use mobile application. Through its subsidiary Coinify ApS, Voyager provides crypto payment solutions for both consumers and merchants around the globe. To learn more about the company, please visit https://www.investvoyager.com.

Joe Gomes, Senior Research Analyst, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Joshua Zoepfel, Research Associate, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

3Q22 Results. Voyager reported $102.7 million of revenue for 3Q22, in-line with the $100-$105 million guidance. Trading revenue was off sharply sequentially as trading volume fell, partially offset by merchant services and staking revenue. We had projected revenue of $98 million. Operating loss was $43.2 million compared to our $32.7 million estimate. Voyager reported a net loss of $61.4 million for the quarter, or $0.36 per share, versus our $0.15 estimate.

Key Metrics for the Third Quarter. Total funded accounts reached 1.190 million, a sequential increase of 115,000 from 1.075 million in the second quarter. Total verified users increased by 255,000 to 3.486 million from 3.231 million in the second quarter, while net new deposits decreased by $642 million to $395 million from the previous quarter’s $1.04 billion….

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

One Stop Systems (OSS) – Keep on Truckin’

Monday, May 16, 2022

One Stop Systems (OSS)
Keep on Truckin’

One Stop Systems, Inc. (OSS) designs and manufactures innovative AI Transportable edge computing modules and systems, including ruggedized servers, compute accelerators, expansion systems, flash storage arrays, and Ion Accelerator™ SAN, NAS, and data recording software for AI workflows. These products are used for AI data set capture, training, and large-scale inference in the defense, oil and gas, mining, autonomous vehicles, and rugged entertainment applications. OSS utilizes the power of PCI Express, the latest GPU accelerators and NVMe storage to build award-winning systems, including many industry firsts, for industrial OEMs and government customers. The company enables AI on the Fly® by bringing AI datacenter performance to ‘the edge,’ especially on mobile platforms, and by addressing the entire AI workflow, from high-speed data acquisition to deep learning, training, and inference. OSS products are available directly or through global distributors. For more information, go to www.onestopsystems.com.

Joe Gomes, Senior Research Analyst, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Joshua Zoepfel, Research Associate, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

1Q22 Results. One Stop Systems reported record first quarter revenue of $17.1 million, up 28% y-o-y and above management’s $16.8 million guide. We had forecast $16.8 million. GAAP net income of $579,200, or $0.03 per share, versus net income of $41,300, or breakeven per share, last year. Adjusted net income of $978,000, or $0.05 per share, versus $644,000, or $0.03 per share in 1Q21. We had forecast $0.02 and $0.04 respectively.

Disguise, Bressner Driving Results. OSS’s media and entertainment client, Disguise had a record revenue quarter for OSS, with revenue now greater than the pre-COVID environment. The return of in-person events accounted for a significant portion of the revenue increase. Bressner revenue increased 37% y-o-y, driven by ongoing improvement in the European economy as COVID impacts diminish.

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision.