David Fuller and Eoin Treacy's Comment of the Day
Category - Technology

    Bitcoin's Surge Lacks Extreme Leverage That Powered Past Rallies

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    “Typically we look at that as more of a strong-handed rally, which implies that the leverage portion of the rally comes later,” Ouellette, FRNT’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said on Bloomberg’s “QuickTake Stock” streaming program. “If that is the case, those $100,000 targets are very reasonable, I’d suggest. The last time we saw a move of this little leverage, we were pointing towards $20,000, and we didn’t really see the leverage come into the market in an aggressive way until we got to $40,000, which took us to $65,000.”

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    TransDigm Enters Bidding for U.K. Defense Supplier Meggitt

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    The potential transaction is the latest example of U.S. buyers eyeing U.K. aerospace. Cobham Ltd., the U.K. defense contractor that was acquired by U.S. private equity firm Advent International Corp. in early 2020, has made a 2.6 billion-pound buyout approach for Ultra Electronics Holding Plc. The government scrutinized the first Cobham deal and said it would do the same for the Ultra proposal. TransDigm completed the acquisition of Cobham’s communications and navigation division in January, after competing with buyout funds for the unit.

    The company’s balance sheet could support a deal of around $10 billion, analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu of Jefferies, told clients Wednesday. The deal could be funded in the debt market, but leaves a tight window and may require $1 billion of equity, she wrote in a report, adding: “This could have been one reason for an over the top bid if financing was not arranged yet.”

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    Email of the day on the delta variant

    40 minutes but really good (essential) analysis of where we are now with the virus. Martenson has been an excellent guide throughout. One for the collective perhaps. 

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    Hackers Return Funds From Likely Record DeFi Crypto Attack

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    Hackers returned about half of the $610 million or so they pilfered Tuesday in what was likely one of the biggest cryptocurrency thefts on record in the burgeoning DeFi sector. 

    In an unusual twist, the online thieves pledged to return the entire amount stole from a decentralized finance, or DeFi, a protocol known as PolyNetwork that lets users swap tokens across multiple blockchains. 

    In a message the unidentified hackers said that they “just dumped all the assets,” adding, “hacking for good, I did save the project.” About $258 million has been returned so far, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of blockchain forensics firm Elliptic.

    Even more brazen, the hackers are asking for donations as a reward for returning the funds. So far, they’ve garnered $200, Robinson said.

    The hackers also posted a Q&A online, explaining motivations for the attack as “for fun:).” The online pirates said they took the funds “to keep it safe” after spotting a bug. The hackers ended the missive saying they will be impossible to trace. “I prefer to stay in the dark and save the world.” 

    Elliptic, as well as scores of cryptocurrency exchanges and trackers, have been on the hunt for the hackers. Thousands of people were affected by the attack, PolyNetwork said in a letter posted Tuesday on Twitter.

    “This demonstrates that even if you can steal crypto assets, laundering them and cashing out is extremely difficult, due to the transparency of the blockchain and the use of blockchain analytics,” Robinson said. “In this case the hacker concluded that the safest option was just to return the stolen assets.”

    DeFi apps -- which let people lend, borrow and trade coins without using intermediaries -- have become frequent targets of attacks lately, as they gain in popularity. Some $156 million was netted from DeFi-related hacks in the first five months of the year, surpassing the $129 million stolen in such attacks through all of 2020, according to crypto security firm CipherTrace.

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    Email of the day - on hydrogen

    I wondered if you had come across HydrogenOne. The Investment Trust came to market on 30 July.  The trust has not yet invested in any assets but its website outlines what it sees as its worldwide "investable universe" of assets and also describes in outline how it will identify potential investments. Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have a stake.

    What I found particularly interesting and enlightening is that they have produced a "bluffers guide" to hydrogen which is attached (and is also on their website). Subscribers might also find this useful.

    https://hydrogenonecapital.com/ and 
    https://hydrogenonecapitalgrowthplc.com/ (for investor info)

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    COVID: 90% of patients treated with new Israeli drug discharged in 5 days

    Thanks to a subscriber for this article from the Jerusalem Post may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    Arber and his team, including Dr. Shiran Shapira, developed the drug based on a molecule that the professor has been studying for 25 years called CD24, which is naturally present in the body.

    and

    Arber noted that another breakthrough element of this treatment is its delivery.

    “We are employing exosomes, very small vesicles derived from the membrane of the cells which are responsible for the exchange of information between them,” he said.

    “By managing to deliver them exactly where they are needed, we avoid many side effects,” he added.

    The team is now ready to launch the last phase of the study.

    “As promising as the findings of the first phases of a treatment can be, no one can be sure of anything until results are compared to the ones of patients who receive a placebo,” he said.

    Some 155 coronavirus patients will take part in the study. Two-thirds of them will be administered the drug, and one-third a placebo.

    The study will be conducted in Israel and it might be also carried out in other places if the number of patients in the country will not suffice.

    “We hope to complete it by the end of the year,” Arber said.

    If the results are confirmed, he vowed that the treatment can be made available relatively quickly and at a low cost.

    “In addition, a success could pave the wave to treat many other diseases,” he concluded.

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    Scientists Reach 'Unequivocal' Consensus on Human-Caused Warming

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    Humanity will have about a 50% chance of staying below the 1.5°C threshold called for by the Paris Agreement if CO₂ emissions from 2020 onwards remain below 500 billion tons. At the current rate of emissions, that carbon budget would be used up in about 13 years. If the rate doesn’t come down, the planet will warm more than 1.5°C.

    “Our opportunity to avoid even more catastrophic impacts has an expiration date,” said Helen Mountford, vice president of climate and economics at the World Resources Institute. “The report implies that this decade is truly our last chance to take the actions necessary to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. If we collectively fail to rapidly curb greenhouse gas emissions in the 2020s, that goal will slip out of reach.”

    The new publication lands in the middle of the ramp-up to COP26, to be held in Glasgow in November. A global deal to pursue faster emission cuts would depend on poor countries securing $100 billion a year in climate finance from rich countries, something envisioned in previous climate agreements
    but not yet achieved. National governments would also need to agree to rules governing the trading of emissions permits, to ensure those moving faster towards cuts are rewarded for doing
    so.

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    China's Covid-Zero Strategy Risks Leaving It Isolated for Years

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    In the short term, Chinese leaders have an incentive to maintain strict controls at least through next year: They don’t want any major outbreaks derailing the Winter Olympics or clouding a once-in-five-year Party Congress at which President Xi Jinping is expected to get a third term in office. The problem, however, is the rising economic and political costs in maintaining that policy indefinitely, particularly as the virus spawns new variants that can breach restrictions more easily.

    “China will have to pivot from its containment strategy, sooner or later -- you can stay Covid Zero for a while, but you can’t stay Covid Zero forever, because the virus swoops in before you know it,” said Chen Zhengming, an epidemiology professor at the University of Oxford. “My worry is that they won’t actively pursue a tactic change as Covid Zero has become an entrenched mentality. Especially when you hold officials accountable, no one dares to go easy on the outbreak.”

    Right now it’s nearly taboo in China to even suggest a different approach. In a commentary published over the weekend by a health news app run by the official People’s Daily newspaper, former health minister Gao Qiang called for stronger measures to keep the virus out of China while blasting the U.S.,
    U.K. and other countries for easing too early.

    “Their sole reliance on vaccination and pursuit of the so-called ‘co-existence with the virus’ have led to a resurgence of the virus,” he wrote. “This is a misstep in Covid decision-making caused by the deficiencies in their political mechanism and the result of upholding individualism.”

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    The ethereum upgrade that will destroy coins is happening August 5. Here are 4 things you need to know

    This article from Markets Insider may be of interest. Here is a section:

    EIP-1559 has excited people because it will destroy or "burn" ether - the cryptocurrency of the network.

    Miners do not receive the base fee; otherwise, they could artificially congest the network to keep the fee high. It's destroyed instead.

    Some investors believe the fact that the supply of ether will be limited by burning could cause explosive price growth.

    But the influence on price is far from certain, developers say. It also depends on things like transaction volumes, which determine how big gas fees are and so how much ether is destroyed.

    "Until it's deployed, we don't know exactly what the effect will be in terms of ether burned," Ben Edgington, an ethereum developer at ConsenSys, said.

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