November 22— November 28, 2018

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Dear Adrealm Community,

Back with the World-Wide Hot Spots, this week we’re addressing a specific concept which trespassed the boundaries of the article published by the AEIOU Executive Director on the role of intermediaries (read it here), which followed us during our Weekly Community Update, and haunted us while writing the Crypto and Blockchain News you’re reading right now.

The importance of trust.

The beheaded octopus that blockchain technology embodies is increasingly employed to fight fraud, i.d. the nemesis of trust. We defer to technology to protect our rights and interests because we trust in its power to put an end to years of deception and privacy breaches.

May you or may you not follow the hard, radical line in regard to blockchain tech and decentralization, the news we’ve selected this week to follow a red thread: the relevance of trust as well as the role of the centre, which seems to be losing the grip on us.

Is blockchain technology going to save us from the hegemony of the industry giants?

World-Wide Hot Spots

ON THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY

Google Ad Manager and Disney partnership for digital ads

Comcast’s FreeWheel will be replaced by Google in strengthening digital advertising solutions for The Walt Disney Company. The three-year contract is worth tens of millions of dollars.

So, how do you call a business behemoth with two heads?

“All come to silver dust, and to silver dust all return”

September 2018: 2.2 billion USD for the digital advertising industry

The report released by IAB and PwC is unequivocal: with digital ads, you can make a lot of money.
With an increase in video ads’ popularity and 62% of the total revenue coming from mobile advertising, such results mark an increase of 13% in respect to last year.

A victory over ad fraud

Eight people charged for ad fraud schemes going on since 2014 by the US Department of Justice, including wire fraud, computer intrusion and money laundering.

Read more on the topic also here and here.

A failure for consumer privacy?

The recent support of the US Federal Trade Commission to the advertising industry provoked the outrage of several consumers organizations, such as the Consumer Federation of America and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They accused the US FTC of accepting and relying on an industry report that evidently plays in favour of the advertising stakeholders, instead of siding with consumers.

Read the article by Bloomberg.

ON COMPANIES AND CRYPTOS

Top Blockchain startups in Southeast Asia

A very recent overview of the hottest emerging companies in the Southeast Asian region. From Bananacoin to LaLa World, from Cambodia to Malaysia.

SBI Ripple Asia and Japan Payment Card Consortium against fraud

If we use Proof of Valid Traffic, they use Proof of Concept system to tackle fraud in the financial sector.

Seems like the hunt to fraudulent activities has begun.

Three crypto law cases under examination

The brief analysis of three interesting crypto cases. The last one involving Bank of America and VISA caught our attention.

How should cryptocurrencies be categorized, if bought with a credit card?

ON GOVERNMENTS AND TECH

China’s leading AI: The NYT sees some dirt behind it

The report unveils the cheap labour practices behind China’s great leap in regards to Artificial Intelligence.

China Internet Report

A comprehensive report by Abacus News on the Intenet in China: Key players, comparison with the US, investments, and what the government aims to achieve in the Internet space.

President Maduro using the national crypto to finance the housing market

(In Italian) — President Maduro does not give up on the project for a national crypto, the Petro, and allocates 3 million in funds for new houses in Petro “to fight the American empire”.

Is he the emperor Nero or Odoacer? Will Rome succumb?

Spotlights on Blockchain by the European Law Institute

The European Blockchain Partnership was born on April 10, 2018, and signed by 26 Member States to cooperate for the establishment of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure. The EBSI has selected some use cases to be disclosed in 2019. But a question remains open for the EU: How will its legal framework adapt (to) blockchain technology since it was created during the pre-digitalization era?

The benefits of surveillance

A video accompanied by its transcript of the talk by Ben Garfinkel at the Effective Altruism Global 2018: San Francisco about the “good balance” between privacy and surveillance.