-@TH3WH17ERABB17- -Q- Questions ---WHO WILL PUT AN END TO THE ENDLESS?--- -Part- --42--

The Republicans will do nothing substantive about Biden corruption, FBI malfeasance, or Contempt of Congress.

originally posted by: FlyingFox
btw- I see zero pro-Ukraine propaganda on social media for a like a week or two now.

As it marks its 25th anniversary Wednesday, the European Central Bank is readying a proposed design for a digital version of the euro, responding to pressure from developing technology that could change how money is used over the bank’s next decades.

ECB President Christine Lagarde says a digital euro could offer a way for people to buy things without depending on payment service providers controlled by non-European companies. Those could include Mastercard, Visa, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

The European Union’s executive Commission is expected to come up with proposed legislation on the idea in the next several weeks, ECB officials say, while the central bank will publish a detailed proposal for the design of a digital currency in October.

The artificial intelligence takeover is escalating as big tech companies like Microsoft and Alphabet double down on their exposure. But one company is already taking it to the next level. Figure has announced a new funding round today, as it pushes forward on its development of its autonomous humanoid robot.

Our vision here is to deploy these robots to do physical labor. So we want these robots to do physical tasks in the real world, such as warehousing, manufacturing, retail. We see enormous amount of unemployment happening. And just an overall flat line and basically the amount of people in the workforce. And we really hope humanoid robotics can help on the automation side fill that void and do jobs that are dangerous, monotonous, boring.

So in the US alone, there's almost 11 million jobs that are just not wanted. And we really hope humanoids can basically move into a world that was built for humans and seamlessly interact with that world and do work. So our goal is to put humanoids in these initial areas and warehousing, manufacturing, and retail to basically fill that labor void. Over time, our humanoid should be able to do anything a human can. That will take a lot of time and development for us to get all the way there end-to-end. But that's the aspiration we have.

The true value of humanoid robots in the workplace is still very much an open question. But at the very least, Apptronik isn’t the only one asking it. Tesla’s much-publicized Optimus announcement shook something loose. Suddenly the companies that had been operating in stealth mode felt compelled to announce their own intentions. Startups like 1X and Figure have discussed their progress to different extents. Sanctuary AI, which has partnered with Apptronik hardware, has already begun piloting systems.

Nanjing City in China’s Jiangsu Province introduced the “Blockchain Technology and Application Innovation Platform of China” to advance metaverse research and development across the country.

The entity plans to bring together the resources of academic institutions and businesses in China to strengthen research in metaverse-related fields.

In September 2022, the university launched China’s first metaverse major. In April 2023, they established a dedicated department for wearable virtual reality devices.

Nanjing is actively competing with other Chinese cities to become a frontrunner in the metaverse development. With its metaverse strategy announced in February 2023, Nanjing aims to create a thriving industry generating annual revenues of over 135 billion yuan ($19.13 billion) by 2025.

China acknowledges the transformative power of Web3 technologies like the metaverse for its digital economy, despite its strict stance on cryptocurrencies and NFTs. A government-affiliated think tank has urged policymakers to utilize the metaverse to strengthen real-world industries.

In China, the metaverse industry will grow by almost 40% this year. The regime in Beijing has officially recognized the metaverse as a “key industry.” The newfound bullish stance on the virtual experience ignores the setbacks that metaverse innovators in the United States and elsewhere face.

The metaverse has been identified as a “key industry” for the country’s future. Last year, the Chinese government released its first national policy to develop metaverse-related technologies such as VR, AR, and MR. The Virtual Reality and Industry Application Integration Development Action Plan (2022-2026) sets out the goals and tasks for the next five years.

Chinese startups and tech investors are notoriously trend-driven, and many jumped on the metaverse bandwagon after Meta’s supposed pivot, trying to launch homegrown versions or to integrate virtual or mixed reality elements into consumer products. But the Chinese government, which exerts an enormous influence over the country’s tech sector, was also quick to get in on the metaverse, backing technologies it sees as strategic and setting rules to govern what can go on in this next iteration of cyberspace. That means that what’s emerging in China is very different from the metaverses envisioned in the West. While the metaverses proposed by Meta, Microsoft, and Decentraland are aimed at consumers, China’s virtual worlds are more about putting tech to work in supporting the economy.

The Metaverse is a vague concept and every [company] is interpreting it in its own way,” says Brady Wang, an associate director at tech market research firm Counterpoint. “In China, it’s very much a government-led concept.”

The metaverse often seems like a nebulous idea—a catchall term for virtual or augmented reality and virtual worlds, which overlaps with other unresolved terminology such as Web3. At its most basic form, it’s a merging of digital and physical spaces. More ambitious imaginings have it as a new kind of internet, with assets that move from virtual to physical, with its own economies and currencies—a vision that often brings it into contact with the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries.

Ava Labs, the company behind layer 1 blockchain Avalanche, is launching AvaCloud, a Web3 launchpad that helps businesses build no-code, fully managed blockchain ecosystems.

Nicholas Mussallem, senior vice president of product at Ava Labs, said that AvaCloud allows companies to bring its Web3 products to market faster and with lower risk, without needing to hire blockchain-focused employees.

As blockchain has matured, it’s become clear that one size does not fit all," he said. "Because AvaCloud-powered blockchains are able to customize validator requirements like KYC and privacy, industries with strict regulations can benefit from blockchain tech. This opens the door for TradFi adoption, HIPAA compliance, government programs and much more."

Alibaba Cloud – a subset of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba – along with Avalanche has built a launchpad for businesses to deploy metaverses on the layer 1 blockchain.

Dubbed “Cloudverse,” the platform is designed to serve as a one-stop, end-to-end solution for businesses to easily customize, launch, and maintain their own metaverse space, thereby creating new dimensions for engaging customers.

In a statement, Raymond Xiao, Head of International Web3 Solutions, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, spoke about the strong demand from businesses in the Asia-Pacific region planning to foray into the Web3 space as a result of the rising popularity of blockchain technology and the metaverse.

Ripple and Avalanche will work on advancing the creation of a digitized UK pound through an independent forum, as UK officials explore the possibility of a central bank digital currency.