Hong Kong is in the middle of a political crisis. The 2019 protests over the extradition bill turned into unrest over lack of democracy and police brutality. Apple Daily, a pro-democratic Hong Kong newspaper, had its assets frozen this week by the government. The question is whether Apple Daily is going to be legitimately shut down or is it a continuation of suppressing pro-democratic activities in Hong Kong?

What’s Apple Daily?

Apple Daily is a Hong Kong newspaper that was founded in 1995 by Jimmy Lai. He named it after the forbidden fruit that biblical Adam and Eve were not supposed to eat. It could refer to the nature of Apple Daily’s editorial position. Apple Daily was shown to be very pro-democratic, criticizing the Hong Kong government and supporting protestors, e.g. 2014 students protestors.

Its active social presence contributed to its mainstream pro-activist nature. Additionally, Apple Daily tends to be critical of China, commenting on its cyberattacks and leadership. With such a volatile nature, it is no surprise the Hong Kong government took a closer look at Apple Daily and its activities.

Hong Kong National Security Law

On 30 June 2020, China passed the national security law for Hong Kong. The critics claim that the law was not only passed in uncertain conditions but that the scope is wide and, possibly, dangerous. According to Amnesty International, the wording “endangering national security” in the scope is too broad. The national security law tightens control over scholars, journalists and social media, as well as grants new, extensive powers to investigating authorities. Apple Daily sounds like a treat to this new law.

Apple Daily’s In Danger

Apple Daily had been under scrutiny for a long time. It survived raids, boycotts campaigns and an arrest of Jimmy Lai in 2020. Jimmy Lai was initially arrested for participating in the protests, however, more charges were added under the national security law (“secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces”). Despite the turmoil, Apple Daily stood tall.

However, only this week, the pressure, which was increasing for months, finally reached its tipping point. The police arrested the top editors of Apple Daily (5 executives), froze its assets (about $2.3 million) and raided its newsroom.

The arrests happened on the suspicion of “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security” and the newsroom was declared a crime scene. The officials denied the raid being a threat to the freedom of speech as Apple Daily journalists were “different from normal journalists” as they “endangered national security”.

The Future of Apple Daily

Apple Daily confirmed they would keep writing and publishing as usual, however, with its assets frozen, the newspaper will be unable to pay staff members or vendors. Recently, it was confirmed that a meeting about the future of the company would take place this week.

People expressed their support for Daily Apple by queuing to buy their newspaper. The paper typically prints about 80,000 copies but increased that to 500,000 to meet demand. It shows that what was seen as a massive threat to national security by the government is widely supported by Hong Kong citizens. Yet, it remains unclear for how long the newspaper can keep going. The next week will be crucial in showing if Apple Daily will survive.

Conclusion

“An apple a day keeps a doctor away”. However, it remains to be seen whether the popular support will be enough to keep the governmental scrutiny at bay. Hong Kong’s struggles continue and Apple Daily’s newsroom is a battlefield of democracy. In a week time, we should see the results and count the victims.

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The Beginning of Litecoin

Litecoin was founded in 2011 by Charlie Lee. To create Litecoin, Lee copied the Bitcoin codebase, increased the total supply, and changed the speed at which new blocks were added to the blockchain. He intended Litecoin to be a “lite version of Bitcoin.” What he meant is a connection of Bitcoin’s valuable features with certain improvements. He intended Litecoin to be a complement to Bitcoin, not its competitor.

Now, Litecoin enjoys a stable position among other cryptocurrencies. The Litecoin price today (12th May 2021) is USD 370,05 with a 24-hour trading volume of 7 770 883 706 USD. The current CoinMarketCap ranking is #11, with a live market cap of 24 701 889 024 USD. It has a circulating supply of 66 752 415 LTC coins. So what made Litecoin successful when many others have failed?

What Exactly is Litecoin?

Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world. Litecoin is an open-source software project released under the MIT/X11 license which gives the buyer the power to run, modify, and copy the software and to distribute modified copies of the software. Miners are currently awarded 12.5 new litecoins per block, an amount that gets halved roughly every 4 years (every 840,000 blocks).

Litecoin vs Bitcoin

Litecoin and Bitcoin have a lot in common as it is said Litecoin was created to be “silver to Bitcoin’s gold”. They are both decentralized cryptocurrencies. They are both proof of work ecosystems. Both can be bought via exchange or mined using a mining rig.

There are also a few differences. When it comes to market capitalization, the total value of Bitcoin is about 70 times larger than that of Litecoin. In terms of distribution, Bitcoin can never pass 21mln coins and Litecoin can accommodate up to 84mln coins.

Higher Transaction Volume

The Litecoin blockchain is capable of handling higher transaction volume than its counterpart – Bitcoin. Due to more frequent block generation, the network supports more transactions without a need to modify the software in the future.

In other words, Litecoin can produce a greater number of coins than Bitcoin and its transaction speed is faster. This matters to investors for whom the cost of the transaction and the speed might be important factors. However, it does not impact the value or usability of the currency.

SHA-256 vs Scrypt

Bitcoin and Litecoin use fundamentally different cryptographic algorithms. Bitcoin uses the longstanding SHA-256 algorithm and Litecoin uses an algorithm called Scrypt. What differentiates the Scrypt function from the SHA-256 function is that it is also memory intensive.

Scrypt is memory intensive because as well as requiring miners to generate numbers rapidly, these generated numbers are stored in the Random Access Memory (RAM) of the processor, which then needs to be accessed before submitting a result.

The reason given by Lee as to why he chose Scrypt over SHA-256 is the following: “using Scrypt allows one to mine Litecoin while also mining Bitcoin,” meaning that “Litecoin will not compete with Bitcoin for miners.”

Conclusion

Litecoin is closely connected to Bitcoin from the beginning of its existence. However, it turned out to be its complement rather than a competitor. Even without public support like Dogecoin had and without the uniqueness of Ethereum, Litecoin remains one of the most important cryptocurrencies thanks to higher transaction volumes and greater accessibility. Litecoin’s position likely won’t change shortly.

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What Are Anti-Trust Laws?

The competition encourages companies to offer consumers goods and services on the most favourable terms. In the US, there are three core federal antitrust laws: The Sherman Act, The Federal Trade Commission Act and The Clayton Act.

Strengthening these rules is always on the agenda, so it is no surprise that tech giants face legal scrutiny now and then. However, this time it seems like there might be real-life consequences for Apple.

Apple And Anti-Trust Disputes

Companies are not allowed to engage in any activity that would artificially distort competition within a market. Apple is not an exception. Recently, the European Commission opened formal antitrust investigations to assess whether Apple’s rules for app developers on the distribution of apps via the App Store violate EU competition rules. At a similar time, in the US, Epic Games accused Apple of abusing its monopoly in the market. With similar issues at stake, we will now take a closer look at the US dispute.

Epic Games vs Apple

Epic Games, the creator behind Fortnite, brought the anti-competition claims against Apple in the US. It is estimated that Apple earned more than $360m from Fortnite in the three years after its release in 2017. Epic Games intentionally broke Apple’s rules by putting its payment processing system in the iPhone version of Fortnite, bypassing Apple’s 30% fee and giving players a V-bucks discount. At that point, App Store removed Fortnite, and the dispute began.

Arguments

There are two main areas of conflict. Firstly, the monopoly in the market. Along with Google, Apple has a duopoly on the US smartphone market. Epic Games argue that Apple has a monopoly based on its operating– iOS. On the other hand, Apple claims the market is much bigger than just smartphones as Fortnite can be played on gaming consoles, PCs and so on.

Therefore, Apple does not have a monopoly that could threaten Epic Games. On a side note, Play Store would be in a similar situation to App Store but, on Android, Fortnite could be downloaded without access to Play Store.

If monopoly was established, Epic Games need to show that Apple abuses its monopoly and violates antitrust laws. For example, US law prohibits monopolies from tying one product or service to the sale of another. Epic Games argue the App Store and the payment system are separate products. Apple says its App Store and its payment processing service are part of a single product.

The Importance Of The Disputes

Interestingly, this week the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, will speak on behalf of the company in the Epic Games v Apple trial. On the other side of the barricade, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, testified at the beginning of the process. Surely, the matter is treated lightly by neither.

It makes one wonder what would happen if Apple lost the case. One potential outcome of the trial is that the judge orders Apple to open up its operating system to allow alternative methods of software distribution and payments.

This would give consumers more freedom and create more opportunities for developers to experiment with new distribution methods and business models. It also means that Apple stands to lose significant revenue and other tech giants might suffer a similar fate in similar cases.

Conclusion

Apple is having a difficult time with two simultaneous disputes in different parts of the globe. However, the issue remains the same – Apple’s overwhelming influence on the market. Whether the court will decide Apple abuses its monopoly or whether stronger regulations will be needed, one thing is sure. Encouraged by Biden’s minimum global tax, the world is ready to face US tech giants.

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Who is Vitalik Buterin?

Vitalik Buterin was born in Russia but he emigrated with his family to Canada when he was six. His father, Dmitry Buterin, is a computer scientist who co-founded a blockchain startup incubator, Blockgeeks Lab.

According to Dmitry, Vitalik wrote the “Encyclopedia of Bunnies” at the age of seven. It had a whole universe populated by bunnies but it was governed by very strict formulas. This seems like the perfect beginning of the creative mind which invented the second hottest cryptocurrency.

The Early Career

Vitalik attended the University of Waterloo. He was a research assistant to a cryptographer, Ian Goldberg. Before Ethereum, there was Bitcoin Magazine. Vitalik Buterin co-created it with Mihai Alise. It covered topics on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

On top of that, during that time he wrote a white paper on Ethereum. After receiving the Thiel Fellowship scholarship, Vitalik dropped out of the University of Waterloo and moved on to work on Ethereum full-time.

Ethereum

Vitalik Buterin had a vision of a decentralised economy with increased access, transparency and accountability. His published white paper on Ethereum looked beyond Bitcoin’s mission of enabling unstoppable, unmediated digital payments, and envisioned a platform for autonomous software of all kinds.

In 2015, Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Joseph Lubin and others launched the Ethereum, the world’s programmable blockchain. It works as an open software platform functioning on blockchain technology. This blockchain is hosted on many computers around the world, making it decentralized.

The Ethereum blockchain is similar to Bitcoin’s in that it is a record of the transaction history. However, the Ethereum network allows developers to build and deploy decentralised applications (apps). Dapps have their backend code (smart contracts) running on a decentralized network and not a centralized server. They use the Ethereum blockchain for data storage and smart contracts for their app logic.

In 2019, Buterin proposed Ethereum 2.0, which included plans to decrease the blockchain’s transaction throughput traffic, decrease network costs, and increase rewards for the node validators.

The Youngest Billionaire

Currently, Ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. Both cryptocurrencies have seen astronomical surges in 2020 and 2021 as the mainstream finance world embrace crypto as a legitimate asset.

Ethereum’s cryptocurrency, Ether, surged past $3,000 for the first time on 3 May 2021, marking a 325% rise since the beginning of the year. Vitalik Buterin’s ether address, which he disclosed in October 2018 as his main ether wallet, holds 333,520 ETH, worth $1.09 billion at the ether price of $3,278 at 1:30 p.m. ET on May 3 2021. This makes him the youngest billionaire and is one of the hallmark events for cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

Philanthropist

Apart from achievements as a writer and programmer, Vitalik is also a philanthropist. In 2017, Vitalik donated $763,970 worth of ether to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. In 2018, he donated $2.4 million to the SENS Research Foundation and $1 million to charity for Ugandan Refugees.

Last week, Buterin donated about $600,000 in ether and maker (MKR) tokens to a COVID-19 relief fund for India. These did not stop him from reaching his billionaire status and only served to validate his established position in the financial world.

Conclusion

Vitalik Buterin is a brilliant young man who early in his life became interested in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Just like Bitcoin founders and unlike Dogecoin founders, he strives to revolutionise the financial world. Becoming the youngest billionaire, thanks to Ethereum, shows he is on the right path to achieving it.

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What’s ESG?

ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance. These are standards for companies that investors use to screen potential investments. Global challenges, such as sea-level rise, data security and demographic shifts, affect the way investors, particularly millennials and women, view their investments. According to the Bank of America, over the next two to three decades, the millennials could put between $15 trillion and $20 trillion into US-domiciled ESG investments.

ESG Metrics

ESG has been growing since the 1960s under the umbrella term of socially responsible investing. Recently, it became even more important as more investors incorporate ESG factors into their investment process and leading institutions implement ESG strategies.

However, ESG metrics are not a part of mandatory financial reporting. There are no established standards of ESG, no clear definition and no uniform method of measuring it. Depending on the index provider, each factor might differ. ESG standards are not standardized and it shows the industry is not as committed as it pretends to be to implementing ESG strategies.

Some institutions, such as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) or the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) work on establishing a common standard. Although it is still a work in progress.

ESG and Performance

The question we have to ask is whether incorporating ESG factors into the investment process will hurt performance.

MSCI researchers identified three major channels from ESG to financial value. They found that companies with higher ESG ratings were more competitive and generated abnormal returns, experienced a lower frequency of idiosyncratic risk incidents and have shown lower systematic risk exposure, evidenced by less volatile earnings and less systematic volatility.

The ESG factors are connected and overlap. Their implementation can create value for the company as investors look for strong ESG factors. According to McKinsey, a strong ESG proposition correlates with higher equity returns, from both a tilt and momentum perspective. Studies on the impact of ESG propositions on equity returns showed a 63% share of positive findings.

As to the impact of Covid-19, Refinitiv evaluated that the most conventional funds have underperformed their respective technical indicators, while the majority of ESG funds have outperformed their technical indicators.

Newest Research

According to the newly published research on ESG, the widely held belief that “sustainable” investing delivers outperformance is a mirage and the above-market returns are achieved by exposure to so-called style factors long known to boost investment returns.

Scientific Beta found that three-quarters of the outperformance is due to “quality” metrics, such as high profitability and conservative investment. It is disputed to what extent ESG and quality overlap in the research of ESG standards.

ESG’s Ability to Produce Value

Implementing ESG factors into the investment process has its value. Investing in companies that align with investors’ ethical code will breed beneficial investments. Companies will make an effort to implement ESG strategies. There is a risk of green-washing, but there might be some real effort there.

However, it remains to be seen whether ESG funds outperform their traditional counterparts. It must be said that bigger companies tend to have better ESG strategies in place simply because they can afford the time and space required to do it.

Do they have better developed other areas as well which contribute to the performance? Probably yes. It is not entirely clear what causes the outperformance, but ESG should remain on the investors’ mind regardless.

Conclusion

ESG became a hot topic in the investing world. With so many social and environmental changes on the horizon, millennials gaining investing power and the pandemic, ESG will rise in popularity. However, it remains to be seen whether ESG can produce alpha and ensure outperformance.

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