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Why #Palladium Is on a Tear – SPONSOR: New Age Metals $NAM.ca $WG.ca $XTM.ca $WM.ca $PDL.ca $GLEN

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 5:08 PM on Tuesday, January 28th, 2020

SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces Inferred. Learn More.

Why Palladium Is on a Tear

  • Story behind palladium’s move is that a physical shortage has developed in London
  • Traders sold metal they didn’t physically possess
  • Now they are being asked to deliver the bars and they are scrambling to secure the metal needed, bidding prices higher

Clint Siegner, Money Metals Exchange

Physical palladium and rhodium markets are buzzing. Reported prices for both metals leapt higher in recent days.

The story behind palladium’s move is that a physical shortage has developed in London. Traders sold metal they didn’t physically possess. Now they are being asked to deliver the bars and they are scrambling to secure the metal needed, bidding prices higher.

It looks like bullion bankers selling paper metal are finally getting called for selling way more than they can actually deliver!

People have complained about this practice in precious metals markets for decades.

More and more contracts have been sold, but inventories of actual physical metal have not kept pace. Price discovery is broken when the paper price of metal is detached from physical supply-and-demand fundamentals.

Today, there are hundreds of paper ounces floating around for every ounce of physical metal eligible for actual delivery.

As soon as a few contract holders lose confidence in their ability to redeem the paper for actual metal, the jig is up. The rush for physical bars will drain exchange vaults quickly and anyone still holding paper when the music stops will be out of luck.

That may be happening now in the market for palladium.

Sellers with an obligation to deliver physical metal can lease bars, rather than purchase them. But that is now a very expensive proposition. Lease rates spiked to near 30% last week in London.

Lessees must promise to return the quantity leased plus 30% in additional palladium ounces.

New Cautions on Rhodium

Rhodium prices have surged along with palladium. Price discovery in rhodium works differently than for other precious metals, so investors need to be especially careful.

The “spot” price for rhodium surged to $9,985 last week. However, that price does not come from a market where regular trading produces live, real-time prices.

Rather, the rhodium ask price is simply declared by major refiners. Johnson Matthey is one of the firms which publishes a price.

The price is generally updated twice per day during the trading week.

Lately the published ask prices jumped dramatically higher. Bid prices, on the other hand, have not kept up.

The bid/ask spread in the thinly traded rhodium market has always been wider than in other precious metals, but it’s wider now than ever. Current bids are roughly $2,000 below the published ask price.

If there really are industrial users paying the refiners’ $10,000 ask price for physical rhodium, it is quite an opportunity for arbitrage. Traders could theoretically purchase bars at the bid price and sell them at a very healthy profit to anyone paying the ask price.

That isn’t happening, at least as far as we can determine. Someone may have published a $10,000 ask price, but we can’t locate anyone actually paying that sum for rhodium bars.
Despite what the surging “spot” price for rhodium may imply, the bid for physical rhodium remains weak.

Money Metals has taken dozens of calls per day from sellers trying to cash in on spot prices near $10,000/oz. Many are disappointed to find actual prices are far lower which is a result of wholesalers dropping their bids. We believe one major rhodium buyer will cease further buying soon.

The rhodium market is tiny and illiquid. Price discrepancies like the one we are seeing are common. Our advice to clients would be not to put much credence in the “spot” price they see published until the spread is much tighter than it currently is.

The true price of rhodium, like all assets, is based on what real buyers are actually paying. That is currently closer to $8,000/oz, not $10,000/oz.

Source: https://www.fxstreet.com/analysis/why-palladium-is-on-a-tear-202001281550

Data Privacy Day 2020: 5 Lessons From The Past To Better Secure The Future – SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited $DM.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, January 28th, 2020

SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited (TSX-V: DM) A revenue generating small cap A.I. company that NATO and Canadian Defence are using to fight fake news & social media threats. The company announced three $1M contacts in Q3-2019. Click here for more info.

Data Privacy Day 2020: 5 Lessons From The Past To Better Secure The Future

(By David Higgins)

  • Lawmakers claim Facebook “contravened the law by failing to safeguard people’s information” – and suffered the consequences.
  • Now the US government is placing additional pressure on Facebook to stop the spread of fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech (or risk additional, larger fines)
  • This Data Privacy Day urges individuals and organisations around the world to learn from the fallout of the mega-breaches of the recent past.

Until recently, data privacy was only considered critical in the digital world. But as the digital and physical worlds intersect, it is now integral not only to securing an individual or a corporation’s digital identity, but also to avoiding the safety of citizens being compromised. Data privacy considerations should underpin all company decisions, whether on the board level or on the shop floor and, this Data Privacy Day, organisations should encourage their entire workforce – not just IT teams – to re-evaluate how they secure and manage data.

It’s now well-established that data is the world’s most valuable asset, and a tempting target for malevolent hackers with varying motivations. More often than not, they are pursuing credentials that they can use to infiltrate businesses and target sensitive and valuable data. Attackers seek ways to cause irreparable damage across a whole range of industries, from seizing companies’ administration logins to hacking into medical data so as to hold individuals to ransom over the disclosure of sensitive personal information. As a tragic, but potentially realistic scenario, this could even result in a doctor being unable to perform a life-saving operation due to a lack of availability of the patient’s records for example.

Hackers will inevitably be successful from time to time. Addressing this threat and limiting how far they can infiltrate a network after a successful breach is imperative in order to safeguard national security. Infiltration or compromise of CNI, for instance, could plausibly result in the loss of control of public services such as utilities, healthcare and government, posing a severe risk to public safety. This Data Privacy Day, we need to take a step back to not only understand the value in the data we hold, but also the importance of only allowing individuals and systems that need it to access it.

Mega Breach lesson #1: Equifax Breach (reported in 2017) – Several tech failures in tandem–including a misconfigured device scanning encrypted traffic, and an automatic scan that failed to identify a vulnerable version of Apache Struts–ultimately led to the breach which impacted 145M customers in the US and 10M UK citizens.

Data Privacy Day Learning – get security basics right. Cyberattacks are growing more targeted and damaging but a good industry reminder from the Equifax breach is that standard security basics should never be ignored. Patches should be applied promptly, security certificates should be maintained, and so on. This breach also inspired elected officials to push for stronger legislation to tighten regulations on required protection for consumer data.

Mega Breach lesson #2: Uber Breach (reported in 2017) – In 2017 Uber revealed it had suffered a year-old breach that exposed personal information belonging to 57M drivers and customers.

Data Privacy Day Learning – don’t store code in a publicly accessible database. Uber data was exposed because the AWS access keys were embedded in code that was stored in an enterprise code repository by a third party contractor. A clear takeaway is that no code repository is a safe storage place for credentials.

Mega Breach lesson #3: Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica Breach (reported in 2018) – Cambridge Analytica harvested the personal data of millions of peoples’ Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political advertising purposes. The scandal finally erupted in March 2018 with the emergence of a whistle-blower and Facebook was fined £500,000 ($663,000), which was the maximum fine allowed at the time of the breach.

Data Privacy Day Learning – protect user data (or pay up). Lawmakers claim Facebook “contravened the law by failing to safeguard people’s information” – and suffered the consequences. Now the US government is placing additional pressure on Facebook to stop the spread of fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech (or risk additional, larger fines).

Mega Breach lesson #4: Ecuadorian Breach (reported in 2019) – Data on approximately 17M Ecuadorian citizens, including 6.7M children, was breached due to a vulnerability on an unsecured AWS Elasticsearch server where Ecuador stores some of its data. A similar Elasticsearch server exposed the voter records of approximately 14.3 million people in Chile, around 80% of its population.

Data Privacy Day Learning – adhere to the shared responsibility model. Most cloud providers operate under a shared responsibility model, where the provider handles security up to a point and, beyond that, it becomes the responsibility of those using the service. As more and more government agencies look to the cloud to help them become more agile and better serve their citizens, it’s vital they continue to evolve their cloud security strategies to proactively protect against emerging threats – and reinforce trust among the citizens who rely on their services.

Mega Breach lesson #5: Desjardins Breach (reported in 2019) — The data breach that leaked info on 2.9M members wasn’t the result of an outside cyber attacker, but a malicious insider – someone within the company’s IT department who decided to go rogue and steal protected personal information from his employer.

Data Privacy Day Learning – be proactive in identifying unusual/unauthorized behaviour. While insider threats can be more difficult to identify, especially in a case where the user had privileged access rights, having a solution in place to monitor for unusual and unauthorized activities that can take automated remediation steps as needed can help reduce the amount of time it takes to stop an attack and minimize data exposure. This breach shows that a defence in depth security strategy that includes privileged access security, multi factor authentication, and the detection of anomalous behaviour with tools such as database activity monitoring has never been more crucial.

Source: https://www.expresscomputer.in/news/data-privacy-day-2020-5-lessons-from-the-past-to-better-secure-the-future/45933/

#Edtech startup #InterviewBit secures $20m from #Sequoia India, others SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 2:45 PM on Tuesday, January 28th, 2020
SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.

Edtech startup InterviewBit secures $20m from Sequoia India, others

  • Indian edtech startup InterviewBit has raised US$20 million in a series A round led by Sequoia India and Tiger Global, along with other investors.
  • Founded in 2015 by Abhimanyu Saxena and Anshuman Singh, the Bengaluru-based startup offers computer science courses through live online classes. Students are mentored and taught by tech leaders and experts working with companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Netflix, among others.

  By: Miguel Cordon

Founded in 2015 by Abhimanyu Saxena and Anshuman Singh, the Bengaluru-based startup offers computer science courses through live online classes. Students are mentored and taught by tech leaders and experts working with companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Netflix, among others.

The company plans to use the new funds to scale up its enrollment efforts, launch in new markets, and invest in their curriculum and live-teaching products, according to a statement.

In April last year, InterviewBit launched an advanced online computer science program for college graduates and young professionals called Scaler Academy (rebranded from InterviewBit Academy). AD. Remove this ad space by subscribing. Support independent journalism.

The first batch from the program comprises of 200 students. Since then, six more cycles of the program have been initiated, with one being conducted in the US. The startup said it received a total of over 200,000 applications in nine months after the program’s debut.

According to a recent National Employability Report for Engineers, the employability of Indian engineers continues to be as low as 20%. With that in mind, InterviewBit said it designed the Scaler Academy to effectively enhance the coding skills of professionals through a modern curriculum that exposes them to the latest technologies.

“Within a short period of time, it has made a huge impact on the capabilities of our students who spend, on average, four to five hours per day on our online and live-learning platform,” said InterviewBit co-founder Abhimanyu Saxena.

InterviewBit was one of the 17 startups that formed the first batch of Surge, Sequoia India’s startup accelerator program. Surge invested US$1.5 million in seed money in each of the participating companies.

Source: https://www.techinasia.com/interviewbit-secures-20m-sequoia

Traditional Stock Market’s interest in #Cryptocurrency might expand the boundaries for the #Cryto Market SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital $IDK.ca $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 2:16 PM on Tuesday, January 28th, 2020

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.

Traditional Stock Market’s interest in Cryptocurrency might expand the boundaries for the Cryto Market

By: Zaryab Afser

  • It’s a well-known fact that in order to survive longer, one must be completely aware of the rules as well as the latest trends of the jungle.
  • And one can never deny the fact, in these world of investment, cryptocurrencies are here to stay, really longer than one can think of.


It’s because of this fact that the senior market analyst at Etoro, Mati Greenspan “it’s finally happening that the institutions are finally realizing that cryptocurrencies are going to stay for yet too long and now they are actually looking for every possible way to seize the opportunities presented by crypto assets.” He also appreciates the recent JSE move and stated that this is actually the period where the adoption is gradually happening and the traditional stock exchanges are actually integrating with cryptocurrencies.

WHAT WAS THE MOVE BY JAMAICA STOCK EXCHANGE(JSE)?

3rd April witnessed a rare involvement of the traditional stock exchange when JSE came up with an announcement which stated that JSE will soon start a limited pilot to trade Bitcoin as well as Ethereum within the next few weeks.

Experts as well as traders, across the globe, firmly believe that this step will undoubtedly not only open the doors to cryptocurrency investment but also will end up expanding the boundaries for the crypto market. Moreover, the managing director of the JSE, Marlene, this initiative aims to create not only a safe but also efficient as well as a transparent regulatory framework for the trading of digital assets.

Since the world is witnessing a gradual shift towards the crypto market, JSE is not the only one to show interest in the cryptocurrency. The Nasdaq in the U.S. recently reported that it has listed BTC as well ETH indices, whereas XRP-based exchange-traded product has been listed by Switzerland’s main stock exchange, namely SIX.

Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2019/04/12/traditional-stock-markets-interest-in-cryptocurrency-might-expand-the-boundaries-for-the-cryto-market/

INTERVIEW: After Building 165,000 Patients, Empower $CBDT.ca Clinics Sells 1st #CBD Clinic Franchise $WEED.ca $CGC $ACB $APH $CRON.ca $HEXO.ca $OGI.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:47 AM on Tuesday, January 28th, 2020

North Bud Farms $NBUD.ca Announces Proposed Terms for the Second Tranche of its Non-Brokered Private Placement and Provides a Corporate Update $CGC $ACB $APH $CRON.ca $OGI.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 6:11 PM on Monday, January 27th, 2020
  • First tranche of the Offering closed on November 6, 2019, at which time the Company issued an aggregate of 1,264 Units for gross proceeds of $1,264,000
  • Accordingly, the Company can issue up to an additional $2,736,000 of Units under the Second Tranche
  • In the context of a regular follow-up communication with Health Canada, representatives of the Company received verbal feedback that the application review is complete and the reviewers do not have any more questions.

TORONTO, Jan. 27, 2020 – North Bud Farms Inc. (CSE: NBUD) (OTCQB: NOBDF) (“NORTHBUD” or the “Company“) is pleased to announce that it is arranging a closing for the second tranche (the “Second Tranche“) of its non-brokered private placement of 10% secured convertible debenture units (the “Units“) of the Company at a price of C$1,000 for gross proceeds of up to C$4,000,000, originally announced on November 6, 2019 (the “Offering“). The first tranche of the Offering closed on November 6, 2019, at which time the Company issued an aggregate of 1,264 Units for gross proceeds of $1,264,000. Accordingly, the Company can issue up to an additional $2,736,000 of Units under the Second Tranche.

Each Unit issued in connection with the Second Tranche of the Offering is comprised of one C$1,000 principal amount of secured convertible debenture (a “Convertible Debenture“) accruing interest at 10.0% per annum, payable semi-annually in arrears until maturity, and 5,556 common share purchase warrants of the Company (each, a “Warrant“). The Convertible Debentures will have a maturity date of 36 months from the date of issuance. In addition, under the Second Tranche, the Company has the right to prepay an amount equal to the 1st year of interest to be earned by issuing common shares at a deemed price of $0.25 per common share (the “Prepaid Interest Shares”) on the 15th day following the Closing Date should the holders of the Convertible Debentures not elect to receive their 1st year interest paid in cash.

Each Convertible Debenture shall be convertible into common shares in the capital of the Company (each, a “Conversion Share“) at a price of $0.18 (the “Conversion Price“) per Conversion Share.

Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a “Warrant Share“) for an exercise price of $0.30 per Warrant Share for a period of 36 months following the closing date.

The Convertible Debentures are direct secured obligations of the Company and rank pari passu in right of payment of principal and interest with all other Convertible Debentures issued under the Offering.

Certain directors of the Company have indicated that they may participate in the private placement. Any such purchase would constitute a “related party transaction” within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (“MI 61-101”). The proposed issuance to directors of the Company would be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of any Units issued to or the consideration paid by such insiders would not exceed 25% of the Company’s market capitalization.

The Company may pay registered dealers (the “Finders“) a cash commission equal to up to 8% of the aggregate gross proceeds from the sale of the Units sold pursuant to the Offering to eligible investors introduced to the Company by such Finders. In addition, the Company will grant warrants (the “Compensation Warrants”) exercisable at the Conversion Price for a period of 24 months from the Closing Date to acquire in aggregate the number of Common Shares equal to 8% of the gross proceeds under the Offering divided by the Conversion Price.

The proceeds of the Second Tranche will be used by the Company for expansion of the Company’s facilities and for general corporate and working capital purposes.

The Convertible Debentures, Warrants, Prepaid Interest Shares (if any), and any Compensation Warrants issued pursuant to the Second Tranche of the Offering and any common shares in the capital of the Company issued on conversion of the Convertible Debentures or exercise of the Warrants or Compensation Warrants will be subject to a statutory hold period in Canada of four months and one day following the closing date in accordance with applicable securities laws. Additional resale restrictions may be applicable under the laws of other jurisdictions, if any.

The securities of the Company have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act“) or any state securities laws. Accordingly, the securities of the Company may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities of the Company in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Amendment to Securities Issued in First Tranche of the Offering

The Company further announces that, in order to ensure equitable treatment of holders, it has decided to amend the terms of the debentures (the “First Tranche Debentures“) and warrants (the “First Tranche Warrants“) issued under the first tranche of the Offering, which closed on November 6, 2019. The Company has amended the First Tranche Debentures to reduce the conversion price to $0.18 per common share and has amended the terms of the First Tranche Warrants to: (a) increase the number of warrants issued per $1000 of principal amount of debenture from 2,000 to 5,556; (b) increase the exercise price from $0.25 to $0.30 per warrant; and (c) extend the expiry date of the warrants from 18 months following the closing date to 36 months following the closing date. The amendments are subject to the final approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE).

Corporate Update

The Company would also like to provide an update regarding the status of its standard cultivation licence application with Health Canada under the Cannabis Act. In the context of a regular follow-up communication with Health Canada, representatives of the Company received verbal feedback that the application review is complete and the reviewers do not have any more questions. Subject to the re-submission of a required foreign police certificate related to one of the foreign directors of the Company, the Company will be in the final queue for receiving its licence. The Company is confident that it will be able to file the certificate promptly; however, there can be no assurance as to the exact timing of the issuance of the licence by Health Canada or whether the Company will receive any final request from Health Canada.

Further to the Company’s announcement regarding its acquisition of certain California-based businesses on November 22, 2019, the Company has proceeded with the issuance of 1,716,000 common shares, at an issue price of $0.25 per share, to an arm’s length advisor to the Company. The shares, which are subject to a statutory hold period as required by applicable securities laws, are based upon the $429,000 cash value of the 3% M&A fee payable to such advisor in respect of the foregoing California acquisitions.

About North Bud Farms Inc.
North Bud Farms Inc., through its U.S. subsidiary Bonfire Brands USA, has acquired cannabis production facilities in California and in Nevada. The Salinas, California 11-acre farm is actively cultivating cannabis in its 60,000 sq. ft. of licensed greenhouse production space. The Reno, Nevada property is located on 3.2-acres of land which was acquired through the acquisition of Nevada Botanical Science, Inc. a world class cannabis production, research and development facility with 5,000 sq. ft. of indoor cultivation which holds medical and adult use licenses for cultivation, extraction and distribution. Through its wholly owned Canadian subsidiary, GrowPros MMP Inc., the company is pursuing a licence under The Cannabis Act, to cultivate in its state-of-the-art purpose-built cannabis production facility located on 135-acres of Agricultural Land in Low, Quebec, Canada.

For more information visit: www.northbud.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (the “CSE“) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements
Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, “forward-looking statements”), including those identified by the expressions “anticipate”, “believe”, “plan”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “should” and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This press release contains forward- looking statements that include, but are not limited to, statements related to the intended use of proceeds from the Offering, and the status of the Company’s licence application with Health Canada under the Cannabis Act. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the risk factors included in North Bud Farms Inc.’s final long form prospectus dated August 21, 2018, which is available under the issuer’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. 

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
North Bud Farms Inc.
Edward Miller
VP, IR & Communications
Office: (855) 628-3420 ext. 3
[email protected]

NORTHBUD $NBUD.ca – Cannabis Industry: 2020 Predictions $CGC $ACB $APH $CRON.ca $OGI.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 5:24 PM on Monday, January 27th, 2020

SPONSOR: NORTHBUD (NBUD:CSE) Sustainable low cost, high quality cannabinoid production and procurement focusing on both bio-pharmaceutical development and Cannabinoid Infused Products. Learn More.

Cannabis Industry: 2020 Predictions

  • Cannabis Legalization Is Going Global
  • Real Medical Testing Will Increase
  • Older Customers Will Expand Their Cannabis Purchases Beyond Medical Use

By: Julie Weed Contributor

Here, industry executives predict top trends for 2020.

Cannabis Legalization Is Going Global

Legalization is growing outside of the United States, and countries that are first to the global marketplace can create sustainable advantages for themselves in their customer base and their funding. Kyle Detwiler, chief executive of Clever Leaves, an international operator with brands, extraction facilities, cultivation operations, and other investments in six countries, says that countries like Colombia and Portugal that have been among the first to legalize cannabis “are poised to continue establishing their global dominance in short order.”

The countries’ first-mover status will also be a magnet for financial interest he said. “There is little doubt that the expanding European cannabis market will make it an attractive investment opportunity,” Detwiler said.

Hemp, the source for CBD in many non-psychoactive products, will expand internationally as well, driven by the CBD’s demand. The CBD market will grow to $2.1 billion in consumer sales by 2020 according to the Hemp Business Journal, with $450 million of those sales coming from hemp-based sources. Puerto Rico’s Department of Agriculture has already reported there will be at least 10,000 acres of hemp cultivated for commercial purposes in 2020

The CBD Product Market Will Mature

CBD is being added to products across the retail spectrum from food to make-up, but with little legal oversight or requirements, the products can easily be mislabeled or ineffective. Clever Leaves chief executive Detwiler says in 2020 CBD standards will begin to emerge based on customer demand. “Consumers are getting more savvy on the benefits of CBD and they will begin to insist on knowing exactly what they are paying for and what they are getting when they purchase ‘CBD’,” Detwiller said.

Consumers will “begin to insist” on CBD standards agrees Bill Thurman, chief executive of Redbird Bioscience a medical cannabis operator and producer of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis for patients in Oklahoma.

Thurman said companies will help the market succeed as a whole if they adhere to high quality standards and agreed-upon guidelines in testing and manufacturing. That kind of rigor is needed to significantly increase the size of the market and only by conducting “science-driven randomized clinical studies, can we shed reliance on anecdotal data to support medical claims,” he said. 

Barbara Goodstein of B GREAT  which produces full-spectrum upscale CBD items expects CBD to be added to even more products like deodorant, hand soaps, throat sprays and nasal sprays. The popularity of the category also creates additional business risks according to Goodstein. “The hype around this space will end up creating applications and uses that make no sense, which will unfortunately diminish the real value of the product,” she said.

Real Medical Testing Will Increase

Until cannabis is taken of the Schedule One substance list, medical research will be challenging to undertake. Still, executives in the industry are seeing some movement in the area. Israel still leads the world in global cannabis research, and Israeli scientists like chemist Raphael Mechoulam, a researcher at Hebrew University and pioneer in cannabis research, are being hired or given research grants by American organizations.

Dr. William Levine, founder and chief scientific officer of CannRx a subsidiary of Izun Pharmaceuticals that develops proprietary medical and recreational products expects companies to use better data, and well-designed clinical trials. His own company is focused on better “bio-availability” which focuses on lower dose products that can offer similar benefits to higher dose products, but with fewer side effects.

Older Customers Will Expand Their Cannabis Purchases Beyond Medical Use

CannRx’s Levine predicts there will be “increased recreational expansion into older populations,” as product quality and more controlled dosing options come to market.

Legislative Action Will Remain Robust

According to Marijuana Moment, as of January 16, there were 975 cannabis-related bills moving through state legislatures and Congress for 2020 sessions.

“We expect to see a lot more regulatory activity in 2020 on both the state and federal levels,” said Redbird Bioscience’s Thurman.

Each state makes its own rules. For example, regarding medical marijuana use, some states have a list of specific ailments that can warrant a recommendation of the substance (states include Florida and New Jersey). In other states the decision to use medical marijuana is entirely between patient and doctor (states include Oklahoma and California.)

States will have more models to look to as they develop their laws and will likely start adopting each others’ best practices. Law makers will start learning more from each other’s experiences and “harmonize” their regulations with each other said Levine. He also believes the federal government could take the first step to legalize medical marijuana.

Matt Anderson, chief executive of Vanguard Scientific, a company that provides service resources for cannabis and hemp botanical extraction, says just the ongoing discussion of legalization and decriminalization will continue to drive market growth.

Multi-state Operators Will Face A Shake-out

Running a cannabis business is expensive, and running a multi-state cannabis business when each state has its own rules to abide by make it hard to achieve economies of scale. Lack of access to traditional sources of capital like debt and equity add to the challenge. This year will see a few multi-state operators (MSOs) fold and sell off their component companies according to Lewis Goldberg, managing partner of  KCSA Strategic Communications“

Most of the MSOs have been run by financial operators Goldberg said, not operational experts, but “with the need to deliver results, that will change.”

Back To Basics

Businesses are focusing on the fundamentals to stay solvent or to make themselves attractive acquisition targets. Matt Hawkins, chief executive of Entourage Effect Capital a cannabis-only private-equity firm that has deployed more than $50 million into 32 companies says companies will â€œmake every effort to be more efficient.” They will still aggressively seek out new customer bases and explore innovation, he said, “but preserving margins will matter.”

Jeff Fallows, president of The Valens Company, says he also expects to see a marked improvement in the underlying fundamentals of the companies themselves. This will be a big year for the companies that execute well on their business plans, he said. Those companies will “emerge as leaders and those will be the ones to watch in 2020 and beyond. â€œ

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestreptalks/2020/01/26/cannabis-industry-2020-predictions/#87768c3f31ff

Discerning fake or deceptive stories has become increasingly difficult over the last four years American Citizens say – SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited $DM.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 2:10 PM on Monday, January 27th, 2020

SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited (TSX-V: DM) A revenue generating small cap A.I. company that NATO and Canadian Defence are using to fight fake news & social media threats. The company announced three $1M contacts in Q3-2019. Click here for more info.

Discerning fake or deceptive stories has become increasingly difficult over the last four years American Citizens say

  • New polls found that 59 percent of Americans state it is difficult to recognize bogus data, deliberately deceptive and incorrect stories depicted as truth, via web-based networking media
  • Another 37 per cent deviated, saying it is anything but difficult to spot

by nitin198

Four years after Russia propelled a digital campaign to upset and impact the 2016 presidential crusade, about 33% of Americans state deceiving stories via web-based networking media represent the greatest risk to the wellbeing of U.S. elections. Half of the population thinks President Trump encourages political race impedance, as indicated by the most recent PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist survey.

A larger part of the American populace says detecting the distinction among certainty and bogus data via web-based networking media is troublesome and gotten more prominent since 2016. Hardly any vibe assures them that tech companies will forestall the abuse of social media to impact the upcoming 2020 elections.

Is misinformation getting more difficult to spot?

The new polls found that 59 percent of Americans state it is difficult to recognize bogus data, deliberately deceptive and incorrect stories depicted as truth, via web-based networking media. Another 37 per cent deviated, saying it is anything but difficult to spot.

Moreover, with the 2020 presidential battle about to get going vigorously, the greater part of U.S. grown-ups said recognizing these phony or misleading stories has gotten progressively troublesome in the course of the most recent four years. That conclusion was shared by 58 per cent of Democrats, 55 per cent of independents and a somewhat lower extent of Republicans at 44 per cent.

The fact that Americans know about the risk of deception is significant. However, it is nonsensical to anticipate that a normal individual should truth check each snippet of data zooming past them as they look through their online networking feeds.

Research has indicated that bogus data disperses quicker than reality via social media. In 2018, an investigation from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology said deception moved multiple times quicker than the reality on Twitter.

Who does the public depend on to be truth’s guardian?

39 per cent of Americans state the news media is liable for reviewing deceiving data. Another 18 per cent state that organizations like Facebook, Twitter or Google are capable. Furthermore, 15 per cent state the government’s essential occupation is to diminish the public’s presentation to deception.

Are the web-based social networking organizations doing what’s needed?

Seventy-five per cent of U.S. grown-ups have little trust in Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube to stop the spread of falsehood. Just 5 per cent of survey responders said they felt “extremely sure” these organizations would forestall the viral spread of bogus stories.

The populace lacks trust in significant social media organizations, notwithstanding tech goliaths; for example, Facebook and Twitter have vowed to find a way to forestall election impedance on their platforms. Facebook, one of the most famous social media platforms, has said it will make a superior showing of expelling deceiving political promotions before the 2020 presidential political decision. Twitter said it will boycott political advertisements inside and out.

Americans are wary that social media organizations will respect these guarantees. Americans additionally realize platforms aren’t doing what’s necessary to stop the spread of falsehood. In May 2018, Facebook made a political promotion file to distinguish and research possibly hazardous advertisements; however, that mechanized framework isn’t immaculate.

Source: https://techsprouts.com/discerning-fake-or-deceptive-stories-has-become-increasingly-difficult-over-the-last-four-years-american-citizens-say/

The Top 5 Tech Trends That Will Disrupt Education In 2020 – The #EdTech Innovations Everyone Should Watch SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 1:40 PM on Monday, January 27th, 2020
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The Top 5 Tech Trends That Will Disrupt Education In 2020 – The EdTech Innovations Everyone Should Watch

Bernard Marr Contributor 

  • One solid indicator that EdTech is big business is the number of billionaires the sector created.
  • According to Deloitte, the Chinese education market should reach $715 billion by 2025 and was responsible for creating seven new billionaires.

The richest was Li Yongxin, who leads Offcn Education Technology that provides online and offline training for individuals who want to take civil service exams, but there were other EdTech business leaders represented. Here we consider the key technologies that underpin the EdTech revolution as well as the top 5 tech trends set to disrupt education in 2020.

Key Technologies that Underpin the EdTech Revolution

A discussion about the top tech trends that will disrupt education must first begin with the technologies that will influence these trends.

Artificial intelligence will continue to fill gaps in learning and teaching and help personalize and streamline education. As students interact with connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices and other digital tools, data will be gathered. This big data and analysis of it is instrumental for personalized learning, determining interventions, and what tools are effective. Extended reality, including virtual, augmented, and mixed realities, helps create different learning opportunities that can engage students even further. Education is increasingly becoming mobile, and educational institutions are figuring out ways to enhance the student experience by implementing mobile technology solutions. Of course, this technology requires a capable network to handle the traffic demands, and 5G technology will provide powerful new mobile data capabilities. Finally, blockchain technology offers educational institutions to store and secure student records.  

Top 5 Tech Trends That Will Disrupt Education in 2020

1.  More accessible education

There aren’t only financial considerations when speaking about how accessible education is. The UN estimates there are more 263 million kids globally who are not getting a full-time education. While there are many reasons for this statistic, such as access to a qualified educational facility, there are also issues with proper materials, learning accommodations, and more. Online learning makes education available to those even in remote areas as well as make it easy to share curriculum across borders. EdTech solutions can overcome many common barriers to a quality education.

Technology can improve access to education. Digital textbooks that can be accessed online 24/7 won’t require transportation to get to an educational facility or library during certain hours. Digital copies are relatively cheap to produce, so textbook fees aren’t as taxing for digital versions as they might be with physical versions that cost more to create. Similarly, translating physical textbooks into all the languages natively spoken is cost-prohibitive for publishers when they are producing only physical copies of books. Digital versions make these translations much more feasible.

Within the classroom, the ultimate accommodation for learning differences is called differentiated learning. This allows students to have learning that is tailored to their personal needs. This and student-paced learning where students can move through and review material at the speed they need is much more feasible when using technology. There are also tech solutions for students who have physical or learning disabilities.

2.  More data-driven insights

Just like it does for other industries, technology can help educational institutions and educators be more effective and efficient. By analyzing the data about how digital textbooks are consumed, or educational technology is used, valuable data-driven insights for how to enhance learning can be attained as well as provide info to make decisions about what tools aren’t effective. Technology, including big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, will also allow for more in-depth personalization of the content for an individual’s learning needs. At the university level, data is no longer siloed into individual department’s Excel spreadsheets but is consolidated at the institution level, so insights can be extracted. With the assistance of data-driven insights to readily see where students need more support and what support is necessary, teachers are freed up to inspire students and change lives.

3.  More personalized education

While a personalized education experience isn’t a novel concept, technology can make achieving it much easier. Today’s classrooms are diverse and complex, and access to technology helps better meet each student’s needs. Technological tools can free teachers up from administrative tasks such as grading and testing to develop individual student relationships. Teachers can access a variety of learning tools through technology to give students differentiated learning experiences outside of the established curriculum.

4.  More immersive education

Extended reality encompassing virtual, augmented, and mixed reality brings immersive learning experiences to students no matter where they are. A lesson about ancient Egypt can literally come alive when a student puts on a VR headset and walks around a digital version of the time period. Students can experience hard-to-conceptualize current-day topics through extended reality, such as walking among camps of Syrian refugees. This technology enables learning by doing. Students are used to using voice interfaces at home when asking Alexa to define a word when doing homework, but this technology can also support learning and improve education in other ways. Chatbots can deliver lectures via conversational messages and engage students in learning with a communication tool they have become quite comfortable with, such as what CourseQ offers. Ultimately, if chatbots can make the learning process more engaging for students and reduce the workload on human educators, their use in education will continue to grow.

5.  More automated schools

Many schools already rely on online assessments that are flexible, interactive, and efficient to deliver. Automation will continue to alter schools as more smart tools get incorporated, including face recognition technology to take attendance, autonomous data analysis to inform learning decisions so teachers don’t need to analyze data as well as help automate administrative tasks. When a student interacts with online technology, they leave a digital footprint that informs learning analytics. But automation will also help control building costs by automatically controlling lighting and heating/cooling systems and to help keep students safe with automated school security systems.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/01/20/the-top-5-tech-trends-that-will-disrupt-education-in-2020the-edtech-innovations-everyone-should-watch/#5dbc43f42c5b

Nearly 80 #crypto projects supposedly backed by #gold SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital $IDK.ca $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 1:13 PM on Monday, January 27th, 2020

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Nearly 80 crypto projects supposedly backed by gold

  • Cryptocurrency projects backed by gold continue to persist, with around 77 of them remaining active right now.
  • Numerous gold-backed coins were launched in the last few years, with the most recent one being Tether’s Tether Gold (XAUt) which saw launch last week.
  • With the popularity of gold on the rise, many speculate whether it might return as the future of money thanks to decentralized technologies.

By: Ali Raza

Everyone in the crypto community has heard Bitcoin’s alternative name of ‘digital gold.’ However, it is worth noting that there are nearly 80 other projects that are active right now, that are backed by actual physical gold.

More and more crypto projects continue to emerge with claims that their assets are backed by physical gold. According to recent data, there are around 77 active projects backed by gold right now, while around 30 others that claimed the same have failed.

Some examples of gold-backed projects that still around include Digixglobal’s DGX, Darico (DEC), the recently-announced Tether Gold (XAUt) Blockstock (BSO), GoldMint (MNTP), GramGold Coin (GGC), AurusGold (AWG), Cash Telex (CTLX), and many others.

Is gold the future of money?

Still, these projects only scratch the surface of the gold-backed altcoins in the crypto industry today, as many others were launched with the same idea in mind, some of which have even managed to fail already. As mentioned, around 30 such projects were launched over the years.

Despite this, many token developers are still not discouraged, and such coins continue to emerge, such as the coins launched by Coinshares, MKS, Blockchain.com, and Tether. Coinshares, headquartered in the UK, supposedly launched a coin backed by $20 million in gold.

Tether, the company behind the controversial stablecoin, USDT, also launched its own Tether Gold (XAUt) only last week, and it already got listed on Bitfinex on January 24th. According to the trading platform, XAUt owners enjoy the benefits of digital and physical assets alike.

The platform claims that this is a way for people to invest in gold without having to worry about issues like limited accessibility or storage costs.

However, some have already questioned projects like these, such as a known crypto supporter, John Paul Koning, who noted that these projects do not charge custody fees, but only redemption and trading fees. Koning wonders whether or not this is sustainable. Some have also questioned whether gold and not Bitcoin might be the future of money once more.

Attempts to pull it off were already made back in 1996 when they failed. Now, with decentralized technology that cryptocurrencies themselves utilize, gold might be getting another chance to take its old place as money in the e-gold form.

Source: https://invezz.com/news/cryptocurrency/nearly-80-crypto-projects-supposedly-backed-by-gold/