Today’s edition of The Daily showcases the impact of cryptocurrencies on the computer hardware business and the entertainment industry. Weak demand for graphics processing units (GPUs) in the cryptocurrency mining industry has hurt the quarterly performance of Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), while movie star Johnny Depp and hip-hop legends Wu-Tang Clan have separately become part of the broader crypto-ecosystem.
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AMD’s Stock Plunges on Weak GPU Sales
AMD published its third-quarter financial results this week, recording a sharp decline in the sale of GPUs to cryptocurrency miners. The U.S. semiconductor manufacturer said its revenue fell by 6 percent quarter over quarter, sending its stock down as low as 22 percent on Wednesday, before eventually closing down 9.17 percent for the day.
“GPU sales came in lower-than-expected based on excess channel inventory levels caused by the decline in blockchain-related demand that was so strong earlier in the year,” Lisa Su, president and chief executive officer of AMD, said in an earnings call with analysts.
Devinder Kumar, chief financial officer and treasurer of the California-based chipmaker, noted for comparative purposes that blockchain-related sales of GPUs accounted for a “high-single-digit” percentage of third-quarter revenue in 2017. However, he described blockchain-derived revenue for the same period this year as “negligible” at best.
Johnny Depp Partners with Tatatu
Eccentric movie star Johnny Depp has signed a deal with a crypto company, according to the . Depp is said to have agreed to develop and produce film and digital content in partnership with Tatatu, a self-described entertainment platform that incentivizes content consumption by offering digital tokens for views. Back in May, news.bitcoin.com that the startup had started working on a biopic about famed Italian industrialist Ferruccio Lamborghini, starring Alec Baldwin.
“Johnny has the ability to conceptualize material in a way that few can, and is unburdened of conventional industry formulas that dictate the projects that get made, traditionally,” stated Andrea Iervolino, founder of Tatatu. “As we make strides to embrace disruptiveness, Johnny will be a key collaborator with us and we are tremendously excited to back his visions and instincts on stories to bring to life.”
Ol’ Dirty Bastard Coin
A lot of eyebrows were raised earlier this year following claims that a token would be launched under the name of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, the late Wu-Tang Clan rapper. But now it seems that an ODB coin is really about to hit the market. The token presale, now listed on Alt Market, promises that supporters will receive free exclusive merchandise, inside information on upcoming events, and exclusive access to promotions and shows.
“Crypto is very big. The blockchain is one of the biggest inventions of our time. And I don’t want to be out of the party, I want to come into the party,” said the rapper’s son, Young Dirty Bastard, according to . “I have a passion for capital.”
What do you think about today’s news tidbits? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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According to the announcement made by Australia’s leading stock exchange operator, ASX Ltd., it is now ready to replace the Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) that it has been using over the years with a new system powered by a digitized, decentralized and distributed ledger technology.
Exchange’s Upgrade
While blockchain will be replaced with a new system in 2021 in the framework of the company’s upgrade, ASX Ltd.’s deputy chief executive officer, Peter Hiom, refuses to admit that this new initiative is a radically different approach.
Giving his comments about the new system, he :
“We’re not entering the fourth dimension here. It’s a database architecture that lets you do a bunch of things much more efficiently than you can at the moment.”
Nevertheless, the above mentioned CHESS system is still being actively used. Its aim is to make the procedure of transferring the rights of legal ownership of a security from a seller to a buyer easier. Moreover, it is applied for processing monetary transactions that presuppose participation of two parties.
Though CHESS is based on an electronic book register technology, it is obvious that it is aging and sometimes it lacks some capacities to carry out its functions in a way that could satisfy the needs and demands of the today’s financial industry. It is believed that blockchain will make all the processes more efficient and effective.
Benefits of a New System
Hiam explained what benefits the new system would brought. “There is a blockchain that is synchronizing my data store with yours, but the data store itself is a database that exists today,” he said.
According to him, the innovative nature of the system means that the decentralized ledger will allow clients to see ASX’s data. “It’s actually taken an awful lot of risk and cost out of your back office because it is never the case that what you’ve got doesn’t match what I’ve got,” he added.
ASX and Blockchain
Though now it seems like ASX is going to make blockchain its core technology, it is not true. The company views it just as a logical improvement but doesn’t want to go mad about it. Speaking about the technology itself, Peter Hiom noted:
“It’s a very clever architecture, but it is just a database architecture. It doesn’t sound very sexy when you say it that way, but that’s kind of what it is.”
While ASX doesn’t want to be fully associated with this technology, there is a wide range of other institutions and organizations that strongly believe that such initiatives are able to revolutionize and significantly facilitate the process of stock issuance and trading.
For example, just recently TMX Group Limited, a stock exchange operator based in Canada, has applied distributed ledger technology to clearing and settling securities on an integrated platform. Such a move is just one part of a bigger project called the Jasper Research Initiative.
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