Australian Central Bank Launches Project Acacia To Explore Wholesale CBDC Benefits

ccn.comОпубліковано о 2024-09-18Востаннє оновлено о 2024-09-18

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)  is exploring the potential benefits of a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). This shift in focus comes after the RBA determined that a retail CBDC would offer limited advantages to the Australian public.

The RBA believes that a wholesale CBDC can significantly improve the efficiency, transparency, and resilience of wholesale markets.

By focusing on wholesale CBDCs, the RBA aims to reduce counterparty and operational risks, enhance transparency and auditability, and lower costs associated with intermediaries and compliance.

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The First Encyclical of the New Pope in Rome, to Save the Common People in the AI Era

New Pope's First Encyclical Aims to Safeguard Humanity in the AI Era On May 25th, Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical, "Magnifica humanitas," a 40,000-word document addressing the profound challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence. Released on the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's "Rerum novarum," it positions itself as a guide for the Church's social doctrine in the AI age. The encyclical's central concern is preserving deep humanity amid rapid technological advancement. It argues technology is never neutral, carrying the values of its creators and users, and warns against building a "Tower of Babel" of technological tyranny versus a human-centric community. Pope Leo XIV criticizes the concentrated, opaque power of tech giants and the "new forms of slavery" emerging in the digital economy, where humans risk being reduced to mere instruments. A significant focus is the military use of AI. The Pope declares traditional "just war" theory obsolete, arguing that delegating lethal decisions to opaque algorithms severs moral accountability. He calls for "disarming AI" from military and economic arms races. The document also warns that deepfakes and information manipulation erode societal trust and rational discourse. Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, present at the Vatican, responded by acknowledging the AI industry's limitations due to commercial and competitive pressures, necessitating external ethical oversight. He emphasized that AI's nature and its interaction with the world are ultimately philosophical and religious questions, not solvable by computer science alone. Olah revealed unsettling findings from his team's research into AI internals, including structures mirroring human neuroscience and evidence of internal states resembling emotions and introspection. The dialogue highlights a pivotal shift: AI is not a passive tool but an entity with emerging "quasi-agency." As creators themselves express unease, science is turning to realms like religion to grapple with fundamental questions about human identity and dignity. The core imperative becomes safeguarding irreducible human qualities—compassion, conscience, free will, and the pursuit of truth—in the face of a potentially more efficient intelligence.

Odaily星球日报1 хв тому

The First Encyclical of the New Pope in Rome, to Save the Common People in the AI Era

Odaily星球日报1 хв тому

On-chain Analyst: Why Are Most Zcash Transactions Still Traceable?

Title: Why Most Zcash Transactions Remain Traceable Zcash, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency launched in 2016, was designed to offer anonymity by hiding transaction details like sender, receiver, and amount using zero-knowledge proof technology (zk-SNARKs). However, in practice, a significant portion of ZEC transactions are still traceable on-chain. The key reason is Zcash's dual-address system. It features transparent addresses (t-addresses), which work like standard Bitcoin addresses with all data public, and shielded addresses (z-addresses) that encrypt transaction details. There are four transaction types with varying privacy levels: fully transparent (t→t), partially shielded (t→z and z→t), and fully private (z→z). Despite its privacy capabilities, most real-world Zcash activity involves transparent addresses, primarily because major exchanges and institutions use them for regulatory compliance. As a result, blockchain analytics platforms like Arkham can track and attribute a substantial volume of Zcash transactions. Arkham reports it has identified entities behind over $420 billion in ZEC transaction volume. Case studies highlight this traceability: the U.S. government holds seized Zcash from a dark web case, visible via its transparent wallet, and individual traders' profitable moves are trackable from purchase to exchange deposit. In conclusion, Zcash's privacy is not inherent but user-dependent. While purely shielded (z→z) transactions remain cryptographically private, the prevalence of transparent address usage makes much of the network's activity traceable. The actual privacy protection offered depends entirely on how users choose to transact.

marsbit47 хв тому

On-chain Analyst: Why Are Most Zcash Transactions Still Traceable?

marsbit47 хв тому

From Power Infrastructure to Token Economy: The 'Seven-Layer Cake' of the AI Industry Chain

From Power Grid to Token Economy: The AI Industry's "Seven-Layer Cake" The AI industry is shifting from a "model-centric" paradigm focused on massive training to a "token-centric" industrial era driven by inference demand. This new phase revolves around the production, distribution, scheduling, and consumption of tokens—the units of computation used by AI agents for every interaction and task. The article proposes a "seven-layer cake" framework for the AI economy: 1. **Power**: The foundational energy source, with competition shifting to securing stable, low-cost electricity. 2. **AIDC (AI Data Centers)**: Large-scale "Token factories." A trend toward smaller, modular, and regionally deployed AI Factories is emerging for efficiency and proximity to users. 3. **GPU**: The core production hardware for tokens. While NVIDIA dominates, competition exists from AMD, ASIC makers, and Chinese chipmakers, with a growing focus on inference efficiency. 4. **LLMs**: The "engines" that generate tokens. The competition is evolving beyond model size to prioritize factors like token cost, inference efficiency, and operational synergy with infrastructure. 5. **Token Distribution**: The "grid" that allocates and rents out compute resources, led by cloud giants and specialized AI-native platforms. 6. **Token Optimization & Intelligent Scheduling**: The critical "brain" layer that intelligently routes tasks (e.g., to local, cloud, or edge models) for optimal cost, latency, and privacy—maximizing the value of each token. 7. **AI Agents & Models**: The end consumers of tokens. The vision involves billions of AI agents working and interacting concurrently, consuming vast amounts of tokens. Currently, the industry faces fragmentation and inefficiencies between these layers. The true "mass adoption era" of AI will begin only when this seven-layer infrastructure is fully integrated and operates as a cohesive, intelligent network—transforming AI from a software tool into a global industrial system spanning energy, hardware, and compute logistics.

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From Power Infrastructure to Token Economy: The 'Seven-Layer Cake' of the AI Industry Chain

marsbit1 год тому

Semiconductors up 78% annually, software down 12% annually: The 'Liquidity Siphon' is playing out within tech stocks

Semiconductor ETFs like SOXX have surged 78.5% year-to-date, while software ETFs like IGV have dropped 12.5%, creating a record performance gap exceeding 90 percentage points. This reflects a major "liquidity suction" within tech stocks, with capital flooding into semiconductors as software faces selling pressure. Driving the semiconductor boom are staggering capital expenditure plans from hyperscalers like Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta, whose combined 2026 capex is projected near $700 billion. This fuels demand for chips, with companies like SanDisk (up 426%), Intel (up 222%), and Micron (up 154%) leading the S&P 500. In contrast, major software firms like Microsoft, Adobe, and Salesforce are all down over 17% year-to-date. The software sector faces a dual challenge: capital is being redirected to semiconductors, and the rise of AI agents like Claude Code threatens traditional SaaS business models, triggering a narrative of AI displacement. Key unanswered questions remain: How long can hyperscalers sustain their massive capex, given potential free cash flow pressures? And will capital eventually rotate back into the deeply oversold software sector? While some analysts warn of a potential semiconductor bubble akin to the dot-com era, the sector's powerful momentum continues, making market timing exceptionally difficult.

marsbit1 год тому

Semiconductors up 78% annually, software down 12% annually: The 'Liquidity Siphon' is playing out within tech stocks

marsbit1 год тому

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