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Babel Finance: Finance gets $2 Billion valuation to Pave Way for Risk Hedging by Crypto Miners

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 17 June 2022 – Babel Finance, announced late last month that it had secured $80 million in a fresh investment round, valuing the crypto lender and asset manager at $2 billion. Jeneration Capital, Circle Ventures, and 10T Holdings joined current investors Dragonfly Capital and BAI Capital in the Series B investment round. A number of family offices from the Asia-Pacific area also participated in the round, according to Babel.

The valuation shows confidence in Babel Finance from many of the world’s leading investment institutions and investors. With this market support, Del Wang, the Co-Founder and CEO of Babel Finance, is confident in that crypto can be a solid hedging tool to manage market volatility. Crypto miners and mining investors stand to gain.

Low-cost energy prices were formerly the primary focus for the crypto mining sector, but as Bitcoin and other tokens grew more market-oriented and mining becomes increasingly institutionalized, crypto miners require sophisticated financial services to boost asset liquidity and hedge risk.

In the crypto mining industry, there are several essential variables for successful operations, which are:

  • The cost of electricity.
  • The computational power of the entire network.
  • The cost of mining machines.
  • The currency price.

Crypto mining machines and electricity expenses are generally fixed costs. Currently, the market’s financial products are largely geared to cope with currency price swings to decrease risk and boost profits.

High Yield or High Stability

Before selecting a financial product, it is vital to confirm the crypto miners’ requirements for the nature of the financial product.

Crypto mining is a capital-intensive industry. Crypto miners must invest a significant amount of capital in purchasing computing power and paying for electricity. The primary objective of miners employing financial instruments is to hedge the risk of currency price volatility. Thus they want to pay for mining capacity and costs with steady earnings and cash flow.

“Crypto mining has evolved into a mature commercial activity. Pursuing high stability as a commercial activity is not just about maximizing profits,” says Del Wang.

Financial Product Options

Currently, the most common financial instruments on the market take advantage of both up and down movements in the market. Crypto miners are more likely to hoard currency if the present price is low and the future outlook is optimistic. Computers and power bills, on the other hand, must be paid on regular terms. Loans backed by crypto are frequently used by miners in this situation, which is good leverage.

Another strategy is to use futures. If the present cryptocurrency price is high, miners who are pessimistic about future currency prices and will be able to sell future un-produced bitcoins at the current higher price. Miners must select the proper leverage direction according to their liquidity and risk tolerance.

Risk hedging

Hedging is a futures contract in the futures market that buys (or sells) the same commodity in the opposite direction as the spot market, trades in both markets in the opposite way, and loses money in one market while making money in the other. A profitable market exists. To meet the goal of minimizing risks, the amount of loss is about equal to the amount of profit.

The goal of hedging for miners is to eliminate or hedge risk. If miners feel that the current currency price has reached a high level and that the market may tip, they can opt to hedge to lock in gains in advance.

Risk hedging is not without costs. If the forecast for the future market direction is incorrect, and the currency price rises in the future, the benefits from the currency price increase will be lost. However, the pursuit of high risk-reward ratios is not the primary goal of institutional miners. It is critical to lock in benefits early to guarantee that miners can ride out the risk.

Final Thoughts

The cryptocurrency market will continue to be volatile, especially given the Fed’s hiking of interest rates and the uncertain geopolitical situation arising amid the Ukraine crisis, believes Del Wang. No doubt mining competition will be fiercer too. The integration of financial services and crypto mining is an unavoidable tendency in the evolution of the crypto mining sector. Miners must become more self-aware, improve financial management and control skills, and avoid the raw risks associated with carrying large amounts of fixed assets. Miners can’t just go for the highest possible return for financial products. It would be best to consider their liquidity and risk tolerance before deciding on an acceptable leverage direction.

#BabelFinance

OPPO Teams Up with Ericsson and Qualcomm to Accelerate 5G Enterprise Network Slicing Deployment

  • OPPO collaborated with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to realize industry leading milestone of deploying 5G Enterprise Network Slicing Solution for Commercially Available Android 12 Devices
  • Based on an OPPO Find X5 Pro powered by Snapdragon® 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform with Snapdragon X65 Modem-RF System, running Android 12, the 5G enterprise network slicing solution, created with the support of Ericsson Dynamic Network Slicing Selection and 5G RAN Slicing solution, is capable of partitioning mobile apps and network traffic according to different network slices facilitating User Equipment route selection and policy control (URSP)
  • Capable of end-to-end transmission, the 5G enterprise network slicing solution can be deployed by network operators worldwide

SHENZHEN, CHINA Media OutReach17 June 2022 – Global smart device company OPPO today announced the successful testing of a pre-commercial 5G enterprise network slicing solution in collaboration with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies. The creation of the solution marks an important step in realizing practical 5G enterprise network slicing deployment and is designed to be implementable by network operators worldwide.


The three compnaiesrecently demonstrated the pre-commercial 5G enterprise network slicing solution at OPPO’s 5G Communications Lab. During this first demonstration of the solution, OPPO worked closely with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies to achieve connection between the core network, wireless network, and chip module.

Using an OPPO Find X5 Pro powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform with Snapdragon X65 Modem-RF System, running a highly customized system based on Android 12 – ColorOS 12, Dynamic Network Slicing Selection capability from Ericsson 5G Core to support User Equipment Route selection and Policy control (URSP) and 5G RAN Slicing solution, the joint team demonstrated application and network traffic partitioning using the pre-commercial 5G enterprise network slicing solution. This enables the steering of applications and enterprise services with specific requirements to defined slices without switching devices. Under the new solution, apps which are able to access the dedicated network slice are easily identifiable via a small icon displayed next to the main mobile app icon.

“5G enterprise network slicing is the key to realizing 5G-differentiated applications,” said Xia Yang, Senior Director of Carrier Product Line, OPPO, “Based on our company mission of Technology for Mankind, Kindness for the World, OPPO will leverage our strengths in innovation and collaboration across the tech ecosystem to advance the commercialization of 5G enterprise slicing technology. Together with our partners, we will enable a wide range of OPPO product users to be the first to enjoy a customized 5G connectivity experience.”

Monica Zethzon, Head of Solution Area Packet Core at Business Area Cloud Software and Services, Ericsson said: “5G network slicing enables enterprises to meet their network security, reliability and flexibility needs. This solution, created in partnership with OPPO and Qualcomm Technologies and underpinned by Ericssons dual-mode 5G Core and 5G RAN Slicing technologies, provides a foundation for CSPs to deliver more tailored 5G services for enterprises.

“Demonstration of commercial 5G enterprise network slicing is an important step in fulfilling the promise of 5G standalone (SA),” said, Sunil Patil, vice president, product management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Commercialization of slicingwill provide 5G networks tools to customize 5G capabilities as per the needs of the application.”

By partitioning a physical network into multiple virtual end-to-end networks, 5G network slicing can provide independent, customized network resources based on specific needs and use cases, ultimately unlocking a greater number of 5G resources to provide more flexible and effective 5G networks. The conpanies will now step up efforts to finalize ecosystem, device, and network details with a view to commercial deployment.

Commercial network slicing is set to spur new areas of growth in technology

5G network slicing allows independent virtual network slices to be created with different network properties for example latency, bandwidth, security and reliability based on the needs of those connecting to the network. For example, a dedicated network with large bandwidth and low latency can be created for automatic driving applications, providing a higher guarantee that vehicles will receive the level of data accuracy and computing throughput they need to remain safe on the road. Network slices could even be created for specific games or platforms, providing users with more responsive and immersive connectivity that is independent of other traffic on the network. In IoT applications such as smart factories, network slices set up for low latency and high reliability with a large number of connected devices will also help to provide the foundation for smarter operations.

OPPO has been conducting R&D in 5G network slicing together with network operators and other partners for a number of years now. OPPO previously partnered with Vodafone and Ericsson to build the first 5G SA network in the UK at Coventry University, where it also demonstrated the first 5G SA network slicing technology. OPPO has also worked with China Mobile to complete testing and verification of 5G terminal slicing. In the future, OPPO will continue to work with global operator partners to promote the application and implementation of 5G enterprise network slicing, bringing more secure, reliable, and flexible 5G communications to commercial partners and end users.

About OPPO

OPPO is a leading global smart device brand. Since the launch of its first mobile phone – “Smiley Face” – in 2008, OPPO has been in relentless pursuit of the perfect synergy of aesthetic satisfaction and innovative technology. Today, OPPO provides a wide range of smart devices spearheaded by the Find X and Reno series. Beyond devices, OPPO also provides its users with ColorOS operating system and internet services such as OPPO Cloud and OPPO+. OPPO has footprints in more than 60 countries and regions, with more than 40,000 employees dedicated to creating a better life for customers around the world.

#OPPO

Teledyne e2v: Boost dynamic performance of a broadband ADC by some 10 dBFS instantly with spur reduction IP

Benefit from an immediate design-free, dynamic performance gain

  • The new EV12AQ600/605-ADX4 device options now feature an integrated ADX4 license key enabling enhanced dynamics when operating at up to a peak of 6.4 GS/s (single channel mode).
  • ADX4 – a post-processing algorithm compatible with Xilinx Kintex® Ultrascale™ FPGAs delivers up to 10 dBFS of SFDR dynamic spurs reduction and close to 1 effective bit extra resolution in broadband applications.
  • Time-interleaving, whilst providing a conceptually easy to comprehend sample rate boost, is challenging to achieve at extended resolutions and wide bandwidths.


Gain immediate, design-free access to a dynamic boost for the EV12AQ600/5

GRENOBLE, FRANCE – Media OutReach – 17 June 2022 – Teledyne e2v today announces the immediate availability of EV12AQ600/5 models featuring an integrated license key providing direct access to the novel ADX4 post-processing algorithm developed at SP Devices within the Teledyne group of companies. The ADX4 spur reduction IP dynamically attenuates spurious frequency components resulting from gain, offset and phase mismatches between the four ADC cores. Time-interleaving is a trusted architectural approach to boost ADC sampling rates. However, avoiding resulting spectral artifacts with calibration is especially challenging beyond 10-bit resolutions and in broadband applications.

Applied to the EV12AQ600/5, time-interleaving four cores quadruples the sample rate from 1.6 to 6.4 GS/s. The mismatche errors between the ADC coresreduce spurious free performance. ADX4 delivers a spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) boost of up to 10 dB. That boost is particularly noticeable in broadband applications, and as it requires no hardware design changes is available on demand. The ADX4 code module is simply programmed into the post-processing FPGA. A modification that can even be retrofitted in the field.

About ADC time-interleaving

High-resolution data converters are on an upward trajectory to acquire broader instantaneous bandwidths. A theoretically simple method to achieve higher sampling is by applying time-interleaving to existing cores. Here, multiple ADC cores are clocked on different phases of a common sample clock allowing a higher density of samples of a signal to be acquired. This increased sample density offers a useful performance extension and works well with modest resolutions up to 8-bits in which cross core matching is relatively easy to manage through standard mixed signal calibration and circuit layout schemes.

For 10-bit resolutions and above, especially operating into the gigahertz range, it is increasingly hard to ensure matching. As a result, sampling artifacts arise causing distortion and limiting measured dynamic performance. These high frequency mismatch errors are very challenging to mitigate in the analog design domain. Consider that, for a 6.4 GS/s time-interleaved ADC to achieve 72 dB SNR (the theoretical 12-bit maximum) with a 3 GHz input signal, a cross core phase match of better than 12 fs is required.

Thankfully, over the last two decades, the cost of DSP resources has fallen significantly, now making it economically feasible to take an algorithmic approach to spur reduction. Teledyne SP Devices, the home of high resolution ultra-fast digitizers is well versed in mitigation technologies with experience gathered from several decades work on a broad range of industry leading discrete converters.

Unlike a single or multi-point calibration, ADX4 digital error correction can deliver spur suppression even when the errors vary over frequency. Results are such that the unwanted aliasing spurs are suppressed into the noise floor.

Implementing ADX4

It could not be easier to gain ADX4 dynamic enhancements. Via the desired supply chain, customers need only transition their orders across to the -ADX4 options of their EV12AQ600/5 device. Moreover, they need to add the ADX4 module to their Xilinx FPGA code load. Job done.

ADX4 availability

The following component list indicates the current EV12AQ600/5 options shipping today with ADX4 license keys. Customers considering dual channel operation should contact Teledyne e2v directly to discuss the future availability of an ADX2 license key option.

Useful links
Teledyne e2v EV12AQ600/5-ADX4 datasheet
Teledyne e2v EV12AQ600/5 product page
Video link: Learn time-interleaved EV12AQ600 ADC mismatch error correction

About Teledyne e2v

Teledyne e2v’s innovations lead developments in healthcare, life sciences, Space, transportation, defense and security and industrial markets. Teledyne e2v’s unique approach involves listening to the market and application challenges of customers and partnering with them to provide innovative standard, semi-custom or fully custom solutions, bringing increased value to their systems.

#Teledynee2v

About Teledyne SP Devices

Teledyne SP Devices designs and manufactures world-leading modular data acquisition and signal generation instruments. Their products utilize patented calibration logic, the latest data converters, and state-of-the-art FPGA technology resulting in an unrivaled combination of high sampling rate and resolution. Products are available with a range of application-specific features and embedded, real-time signal processing. This helps customers overcome performance bottlenecks, shortens time-to-market, and provides system-level advantages within a wide range of application areas. SP Devices’ products are deployed across a wide variety of industries, including analytical instruments, remote sensing, scientific instrumentation, medical imaging, and more. For more information, visit SP Devices’ website at .

Choco Up launches Choco Payment powered by Stripe to supercharge growth for digital merchants

Choco Up seeks to revolutionise payment processing and unlock seamless funding for digital merchants

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 17 June 2022 – Choco Up, a global technology and financial services platform offering revenue-based financing for digital merchants and startups, today announced the launch of Choco Payment. Embedded with Choco Up’s flagship underwriting capabilities and powered by global financial infrastructure platform Stripe, Choco Payment is an integrated payment solution that provides revenue-based financing of up to US$10 million to businesses with recurring revenues in verticals such as eCommerce and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), among others. With Choco Payment, business owners can access flexible working capital in as quickly as 24 hours to accelerate business growth, while using Stripe Connect to increase payment processing volumes.

A significant impediment for digital merchants in APAC is that they face financial challenges in their quest to build a global presence, often finding themselves facing a substantial funding gap to capture revenue opportunities. Furthermore, many e-commerce businesses lack the tangible assets required to secure loans from banks, who often deem their profiles too risky. Many digital merchants cannot turn to private equity or venture capital either, which tend to invest in disruptive tech sectors – leaving many digital merchants in the lurch. As a result, the success rate of securing private equity funding can be as low as 0.7%.

Additionally, the APAC region has an enormous yet fragmented digital payment market where banking systems, financial regulations, and available payment options are highly localized. Managing cross-border payments has become frustratingly complex, expensive, and time-consuming, with numerous systemic and monetary variances. The abundance of different payment options and lack of cross-usability and prohibitive costs of payment gateways have also played a significant role in hindering the cross-border expansion of digital merchants.

Powered by Stripe Connect, Choco Up now offers Choco Payment, a global payments processing solution embedded with growth funding, helping digital merchants overcome barriers to business growth. The Choco Payment platform integrates Stripe’s multi-currency payment processing capability with a single embedded payment gateway, allows digital merchants to accept online payments in more than 135 currencies across 180+ countries, and manage funds through over 10 different payment methods including credit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers, etc.

“Asia is leading the way in payments and financial infrastructure innovation. We are excited to work with companies like Choco Up who are redefining the future of finance, making funding more easily available for merchants in the region and helping them keep pace with digital transformation trends,” said Paul Harapin, Head of Asia Pacific & Japan, Revenue & Growth at Stripe. “The embedded financing solution from Choco Up will help remove barriers to growth that have stymied Asian digital merchants and open up new opportunities for them to scale their business faster.”

Seamless and efficient growth financing

Choco Payment’s integrated solution provides smooth and accelerated growth funding and analytics; its simple zero-equity funding enables brands and start-ups to unlock market opportunities and growth potential. Clients can quickly onboard Choco Up’s platform and receive funding in as little as 48 hours by directly integrating with companies’ sales and marketing accounts via APIs. With its proprietary database, Choco Up is also offering its smart-growth analytics solution, helping companies aggregate all their data in one place to better identify growth opportunities and business pain points via a seamless, omnichannel experience.

“This partnership platform allows Choco Up to perform best-in-class risk management that troubles many payment processing solutions, such as client onboarding, managing payouts, handling refunds, and reducing chargebacks. The rigorous merchant screening and verification processes will also enhance Choco Up’s current capabilities. Stripe’s machine learning infrastructure for fraud detection and prevention is a valuable addition to Choco Up’s artificial intelligence-driven credit assessment, enabling Choco Payment with enhanced visibility into digital merchants’ finances. With reduced credit risk, we’ll be able to offer digital merchants even better terms,” said Brian Tsang, Co-founder and COO of Choco Up.

About Choco Up

Choco Up is a global technology and financial services platform offering revenue-based financing and global payment solutions for digital merchants and startups. With offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, Choco Up leverages data analytics and machine learning via vast integrations to automate growth fund deployment, providing fast-growing companies with zero equity dilution funding to fuel their growth.

For more information, visit:

#ChocoUp

About Stripe

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies—from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups—use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin, the company aims to increase the GDP of the internet.

For more information, visit:

WHO to Consider Whether Monkeypox a Public Health Emergency 

WHO Director General, Mr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesussaid

The World Health Organization (WHO) will make a decision on whether the Monkeypox outbreak is a world health emergency.

Boom in Skateboarding Builds Community, Lao Style

Participants at Goofy's Skate Jam in March (photo credit: Mon Jester)

A recent boom of skateboarding in Vientiane offers creative, welcoming spaces while reflecting Laos’ resourceful spirit and collectivist values, writes Bridget Dooley.

#bikelikeaboss Promotes Cycling’s Benefits for Health, Environment

Australian Embassy workers cycle as part of the challenge (source: Australia in Laos Facebook page)

#bikelikeaboss encourages cycling as one of a number of healthy options for people and the environment.

Asia Pulp And Paper’s Foopak Bio Natura Expands Global Plastic-Free Mission Into Singapore

Through its flagship brand, Foopak Bio Natura, Asia Pulp And Paper continues to make progress towards its ambitious commitments for a sustainable and plastic-free world.

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 16 June 2022 – It is now easier for food and beverage (F&B) businesses in Singapore to achieve their sustainability goals with Foopak Bio Natura’s range of environmentally friendly and plastic-free food packaging, led by Asia Pulp and Paper.

The Indonesia-based manufacturing company is intensifying its actions to reduce 70% of plastic waste by 2025 and achieve net-zero by 2040 through its Sustainable Roadmap 2030. This year, the company announced that they are expanding into Singapore to provide F&B businesses with the solutions they need to meet their sustainability goals. F&B companies will gain access to a comprehensive suite of sustainable food packaging solutions as an alternative to packaging waste.

Certified Plastic-Free Food Packaging

Foopak Bio Natura holds a plastic-free certification from Flustix, an international plastic-free certification body based in Germany, after rigorous and stringent multi-tiered analytical testing.

In addition, it conforms to the US FDA standards and fulfils REACH requirements for direct food contact whilst addressing plastic waste concerns. OWS Belgium’s testing confirmed that Asia Pulp & Paper’s Foopak Bio Natura food packaging decomposes naturally into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass instead of traditional plastic-coated food packaging, which takes hundreds of years to decompose.

With 400 million metric tons of plastic waste produced annually worldwide, Foopak Bio Natura sets itself apart with not only recyclable and compostable products at both industrial composting facilities but also in the homes of consumers. Asia Pulp And Paper’s comprehensive range of Foopak Bio Natura packaging products can biodegrade fully in the backyards or gardens of homes within 24 weeks – all to support a greener and more sustainable environment.

Good For The People And Planet

In addition to achieving plastic-free certification, all Foopak Bio Natura also offers hard-sized, greaseproof, extensive KIT levels of papers and boards that are oven- and microwave-safe, as well as freezer-safe packaging. These products have also passed ISEGA testing, indicating that they can withstand a temperature of at least 200°C for the duration of heating without chemical migration, ensuring safety for consumption.

The Mission Behind Asia Pulp & Paper’s Launch Of Foopak Bio Natura

As sustainability continues to be one of the highest priorities in the food packaging industry, Asia Pulp and Paper brings a compostable option to one of the most underserved parts of the market. Many food packaging comprises plastic lining in them, even in paper-based containers. This poses a difficulty for recycling centres as they are not equipped with the technology to separate plastic waste from paper ones, and, therefore, send them directly to the landfill for disposal.

Recognising the need and lack of environmentally-conscious packaging against global plastic waste leakage, mostly from food and drink packaging in Asia, Asia Pulp And Paper’s Foopak Bio Naturais primed to combat the rising plastic pollution in the F&B industries across the world.

About Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) Sinar Mas

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) Sinar Mas is a trade name of pulp and paper manufacturing companies that delivers quality products to meet the growing global demand for tissue, packaging and paper. APP Sinar Mas’ products are marketed in more than 150 countries across six continents.

As a sustainable and responsible business, we create products and operate with care for our employees, society and the environment. We do this by leveraging technology and innovation, partnering the community and adhering to international business and operating standards across our production and supply chain.

We subscribe to the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles and our Sustainability Roadmap Vision 2030 guides us in fulfilling our commitment to protect forests, support communities, conserve biodiversity and achieve carbon neutrality across our operations by 2030.


#AsiaPulp&Paper