This Cross-Chain Liquidity Auction Platform Just Raised $300k

 From Zero Hedge:

 

 

Poolz, a blockchain platform designed to help promising new crypto projects bootstrap liquidity for their decentralized exchange (DEX) listing, has just concluded its $300,000 seed round and now moves one step closer to revamping the way investors gain access to early-stage investments. 

 

The funding round was led by prominent Tel-Aviv based venture capital firm Aggressor Capital and OMS Capital — an investment firm that specializes in early-stage blockchain startups, including those in the DeFi niche.

 

The announcement comes less than a month after Poolz revealed it had raised an initial $180,000 in a private equity and tokens sale round.

Making Early Stage Investment Accessible

As a decentralized swap launchpad, Poolz enables crypto projects to launch simple decentralized funding pools, allowing investors to quickly and easily purchase project tokens at a specified rate or based on an auction process. 

 

These pools will give nascent DeFi projects granular control over the early distribution of their tokens, allowing these projects to set whether tokens will be released instantly to contributors, or after customized lock-in and vesting period. This allows projects to control their token supply to better manage supply with demand. 

 

Poolz is designed to be open and accessible to investors of all experience levels, making it simple for users to discover and participate in early-stage liquidity auctions by projects they believe in. These investors will be able to see the full specifications of the pool before participating, including the current swap ratio, accepted assets, and distribution schedule — providing a transparent interface that contains all the essential information liquidity providers need.

 

The protocol is powered by the POZ token, an ERC-20 based governance token that provides several benefits to holders, including early access to liquidity pools, as well as access to exclusive pools with better swap ratios. Poolz also plans to support the staking of POZ tokens by Q1 2020, enabling holders to earn rewards by holding their tokens in supported wallets. 

 

Poolz looks set to launch by year end. (Image: Poolz)

 

As per the press release, Poolz plans to use the proceeds if its funding round to accelerate work on its cross-chain support, allowing projects on a variety of blockchains to conduct liquidity actions for their tokens through Poolz.

 

“The funds we raised through this seed round will help us build a better product and serve crypto projects not only on the Ethereum blockchain but also on other blockchains. We will build a cohesive ecosystem that supports both investors and project owners equally,” said the Founder and CEO of Poolz, Guy Oren.

 

The End of the Rug Pull Era

With the recent explosion in interest in DeFi, a huge number of investors have now been exposed to the potential benefits of an ever-growing range of protocols, platforms, and projects that help them manage their own finances.

But this growth has also drawn unwanted attention from scammers, who have taken the opportunity to capitalize on the hype by setting up fake token sales and puffed out projects to separate unsuspending investors from their money with no realistic prospects of success. This has led to the unfortunate development of a huge number of “rug pulls” — which see projects raise funds and simply vanish, or later crash the market by dumping their tokens on investors. 

 

https://twitter.com/Poolz__/status/1320330644229160963

 

With Poolz, projects will be required to deposit their assets to an address controlled by a Poolz smart contract. This smart contract will automatically handle the execution logic of the pool, ensuring all contributors are guaranteed to receive the tokens they purchase. 

 

Beyond this, liquidity providers will be given ample information to assess the quality and prospects of the projects they invest in beforehand, providing the information they need to separate the truly promising options from the duds. 

Rabo: How Much Deeper Down This Particular Rabbit Hole Can We Go?

 By Michael Every of Rabobank

Ongepotchket

The title of today’s Daily takes us past Covfefe and past Malarkey, or another other recent Bidenism. It is a word defined as meaning “complicated, but needlessly complicated. If, when asked how to make an omelette, you start off by telling the person which store to buy eggs at, your description may be ongepotchket.”

Well, things are certainly looking that way if you think about it. If one wanted to plot out a risk-off scenario for the US election ahead of time, it would have gone something like this:

A razor-thin win in lots of key states for either candidate, but perhaps more so for Biden; accusations from critics that the US voting system is not fit for purpose in the 21st century; a contested win marred by public allegations of fraud (timing of ballots received; turnout levels relative to the past and similar geographies; suspiciously partisan mail-in-vote splits; that the Senate stayed Republican and House seats oddly swung against the Democratic trend, etc.); Trump disputing the result and calling some states himself; the Supreme Court getting dragged into it; and multiple recounts ahead, with further arguments over what voting standard would then apply to each ballot, which is both a technical and legal nightmare.

How much deeper down this particular rabbit hole can we go? As we choke on a red and blue pill simultaneously, we are about to find out.

Then consider that if we do indeed get a President Biden, it would be with a Republican Senate determined to do unto Biden on Ukraine-related issues what the Democratic Senate did unto Trump on Ukraine-related issues, and with less of a House majority now to boot. Forget about fiscal expansion, or much of what Biden promised on the election trail (apart from the Buy American part?). No reflation trades for you, just the virus --and lockdowns?-- and hopes for a vaccine. Of course, long-end yields are already pricing that in to some degree and more of that is surely to come. Equities are loving it, of course: no tax hikes, no spending, no legislation – just the same old political-economy that led us to a Trump victory in the first place in 2016. .

Indeed, regardless of the election result, Trumpism, meaning a more nationalist, populist, protectionist foreign and economic policy, is being recognized by many political observers --including Bloomberg!-- as having become rooted in the US. The world may no longer have Trump, though don’t rule anything out just yet in 2020(!), but Trumpism looks here to stay. That means live will stay a lot more ongepotchket for most of us making longer-term plans.

Both points link up when one considers that a President Biden would have to express himself more on the international stage than substantively at home. Here the Senate would again limit his room for action over key appointments. Any secret Biden hopes of nominating China-doves, for example, would clash with a bipartisan consensus on the need to remain hawkish on all the ground staked out so far, and probably more so from the Republican side on the economy; meanwhile, on human rights the Democrats would want to look even tougher too. The volatility in CNY and CNH may just be getting started; and not only in them – we already hear reports Biden is apparently committed to keeping US troops in Syria to ‘challenge Russia’, probably portending a far tougher stance on that geopolitical front too.

Meanwhile, if we assume we are on the glide-path to a Democratic administration, a lame-duck President Trump would still have until 20 January in office, and could well opt to use that time, and existing legislation, to ensure that there really is no chance for US-China détente.

As I said, if one wanted to paint a risk-off scenario, in many ways this is going to look like elements of it.

Of course, against this joyous backdrop, today has both a BOE and an FOMC meeting, the former of which has to take place under a fresh English national lockdown of course.

As Stefan Koopman notes, “Here we go again. This lockdown may have to last longer than the planned four weeks if the infection rates don't fall quickly enough. The impact on economic activity isn’t expected to be as severe as in the spring, but it surely is time for the ‘Economics of Chicken Licken’. We already expected the BOE to boost QE, and this now looks all but a given. We stick to our forecast of a GBP100bn increase, but there is some risk the MPC decides to speed up its purchases, and this would require an even larger envelope. As the risks to the economic outlook will not subside any time soon, speculation on negative policy rates is likely to get louder. That said, we don’t expect that the MPC will provide any guidance at this week’s meeting.”

Meanwhile, on the FOMC Philip Marey notes, “The FOMC meeting decision will take place in a volatile environment, just after Election Day, while the country is dealing with another resurgence of Covid-19. What’s more, we are still waiting for an extension of the fiscal stimulus: the election outcome could determine whether the Fed will have to provide more monetary policy accommodation to offset any shortfall in fiscal policy support to the economic recovery. For Fed Chair Powell there is more at stake than fiscal stimulus in this election week. After all, his first term as Chair expires on 5 February 2022.”

Meanwhile, it’s been a long, sleepless couple of days for many of us. Let’s try to finish with some humor:

A man, born poor, becomes very successful. He decides that he needs some high class art. He goes to an art dealer and asks to see whatever is most “in’’. The dealer shows him a vast white canvas with one black dot in the middle, and says the painting costs $10,000. He buys it, and shows it to a new art-loving friend, who says “This is genius! Such good taste!”

The man gets very excited, and goes back to the dealer to buy another painting immediately. The dealer shows him one with TWO black dots in the middle. The man buys it, and takes it home eagerly, hangs it, and calls his new friend to come see the masterpiece. The friend stares at it for a second, shrugs, and says: “Ongepotchket.’’

Election fixing 2020 headlines Nov 4 2020

Coulter - There Is No Evidence That Any Sizable
Group Of People Want Biden For President

 

Trump Should Deploy ICE To Investigate Democrat
Non-Citizen Illegal Voters In Las Vegas (Clark County)

 

Highest Crimes - Biden Got 100% OF 125,000 VOTES
In WI & MI During Late Night Vote Counting - Impossible

 

Trump & 68 Million Enraged Watching Communist
States Stealing Election With Treasonous Vote Fraud

 

MI And WI Election Officials REFUSE To Explain
Sudden, Absurd Biden Vote Surge - Its Called
Criminal Vote Rigging To Throw The Election!

 

Those Who Count The Votes Decide Everything...

 

Data Error In Arizona Reveals 86% Of The Vote
Was Counted...Not The Reported 98%

 

Trump Assembling Premier Legal Team To Challenge
Obvious Vote Fraud In Close States

 

Communist BLM Terrorists Give America Fair Warning
We Are Going To Fight, We Are In A War

 

Yes, Democrats Are Trying To Steal The
Election In Michigan, Wisconsin, And PA

Deep State Highjacks Election Into Full-Blown
Communist 'Color Revolution'

Kamal Harris Accused Of Promoting Marxism

Remember - Kamal Harris Praises The 'Brilliance'
Of Black Lives Matter And Its Marxist Founders

Tucker Calls Out The Media And
Pollsters...'You Screwed Up'

Hypocrites - Fox News Complains About Huntergate
Censorship While Doing Same To CDC Whistleblower

SCOTUS Leaves - In Place - PA Ruling Allowing
Late Mail Ballots With NO Or ILLEGIBLE Postmarks
And Signatures Don't Even Have To Match

Biggest Vote Fraud EVER? - MI 'Finds' 138,339 Ballots
AND EVERY SINGLE ONE IS FOR BIDEN - Treason

Livid Limbaugh Confident Trump Is Going To Win

Trump Is Poised To Win The Election - But Now
He Has To Stop The Theft Of MI And WI

Millions Of Illegal Non-Citizen Voters Trying To Put
Communist Democrats In Power - Massive Effort
To Steal Election From American Citizens

Voting irregularities managed by private companies

 From Zero Hedge:

Since the year 2000 when hanging chads confused blue haired voters in South Florida, there has been a rush to build the best electronic voting machine.  According to the US Election Assistance Commission, there are a number of registered voting manufacturing companies that are approved to make electronic voting machines.  One of them is Election Systems & Software essvote.com.  According to Wikipedia (which we know is biased.. ) it says:

ES&S is a subsidiary of McCarthy Group, LLC. In 2014, ES&S was the largest manufacturer of voting machines in the United States, claiming customers in 4,500 localities in 42 states and two U.S. territories.^{[citation needed]} As of 2014, the company had more than 450 employees, more than 200 of whom are located in Omaha.

The company is not without controversy.  In fact, there is a long list of controversies you can read about on the Wiki page, but the most disturbing by far is this one:

In a letter sent to Senator Ron Wyden in April 2018, Election Systems & Software made the disclosure that in fact "some" of the election management systems that they sold for voting did have remote-access software installed. This disclosure was made public in July 2018.^[39][40][41] The letter to Wyden had been in response to a question from the senator requesting clarification of the information on remote-access software in the New York Times article.^[41][40]

While election-management systems are not the voting machines voters use to cast their ballots, they are used to program the voting machines used in a county and to count and tabulate the results from the voting machines. By installing remote access software allowing the machines to be accessed via the internet, the machines are vulnerable to being "hacked" remotely..

This is to be expected, but what is interesting is that "Election Source" is not listed on the approved certified website, nor are any of their voting machines approved for use (see the full list here).  Election Source is the company that manages the majority of voting in Michigan.

Michigan officials are looking into the data discrepancies:

A county in the battleground state of Michigan is reviewing the Election Day vote count after the clerk “became aware of apparently skewed results.” Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy learned of the skewed results in unofficial tabulations, the county said in a statement. Since then, her office has been reviewing the results “and the multiple redundancies to search out any possible discrepancies.”  Staff members are working with township officials and Election Source, the company that provides the voting software programs and hardware.

Even biased NBC News reported on the fact that voting machines were made with "Chinese Parts" and open for remote manipulation:

The nondescript name and building match the relative anonymity of the company, more commonly known as ES&S, which has operated in obscurity for years despite its central role in U.S. elections. Nearly half of all Americans who vote in the 2020 election will use one of its devices.  That has led to calls for ES&S and its competitors, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and Austin, Texas-based Hart Intercivic, to reveal details about their ownership and the origins of the parts, some of which come from China, that make up their machines.

If the actual vote count is done by private computer firms - how is anyone to know the real results?  How is a court battle going to change anything, if the results are tabulated and displayed via private computer systems, with no technical audit?

What we do know - after 4 years of being terrorized by the news media, the "Russia Hack" was not a hack at all, but a leak at the DNC.  We don't know who did the leaking or why, if Wikileaks was involved or not.  What we have confirmed in the technical community was the IP addresses listed in the Congressional report were TOR exit nodes.  Anyone can generate their origin from Russia by using TOR, this was confirmed by the preponderance of the repeating subnet, and cross referenced with TOR exit node data, available publicly:

All Tor nodes that make up the Tor network are completely public. You can visit this page to see a list of the current Tor exit node IP addresses. But since the Tor network is run by volunteers, the list of nodes constantly changes — people running old nodes decide to shut them down, and other people start up new nodes. So I used the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to download each historical list of Tor exit nodes available, beginning in September 2014.

I found a total of 7,854 IPs that were, in recent years, Tor exit nodes, and I compared it to the list of 876 IPs that were published with the Grizzly Steppe report. I found 367 IP addresses in common — in other words, at least 367 of the suspicious IP addresses are, or were, Tor exit nodes. And after this story was posted, I was alerted to an even better data set, assembled by the Tor Project’s CollecTor, that showed more Tor nodes: it turns out that 426 of the IP addresses in the Grizzly Steppe report are historical Tor nodes, so it’s actually 49% rather than 42%.

So you see dear ZH readers - just as explained in our books, the world is not as it seems.

Support our journalism - stop drinking and start shopping at UBUY.ME - support a small family business!  

Rabobank On The "Election Meltdown"

 By Philip Marey, Senior US Strategist at Rabobank

Election Meltdown

• The US election results are coming in slowly and are likely to be contested. This will reduce the legitimacy of the president that will be sworn in in January and further fuel the social unrest.

• The difference between a second term Trump and a first term Biden could hyperbolically be characterized as an ‘Emperor’ versus a ‘Prime Minister’. In the US context this means that neither Congress nor re-election concerns will restrict Trump’s foreign and trade policies. In contrast, Biden’s policies both at home and abroad will have to keep a broad and shaky coalition happy and together.

• Foreign and trade policy will remain focused on meeting the challenge of China as the main rival of the US. While Trump will continue his bilateral approach, Biden is likely to return to a multilateral approach. However, both have electoral incentives to be tough on China.

• Fiscal policy will depend on the outcome of the elections for the Senate and the House of Representatives. If the Republicans control one of the two and the Democrats the other, gridlock will continue, no matter who becomes President. This means limited fiscal stimulus and limited changes in tax and spending policies. In contrast, a Blue Wave in Congress and a Biden presidency would lead to a large fiscal stimulus in 2021Q1, tax hikes and heavy federal government spending.

Introduction

The US elections are developing in line with our baseline scenario: the results are coming in slowly and the outcome is likely to be contested. At time of writing, it may still take days before a winner of the presidential elections is announced and we may not know who takes the Senate until early January. At least, it appears likely that the Democrats retain their majority in the House of Representatives.

As the quick and decisive Biden victory priced in yesterday did not materialize, the 10y US treasury yield fell back today. In addition to safe haven flows a large fiscal stimulus is being priced out as the joint probability of a Biden victory and a Democratic Senate has fallen considerably. Since the Democrats are likely to remain in control of the House of Representatives we seem to be heading for two more years of ‘divided government’. This means gridlock and little lawmaking on the domestic front. No big fiscal stimulus near-term and no expansive fiscal policy in the coming years. This means that whoever becomes president will primarily be able to make policy internationally.

As we discussed in Economy or identity? Trump’s support has remained stable and insensitive to economic data or his handling of Covid-19. Instead, for most Trump voters it is identity that matters. And it has also proven a powerful incentive to get out and vote. Hence Trump was right in approaching this election as a ’turnout election’ instead of a ‘persuasion election.’ In contrast, Democrats, the mainstream media and economists continue to believe in the myth that left wing economic policies will bring back white blue collar workers to the Democratic Party.

Red Mirage and Blue Shift

While fair elections are crucial to any democracy, in the US both main political parties show little trust in the elections. Republicans often claim that voter fraud takes place which should be prevented by restrictions to voting. In turn, Democrats assert that these measures are aimed at voter suppression. The problem is that unlike other major democracies, the US electoral process is not organized by a neutral body. What’s more, people are not automatically registered as voters. In fact, the US has a long history of voter suppression that goes back to the nineteenth century when Southern states started to suppress black voters after the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed their right to vote in 1870. And this was voter suppression by the Democratic Party by the way.

President Trump’s assault on voting by mail may also be seen in light of voter suppression. He tried to get his voters to go to the polls instead of mailing in their votes and give him an early lead. This then would put him in a stronger position to claim fraud when the results from the mail-in ballots are announced and give Biden a late boost. Voter suppression is more effective if you know in which pocket you can find more voters of the other party and fewer of your own party. This time it will be in the mail. Therefore we are likely to see a pattern in the election results as they are announced over time. A ‘red mirage’ would give Trump an early lead on Election Night, but a ‘blue shift’ will slowly benefit Biden in the overtime count. While Trump has already announced he will not concede, Biden is likely to wait out the blue shift. In other words, an early concession seems unlikely. In fact, we may not see any concession at all. Instead, the loser is likely to contest the results.

While there are few actual convictions of voter fraud, there are numerous cases of incompetence in the electoral process. Of course, this is damaging to the credibility of the elections. Since this incompetence tends to occur in large cities, run by Democrats, this fuels the Republican claims of voter fraud. Meanwhile, the mutual distrust between Republicans and Democrats are fuelled by America’s enemies. Finally, the rhetoric from both parties about the elections does little to boost confidence in their fairness. President Trump has already decided that the 2020 elections are rigged and he will not accept defeat. Meanwhile, the Democrats have spurred their voters to produce an overwhelming majority to prevent all kinds of nightmare scenarios. In vain as it seems now. How much trust in the fairness of the election outcome are voters supposed to have if this is what the two main political parties are telling them?

As the elections are close we are likely see a lot of market volatility and safe haven flows in the coming days. This against a background of a Covid-19 resurgence and ongoing civil unrest. Since the outcome is likely to be contested, the uncertainty may last even longer. This will only amplify the ongoing civil unrest. No matter who is sworn in as president on January 20, his legitimacy will be challenged. Meanwhile, foreign adversaries such as the Russians, Chinese and Iranians, are likely to amplify the mutual distrust through cyber warfare. As we concluded in Civil unrest, no matter who wins the elections, the turbulence in US politics and society is not likely to pass. In fact, what we are seeing now may be only the beginning.

The Emperor and the Prime Minister

When it comes to foreign and trade policy, the US President has considerable policy discretion. The options for the Senate or the House of Representatives to restrain the President are limited. We have already seen how Trump has shifted US foreign and trade policy during his first term. However, we have to keep in mind that his decisions were taken with his re-election chances in 2020 in mind. If he wins a second term, he will no longer be restrained by this. In other words, we may see a Trump 2.0 who will use the full power of the executive office. Meanwhile, he has reshaped the Republican Party in his own image. Therefore we could hyperbolically characterize Trump’s style of governing in his second term as that of an ‘Emperor’.

This stands in sharp contrast to a Biden presidency. If we look at the primaries then it is clear that Biden’s mandate is limited. He struggled in predominantly white states and was saved by black voters in South Carolina. Biden will have to keep a broad coalition happy and together, ranging from centrists to democratic socialists. In order to carry out the Democratic agenda, he will have to think about the 2022 midterm elections. What’s more, he will have to think of the 2024 elections, if not for himself then for his running mate Kamala Harris. In this sense, Biden’s position and style will be that of a ‘Prime Minister’, the complete opposite of Trump 2.0.

While the US is heavily polarized on domestic topics, there is a broad consensus that China is a problem. According to the Pew Center, the percentage of survey respondents who say they have an unfavorable opinion of China has risen in the last 15 years from a minority to a majority. And this is true of Democrats and Republicans, even though Republicans always score higher than Democrats on this topic. Therefore, foreign and trade policy will remain focused on meeting the challenge of China as the main rival of the US. While Trump will continue his bilateral approach, Biden is likely to return to a multilateral approach. However, both have electoral incentives to be tough on China. Financial markets would welcome Biden’s foreign and trade policies. In contrast, Trump’s confrontational international adventures remain a cause for concern.

Turning to fiscal policy, the outcome of the Senate elections is crucial. After all, decisions about spending and taxation are made by Congress. Biden and a Blue Wave in Congress would make a large fiscal stimulus in 2021Q1 very likely. That would have a positive impact on longer-term interest rates and equity prices. On the other hand, once the economy has recovered it would also bring tax hikes and increased regulation. This would have a negative impact on rates and stock prices. Moreover, Democratic rule would benefit and harm a different set of sectors than Republican rule. For example, infrastructure spending under Biden would focus on clean energy, while his regulation will be aimed at fossil energy.In contrast, if Republicans keep their majority in the Senate (or instead get one in the House of Representatives), Congress will remain divided and gridlocked. This means slow fiscal decision making and limited size fiscal impulses. Only another impending implosion of the economy could get them to another CARES Act. Meanwhile, Republicans are likely to block a Democratic surge in regulation, aided by an overwhelmingly conservative Supreme Court.

Conclusion

We are still waiting for the outcome of the presidential elections and the full results for the Senate. Will the Blue Shift be large enough to overcome the Red Mirage? While markets are trying to discount which combination of president and Senate will prevail – assuming the Democrats remain in control of the House of Representatives – and what this means for asset prices, political instability in the US is rising. The social unrest of 2020 is likely to continue into 2021 and could very well be accompanied by a rise in political violence. This could start to erode consumer confidence and the business climate.