Sienna Network Raises $11.2 Million For Privacy DeFi

Sienna networkPrivacy Decentralised Finance (DeFi) company Sienna Network has raised $11.2 million after a private and public sale of its tokens from institutional investors and the expanding Sienna community.

In the private token sale that was 200% oversubscribed and priced at $5 per token, Sienna Network raised $10 million from long-term investors that include NGC, Inclusion Capital, Lotus Capital, FBG, Skyvision Capital and more.

This was followed by a dual public sale at $6 per token that raised $1.2 million on the DaoMaker and Polkastarter exchanges after the company was swamped by huge interest and demand for the Sienna Governance Token. 

Sienna is solving the industry-wide problem of front-running where bad actors hijack future trades on public DeFi blockchains, leading to a demand for DeFi privacy. 

Execution priority on platforms such as Ethereum are driven by transaction fees. A transaction can be preempted by simply introducing a transaction and paying a higher transaction fee and is illegal in regulated financial systems. Hence front-running.

“It has been an extraordinary month and we have hit a super-sweet spot between institutional investment and our community. 

“At times it has felt like starring in The Social Network in the early days of Facebook with pings coming in from everywhere. The future looks so bright, we will have to wear shades,” said Monty Munford, Chief Evangelist and Core Contributor to Sienna Network.

Built on the Secret Network, which is the first blockchain with privacy-preserving smart contracts, and was recently profiled in a seminal TechCrunch piece article on Privacy DeFi, Sienna is a privacy-first and cross-chain decentralized finance platform where the Sienna community can privately swap, lend and convert its tokens into their private equivalent.

“Sienna’s success validates the vision we’ve long shared to bring data privacy to blockchains and decentralized applications. We believe Sienna will be a key pillar of Secret DeFi and help drive mass adoption of a more secure decentralized financial ecosystem,” said Tor Bair, CEO Secret Network.

Sienna was named after the Italian city Siena (Sienna in English), which played a historical role in banking and cryptography as early as 1135 AD when Sienna was an important trading post.

Loans against collateral and interest were offered to Sienna citizens while simultaneously, the world’s original bankers, the Knights Templar, initiated a huge network of money transfer locations so people could deposit money in the Veneto region and travel to places such as Sienna of Venice without the risk of being robbed.

Upon arrival at either destination, merchants could withdraw their money from a Templar location by handing in an encrypted document. The Templars had also invented a unique kind of encryption that would allow people to travel with a document that could only be decrypted by the Templars.

IAS gives Admix In-Play advertising the thumbs-up

IAS independently measures views ability of Admix’s In-Play inventory

IASAdmix, the pioneering In-Play advertising platform that bridges the gap between mobile games and brands, has announced a new partnership with Integral Ad Science (IAS), a global leader in digital ad verification.

This integration with IAS makes Admix the only In-Play advertising company to offer ad inventory that is measured and verified by an independent partner.

Consequently, the quality of Admix’s In-Play advertising is assessed and verified with the same rigour as wider digital inventory. This measurement is enabled by the powerful technology that IAS provides, helping to unlock significant potential across the In-Play category for the entire mobile advertising ecosystem, from brands to mobile game developers.

Admix offers the most advanced, scalable In-Play platform, empowering advertisers to programmatically target and reach highly engaged audiences across billions of hours of gameplay. Until now, however, Admix created its own measurement tools, meaning the industry was unable to invest at scale with the same confidence provided by this integration with IAS.

“This announcement will be ground-breaking not just for Admix, our developers and advertisers, but for the entire category. At Admix, we regularly hear from agencies who recognize that gaming is a huge part of media consumption and want to make video gaming part of their core strategy.

“Until now, they have been hamstrung by a lack of third-party verification. Thanks to IAS and our technology, brands and agencies can now jump in with full confidence and put compelling, premium ad experiences in front of mobile gaming’s 2.5 billion players,” said Samuel Huber, Admix CEO.

Publishers have already experienced stable and sustainable income through Admix’ self-serve platform and no-code SDK, but the partnership with IAS will help increase media quality and buyer confidence. Just as crucially, Admix offers marketers access to superior inventory to gradually reduce their reliance on interruptive advertising, such as interstitials and rewarded video, thereby improving player experience and retention.

“Working with Admix, we’re delivering a critical viewability solution for In-Play advertising that gives marketers the tools they need to invest confidently. By bringing trusted measurement and greater transparency to the high-growth In-Play gaming market, we’re helping brands, agencies, and mobile game developers ensure the quality of their advertising,” said Chance Johnson, Chief Revenue Officer at IAS.

This news signals gaming’s transition from the most popular entertainment activity to dominant media, heralding a transformative moment for the advertising industry as it approaches mobile gaming and its 2.5 billion audience. Powered by Admix’ pioneering technology, In-Play is set to become a dominant media channel for the next decade and beyond.

Erase All Kittens secures $1 million seed investment

Erase All Kittens is for young players, especially girls, to learn how to code

erase-all-kittensAfter reaching 160,000 players in more than 100 countries, the company has raised a $1 million round led by Twinkl Educational Publishing, with participation from first investor Christian Reyntjens of A Black Square family office, including one of the founders of Shazam.

The funding will be used to develop a more gamified version of Erase All Kittens (EAK) teaching HTML, CSS and Javascript – the languages of all websites and web apps – to kids aged 8-12. It will be launched in July and sold to parents and schools worldwide.

EAK’s research shows that 55% of its players are girls and 95% want to learn more about coding after playing. The existing game is currently free and is being used in over 3,000 schools, with traction having increased by 500% since March 2020.

“We’re designing a coding game that girls genuinely love – one that places a huge emphasis on creativity”, said Dee Saigal, co-founder, CEO and Creative Director.

The female-founded team believe that code education tools for children naturally appeal more to boys because the vast majority have been built by men – with many teaching coding in a similar and instructional way.

They carried out two years of R&D resulting in a game that teaches girls and boys as young as eight years olds transferable digital skills, allowing them to create on the web.

“Girls can see instant results as they code, there are different ways to progress through the game, and learning is seamlessly blended with storytelling,” concludes Saigal.

Hardware IT disposal underscores security fears

hardwareAnother day, another report and another scathing censure for the security of the IT hardware industry.

According to a survey  of IT Directors carried out by DSA connect, an IT asset disposal company reveals that 8% have taken a hammer to dispose of IT equipment containing electronic data.   

Moreover, some 12% admit to having submerged it in water to try and destroy the hardware and 18% have used drilling to do this.  The most popular method is shredding (90% of IT Directors have used this), followed by data sanitation software (74%).

DSA Connect’s research suggests that one of the reasons for IT Directors to sometimes take such drastic steps is that 82% said they are concerned about the security issues around the disposal of IT hardware.  

Alarmingly, 10% of IT Directors interviewed described their employer’s knowledge of data erasure and disposal or IT hardware as average or poor.  Some 12% who have carried out data erasure on equipment as part of their jobs, did not receive a certificate of proof for the work done.   

When it comes to their employers disposing of IT tech and hardware, 82% of IT Directors say there is a growing focus on CSR issues, and 24% expect the focus here to increase dramatically over the next three year.  Over half (56%) expect a slight increase in focus here. 

“Our findings shows a real concern amongst IT Directors about the disposal of IT hardware and data.  They are right to be worried because if they get this wrong they could face a huge fine and damage to their reputation,” said Harry Benham, Chairman of DSA Connect.

There are also a number of companies claiming to be professionals in erasing data and IT destruction, but they are not, and they can leave their clients exposed and liable for the mistakes they make.”

Many businesses often find themselves with redundant IT and telecoms equipment. This could be due to periodic equipment refreshes, downsizing or office relocations and closures.

Recovering redundant equipment from across the UK, DSA Connect provides a secure IT asset disposal service utilising a methodology created in partnership with the Ministry of Defence.

DSA Connect’s end of life service allows for the complete removal and data eradication of IT equipment and, depending on the quantity and type of equipment for disposal, DSA Connect offers a rebate of up to 60% on all re-saleable assets. 

DSA Connect commissioned the market research company Pure Profile to interview 50 IT Directors in October 2020.

Treepoints rewards users for lower carbon footprints

Think Airmiles — except Treepoints rewards users for offsetting their carbon footprint, not adding to it

Treepoints

When Anthony Collias and Jacob Wedderburn-Day looked ahead to 2021, one silver lining they could draw from the year was the favourable effect of the pandemic on the climate.

The duo, who met at Oxford University, were already co-founders of a successful startup, but like many businesses faced severe difficulty and uncertainty of what the future would bring.

“From talking to our friends and family, we realised most people are worried about climate change and want to do good for the planet. But it’s knowing where to start that can be daunting”, said Wedderburn-Day.

The solution to this became Treepoints; a subscription service that makes it easy for the individual to live more sustainably. Not only does the startup offset an individual’s footprint, but it’s the world’s first platform to reward users for doing so.

When a customer signs up they can visualise and track their carbon footprint, see the UN-certified projects they’ll be helping to support and join a team plus earn rewards. These rewards take the form of tangible credit that can be spent on the Treepoints green marketplace on eco-friendly brands such as Chillys, Lush, Patagonia and Toms.

Treepoints is not limited to just individual users – businesses can visualise how they are performing in leaderboards across the world, earning rewards together as a company, as well as keeping track of emissions they have offset together.

Treepoint’s aim is to help businesses around the world work towards a greener future, with the ambitious goal of reaching £1 billion by 2030 in support of carbon offsetting projects.

The company partners with certification programs such as Gold Standard to donate to a diverse range of UN certified projects around the world. From renewable energy initiatives to clean water projects and reforestation, every Treepoints member supports a broad portfolio of carbon reduction schemes.

They publish all donations on their Public Impact Ledger, and Treepoints members receive regular updates on the projects they’re supporting through newsletters, emails, gifs and social media.

The company’s mission is to put as much money as possible into fighting climate change – sending 85% of total revenue directly to Gold Standard projects and 10% back in rewards, which is on a par with the best charities worldwide and a higher % than competitors.

Just one month after launch, the company has already been certified as a social enterprise and offset 150 tonnes of carbon. They will track this metric, and others, as they chart the platform’s progress, to gather more data and feedback. With this, they hope to add more features to help users visualise and better understand how they are helping to make an impact in the fight against climate change.