An initial coin offering for a cryptocurrency project known as AriseBank has been shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
AriseBank is one component of a broad range of cryptocurrency services being offered by 29-year-old Jared Rice Jr. and 45-year-old Stanley Ford. The pair embarked upon the project in 2017, announcing an ICO toward the end of the year, according to Ars Technica.
The white paper detailing the cryptocurrency asserted that it would bring together the best aspects of capitalism and socialism. “It’s capitalism without the inequality and socialism without the lack of opportunity,” read the document.
There were claims that AriseBank had raised some $600 million in funding for the project, and even celebrity endorsements. However, in the wake of the SEC’s action against the company, it seems that the cryptocurrency has gone down in flames.
The SEC ruled that the AriseBank ICO is a securities offering in legal terms and as such, it should have been submitted to the commission ahead of time. It also said the company’s founders made at least two fraudulent claims while marketing the cryptocurrency.
AriseBank claimed to be collaborating with a financial technology company called Marqeta to facilitate payments using the Visa network. Marqeta has since denied any knowledge of such an agreement in a public statement.
The AriseBank team also professed to have acquired KFMC Bank Holding Company, an FDIC-insured bank, which would allow it to field banking products that other cryptocurrency firms could not. According to the SEC, KFMC is not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Now that cryptocurrency is beginning to hit the mainstream, government bodies are starting to pay closer attention. It remains to be seen what sort of effect this will have in the long term, but there are reasons to welcome this expanded oversight.
AriseBank seems to have been adopting some shady practices, and we’ve seen various other misdeeds pertaining to cryptocurrency in recent months — the wave of ‘malvertisements’ is one way people are abusing the technology. With the authorities taking more interest in its potential for illegal activity, we’ll perhaps see less activity of this kind.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.