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CRYPTOCURRENCIES ARE TURNING MAINSTREAM

Payment businesses have gone through a revolution in the last few years. From blockchain, and FinTech to AI and cryptocurrencies, the world of international commerce is moving faster than ever.

The payment industry of the future is shaped by a mobile device or a computer. It happens at home and on the go. The shop is open 24 hours a day, and customers are demanding more from their platforms than ever before.

In 2019, E-commerce was responsible for around $3.53 trillion in sales, increasing from $2.92 trillion in 2018. By 2022, the global e-commerce is expected to rise to $5.69 trillion. This represents expected growth of 61% over the next three years. The digital marketplace is growing, and the future belongs to the businesses that can stay ahead of the curve.

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CRYPTO VS. FIAT CURRENCIES (PART 1)

Ritva is an international investment project and is constantly working towards bringing investors an extraordinary experience including convenience and safety.

Accordingly, cryptocurrency comes to Ritva as the best mean of payment method. Why? Because cryptocurrencies are numerous and versatile and can be utilized as entirely private bank accounts and payment cards for almost any occasion. They offer a multitude of ways to earn a form of interest with little or no effort and help users protect sensitive data and holdings on the go 24/7.

Borderless Usage

Cryptocurrencies are a borderless means of exchange allowing for instant and cost-effective transactions across the world. There is no waiting, no international fees and no limitations as to who can or cannot send funds to whom or when and where those funds can be accessed. All that is needed is an internet-enabled device like a cell phone and, immediately, someone without access to a banking institution is given an alternative solution with which they can pay bills, earn income, safe-keep their funds, make purchases and conduct business.

Using cryptocurrencies while traveling adds an extra layer of security and can be used as a remote source of emergency funds that can be accessed without an ID, a bank account, credit cards, a wire transfer or even a personal computer device.

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CRYPTO VS. FIAT CURRENCIES (PART 2)

Privacy

Banks and credit institutions, as well as retailers and service providers, obtain and retain too much of their customers’ personal and financial information. On the contrary, cryptocurrency transactions provide an alternative by limiting the amount of transaction data to mere numbers also known as cryptocurrency wallet addresses and transaction IDs confirming that a wallet-to-wallet transaction took place.

A cryptocurrency payment processor acting as a third party will typically require your name (and shipping address for the delivery of physical goods), but the rest of your information will remain private as long as you don’t connect your bank or credit card account and transact solely in BTC and altcoins.

Transaction Fees

You’ve no doubt read your monthly account statements from the bank or credit card company, and balked at the level of fees imposed for writing checks, transferring funds, or breathing in the general direction of the finance houses involved. Transaction fees can take a significant bite out of your assets – especially if you’re performing a lot of transactions in a month.

Since the data miners (remote and separate computer systems) that do the number crunching which generates Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies receive their compensation from the cryptocurrency network involved, transaction fees usually don’t apply.

There may be some external fees involved if you engage the services of a third-party management service to maintain your cryptocurrency wallet, but another one of the advantages of cryptocurrency is that they are still likely to be much less than the transaction charges incurred by traditional financial systems.

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CRYPTO VS. FIAT CURRENCIES (PART 3)

Custody of the assets

In a traditional banking or credit card system, you effectively turn stewardship of your funds over to a third party that can exercise the power of life or death over your assets. Accounts may be closed without notice for infringements of a financial institution’s Terms of Service – requiring you as the account holder to jump through hoops in order to get yourself back into the system.

Perhaps the greatest of all advantages of cryptocurrency is that unless you’ve delegated management of your wallet over to a third party service, you are the sole owner of the corresponding private and public encryption keys that make up your cryptocurrency network identity or address.

Security

Once a cryptocurrency transfer has been authorized, it can’t be reversed as in the case of the “charge-back” transactions allowed by credit card companies. This is a hedge against fraud which requires a specific agreement to be made between a buyer and seller regarding refunds in the event of a mistake or returns policy.

The strong encryption techniques employed throughout the distributed ledger (blockchain) and cryptocurrency transaction processes are a safeguard against fraud and account tampering, and guarantees of consumer privacy.

To sum up, cryptocurrency payments have the potential of creating a more borderless and globalized economy, as well as fighting financial inequality by bringing fast and secured financial services to people without access to a bank. This is a big win for everyone. And this is also why Ritva chooses cryptocurrency over cash for payment.

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CRYPTO VS. FIAT CURRENCIES (PART 3)

Custody of the assets

In a traditional banking or credit card system, you effectively turn stewardship of your funds over to a third party that can exercise the power of life or death over your assets. Accounts may be closed without notice for infringements of a financial institution’s Terms of Service – requiring you as the account holder to jump through hoops in order to get yourself back into the system.

Perhaps the greatest of all advantages of cryptocurrency is that unless you’ve delegated management of your wallet over to a third party service, you are the sole owner of the corresponding private and public encryption keys that make up your cryptocurrency network identity or address.

Security

Once a cryptocurrency transfer has been authorized, it can’t be reversed as in the case of the “charge-back” transactions allowed by credit card companies. This is a hedge against fraud which requires a specific agreement to be made between a buyer and seller regarding refunds in the event of a mistake or returns policy.

The strong encryption techniques employed throughout the distributed ledger (blockchain) and cryptocurrency transaction processes are a safeguard against fraud and account tampering, and guarantees of consumer privacy.

To sum up, cryptocurrency payments have the potential of creating a more borderless and globalized economy, as well as fighting financial inequality by bringing fast and secured financial services to people without access to a bank. This is a big win for everyone. And this is also why Ritva chooses cryptocurrency over cash for payment.

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THE RISE OF EDTECH (PART 1)

With the increasing number of universities and schools shutting down their campuses and moving their learning online to prevent the spread of CoronaVirus, it is time for the EdTech to prove its worth. Before the spread of COVID-19, only a few countries focused on promoting online learning platforms, however, gradually, everyone started to realize the importance of such platforms amid the CoronaVirus outbreak. Now, the question is, is this feasible?

What do experts say?

According to Robert Hsiung, CEO of the Chinese division of the EdTech company Emeritus, “The conversation about educational technologies as an option in the face of a health crisis like this, no longer revolves around whether they work or not, but how quickly and efficiently the technologies can be implemented”. Hsiung added that “there is currently a massive demand for high-quality online experiences; all businesses at all levels are working to create new solutions for online lessons. This is opening the way for the creation of new companies with the potential to become leaders in online education, especially when extraordinary circumstances, such as a health crisis, demand it”.

For Goldie Blumenstyk, senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Once universities develop the ability to meet the needs of their students via remote technology, there is not much reason to return to previous models”. In the same vein, John Katzman commented that “such events are the ones that make the line between face-to-face and virtual educational experiences increasingly tenuous”. But outside of theory, who is developing these educational projects?

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THE RISE OF EDTECH (PART 2)

The EdTech arena

The distance education technology sector has had explosive growth in recent months. In just 3 months, there are 3,000 jobs created in this sector. The investment in the Edtech sector amounts to 18.66 billion dollars globally, counting investors such as Facebook, Matrix Partners, and GGV Capital.

Coursera - one of the most established educational technology suppliers, for example, was already valued at a trillion dollars even before the first coronavirus outbreak. As part of the effort to operate the resource of online education as a global response to the health crisis, it has begun to offer a wide variety of free courses to universities that close as a preventative measure to contain the virus. The universities that register for this online service will have access to the teaching materials offered by Coursera until July 31 of this year, with the option of extensions according to the relevant risk assessments. The students that are enrolled in individual courses up to July 31 will have access to the content free of charge until September of this year.

Today, technical resources are available to maintain not just one or two online classes but to provide the structure for distance education to entire universities. When the health crisis gives way, these structures will remain and mark the step to a breakthrough in the way we deliver learning.

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ACADEMIA - WHERE SCHOLARS MEET

In the world of digitalization, many academics and researchers are becoming increasingly interested in their digital identity. Being proactive about where and how they appear on the internet, it may bring them opportunities for collaboration and valuation contribution to their teaching as well as research work. And one of the biggest academic networking site which allows them to build their profile, to form collaborative partnerships with other researchers, and to ask and answer questions is Academia.edu.

About Academia

Guided by a mission to accelerate the world’s research, Academia.edu aims to make every academic paper ever published available for free online and accessible by anyone in the world. Academia.edu was founded in 2008 in San Francisco by Richard Price who recognized the need for open access of scholarly work while he was a doctoral candidate in philosophy at Oxford University.

An enormous and prestigious community

In 2019, Academia announced that 75 million users had joined the world’s largest platform for free and open access to scholarly research. Over 70,000 new users join the platform everyday. Especially, Academia has been used by academics at 16,271 universities such as the University of Oxford, University of California- Berkeley, New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Undoubtedly, Academia has been doing great in the process of creating a sphere where scholars meet.

Even though this is a huge community with thousands of researches available, it does not mean that any research can be published on the site. In an attempt to build a healthy networking site, Academia has created a list of strict policies for publishing their member’s studies. Fortunately, one of Ritva key researches has been available now on the site.

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ESTONIA - A STARTUP PARADISE

What’s common between Skype, TransferWise and Pipedrive? They are all Estonian startups. With just over 1.3 million people, this tiny central and eastern Europe (CEE) country has become a digital nation in its true sense. There are roughly about 350 startups in Estonia – one for every 3,700 citizens. Surely, the country isn’t lacking in entrepreneurial spirit.

Post its liberation from the Soviet Union, Estonia rebuilt itself from scratch. This offered them the opportunity to focus on the internet and new technologies in their development agenda and become the tech center in Europe. In 2000, Estonia became the first country to declare the internet as a basic human right. The country was also the first to conduct elections online in 2005. Whether you want to pay taxes, set up a business, file a complaint, claim returns, you can do it all online.

Estonia runs itself like a tech startup. Apart from e-government and technology education right from 1st grade, the country is also the most transparent and the least corrupt in the CEE region. Estonia’s economic freedom is regarded as one of the highest in the World and the best in the CEE region.

With so many things going for the country, Estonia has naturally become a European startup hub and a hotbed for companies which are ringing in global acclaim and raising millions of dollars.

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RVCHAIN ON ARXIV

On 28 May 2020, the Ritva blockchain research is accepted and officially published on arxiv.org owned by Cornell University. This university is considered a highly prestigious college not only in US but also all over the world.

Cornell University ranked no. 5 for best colleges for information technology in America and no. 14 among the world’s universities in the 2018 QS World University Rankings. Cornell is a highly rated private university located in Ithaca, New York. It is a large institution with an enrollment of 15,175 undergraduate students. Admissions is extremely competitive as the Cornell acceptance rate is 11%. Popular majors include Biology, Computer Science, and Business. Graduating 95% of students, Cornell alumni go on to earn a starting salary of $64,800.

Arxiv is maintained by Cornell University, one of the top notch University in the US and worldwide

  • No one can deny the reputation of Arxiv academic website. It consists of scientific papers in the fields of mathematics, physics, astronomy, electrical engineering, computer science, quantitative biology, statistics, mathematical finance and economics which can be accessed online.

  • Begun on August 14, 1991, arXiv.org passed the half-million-article milestone on October 3,2008, and had hit a million by the end of 2014.

  • By October 2016 the submission rate had grown to more than 10,000 per month.

The reasons that Ritva submitted their research on Arxiv:

  1. To give readers access to our article, people who do not have access to paid academic journals can read papers on arXiv, too.

  2. To get comments from peers

  3. To claim scientific priority

Our research is:

  • being read and cited early
  • being discussed in the general press
  • being able to claim precedence in case of competing research on hot topics

Learn more: arxiv.org/abs/2006.01758

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RESEARCHGATE - CONNECT THE WORLD OF SCIENCE

Contemporary scholarly scientific research and publishing are characterized by a great number of journals, the swift tempo of publication, and the competitiveness of the funding process. These factors, in conjunction with the extensive adoption of communication via social media platforms in academia, have given rise to a demand for new venues for scholars and scientists to collaborate on, publicize, and share. In response to this demand, Researchgate had been founded.

About Researchgate

ResearchGate, founded in 2008 by physicians Dr. Ijad Madisch and Dr. Sören Hofmayer, and computer scientist Horst Fickenscher, is the professional network for scientists and researchers. Over 17 million members from all over the world use it to share, discover, and discuss research. According to a 2014 study by Nature and a 2016 article in Times Higher Education, it is the largest academic social network in terms of active users. ResearchGate is guided by a mission to connect the world of science and make research open to all.

Reception

A 2009 article in BusinessWeek reported that ResearchGate was a “potentially powerful link” in promoting innovation in developing countries by connecting scientists from those nations with their peers in industrialized nations.

Academic reception of ResearchGate remains generally positive, as recent reviews of extant literature show an accepting audience with broad coverage of concepts.

Strictly site member policy

While reading articles does not require registration, people who wish to become site members (and thereby can upload their paper for review) need to have an email address at a recognized institution or to be manually confirmed as a published researcher in order to sign up for an account. The strict policy helps Researchgate stand-out as a trusted social networking site between others.

RVchain Published in Researchgate

Ritva has successfully listed one of its key researches named RVChain on Researchgate. According to the research, “RVChain takes advantage of trusted execution environment to offer confidentiality protection for transactions, and scale the throughput of the network in proportion with the number of network participants by supporting parallel shadow chains.”

Learn more at: researchgate.net/publication/341833538_The_Ritva_Blockchain_Enabling_Confidential_Transactions_at_Scale

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RVCHAIN on IACR

Recently, RVChain, a key research of Ritva, has been officially published on International Association for Cryptologic Research (or IACR).

About IACR

The IACR is a non-profit organization devoted to supporting the promotion of the science of cryptology. They organize and sponsor three annual flagship conferences, four annual workshops in specific sub-areas, and one symposium:

  • Crypto (flagship)
  • Eurocrypt (flagship)
  • Asiacrypt (flagship)
  • Fast Software Encryption (FSE)
  • Public Key Cryptography (PKC)
  • Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (CHES)
  • Theory of Cryptography (TCC)
  • Real World Crypto Symposium (RWC)

RVChain on IACR

Published on IACR which is the largest venues for Cryptologic of Science, RVChain has proven one key point that is Ritva’s researches is superiority.
Learn more: iacr.org/news/index.php?next=14091

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RITVA - AN INVESTMENT PROJECT FROM PARADISE

Ritva is a financial investment platform established in Tallinn, Estonia, EU by forward thinking professionals in finance and the investment field (Forex,commodities, etc.). And investing in startups is one of Ritva’s three key strategies. But why?

Times have changed for startup businesses and investors. Investing in startup companies was something that was reserved for those with a strong venture capital. However, investors today have gained access to a broader range of investment opportunities. Specifically speaking, more investors are investing their money in startups with a promising future. This has led to an array of benefits for both the business owner and the investor. With that being said, here are 4 reasons why Ritva invests in startup companies.

A Promising Future:
Funding the future is one of the most important things investors can do. This promotes an ever-evolving world by supporting new innovations that have the potential to be revolutionary. Investing in startups means that Ritva can be part of something bigger and allows Ritva to become more involved with the company’s process.

Startups Can Be Really Profitable:
With strategic planning, investing in startups can be a very profitable venture. Paying attention to companies who bring value and are developing new trends are some of the things which Ritva considers when investing in a startup company.

Job Creation and a Boosted Economy:
Another really great benefit of investing in startups is that Ritva has a hand in helping the economy grow in the right direction. Providing support to startup companies means that they are more likely to get off the ground, thus providing jobs for numerous people.

Portfolio Diversification:
It’s never good to put all your eggs in one basket, especially when it comes to investing. No business is secure, and diversifying Ritva’s portfolio means that Ritva can reduce its possibilities of taking a loss and increase the opportunity for a return on investment.

Today, investing in startup companies has become more promising and secure. Without startup businesses, we have no future. Innovative startup companies are propelling the world to the next level and investors have the opportunity to take part in this.

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WHAT DOES RITVA’S VENTURE CAPITAL LOOK FOR IN A STARTUP? (PART 1)

Starting a successful business is not as simple as coming up with an idea and raising capital; VCs hears great ideas all the time. There are many factors that influence our decision to back a business.
Here’s our list of some of the top factors we - Ritva’s VC - consider with every investment opportunity.

Character of the business partners

The people behind an idea or company and, more importantly, their character is extremely important. You could have the best idea in the world, but it might never get off the ground with the wrong team in place. Ritva’s VC wants to see a strong leader with a clear vision for their business and a determination to succeed.

“Their reliability, honesty, potential for a long-term relationship and work ethic all come into play. A team who understands their roles and performs them with love and enthusiasm is very hard to beat. I have to feel completely confident in the abilities as well as the character of the team before investing,” according to one of our experts.

Capacity of the business partners

You can’t just fill startup roles for the sake of creating a team and launching. You need to make sure each person is highly qualified and possesses the ability to take the business to the next level. For example, a CFO with limited financial experience is a disaster waiting to happen, while a CMO with limited marketing experience is a severe handicap.

“There has to be a capable team with potential to grow the business and to carry it to high levels of success,” explains our expert. Experience and past track records play a major role in providing a little more confidence. Building the right founding team greatly increases the odds of securing VC money.

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WHAT DOES RITVA’S VENTURE CAPITAL LOOK FOR IN A STARTUP? (PART 2)

Innovative Products with a Competitive Edge

Every new startup is the Uber of something, and it’s played out.
Let’s be honest here, not every product or business model can be classified as “innovative.” When you really break down what your company does, or what the product is, is it truly innovative? What makes your product different from others on the market? How is it better? How is it worse? or is your business model significantly different from what is out there already.

Our VC are not looking for another company that is doing the same thing as five others on the market. Think this through and make sure the differences of your business are important to the customers/clients and that this “competitive edge” is unique and strong enough to build a high quality business.

Communal benefit

Startups come and go, and while nobody has an exact percentage, most people put the startup failure rate between 80 and 90 percent. The few startups that experience massive success all solve a problem. For example, Facebook made communication easier; Airbnb made travel easier; and Uber made commuting much easier.

Our VC team likes startups that bring value to the community and to humanity in general. Do they solve a large-scale problem? Do they provide a benefit that a large percent of the population will desire to utilize? If the answer to those questions is yes, then they have a much greater chance of attracting interest.

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WHAT DOES RITVA’S VENTURE CAPITAL LOOK FOR IN A STARTUP? (PART 3)

Long-term sustainability

Our VC team deploy millions of euros, wanting multiple times return on that investment. That is why we focus heavily on the long-term sustainability of an idea. If we don’t believe the shelf life is large enough, we simply won’t invest.

“It has to be something with longevity to make it worthwhile from an investor standpoint. A short-term idea might still be viable and profitable, but not typically from a VC point of view,” says our expert.

Financial outlook

We invest to make money. There is no other reason. It’s a business.

Ritva’s VC is no different from other VCs. We always look at the financial outlook of the business, determining when it will start becoming profitable. The deal needs to make financial sense and not tie up money too long. The goal is to recoup the initial investment and re-invest in another project.

Not every opportunity is going to produce overnight returns, and the risk versus the reward is always taken into consideration. While every deal is different, profit potential and the probability of a return on the initial investment is always analyzed heavily.

#ritva #introducingbroker #IB #cryptocurrency #forex #blockchain

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A startup is a startup, does it matter what continent it’s on?

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ON THE SELECTION OF INTRODUCING BROKER PARTNERS (PART 1)

Ritva’s short-term strategy for making profit is to leverage prestigiuos introducing broker (IB) partners, while strengthening our in-house IB group. And we are glad that this has been working effectively, making a huge source of income.

The very first piece that builds up this beautiful picture is our expecting meticulous picking the right IB partners. Our selection criteria are necessarily demanding, for we understand that choosing the right partner is crucial to our success. Among the several factors we take into consideration, the following three are of greatest significance:

  1. Ethical business record
  2. Length of time in business
  3. Commissions
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ON THE SELECTION OF INTRODUCING BROKER PARTNERS (PART 2)

  1. ETHICAL BUSINESS RECORD

The brokerage groups we collaborate with should have consistent and very high moral integrity. The groups should always have our best interests in mind and resolve any customer’s problems in a fair and equitable way.

:round_pushpin:Ritva pays great attention to assuring if there are any disciplinary actions against a broker we are considering. If there are, our experts will have to ask the broker to explain the circumstances before dismissing them from our list. According to our experts, IB groups with a long business history may have a few disagreements or complaints with clients, which are addressed in arbitration, and hence a reparations record is kept. It must be cautioned however, this record may not necessarily reveal the integrity or lack thereof of a firm or an individual. A firm may have a clean record because it is newly registered, but be run by principals and brokers that have entire careers being associated with unethical and disreputable firms that have been permanently barred, suspended or expelled from the industry.

There are so many different cases in the industry. Therefore, it took us 3 years (since 2016) for observation and then decided which IB groups is best for cooperation. This is truly a time-consuming process.

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ON THE SELECTION OF INTRODUCING BROKER PARTNERS (PART 3)

  1. LENGTH OF TIME IN BUSINESS

Most new businesses go out of business in the first 5 years of operation. The attrition rate for IB groups seem to be higher – many lasting less than 3 years. Therefore, we always consider IB groups that have been in business at least 5 years. By this time they have proven their viability and have enough experience to deal with the day-to-day operations associated with the business.

Although the length of time in the industry is not always an accurate way of judging whether an IB group is promising or not, it’s the safest and fastest method to easily exclude an unqualified IB group out of a list.

#ritva #introducingbroker #IB #cryptocurrency #forex #blockchain