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You’ve heard of ICOs and IPOs, but what’s an STO?

Security token offerings are issued on the blockchain under the supervision of the appropriate authorities. Investors in a security token offering receive shares in blockchain-based companies.

This is not the same as a traditional IPO (initial public offering), in which companies are listed on the stock exchange. Instead, issuers can use smart contracts to launch a new business or expand an existing one. These self-executing legal agreements between two parties are typically stored on public blockchains. This reduces transactional friction, such as price fluctuations, fraud, and regulatory compliance issues.

Security tokens are also used in crypto-fractionalization, which involves tokenizing existing real-world assets. Tokenized real-world assets include real estate, capital markets, commodities, and equity funds.
It is important to note that security token offerings provide the same securities as traditional investment platforms. Tokenization has no effect on the underlying securities. STOs, on the other hand, offer a novel approach to investing.
Polymath is an excellent example of combining the power of blockchain technology and smart contracts to create security tokens (POLY). It provides a platform through which verified investors can participate in security token offerings.

Advantages of a Security Token Offering (STO)

Because proper due diligence and compliance are enforced before they can be issued, security token offerings are extremely secure. Furthermore, most security tokens are linked to real-world assets such as bonds, stocks, funds, or Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), making it easier for potential investors to determine the offering’s fair market value.

Because blockchains are immutable and transparent, all operations of a STO (issuing, trading, purchasing, and selling) are performed on the blockchain, which increases investor trust.

Security tokens are less expensive than initial public offerings (IPOs). Smart contracts eliminate the need for costly legal counsel while also eliminating traditional paperwork and significantly reducing processing time.

Security tokens provide crypto-fractionalization, which is a good entry point for new investors who may not have the capital to purchase an asset all at once. For example, a $1,000,000 artwork can be divided into 1,000 pieces and sold for $1,000 each, allowing everyone to own a piece. Asset fractionalization makes assets more accessible by dividing them into smaller units that more investors can evaluate.

Disadvantages of a Security Token Offering (STO)

One of STOs’ major advantages is also one of its major challenges: regulation. STOs are subject to stringent compliance and regulation, which slows the security token process. Platforms that issue STOs must constantly stay up to date on new and existing Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), listing approvals, and other regulations.

Certain countries’ investor regulations also limit who can participate in STOs. This reduces the investor pool for the STO and the opportunities available to potential investors. STOs can also be costly due to the administrative checks required before issuing the security token.

STOs Can Have a Large Impact on Traditional Securities

STOs have the potential to influence the evolution of traditional securities for real-world assets. The ability of STOs to tokenize almost anything opens up new possibilities for trade and asset-backed securities management.

With the rise of security token exchanges, platforms, and marketplaces, the opportunities for investors are limitless. This provides investors with a wide range of security tokens that are widely available around the world.

Twitter’s new owner has urged his followers to vote Republican.

On Election Day, Elon Musk put himself and his politics front and centre on Twitter.

The world’s richest man began Tuesday by urging his 115 million Twitter followers to vote Republican in the midterm elections. He claimed he was not motivated by Democratic criticism of his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which he completed last month, and his other business dealings.

“While it is true that I have been unfairly and misleadingly attacked by leading Democrats for some time, my motivation here is for centrist governance, which matches the interests of most Americans,” Mr. Musk said.

Mr. Musk’s posts about politics and the midterm elections came after a series of tweets on Monday in which he urged his followers to vote Republican because “shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties.” His remarks were immediately applauded by the right and condemned by the left. Mr. Musk later clarified that he was an independent who would vote for Democrats in the future.

Mr. Musk has defied corporate convention throughout his career, but rarely has a CEO with such a powerful role in political speech so openly expressed his views ahead of an election. Many mainstream internet companies have traditionally attempted to project apolitical stances.

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have previously discussed candidate preferences or donated millions of dollars to political campaigns. They did not, however, pressure people to vote a certain way, as Mr. Musk did by pinning one of his messages supporting Republicans to the top of his Twitter feed. It is impossible to predict how many of Mr. Musk’s supporters will follow his advice.

“With a recommendation of how Twitter users should vote, the billionaire owner of a social media platform putting his thumb on the scales of a major election creates its own risks,” Edward P. Perez, a board member with the nonpartisan OSET Institute, tweeted on Tuesday. Mr. Perez previously oversaw work on civic processes at Twitter.

Mr. Musk’s actions raise more questions about how he will balance his desire for Twitter to be a hub for unrestricted free speech with the need to combat misinformation and hate. The social media platform is being closely scrutinised for how it will fare in combating false information about voting, election results, and other issues during the midterm elections. This is especially true after Mr. Musk laid off roughly half of Twitter’s employees, or approximately 3,700 people, on Friday, prompting critics to question how the site could function effectively.

Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment after tweeting a link to a false story about Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband last month before deleting it.

Twitter, which recently laid off the majority of its communications staff, did not respond to a request for comment.

According to a report released on Monday by researchers at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, “the quality of the conversation has decayed” on Twitter since Mr. Musk’s takeover, as more extremists and misinformation peddlers have tested the platform’s boundaries.

Researchers discovered the presence and influence of misinformation on Twitter in a report released on Saturday by the Election Integrity Partnership, which includes the Stanford Internet Observatory and the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public.

Researchers examined 34 major accounts that had previously spread false information about the 2020 election and discovered “hundreds of false, misleading, or unsubstantiated stories that sowed doubt in election procedures or results.” While seven of the accounts were permanently suspended from Twitter, they were able to continue posting on other platforms, with their posts frequently resurfacing on Twitter via screenshots, according to the researchers.

Common Cause, a pro-democracy advocacy group, said this week that it had flagged several tweets that promoted false narratives, such as that election results that were not announced on Tuesday night were evidence of fraud. According to the group, “it has taken Twitter much longer than normal to adjudicate” whether the posts violated its policies, a process that usually takes less than three hours but remained unresolved after more than three days.

On Tuesday, several major conservative accounts on Twitter continued to spread the myth that tallying delays were evidence of collusion, while also fueling other rumours about technical difficulties in Arizona and elsewhere.

During the midterm elections, some Twitter executives attempted to allay concerns about the platform. Yoel Roth, the company’s head of trust and safety, who oversees content moderation, tweeted last week that about 15% of his organisation had been laid off, compared to about 50% overall.

“Our efforts on election integrity, including harmful misinformation that can suppress voting and combating state-backed information operations,” Mr. Roth wrote.

Mr. Musk has stated that he intends to form a council to make content moderation decisions. He has also stated several times that Twitter’s content policies have not changed, despite the fact that he announced on Sunday that he would permanently suspend any account “engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’” after several people changed their display names and profile photos to match his.

Advertisers are concerned that falsehoods and hate speech will proliferate on Twitter under Mr. Musk. On Monday, a spokesman for the German insurance company Allianz announced that it would suspend its advertising on Twitter for the time being, joining General Mills, Volkswagen Group, and others in withdrawing from the social network.

Mr. Musk has previously expressed his political views. He was once a supporter of President Barack Obama, but he has recently clashed with and mocked Vice President Joe Biden and his administration. After Mr. Musk’s SpaceX rocket company launched four civilians into space on a historic private mission last year, one Twitter user questioned why the president had not recognised the achievement.

Mr. Musk wrote, “He’s still sleeping,” an apparent riff on a common Republican insult directed at Mr. Biden.

Mr. Musk also called Mr. Biden’s White House “not the friendliest administration” onstage at a tech conference in September 2021 after Tesla, his electric automaker, was not invited to a meeting among car executives to discuss the production of electric vehicles. Later in the interview, Mr. Musk stated that the Biden administration was “controlled by the unions.” (Tesla employees are not unionised, and the company has resisted organising efforts.)

Mr. Musk has also stated that he believes the Democratic Party is controlled by “the far left,” and he has sparred on Twitter with progressive lawmakers such as New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Mr. Musk stated in a May tweet that he previously voted for Democrats “because they were (mostly) the kindness party.” “They have become the party of division and hatred,” he added, “so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.”

His political messages on Monday and Tuesday sparked outrage. Democrats, including Mr. Obama’s former chief strategist David Axelrod, chastised the billionaire for his voting approach to “shared power” among the branches of government. Republicans, including candidates for House seats in the midterm elections, on the other hand, used it as a rallying cry.

Mr. Musk alternated between posts about politics and the social network itself on Tuesday.

“Twitter is the worst!” he exclaimed on Twitter. “However, it is also the best.”

Not everyone will be interested in PayPal’s crypto service, but you just might be.

It was disappointing when PayPal originally announced “support” for cryptocurrencies. Users could purchase and sell cryptocurrency, but they were unable to transmit, trade, or use it themselves.

But later, PayPal made it possible to move cryptocurrency from a PayPal account to a real cryptocurrency wallet. Now that that capability is accessible, it’s time to choose whether or not to use PayPal Crypto.

How Does PayPal Crypto Work?

Choose the Finances tab from the PayPal account main page. This is displayed in the banner at the top of the screen of a browser. It is the bottom-most dollar sign on the smartphone UI.

Select Crypto to discover more about Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash and to buy, sell, or exchange it. To purchase, click the buttons directly. To read more, click the articles on the right side of the page.

If you use this interface to purchase cryptocurrency, this page will also show your portfolio’s overall balance and your profit or loss for the day. When you have a balance, you may also use PayPal to transmit cryptocurrency to other wallets by clicking the button for the coins you possess.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Crypto on PayPal

When all you could do with PayPal Crypto was buy and sell, it was only for people interested in cryptocurrency or looking to profit from the markets without setting up a real wallet. However, now that the cryptocurrency can be used in a PayPal account, it is more appealing to a broader range of crypto users. However, not all cryptocurrency users.

The Pros of Using PayPal Crypto

Buying cryptocurrency on PayPal is simpler and faster than on other exchanges, especially if you already use PayPal. If you have money coming into your PayPal account on a regular basis, converting some of it into cryptocurrency is as simple as a few mouse clicks.

Furthermore, because PayPal Crypto began as primarily an educational tool, there are no minimum account balances. Furthermore, the smallest amount you can buy, sell, or send at one time is $1.

Furthermore, PayPal charges transaction fees for purchasing, selling, and sending cryptocurrency. Nonetheless, these are quite competitive, which is advantageous for people who want to transfer relatively small amounts or do so on a regular basis. PayPal also generates better transaction history and reports than other crypto exchanges platforms.

Cons of Using PayPal Crypto

PayPal, as previously stated, only accepts four coins. They are well-known and well-known projects, but there are some very large cryptocurrencies that PayPal does not support. This is a disadvantage if you want to invest in an unsupported coin, diversify your portfolio, or use the tokens one day.

After all, not everyone buys cryptocurrencies in the hopes of becoming wealthy. Some people purchase cryptocurrencies in order to use them in decentralised applications. PayPal, unfortunately, does not permit this. So, if you want to use your cryptocurrencies as cryptocurrencies, you must first transfer them from a PayPal account to a crypto wallet such as MetaMask.

While PayPal Crypto now provides you with a wallet address, it does not provide you with your private keys. According to many cryptocurrency supporters, this means you don’t actually “own” the coins in your PayPal account. Because PayPal has your keys, they can lock you out of your account, delete your coins if they decide to discontinue crypto support, and so on. “Not your keys, not your coins,” as the saying goes in crypto.

Is PayPal Crypto Right for You?

Now that we know how PayPal Crypto works and how it doesn’t, let’s take a look at some of the users who are most likely to benefit from it.

PayPal Crypto could be ideal for you if you:

• Already use PayPal and are interested in cryptocurrency;
• want to get into cryptocurrency but haven’t set up any other wallet accounts;
• If you want to make money with cryptocurrency but do not use decentralised or Web3 apps and services,
• Like to move money in and out of markets quickly and frequently.

PayPal Crypto may not be the best option for you if you:

• Use/trust PayPal with caution.
• Interested in using cryptocurrency in decentralised or Web3 apps and services?
• If you want to buy cryptocurrencies other than the four supported by PayPal Crypto,
• Do you like to HODL your own cryptocurrencies on tech like hard wallets?

PayPal Crypto Could Be a Beneficial Addition to Your Crypto Kit

Even if PayPal Crypto isn’t “for you,” it can be an excellent complement to a more complex and dynamic crypto strategy. You can easily buy cryptocurrency with PayPal Crypto and then send it to a dedicated crypto wallet, which allows you to do things like stake tokens or move coins into cold storage.

If you could only have one wallet, this one might not be it. But there’s no reason why you couldn’t have both.