Technology

Stead’s Blockchain-Powered Floating Cities of the Future

Published

10 months ago

February 21, 2024

DAVAO CITY, Philippines, Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Stead is an Arbitrum-based DeFi platform (Stead.Builders) that provides liquidity for small marine businesses, fishermen, and fish farmers, most of whom are unbanked or operating in developing countries.

The platform supports numerous types of floating infrastructure, like fishing and transport boats, fish cages, floating docks, and, most impressively, floating houses, hotel rooms, and restaurants.

The platform started when the marine engineering company ArkPad, operating out of the Philippines, wanted to help customers to acquire mortgages for its floating houses.

Getting a mortgage is already difficult enough considering the huge down payments that need to be made, but securing a mortgage for a floating house is another story entirely. Most banks unfamiliarity with unconventional real estate means they pass it over for investment, so ArkPad helped to create the Stead platform in order to decentralize the funding process for floating infrastructure.

From Floating Homes to Financial Aid

While Stead’s initiative for supporting floating houses is tremendously unique, what also sets the company apart is additionally assisting unbanked small businesses in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
In many developing countries, a large portion of the population is bankless or prevented from accessing loans to expand their businesses. Key reasons include banks having excessive regulations, bureaucratic hurdles in account opening, or simply having relatively small amounts of capital available for loans in the first place. Additionally, on an archipelago nation like the Philippines, many banks simply don’t have any branches present on islands where valuable fish, like Yellowfin Tuna, can be found. In such cash-based societies, lack of physical access to a bank simply means going unbanked.

Stemming from these challenges, many developing countries suffer from having highly unbanked populations, a fertile ground for crypto to fill the unused space.

Building Blocks for Floating Communities

Turning its dreams into a reality, Stead offers a solution like no other, providing liquidity to small businesses, including fisherman, through STEAD tokens.

Upon minting STEAD, stables are put into a pool to purchase a particular asset. In this case, let’s say for a fisherman wanting to purchase a fishing boat. Once enough capital has been garnered to acquire this Real-World Asset (RWA), the fisherman can reap their rewards through the token’s ‘lease-to-own’ program, buying back and burning the STEAD tokens that were initially issued to fund them.

Amplifying the company’s uniqueness, STEAD acts as a ticket to reserve time with the asset. The fisherman can lease time with the boat by burning STEAD, and after a greater dollar amount amount have been burned than were initially minted, they will be transferred full ownership of it. Therefore, the token goes beyond being just RWA; it has an intriguing deflationary supply.

Not only does this burning mechanism result in a reduced circulating supply, but another mechanism is built into the minting mechanics. While STEAD has no maximum supply, the minimum cost to mint a token increases by around 11.4% annually, if price drops below that, minting stops. This means that while the token has no maximum price, the minimum price that it can have is constantly increasing, a novel mechanic not seen in any other token.

A Financial and Architectural Revolution

Spearheaded by Stead’s Co-Founder, Mitchell Suchner, Stead is working hard to make financial resources more easily accessible in Southeast Asia.

RWA tokens are an important emerging niche of crypto, and Stead stands to facilitate some of the most important transactions to serve some of the most profitable, and simultaneously under-served communities, but there is more that sets this project apart from others, and that is there long term goal.

During the first stage of operations, the platform intends to focus on the Southeast Asian market, but during the later stages, they plan to partner with small island nations, DAOs, and other organizations to facilitate the construction of whole floating cities.

The idea of building floating cities in national or international waters has been around for a while, called ‘seasteading’ advocates want to create independent floating jurisdictions of self-run communities where crypto friendly businesses can thrive.

Using ships, docks, and floating houses, communities and villages can be built and connected together to share resources such as fresh water, electricity, and fiber optic cables for internet. Far from being a fantasy, the first floating house has already been built in Boracay, Philippines, with some coastal resorts in the country already planning to purchase their own for listings on AirBnB.

Will Stead’s ultimate dream of building an entirely floating blockchain city become a reality? Only time will tell. However, the technology is here, and buoy, it is impressive.

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SOURCE Stead

Technology

Margex Adds RLUSD Stablecoin as Collateral for Trading Crypto Pairs

Published

16 minutes ago

January 1, 2025

Margex announces the listing of RLUSD stablecoin on its platform for all users

VICTORIA, Seychelles, Jan. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Margex, a cryptocurrency trading platform boasting ultra-convenient and user-friendly copy trading, is excited to announce the listing of RLUSD stablecoin on its platform for all users.

Margex exchange is thrilled to be the first crypto platform to include RLUSD stablecoin as collateral for trading different cryptocurrency pairs. This enables its users to have access to reliable, flexible, and secure trading facilities.

Ripple USD (RLUSD) is a stablecoin designed to provide cross-border payment that is efficient and cost-efficient compared to traditional financial systems when carrying out large transactions. Ripple’s new stablecoin (RLUSD) is developed on the XRP ledger and Ethereum network, offering security, deep liquidity for users, and fast transactions as a competitive player in the stablecoin industry.

The Ripple stablecoin (RLUSD) is pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar (USD) to gain stability through a collateralization mechanism using dollar deposits, government bonds, and other cash equivalents to ensure reliable and secure digital currency.

Margex Integrates TradingView to Simplify Market Analysis for Users

Margex exchange also integrates the TradingView charting tool on its platform to elevate users’ trading experience. This tool enables users to access over 100+ technical indicators, 110+ drawing tools, and 17+ chart types without leaving the Margex platform.

About Margex

Margex is a boutique cryptocurrency exchange established in 2019, providing users access to a safe, powerful, and convenient copy trading platform. Margex copy trading makes trading simple yet effective for traders of any experience level. Users of all types can earn a return on their equity by replicating the trades of professional traders with no experience required, while skilled traders can earn income by allowing other users to copy successful strategies.

With a minimum deposit of $10, traders can access all of Margex’s copy trading functionality, as it remains the most user-friendly platform in the crypto industry.

Follow Margex on Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Discord, and YouTube, or join the Margex team.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

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SOURCE Margex

Technology

Rockford Fosgate celebrates its 45th Anniversary and continues to set the standard of excellence in the audio industry

Published

16 minutes ago

January 1, 2025

TEMPE, Ariz., Jan. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Rockford Fosgate (www.rockfordfosgate.com), a global leader in high-performance audio systems, proudly celebrates its 45th anniversary, marking nearly five decades of groundbreaking innovation, customer dedication, and industry leadership. Since its founding in 1980, the company has been at the forefront of audio advancements across mobile, marine, motorcycle, and motorsports platforms.

“We’re excited to celebrate 45 years of serving our customers and shaping the audio industry,” said Zach Luke, President. “This milestone reflects the passion and hard work of our employees, the loyalty of our customers, and the strong partnerships we’ve built over the years. We look forward to continuing this journey into the future.”

Jim Fosgate, the visionary behind Rockford Fosgate, is widely recognized as the pioneer of the car audio amplifier. In the early 1970s, Fosgate and his fellow audio enthusiasts began experimenting with sound reproduction and automotive acoustics, leading to the debut of the first Fosgate Electronics® product at the 1973 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. Soon after, he developed the Punch Equalization circuit and introduced the first car stereo systems to the market. In 1980, with the help of investment partners, Rockford Fosgate officially launched and began revolutionizing the in-car audio experience.

To commemorate this significant milestone, Rockford Fosgate will unveil a series of special collaborations throughout the year. “This anniversary isn’t just about reflecting on our accomplishments; it’s about celebrating the people who’ve been part of our journey,” said Tammy Lowe, Director of Marketing. “We’re thrilled to share our excitement for what lies ahead.”

For more information, please visit rockfordfosgate.com

About Rockford Fosgate
Setting the standard for excellence in the audio industry, Rockford Corporation markets high-performance audio systems under the brand Rockford Fosgate® for the mobile, marine, motorsport, and motorcycle audio aftermarket and OEM market. Headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., Rockford Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Patrick Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: PATK).

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SOURCE Rockford Fosgate

Technology

Oceanfoam Becomes Carbon Positive in 2025: A Huge Milestone for the Sustainable Foam Roller and Workout Mat Brand

Published

16 minutes ago

January 1, 2025

The pioneering brand making foam products with algae and recycled foam has cleaned over 1m+ gallons of water, removed 1.3k+ tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and removed 7.9k+ pounds of plastic from the ocean.

NAPLES, Fla., Jan. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Oceanfoam, an active lifestyle brand committed to sustainability, announces it has achieved a carbon positive status going into 2025. A newcomer in the fitness and wellness industry, the sustainable company is poised to continue simultaneously revolutionizing the fitness industry and helping the planet, making a significant environmental impact and raising awareness. The company designs fitness products made with Bloom algae and recycled material. In addition to foam rollers, Oceanfoam has released workout and yoga mats, wave ball rollers and workout blocks.

By prioritizing sustainability in the development of each item, Oceanfoam has made a significant environmental impact. The brand has cleaned over 1,026,896 gallons of water, removed 1,319.91 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and removed 7,947 pounds of plastic from the ocean. The algae used is harvested from North America’s overabundant supply (due to the rise of global temperatures), thus helping to clean the water and reduce the amount of carbon released into the air.

“We’ve been working on this for a year since we launched and Oceanfoam is now officially carbon positive!,” said Founder Zachary Quinn. “We believe products can be more than objects. Foam rollers live in our living rooms, bedrooms, offices, gyms and workout studios; they need to look good and make you feel good. We set out to design a foam roller that you didn’t have to put in your closet, and now we’ve made it one that you can be proud of.”

Oceanfoam achieved its carbon positive status through the following:

Algae-Based Materials: Producing products with Bloom Materials reduces plastic consumption while capturing carbon and cleaning water through removing algae from the environment.Carbon Offsetting: Partnering with Climate Partner, the team offset the remaining carbon emissions from all of its production and shipping to ensure its operations go beyond carbon neutrality.Ocean Plastic Cleanup: Through collaborations with 4Ocean and Ecodrive, the brand actively contributes to cleaning up plastic waste from the world’s oceans, helping to protect marine ecosystems. With every order, one pound of ocean plastic is removed.

This certification and offset will also add a “Climate Pledge Friendly” badge to all of Oceanfoam’s products on Amazon, alerting consumers of products that have sustainability features recognized by trusted certifications. For more information, visit oceanfoam.com.

About Oceanfoam:
Oceanfoam creates high-quality, durable and beautiful active lifestyle products with algae and recycled materials to create a healthier, cleaner environment – where beauty and function meet sustainability.

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SOURCE Oceanfoam