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Slovenia Govt put 10% tax on Cryptocurrencies while Digital Yen Test by Chinese Bank

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Slovenian authorities are considering introducing a 10% tax that would be applied to earnings from financial transactions that involve Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and other digital assets.

In accordance with the local legislation in force, financial regulators can now investigate, if they deem it necessary, any transaction carried out by an individual and which involves cryptocurrencies. The standard could serve as a basis for subsequently creating a body supposed to monitor crypto transactions carried out by citizens.

The initiative would cover all transactions involving digital assets and involving the purchase or sale by citizens of goods and / or services, as well as the exchange of cryptocurrencies for a fiat currency. The authorities ensure that the amount of tax would not exceed 10% of earnings.

The dedicated site Investing.com specifies that the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (FURS) gave details on this subject during an interview for one of the regional media, stressing in particular that “it is not the income to be taxed but the amount that a Slovenian tax resident receives in his bank account by exchanging his cryptocurrencies for cash and by purchasing goods and / or services โ€.

In recent years, Slovenia has shown itself to be in favor of the implementation on European territory of digital assets and blockchain in general. The crypto index launched by financial research firm CryptoHead ranks it seventh among the listed countries based on their ability to fully realize the potential of crypto assets. The index tracks several elements including Google searches, access to crypto distributors, and applicable legislation.

The digital Yuan: test of Chinese banks

Chinese state-owned banks, Bank of Communications and China Construction Bank, will verify the possibility of using the digital Yuan for the acquisition of financial products in collaboration with asset managers and insurers.

If successful, the e-CNY will receive additional use cases. It is remarkable that initially the project was aimed at facilitating retail payments.

China Construction Bank partners are the Shanghai Tiantian Fund Distribution platform owned by financial services provider East Money, as well as e-commerce giant JD.com. The Bank of Communications did not disclose such information.

At the time of writing, China Construction Bank has processed 28.5 million transactions worth 18.9 billion yuan (about $ 2.9 billion) using the digital Yuan. The credit agency opened 7.23 million digital wallets for retail customers and 1.19 million – for businesses.

The Bank of Communications carried out 6.3 million transactions using the digital Yuan for an amount of 2.5 billion (approximately 387 million dollars).

Previously, China used the Digital Yuan to pay for the cost of delivering goods on futures contracts.

Recall that the โ€œPeople’s Dailyโ€ newspaper announced the plans of the Chinese government to create an international clearing and settlement network for mobile payments using the digital Yuan.

Solana: an attack on an NFT project caused great losses

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Chase Devens, Messari analyst, became one of the victims of a phishing attack on the token issuance of the NFT Aurory Project on the Solana blockchain. The attacker stole cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens from the victims’ wallets. The estimated total loss is over $ 1 million.

It is likely that the hacker cloned the Aurory Project site (app.aurory.io) where the drop was to start on August 31 and posted it to the aurory.app domain.

Also Read: Budweiser boosts the crypto universe, Ethereum price prediction and more

The hacker then started promoting the fake link in Aurory Project’s Discord chat. Following this link, the user saw his wallet absolutely emptied.

One of those who fell into the intruder trap was Devens.

โ€œA friend copied a post from Discord to our Slack channel. I thought he had checked the link and was the first in the group to click on it. The 15,000 Solana and non-fungible tokens were stolen, โ€he explained.

โ€œAurory Project just emptied my wallet through a cyber scam. My life is ruined. But, it’s my fault, I typed on app.aurory, thinking it’s your app, โ€one user wrote.

The attacker’s address temporarily contained over 10,600 Solana worth over $ 1.1 million. He has also obtained several hundred non-fungible tokens, including tokens from the Bold Badgers, SolRock, SolBears and Degenerate Apes series.

โ€œLast night I made a deal with Degenerate Ape Academy with a profit of 70 Solana and felt on top of the world knowing I always had the monkey-NFT Michael Jordan in my pocket. She’s gone forever, โ€added Devens.

At that time, there were 184 tokens left on the hacker’s account. He sold a large part of the assets via Solanart’s NFT platform. The Aurory Project team recognized issues with the start of token minting and allegedly due to server overload, not all users were able to find out more at first. According to them, all non-fungible tokens were sold in 3 seconds.

They also reported that they made a mistake in the smart contract and that users issued tokens worth 1 Solana, not 5 Solana as it was supposed.

Recall that previously, a collector had paid 100 ETH (approximately $ 335,000) for a non-fungible token, which was ostensibly the work of an anonymous artist Banksy. However, a few hours later, he received a duplicate of the token.

South Korea first to oblige Apple and Google to allow third-party payments

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The South Korean National Assembly has approved a bill that would require Apple and Google to allow third-party payments in their app stores.ย Forbes writes about this with reference to The Wall Street Journal.

This is the first such document in the world, the newspaper noted.ย It will become law after being signed by the President of the country.

The law prohibits major app market players from requiring the use of their own payment systems for in-app purchases.

It threatens the revenue of both companies from the commissions they receive on every transaction.

This commission is 30%, but both Apple and Google have reduced it to 15% for small developers who have less than $ 1 million in revenue from their respective app stores.

The law also prohibits app store owners from unreasonably delaying the approval of programs or removing them from the store.

Violation may result in a fine of up to 3% of the company’s revenue in South Korea.

The South Korean law will set a precedent for other regulators, including the United States and the European Union, who also want to take control of large global IT companies, Seoul National University business professor Yoo Ben Chung told WSJ.

Ethereum (ETH): Budweiser boosts the crypto universe, price prediction and more

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Do you know what beer and cryptocurrency have in common? Simply Budweiser. It has made the headlines in recent days, the famous American beer brand seems to be taking a big step in the world of cryptocurrencies: not only is it entering the world of NFTs, but it has even bought an Ethereum domain name. This is the announcement recently made by OpenSea when the firm bought the domain name Beer.eth for the modest sum of 30 Ethers, or about 90,000 dollars at the current price and invested in a work of art. digital art by artist Tom Sachs.

We will tell you all about this!

Also Read:

  1. Solana Price Prediction
  2. Cardano Price Prediction

Beer enters the world of NFTs 

For beer lovers, the news must not have gone unnoticed. Budweiser bought a non-fungible token (NFT) featuring a space rocket with its logo to use as an image on Twitter , and grabbed the beer.eth domain name. 

Tom Sachs, Rocket Factory NFT, Budweiser

The Anheuser-Busch affiliate caught the attention of the crypto community last Wednesday after downloading a Bud-themed rocket as part of artist Tom Sachs’ Rocket Factory NFT project .

According to records from the OpenSea site , the beer producer bought an NFT Budweiser rocket on August 24 for 8 Ether (ETH), or about $ 25,704. The company used the โ€œ Life of the Party, โ€ image of three cans of beer making up the body of a rocket, for its official profile picture on Twitter . 

Tom Sachs, Rocket Factory NFT, Budweiser

She also tweeted three emojis depicting space rockets, often used by meme stock buyers and cryptocurrency fans to signify that an asset “goes to the moon”.

โ€œ Budweiser takes its first steps in the NFT universe. We are delighted to support Tom Sachs and his Rocket Factory project and join this amazing community โ€.

NFTs, those digital assets such as works of art, audio clips, virtual sports cards or even tweets, are linked to blockchain networks and have been booming since the start of the year. . Each NFT is therefore unique and almost impossible to modify or duplicate, making them popular with artists. Simply put, anyone online can see NFTs, but there is only one verified owner of the token on the blockchain.

The purchase by Budweiser and the ensuing profile photo change resulted in an increase in the value of fully assembled rockets from Tom Sachs: Rocket Factory NFT.

What is the Tom Sachs: Rocket Factory project? 

Tom Sachs, Rocket Factory NFT

The Rocket Factory project was launched at the beginning of August and allows anyone to buy parts of an NFT rocket, which they can then create in the real world if all the parts of an NFT rocket are assembled. The physical rockets are then assembled and launched, according to the project ‘s Medium page , the first flights were on August 28. 

Rocket Factory NFT has already released 3,000 branded components for buildable rockets.

โ€œ The Rocket Factory, and all the NFTs it generates, are works of art. These works of art build on the foundation of sculpture and painting that Tom has been making for over thirty years. We are proud to announce the Genesis NFT collection from Tom Sachs โ€.

The NFT collection is a partnership with Tom Sachs , a well-known contemporary sculptor and artist in New York City.

Tom sachs

Small physical reminder: an assembled rocket needs three components, a nose cone, a body and a tail. Each component was sold for 0.15 ETH plus gas.

The components represent popular brands like USPS, NASA, Skippy Peanut Butter, 7-Eleven, Trojan condoms, Sweet ‘N Low, Yoda and Brian from Family Guy and of course Budweiser.

There are 344 rockets for sale on OpenSea with a floor price of 14.8 ETH . The cheapest individual component is on sale at 4.25 ETH. A total of 45 โ€œFrankenrocketsโ€ which feature three components with different logos are for sale with a floor price of 20 ETH.

The company recently shared a rarity chart, showing how many components of each brand were made during the NFT drop. There were 90 of each Budweiser rocket component, meaning 90 fully assembled Budweiser rockets could be assembled if someone bought the components.

Other brands like Coca-Cola and Apple were rarer, with only one copy of each component released, making possible a single hypothetical fully assembled rocket for each company.

Ten physical versions of the built rockets flew over New York City on Saturday, August 28. Other rockets will be launched on other dates.

Budweiser thus paid 8 pieces of ether for the rocket . The beer brewer is also known to have bought out the domain name beer.eth for 30 ether (worth $ 94,000 at the time of writing), under which the rocket and other NFTs are stored on platforms. cryptographic. 

After Visa and Arizona Iced Tea which paved the way

Budweiser is therefore the last major company to date to enter the NFT and crypto space , joining companies like Coca Cola and Marvel. in the creation and sale of these digital assets to consumers. 

Earlier in the week, Visa and Arizona Iced Tea paved the way for NFTs. 

Visa announced that it had paid $ 150,000 for a CryptoPunk Series NFT , while Arizona Iced Tea purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club Series NFT in an attempt to use its digital monkey in marketing.

The change to Budweiser’s profile picture follows Visa’s decision to change its Twitter profile picture to its Visa News account, which has more than 118,000 followers, after purchasing a CryptoPunk. 

Two large companies like Visa and Budweiser that buy NFTs could bring greater institutionalization to the NFT market, whose enduring power has been questioned as some spoke of a bubble.

The popularity of NFTs has grown steadily throughout 2021 and the market shows no signs of slowing down. Nearly $ 1 billion has been spent on NFT across more than 300,000 sales in the past 30 days, according to data from nonfungible.com . We still remember the record sale of the artist Beeple who ignited the web and officially launched the NFT movement. In many sectors such as art or luxury , these non-fungible tokens are thus opening up a new path.

To end this article on an ironic note, in an article published a year ago by our friends at Cointelegraph, titled โ€œIf Cryptocurrency were Beerโ€, they were comparing Bud to Bitcoin for the following reasons:

  • Budweiser, an American lager, is an extremely well-known ale, available in establishments east to west and beyond. It ultimately remains the simple and reliable drink appreciated by many 
  • Bitcoin performs a similar function in the cryptocurrency world. As the first publicly available cryptocurrency, it’s not the most sophisticated and recent thing, but users know what they get when they use it: brand reliability and persistence. 

I hope that at the end of this article you will no longer see the Bud that you have in your hands in the same way (alcohol abuse is dangerous for your health) . Do not hesitate to read regularly the articles on Citytelegraph dedicated to the world of NFT , the revolution has only just begun!

Solana (SOL): The cryptocurrency now unstoppable, price prediction and more

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Solana (SOL) is now one of the largest cryptocurrencies in terms of its value in the market. This is possible thanks to the growing interest that institutions are showing in the digital asset. SOL’s entry into the NFT family and into the world of DeFi has also contributed to this growth.

Progress of over 80%

With a high price to $ 93, the market capitalization of SOL reached approximately $ 26.86 billion which is the 9 th largest market capitalization of cryptomonnaies markets. According to data from Messari , SOL passes Polkadot’s $ 25.7 billion . As of this writing, cryptocurrency has hit a record high of $ 96 and has more than doubled since mid-August.

In a Telegram discussion with CoinDesk , crypto financial services firm Amber Group claimed that “institutional demand for SOL has increased in recent weeks .” In the process, remember that on Tuesday, Osprey Funds registered the Osprey Solana Trust with US regulators to give investors access to the SOL token.

Must Read: Ripple vs SEC lawsuit: What Ripple (XRP) plans to do

โ€œIn general, money has flowed to Ethereum alternatives like Solana, Cosmos, Luna and Avalanche,โ€ says Amber Group . According to the company, the tokens of these smart contract platforms have each risen more than 80% against Ether (ETH) in the past 4 weeks. (Also Read: Elon Musk praised the success of Dogecoin developers)

Nothing will stop Solana (SOL)

Two weeks ago, after the launch of Degenerate Ape Academy , SOL received a strong offer. The start was excellent. Within 10 minutes, a collection of 10,000 unique cartoon monkey images was sold. This helped boost SOL’s value as buyers needed to acquire the cryptocurrency to be successful in their transaction.

Once people bought SOL and experienced the speed and low transaction costs, they became more optimistic, โ€said Packy McCormick , author of the Not Boring newsletter , in a statement. recent essay titled Solana Summer.

In the coming months, continued growth in NFT could boost SOL’s development. According to Anber Group , โ€œthere is a supply crisis and an opacity in price discovery. The price bands are therefore wide โ€.

In the field of decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFT), many cryptocurrencies are gaining more and more popularity. This is the case of Solana (SOL) whose market capitalization allows it to climb into the top 10 cryptocurrencies. The development of this digital asset seems so certain that Noble said, โ€œOther than a market crash, I don’t think anything is going to stop this coinโ€ and he added: โ€œSolana is probably going to be a great platform for DeFi. and NFTs โ€.


Solana Price Prediction 2021, 2025, 2030 | SOL Price Forecast

Solana Past Price Analysis
According to the latest data gathered, the current price of Solana is $110.05 and SOL is currently ranked #8 in the entire crypto ecosystem. The circulation supply of Solana is 290,716,882 with a marketcap of $31,994,546,925.

In the past 24 hours, the crypto has been decreased by -7.62% in its current value. If we compare the current market cap of the SOL with yesterdayโ€™s, you can see that the market cap is also down.
From last 7 days the SOL was in good upward trend and increased by 57.25%. Solana has shown very strong potential lately and this could a be good opportunity to dig right in and invest.

However, after the comparing the current price with past 30 days price history, it is observed that Solana has increased 70.042% in its value. The average minimum price for the month is $27.97 while maximum average price was $32.97. this implies that this coin is a suitable asset and a new addition to your portfolio of coins for long term.

The 90 days price change is around 62.91% and the price circulated from a minimum average price of $34.69 to maximum average price of $43.63 in the past 90 days.

In Last 4 months Solana has shown a growing trend. Thus, we think that similar parts of the market were quite popular at that period. According to the latest data collected, the trading volume of Solana is increased from 4 months. The trading volume constitutes a vital role in its price.
The coin is up by 79.61% with the maximum average price of the coin was around $13.68 and the minimum average price of was around $12.58 in past 4 months.

Solana (SOL) Price Prediction/Forecast for 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2030

At Citytelegraph we predict future Solana price predictions/SOL forecast by applying deep artificial intelligence-assisted technical Analysis on the past price data of Solana. We do our best to collect maximum historical data for the SOL coin which include multiple parameters like past price, Solana marketcap, Solana volume and few more. If you are looking to invest in digital cryptocurrencies and want good return on your investments, make sure to read our predictions.

Solana Price Prediction 2021

According to our deep technical analysis on past price data of SOL, In 2021 the price of Solana is predicted to reach at a minimum level of $119.75. The SOL price can reach a maximum level of $132.31 with the average trading price of $124.21.

Solana Price Prediction 2022

The price of Solana is predicted to reach at a minimum level of $180.84 in 2022. The Solana price can reach a maximum level of $210.24 with the average price of $185.81 throughout 2022.

SOL Price Forecast for 2023-2024

As per the forecast price and technical analysis, In 2023 the price of Solana is predicted to reach at a minimum level of $271.37. The SOL price can reach a maximum level of $309.54 with the average trading price of $280.66.

The price of 1 Solana is expected to reach at a minimum level of $393.74 in 2024. The SOL price can reach a maximum level of $470.32 with the average price of $407.77 throughout 2024.

Solana Price Prediction 2025

Solana price is forecast to reach a lowest possible level of $555.02 in 2025. As per our findings, the SOL price could reach a maximum possible level of $673.84 with the average forecast price of $575.41.

Solana Price Prediction 2026

According to our deep technical analysis on past price data of SOL, In 2026 the price of Solana is forecasted to be at around a minimum value of $854.62. The Solana price value can reach a maximum of $985.10 with the average trading value of $877.64 in USD.

Solana (SOL) Price Prediction 2027

The price of Solana is predicted to reach at a minimum value of $1,252.52 in 2027. The Solana price could reach a maximum value of $1,509.09 with the average trading price of $1,287.62 throughout 2027.

Solana Price Prediction/Forecast 2028

As per the forecast and technical analysis, In 2028 the price of Solana is expected to reach at a minimum price value of $1,806.58. The SOL price can reach a maximum price value of $2,166.13 with the average value of $1,870.96.

Solana (SOL) Price Prediction 2029

The price of Solana is predicted to reach at a minimum value of $2,696.51 in 2029. The Solana price could reach a maximum value of $3,124.99 with the average trading price of $2,771.35 throughout 2029.

Solana Price Prediction 2030

Solana price is forecast to reach a lowest possible level of $3,772.15 in 2030. As per our findings, the SOL price could reach a maximum possible level of $4,586.83 with the average forecast price of $3,910.72.

Ripple vs SEC lawsuit: What Ripple (XRP) plans to do

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In the lawsuit between Ripple (XRP) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), nothing has been decided yet. On the contrary, anything can still happen. Indeed, August 31 is a very symbolic date. It marks the end of the grace period granted by the SEC for submitting withheld documents.

Who is right and who is wrong?

Ripple (XRP) had asked the courts to force the SEC to provide certain internal documents deemed important. However, the institution headed by Gary Gensle did not appear to want to exhibit these documents in public. She used the privilege of the deliberative process (DPP). This device is used by organizations to prevent the disclosure of certain documents or processes that led to the implementation of their policy. In the case of the Ripple (XRP) vs SEC lawsuit , it prevents the former from knowing the reasons for the decision of the latter.

Since the SEC visibly refuses to comply with Judge Sarah Netburn’s demands , all eyes are on her. Indeed, given the significant importance of this lawsuit for the cryptocurrency industry, the judge will have to go to the end and she could explore the possibility of pronouncing financial sanctions .

Having said that, we are still a long way from the sanctions stage. Currently, the court still needs to give the SEC a fair hearing to prove the reasons why it deserves protection by the DPP. For its part, Ripple (XRP) must demonstrate why the SEC does not deserve to benefit from this procedure.

Ripple Labs approaches

Following its August 27 statement , Ripple (XRP) wants to know if SEC members ever bought XRP or other digital assets before January 2018. Everything suggests that Matthew Solomon, a lawyer for Ripple , will ask staff of the institution to learn about its activities over the past six years in relation to investments in digital assets.

If, as a result of investigations, it turns out that the SEC has not put in place any restrictions on buying or trading digital currencies within the organization, Ripple could get ahead of the curve. the litigation. Indeed, it would prove that the organization was unorganized and did not have a predefined plan for the cryptocurrency industry before taking Ripple Labs to court.

Separately, Ripple will attempt to find out whether William Hinman, the former director of the SEC, in any way influenced the entity’s decision to accept or reject Bitcoin exchanges (BTC ) and Ethereum (ETH) among its employees in 2018.

The entire cryptocurrency industry is following the SEC versus Ripple (XRP) lawsuit very closely . For good reason, there are several other electronic currencies that have the same status as XRP. The outcome of the lawsuit will serve as case law and may disrupt their course, if XRP loses the lawsuit.

South Korea is taking action against the dominance of Google and Apple in the app market

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South Korea’s parliament has passed a law to restrict the market power of large tech companies like Apple and Google.

The law is intended to prevent the operators of app marketplaces from imposing their payment systems for in-app purchases on software developers. It also forbids them to postpone the approval of apps or to delete them on their digital distribution platforms without a valid reason. The relevant amendment to the Telecommunications Business Law was passed by the National Assembly in Seoul on Tuesday.

The amendment has yet to be signed by President Moon Jae In. South Korea would be the first country to introduce such legal restrictions on tech companies‘ in-app sales policies. Observers assume that the procedure could serve as a model for similar legislative initiatives in other countries.

Apple and Google had fought the proposed law in South Korea for months because they believed it would jeopardize their lucrative app business. According to the “New York Times”, the companies had turned directly to MPs and government officials to prevent the decision. The law therefore forces app store operators to let users choose which payment system they choose to make in-app purchases. In addition, they can no longer prevent developers from offering their products on other app marketplaces.

Similar to the case of the EU’s plans for new rules in the digital business, Apple had criticized that the law in South Korea could undermine the measures to protect users. Like the EU Commission, which presented its digital package in December, South Korea wants to enable more competition through the law. Apple last published a paper on the dangers of other app sources in June.

South Korea is the first large country to set such requirements – although there is worldwide criticism that the two dominant operating system providers charge fees of up to 30 percent of the turnover generated by app developers. Because of this, among other things, the Cartel Office in Germany is now watching Apple . And in the US there is a lawsuit between Apple and the “Fortnite” maker Epic Games because of the app fees. Both US companies recently announced changes.

 

China will fight “Malicious Libel” on its financial market

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China has launched a two-month campaign against commercial platforms and social networks that post financial-related information that could harm the economy, Bloomberg writes.

The Chinese cybersecurity regulator (CAC) said on August 27 that the initiative is aimed at correcting violations such as “malicious defamation of Chinese financial markets” or “misinterpretation of domestic politics and economic data.”

Those who reprint foreign media reports or comments that misinterpret the internal financial situation, “taking sides and not making judgments” also fall under the initiative, CAC said.

These actions are aimed at creating a โ€œconduciveโ€ Internet environment and public opinion that will help Chinese society and economy achieve โ€œsustainable and healthy development,โ€ the statement said.

What awaits Internet companies Commercial sites and platforms will be forced to delete posts containing financial information and block violating accounts.

Compliance will be overseen by, in addition to the CAC, the Treasury Department, the central bank, and securities, banking and insurance regulators.

Tech companies and social media operators, including Tencent Holdings Ltd., news aggregator ByteDance Ltd.ย Toutiao and Douyin, the Chinese counterpart of TikTok, have already pledged to comply with the new rules and regulate material related to financial information.

The office space market is recovering: Union Investment with a robust rental balance

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The rental balance of Union Investment’s global office portfolio has recovered comparatively quickly from the corona pandemic. In the first half of 2021, a total of around 196,000 mยฒ of office space was newly or re-let. Before the pandemic, in the first half of 2019, it was 156,000 mยฒ.

Overall, Union Investment kept the occupancy rate of its real estate portfolios at a high level in the first half of 2021, which was still characterized by the corona pandemic. Across all types of use and based on all actively managed real estate funds, the total occupancy rate based on income at the end of June 2021 was 94.5 percent.

The corona pandemic temporarily unsettled many office users. In the past year, rental decisions and expansion plans were postponed many times. In the meantime, however, market participants have become more optimistic again. Our successful rental balance this year also shows that properties in well-connected locations with modern, flexible and sustainable space remains in demand even in difficult times like these “, says Sven Lintl, Head of Asset Management Germany at Union Investment.
Working from home has gained in importance in the wake of the pandemic and will continue to play an important role in the everyday work of office workers in the future. However, this trend will not result in a significant decline in demand for office space in the medium to long term. “This is proven by experience in the Netherlands, among other things: the introduction of a right to work from home has not led to increasing vacancy rates in the office segment. Central office workplaces remain in demand,” said Cathrin Schwartz, Head of Asset Management Europe at Union Investment.

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The largest new letting in terms of area in the office portfolio took place in “The Plant Fรผrth”. A total of around 6,200 mยฒ was newly allocated on the 54,000 mยฒ campus. It consists of seven different buildings and is located directly on the renatured banks of the Pegnitz, on the city limits of Nuremberg. The complex has been part of the Urban Campus No. 1 special fund since 2016. “140 Broadway” in New York City ranks second among the top new leases. Around 4,700 mยฒ were newly leased here in the first half of the year. The approximately 200 meter high office building in the Downtown Manhattan submarket is one of New York’s most famous skyscrapers. It has been part of the UniImmo: Europa portfolio since 2004. “The Plant Konstanz” follows in third place, also in the portfolio of the Urban Campus Nr.1 โ€‹โ€‹special fund, in which around 3,480 mยฒ were rented.

 

Google is investing one billion euros in Germany

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Google expands News Showcase: new partners and first evaluation
In the great circus of high-tech corporations, Google appears like a pony that can only do one trick.
Making money with advertising. The advertisements on Google and YouTube bring the Alphabet group billions, while the cloud business has so far only accumulated losses. But group boss Sundar Pichai has not given up the plan to build up the cloud division as an important source of income. Therefore, he also gave the green light for an enormous investment in Germany, so as not to leave the lucrative German market to the market leaders Amazon AWS and Microsoft .

By 2030, investments in Germany will add up to a good billion euros. With this money, Google is expanding its Frankfurt / Main cloud region with a new data center in Hanau. A completely new cloud region is even being set up in the greater Berlin area. In addition, the group will indirectly finance wind farms and solar systems in Germany via a large-scale supply contract with the Cologne energy supplier Engie ( Engie (ex GDF Suez) ) in order to be able to operate the cloud with renewable energies.

The cloud system in Hanau is only 20 kilometers away from the world’s largest Internet node DE-CIX, said Philipp Justus, Google’s head of Central Europe. The four-story building with a usable area of โ€‹โ€‹around 10,000 square meters should be fully operational in the coming year.
Google is thus adapting the Frankfurt cloud region to the growing demand for cloud services in Germany. The mail order company Otto, Lufthansa and Deutsche Bank were won as cloud customers. In order to promote the cloud business in Germany, the internet company had already poached Daniel Holz, the Germany managing director of the software giant SAP ( SAP SE ), last October . He is now responsible for Google’s cloud business in Germany and Central Europe.

As part of its expansion in Germany, Google is setting up a new Berlin-Brandenburg cloud region by 2022. The exact location of the data centers was not disclosed. However, they are to be built or rented both in the federal capital itself and in the Brandenburg area. “We have a very, very high demand from corporate customers here in the Berlin-Brandenburg region,” said Justus. “And the closer we are to these customers with a cloud region, the faster, the more reliable the services that the Google Cloud offers these companies.”
With the different cloud regions, for example, data runtimes (latency) are considerably reduced compared to a trans-Atlantic data connection. There are also legal and regulatory reasons for customers to work better on cloud computers that are located in Germany instead of using systems in the USA. Customers in Germany can now choose from two German cloud regions as an alternative to a server location in the USA, said Justus.
However, data protection activists like Max Schrems are not satisfied with this construct. The Austrian lawyer had brought two transatlantic data protection agreements, “Safe Habour” and the successor solution “Privacy Shield”, down before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in proceedings against Facebook. He is of the opinion that companies and institutions in Europe are actually not allowed to use cloud services from providers from the USA, since ultimately servers in Germany are not protected from access by US secret services either.
Google, on the other hand, believes it has found a way to offer its cloud services in Europe in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Schrems’ concerns not only affect Google’s offerings, but are also directed against major competitors Microsoft and Amazon AWS and all other US providers.
In the current political debate in Germany, data protection is not a hot topic anyway. It is much more likely that Google hits a political nerve with its lofty ambitions in terms of climate protection. Data centers – not only those from Google – are power guzzlers and could contribute to global warming if they are fed with “dirty electricity” from coal-fired power plants.
Google has been offsetting its worldwide annual electricity consumption by purchasing green electricity since 2017. A data center is dependent on electricity around the clock – 365 days a year – even when the sun is not shining or there is no wind. In the German electricity grid, however, it is currently not possible to supply such a large electricity consumer as Google around the clock with 100 percent renewable energies.

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The industry average for renewable energies in the German power grids is around 60 percent. The rest of the time, the electricity comes from coal-fired power stations or nuclear power stations. With the local energy partner Engie Germany from Cologne, the value is to be increased to 80 percent in the short term. As part of the cooperation with Engie, more than 140 megawatts (MW) of solar and wind energy are to enter the German grid in the coming years. This included a new 39 MW photovoltaic system and the maintenance of 22 wind farms. “We want to use only CO2-free energy around the clock by 2030,” promised Justus. “This is an even bigger goal than just being CO2 neutral.”