Nvidia released its Q3 2018 results today, revealing a “crypto hangover” as GPU prices failed to adjust quickly enough to disappearing demand from crypto miners. Nvidia released its earnings report for the third quarter (Q3) of 2018 today, Nov. 15, revealing that demand for Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) among crypto miners has dried up.In the financial results report, founder and CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huang said that the company’s “near-term results reflect excess channel inventory post the cryptocurrency boom, which will be corrected.”Put differently, the cryptocurrency frenzy drove up prices for Nvidia’s gaming cards, but once that demand disappeared, prices did not decrease quickly enough to attract customers who were waiting for more affordable cards. Huang told Reuters:“The crypto hangover lasted longer than we expected. We thought we had done a better job managing the cryptocurrency dynamics.”The company’s provision for inventories purportedly expanded to $70 million in Q3, having more than tripled for the first nine months of the current year to $124 million. This also resulted in the decrease of Nvidia’s gross margins by 1.8 percentage points in Q3 to 60.4 percent. The margins drop is also attributed to $57 million in charges related to the company’s previous generations of chips following the plunge in cryptocurrency mining demand.After Nvidia’s post of sales missed expectations for Q3, the company’s shares dropped over 16 percent in late trading:Nvidia stock following Q3 announcement. Source: QuartzPer the financial report, Nvidia’s overall revenue in Q3 was $3.18 billion, a 21 percent increase compared to $2.64 billion a year earlier, and up two percent from $3.12 billion in the previous quarter.In August, Nvidia forecasted its Q3 revenue to be between $3.19 billion and $3.32 billion, stressing that it does not expect to make significant blockchain-related sales for the rest of the year.At the same time, Nvidia’s revenue for the third quarter is higher than that recently projected by experts from analytical firm Trefis. The experts expected consolidated revenues to be a bit under $3.10 billion in Q3, of which 84 percent could be attributed to GPUs. […]

Ethereum-based payment platform OmiseGo partnered with a Singapore firm behind a popular ride hailing app to develop a Proof-of-Concept and promote blockchain tech. Ethereum-based payment platform OmiseGo and blockchain protocol Mass Vehicle Ledger (MVL) have partnered to research blockchain technology, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph Nov. 14. MVL is the protocol behind popular Singapore ride hailing app TADA.MVL and OmiseGo will develop a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) to ascertain whether the decentralized OMG Network is suitable for MVL’s data record-keeping system. During the PoC, MVL will record data collected from TADA on the OmiseGo platform.Moreover, the two companies have announced further technical and research cooperation on possible blockchain applications in TADA’s services.On Nov. 7, MVL received a taxi provider license from the Land Transport Authority of Singapore, allowing it to launch its new taxi booking service, TADA Taxi. According to Business Insider, over 2,000 taxi drivers have joined the app through  partnerships with local taxi companies.Other taxi companies and ride-hailing services have explored applying blockchain technology to their business models.  In May, Chen Weixing, the founder of Chinese ride hailing company Kuaidi Dache, revealed his plans to create a blockchain-powered ride hailing app, adding that the service might also include deliveries.The automotive industry has also shown a marked interest in applying new technologies like artificial intelligence  and blockchain. IOTA and Volkswagen demonstrated a PoC that used IOTA’s Tangle system for autonomous cars at Cebit ‘18 Expo in Germany last June.Daimler AG — which produces Mercedes Benz and Smart cars — presented its own Blockchain-based digital currency MobiCoin to reward drivers for environmentally-friendly driving habits, such as driving at low speeds. […]

Chinese crypto mining manufacturer Canaan has let the application for its $400 million IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange lapse. Cryptocurrency mining equipment producer Canaan’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) application has lapsed, Reuters reported Nov. 15. The offering was set to take place on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX).Founded in 2013 in China, Canaan manufactures application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for digital currency mining. Canaan is the world’s second largest cryptocurrency hardware maker, collecting a revenue of 1.3 billion yuan ($187 million) in 2017. The company’s profit in the same year was 361 million yuan ($52 million), which is a 230 times increase from 2015, per business news outlet Quartz.Canaan revealed its IPO plans in May, claiming to create the largest Bitcoin (BTC)-oriented offering yet seen when it would debut on the HKEX in July. While not mentioning a specific fundraising target, Cannan said the figure “could” reportedly circle $1 billion. However, the company subsequently lowered its target to $400 million.Today, Reuters reported that Canaan has let its application for the IPO of at least $400 million lapse, purportedly due to questions about the company’s business model and prospects from the HKEX and regulators.Sources close to the deal reportedly told Reuters that the IPO would not be conducted this year since a listing hearing was not updated by the HKEX. Canaan purportedly can rebid its IPO with updated financial information.The news follows a recent statement issued by Hong Kong’s securities regulator, the autonomous Chinese territory’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), which sets out new guidelines for funds dealing with cryptocurrency, including exchanges. The statement read:“In order to afford better protection to investors, the SFC considers that all licensed portfolio managers intending to invest in virtual assets should observe essentially the same regulatory requirements even if the portfolios (or portions of portfolios) under their management invest solely or partially in virtual assets, irrespective of whether these virtual assets amount to ‘securities’ or ‘futures contracts.’”In October, Cointelegraph reported that major mining hardware producers, including Canaan, could be affected by recently imposed U.S. sanctions on Chinese goods. Analysts raised alarm as the technology had been reclassified by the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to fall under a stricter tariff regime. […]

Hours after the start of the Bitcoin Cash upgrade, the Bitcoin ABC and Unlimited camps are leading in terms of hash rate and nodes. The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network update, which many predicted would lead to a hard fork, began as scheduled today, Nov. 15.At press time, Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin Unlimited are currently leading Bitcoin SV in terms of both hash rate and number of nodes, according to Coin.Dance. Under the new consensus rules, 41 blocks have been already mined, wherein Bitcoin ABC is 12 blocks ahead.The update has led cryptocurrency exchanges around the world to suspend BCH trading and withdrawals.The news about the protocol upgrade has divided the BCH community in two camps as there are two dominating proposals for the implementation of the BCH network in the form of Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV (Satoshi’s Vision).Bitcoin ABC stands for “Adjustable Blocksize Cap”, and its proponents argue that the basic structure of BCH is “sound,” and “does not need any radical change”. Proposed changes include “removing software bottlenecks” and enabling node operators to change their block size limit.Bitcoin ABC is supported by crypto evangelist Roger Ver, while Bitcoin SV supporters are led by Craig Wright, who has previously declared himself to be the mysterious Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. The SV camp promotes radically changing the current BCH structure, where its split is designed to entirely overwrite the network scripts of Bitcoin ABC and increase the BCH block size from 32MB to a maximum of 128MB.The issue of a BCH upgrade caused a heated dispute in the community; Wright engaged in verbal battles with Bitmain’s co-founder Jihan Wu, who accused Wright of being a Blockstream spy. Wright’s messages to ABC, Roger Ver, and Bitmain have turned into bankruptcy threats and accusations of being engaged in Silicon Road machinations and child pornography.A continued feud between the crypto communities would have a significant impact on the crypto market in general, while a split caused by a hard fork will affect the entire network. […]

U.S.-based tech giant Microsoft has launched a serverless blockchain-powered development kit for consortium environments. American software corporation Microsoft has released a serverless blockchain-powered Azure development kit, according to an announcement published Nov. 15.The new product dubbed the “Azure Blockchain Development Kit” purportedly improves the capabilities of Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain Workbench. It contains features like off-chain identity and data, monitoring, and messaging application programming interfaces (API) in a format that can be used to develop blockchain-based apps.Per the blog post, the initial release will focus on three core objectives, such as “connecting interfaces, integrating data and systems, and deploying smart contracts and blockchain networks.”The product will purportedly enable individuals, organizations, and devices to connect to a blockchain via user interfaces. Microsoft says that the development kit includes SMS and voice interfaces, Internet of Things (IoT) device integration, support for mobile clients, bots, virtual assistants, and other related solutions.In terms of smart contract interaction, Microsoft included Workbench integration scenarios into the development kit in such areas as the legacy apps and protocols, data, Software as a Service (SaaS), and registries, that generate a custom registry and registry item smart contracts.Microsoft has also introduced a whitepaper dubbed “DevOps for Blockchain Smart Contracts,” explaining how to use the development kit for blockchain-based apps in certain business environments.In August, Azure introduced a proof-of-authority (PoA) algorithm on its Ethereum (ETH) blockchain product, that purportedly allows a “more efficient” way of building decentralized applications (DApps) for private or consortium networks, where “all consensus participants are known and reputable.”One example of Azure technology deployment in the commercial area is its integration into stock exchange Nasdaq Inc.’s Financial Framework (NFF) in late October. This will purportedly facilitate easier buyer and seller matching, management of delivery, and payment and settlement of transactions. […]