 Welcome to Journal Asset News, the top stories in cryptocurrencies and digital assets, and a big amount of bite-sized pieces today. It's a great day. The market is up. And the question is, why? Well, this could answer that question potentially. This is from ZCrypto, and it states, the total value locked in DeFi market hits a whopping $4 billion as Ethereum price explodes past $300. And actually, it went from $3.1 billion to $4 billion in just a couple of days. Also as DeFi starts blazing, Shane Link will lie at the heart of the crypto revolution going forward. And that's why it is one of my top picks. Look, if you can't get into DeFi or pick the right coin, just look at what's going on behind the scenes and Ethereum and Shane Link's a pretty good bet. Also, more helicopter money is on the way, as it looks like new coronavirus relief package is proposed for a second round. So get ready for stimulus checks, paycheck protection programs, and loans to small businesses, which could lead to an influx in money into the traditional stock market as well as cryptocurrency and digital assets. And finally, my man, Steve Wozniak, or Woz, is suing YouTube and is going to tell you exactly why he's doing it. And I got to tell you, Woz and his team have done a tremendous job of trying to eradicate these scammers even more so than this channel has done. And I'm going to tip my hat to him, and he's going to explain to you why he's doing it. And I think it's going to lead to a catalyst for more people joining in. But first, let's take a look at the market and not too shabby. In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin's almost up 2%, or in seven days, almost six. And Ethereum is blowing past everything as it skyrockets above 300. I was pretty happy with the 244, honestly, at some point. But in just the last day, we're almost up at 10% and 31% for seven days. So I got to tell you, when you see these kind of numbers, this is why we're all involved. This is what we get excited about. But remember, what goes up must come down. So be tentatively cautious and be hopefully optimistic. Just remember that don't go all in. Try to dollar cost average and don't try to play the market and time everything. I try that myself. It doesn't work out so, so hot. But just be careful and don't try to rush in or FOMO. Anyhow, XRP 21 cents. Wow. Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Cash. Cardano up 18% all the way to 14 cents. And that is because Charles Hoskinson has said that the main net launch is a go and everything is going very smoothly. So I expect to see big things. Bitcoin SV, sure. Litecoin, Binancecoin, Chainlink up 3.4%, almost 768. So let's see what else we got. EOS, EOS 2.5, 4, nothing really fantastic. Let's keep going. Maybe there's something really great down here. I never go down here. So Elrond, Elrond, if you don't know, that is a DeFi project and it looks like it is going to be one of those, could be potentially a very big project. I'm not really well versed into it. Check out any other cryptocurrency. YouTuber is going to be talking about it nonstop. The main net launch is coming up. So you know how that goes. Usually during that or before that main net launch, you might see a huge pump. And then after that, it all goes away. Who knows? Uma, no idea what that is. But it's up greatly. So who knows? Waves, 9 points, Biden, sure. Blockstream, but Nexo, Nexo. Nexo is one of those projects that everybody talks to me about. I need to check out. So I need to do a deep dive in three things. I want to show you why I am so big on Voyager, why I'm so big on Celsius. And I'm going to take a look at Nexo, another DeFi project. So I'll get that all going as soon as I can. And that's about it. So look, let's take a look at today's top story. So first up, total value locked in DeFi, whopping four billion. I like to see that as Ethereum blows past $300. Amazing day. So what's going on here? So the value locked in DeFi has been on an upward trajectory, which I will have to agree with that. The value locked refers to the amount of money running through the Ethereum smart contracts. On July 21st, the total value locked in DeFi protocols hit $3 billion. It's pretty good on July 21st, $3 billion. It reached a new all-time high of $4.1 billion just four days later, which is July 25th. So that's pretty amazing to go from $3 billion to $4 billion in just four days. So again, I just I know everybody's so, you know, like up on Hopium and not Hopium. I mean, DeFi is going to be a great project. I believe it's going to be. And I think when small businesses get into it and they say, oh, wait, I can get loans and I don't have to jump through all the hoops for the different banks that I have to go through. Oh, and the rates are super competitive, not just competitive with banks, like they build the banks out of the water. And I can get all this money now. Well, sign me up. And I think once the small businesses figure it out, especially with what is going on in the world today, I think it's going to be a win-win situation. But only time will tell. They ought to finish up this paragraph. It says at four billion, the total value for these projects for DeFi has basically grown five fold since the start of the year. Where can you get those kind of returns on your investment? Fivefold. Think about that. Five X what you're doing. Oh, just in Nebraska last week, my brother is a big investor into the S&P 500 and Tesla and all those things. And you know, he's done really well. Actually, here's a funny story. He he invested, he bought Tesla at 328, 328. And then he held it all the way up to like 450. And he said, I can't go any farther than he sold it all. So he's like, I wish I would have saved it. And then he was bragging to me about his 200 percent that he gained on Visa. He invested in Visa. And I was like, well, how long did that take? Oh, it took like four years. I'm thinking myself, Jesus, four years, 200 percent. I can do that to last three or four months. Anyhow, it is a risky proposition to get an encrypted currency digital assets. But if you're on this channel, I think you and I see the same thing. We see where the world is heading. The different things that can be done and should be done. And it's going to come about with cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and that's why we're all here. And that's why I think that, you know, a 200 percent gain is poultry to what it's actually going to be. Anyhow, I could be totally wrong. Only time will prove which one of us is right. Anyhow, moving on, high transaction fees remain a major hurdle for Ethereum. Transaction fees have been skyrocketing. Transaction fees are at 56 cents as of July 21st, the highest level seen in two years, because there's so much thing, there's so many things going on. This is why we need Ethereum 2.0, the sharding, the proof of stake. All the transactions actually increase. And if, you know, Ethereum can't do it, someone else can. Anyhow, market experts have even suggested that Ethereum can be dethroned by another more scalable smart contracts platform with lower transaction fees. And this is from Keo Wang. I think I said that right, probably not, but who knows? And he says, and Mr. Wang, he is through Masari. If you don't know Masari, Masari is a it's a platform that helps out. It's for reliable data and market intelligence. I don't use it, but I guess some of you might, you can check that out. And he states, hey, I've changed my mind after using a dozen of DeFi platforms. So long as E 2.0 is not fully rolled out, there's an obvious opportunity for a highly scalable blockchain to dethrone Ethereum. Paying 10 bucks transaction fee and waiting 15 seconds for settlement is just bad user interface. So I have to agree. I mean, that's a lot. Transaction fees that high, it's not going to fly. And if you were on 2017 and you saw the Bitcoin transaction fees go from, you know, nothing all the way to, you know, 40, 50 bucks, you're like, yeah, transaction fees are a huge thing. And it could seriously hamper the industry. That's how we need Ethereum 2.0. So here's my final thoughts. I'm not an oracle. I don't have any superpowers, obviously. But I don't know which DeFi project will be the one. I don't know if it's Maker, AVE, Compound, whatever you want to else you want to throw in there. I have no idea, but I see something and that is that everything's built on ETH, everything's built on the Ethereum platform. So right now I've been loading up for the last, geez, year, two years, because I've always seen Ethereum as going to be like the one. And I've actually increased my positions greatly over this time. I'm also loading up on other smart contract formats because I don't know which one's going to make it. I mean, Ethereum, you know, Ethereum, it might be able to do everything. It might, it might not live up to the hype or something might happen. So that's why I also got into Cardano, Tezos, EOS, and most importantly, and I think this is my, probably one of my most important holes is Chainlink. I'm going to show you why. As DeFi stays blazing, Chainlink will lie at the heart of the crypto revolution. Going forward says the Weiss ratings. And I know some people like they always cringe when I say Weiss ratings. They don't really trust so much, but just an organization that takes a look at different projects and tries to give its best assessments. And I can tell you, I think it's going to work out, but, you know, who knows? States here, Oracle plays a major role in championing DeFi reign. The second generation digital currencies in this context include Neo, List, Qtum, et cetera. And these are called the second generation because unlike the first generation currencies whose sole purpose was to store and transfer value. Second generation digital currencies as listed above are typically built on decentralized application platforms or DAFs. So when you have these Bitcoin maximalists, they're talking about cryptocurrencies, they're talking about Bitcoin, and that's the only one. And it's the everything else is just trash in their mind. They're right because that's the first generation currency, right? So they're like, that's the only one that can do it. And yeah, if you're just talking about currencies, but if you're talking about smart contracts and you're talking about oracles and you're talking about supply chain tracking and every other different effect that could be affected by the second generation, then that's not what we're talking about. Bitcoin can't do that. It just it's just impossible. Bitcoin is good for maybe a store of value, I'm not for sure, but it can't do everything. It just makes no sense to me that it can do absolutely everything. So I think that's why I have invested into these different projects. And yeah, as Y said, Chainlink will be at the center of the crypto revolution. Usually on a blockchain, the only data that can be accessed is on chain or on chain data. So just real quick, the reason why, if you are not familiar, that Chainlink is going to be huge is because when you have a blockchain, everything is is within that chain. You cannot pull external data because everything is in this distributed ledger technology, right? This DLT is blockchain. So what we need is some type of thing. We'll call this an oracle and we need some type of external data through an API. So for DeFi, maybe it's important to pull certain pricing information for different products or different cryptocurrencies as they happen in real time. And we can't do that on a blockchain. So we need this oracle to do these types of things. And what can do that, it's called Chainlink. And to obtain data and interact with the real world, blockchains now depend on oracles, i.e. the off chain. This places oracle as the perfect middleman between smart contracts and traditional data sources. To put it simply, oracles will benefit the crypto space while simultaneously depending on Chainlink to provide useful solutions. Chainlink will be DeFi's flagship and take up a leadership position in the evolution of digital currencies. And yeah, it could. I mean, I totally believe it. That's why I've actually invested and increased my positions over the last six months. Just all the cost averaging being very boring and not trading. I see Chainlink as kind of like this, kind of like, and I've talked about this before, the Gold Rush in the early 1900s or excuse me, 1800s. And what you would have is a lot of people came out of the woodwork, went to California and they said, I'm going to find my treasure. I'm going to find all my gold in California. So I'm going to go and find all this stuff and sell it and make millions. So what the smart people did is they said, OK, well, all these people are coming, you know, throughout the United States, all the way west. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to sell them pickaxes. I'm going to sell them pans. I'm going to sell them whatever they're going to use because I'm going to be the supplier and everybody needs my stuff. So it doesn't matter if that speculator goes out there and they look for gold all day long and they don't find it. That's not my problem. My thing is I'm going to sell you high quality products and everybody has to buy for me and use it, whether you make it or not. And that's what I see with Chainlink. So Chainlink, if the DeFi product doesn't work, I mean, you're still going to have to use in some way, shape or form, some type of oracle. Now, if the product totally goes away, then sure, it won't be needed. But in the short term, the interim, you're going to need all this oracle. And I think that's why I have a high opinion of Chainlink and how it will go. Now, again, not an oracle. I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but that's where I think things are going. So let me know what you think in the comments section. I know some people absolutely hate Chainlink, which sure. But I think it's going to be big and I think it's going to be fantastic moving forward. Anyhow, let's move on to some helicopter money. So good news for America. I don't know where you're at. If you're in Canada or Mexico, India, Australia and some parts of Europe. But in America, we like the stimulus checks and we sure like to use our federal reserve to print money out of thin air. And that's what's going to happen again. So there's a new coronavirus relief package proposed with the second rounds of stimulus checks for Americans. And the last time Americans got a big wad of cash, $1,200. Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, saw a sharp increase of people buying cryptocurrencies for $1,200. And the same thing happened in Binance. So I can just tell you that I think if the same thing happens, not everybody is going to rush out by cryptocurrencies. But there's a lot of people who are like, hey, I got this money. What am I going to do with it? Let me put it into digital assets. So Republicans have proposed a new coronavirus relief package with a second round of stimulus check payments. According to the Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, the new package will be the exact same proposal as last time. According to a draft proposal obtained by the New York Times on Thursday, there will be a second round of stimulus checks. That's always good. And for how much each person will receive, the multiple news outlets reported on Thursday that the new proposal will include a stimulus check on the amount of $1,200, just as provided by the coronavirus aid relief and economic security act or CARES, which was a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill. And I got to tell you, that's a lot of money to print from nowhere. Just $2.2 trillion, no big deal. Turn those machines on. Nothing to see here. This assumption was based on a remark by Mnuchin where he said, we're talking about the same provision as last time. So our proposal is the exact same proposal as last time. Let me read that again. We're talking about the same provisions as last time. So our proposal is the exact same thing. So whatever you got before, you're probably going to get again, unless it doesn't pass through the Congress and the Senate, but people see. And lastly, and this is big for me and all the small business owners, the draft proposal document also shows that there will be some type of extension of the enhanced benefits for unemployment, but likely not 600 bucks a week as for the Paycheck Protection Program, PPP, there will be streamlined loan forgiveness for small loans under 150k and an intermediate forgiveness process for loans under a million. So that's what's going on in the world of money printing and helicopter cash. So look out, because once this comes in, I do believe there will be a bump in both markets. So wherever you dip your toes in, if you're in the traditional markets, cryptocurrency, digital assets or both, probably a good time, you'll probably see a bump. Anyhow, let's move on to our last story. This is my favorite. Steve Wozniak is a legend. So we don't know Steve Woz. He's the or was he is the co-founder of Apple with Steve Jobs. And he has been on all these different scams, not all of them, but a lot of them. And it's been using his likeness and people have been, you know, getting screwed out of money. And Steve pretty much lays it down like, Hey, this is why I'm suing YouTube. This is everything I've done. This is what we talked to them about. This is what they're not doing. And this is what we're going to do. And it's just, to me, it was fascinating to see a person who's like, Hey, I'm not going to use my privilege of the name and the different resources that I have. I'm going to go for it just like a normal person would. And here's what I'm going to do. So let's take a listen. This lawsuit is shocking. When did this start? And how did you discover this was happening? It started way back in early May, believe it or not. More than two months ago. And some people started contacting us saying they sent their Bitcoin in and why didn't I send them twice as much back? And they said that they saw it on a featured, featured YouTube video for them to watch where they were coming from. And then we went online and discovered there were a whole bunch of these. And from then on, we've probably, you know, sent down, you know, fraud notices and written out statements of what was going on that this was a crime to YouTube dozens, maybe even hundreds of times late, late nights, sometimes at three in the morning, it takes us time as we're just normal people. And we just, what does that sound like? Does that sound like you? I know it sounds like me because I've reported so many of these scams, it gets, it gets annoying. So when I hear Steve talk about this and like, what a great guy, right? He takes the time to report the scams. He's helping out, you know, everything in our, in our community. So tip of the hat. Thanks, Steve. Just have to go through that whole process and what you didn't have a category that says report a crime so a human can look at it. And I don't think a human in YouTube ever saw what was going on here. I just don't believe it. We, we went to state police and they got involved and got some information, but we just didn't get to a human at YouTube. Now your suit alleges that YouTube has been completely unresponsive and you also praised Twitter for reacting the same day of that big hack that is and was related to this. What didn't YouTube do that? You think they should have done? Well, for one thing, they should have, you know, you go to report something is wrong with, with a video there's, you can report it as fraud or there are about seven categories, but fraud was one and copyright violation, which also applies here. And we could report it and then we could type in a statement. What's wrong? And the statement would have gotten any human's attention that ever saw it, but algorithms, computer, artificial intelligence can't really tell what you mean that if somebody sends you $1, you'll send two back, that that's a scam. Any, any news outlet, any person, any human, the world would say that's a crime. Ed McMahon would say that's a crime. So they just never got to a human was the problem. And we couldn't get a response from them. And I don't like to try to pull strings and go around things the way normal average people can. So every day for the last over two months, it's been up there. The scams have been up there on, on YouTube. We did get a statement from YouTube on this. They say they take account security very seriously, automatically protect users and notify them when they detect suspicious activity, have policies against impersonation and scams. Did you ever reach out to the CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki or somebody else? I don't, I don't go around and use my privilege because of my name. We get it as a normal person online. There are ways to fill out forms and data. And it made it never got to a human, maybe a computer that doesn't understand what a scam is, saw it and just didn't do any response at all. So whatever they say, take, take very seriously. They didn't take this seriously enough to have a little category saying there is a crime going on and please, you know, let a human see this. They don't have a category. What do you want YouTube to do right now about this, not have YouTube be a party to it and other companies, you know, Google, Facebook, whatever, not be a party to it or let you reach a human who can make a decision of ways to stop it. YouTube could stop it. They could stop it with the software techniques and with human techniques. But we couldn't get, if you can't get to anybody out, can you ever do anything? Listen to them say after the fact, you know, oh, we take this very seriously. They didn't take it seriously at all because we reported it. Like I said, maybe a hundred or more times. And that's that. I mean, look, was again, I got to say thanks to was for doing this because what he said there was, he said, I could use my privilege and I could just go to the CEO of YouTube and like, hey, you need to stop this. But I thought about it. I'm like, well, geez, I'd like him to do that because I'm sick of all these scams. I really thought about it and I go, you know, if we fix this one thing, that's great. But what's going to happen moving on down the line and the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. So if was just use his privilege for this one thing, then that only helps with this thing moving forward. I think there has to be more policies and procedures in place, especially with was talking about, hey, it's been nice to get a hold of a live person to talk to somebody, especially when these things happen. I think YouTube needs to step up a little bit. And on top of, you know, was neck, if you're not also familiar is Ripple also sued YouTube for the exact same thing. And right now, YouTube is going and saying, no, we're just going to try to dismiss that, but that's not going to happen. I don't think it's going to have to see its day in court and it's going to get very expensive. And these are only the first ones. So I don't know what's going to happen. But I can tell you, if you've got Ripple on one end, then you got was on the second end. I mean, where else could we go? Could we see like an Elon Musk? Could we see like a Bill Gates? Could we see other types of big corporations going? Hey, using our likeness and it's tarnishing our name. You better stop this. We're going to take it to court. And you know, that's it for today. So thanks for sticking with me. Just want to give some quick shout outs to Heizow Chua. I think it's at the right dreamer. What else we got? Talos. That's a good one. Mark Goddusman. James Greenspan. Jesse B. And JD. So if you don't know, there's a Join Now button. You don't get anything special. It's like a tip. It's like a buck 99. And I just do random shout outs. And that's it. So so thanks for sticking with me through the whole video. If you like these types of videos, you'll be too. They're going to pop up on your left and right. Not sure which one because YouTube kind of controls that. And that's it. So check those out if you got time and I'll see you in the next one.