Good morning, New York City Mayor Eric Adams received his first pay on Friday, but instead of throwing a party, he planned to have it converted to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The move fulfils one-third of the promise by Adams to convert his first three pay checks into crypto, and highlights his PR push to turn NYC into the “centre of cryptocurrency and other financial innovations.”
Calling his city as the next crypto capital, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has one-upped Adams by taking his last four pay checks in Bitcoin.
Francis has even launched a crypto project, MiamiCoin, to raise funds for the city and publicize its crypto efforts.
🤝 Now that's what we call crypto-commitment, aka walking the talk.
You should too - 😷↔1 metre↔😷
Transitioning To Proptech? Here's Help
Every real estate transaction is unique to its region, people and culture, and this is the biggest hurdle faced by those who create and implement real estate technology.
Unleashing The Immeasurable
For a real estate organisation to flourish, it needs to focus on its team members' unique skills that add an immeasurable touch of individuality and instinct, while letting tech handle the repetitive tasks which block ideation and productivity.
Here's How To Make It Work
Per this Forbes report, proptech works if real estate leaders understand the benefits of using them and truly integrate them into their processes.
And here are some tips that could ease the tech transition.
🎭 It's a journey not a job: Accept that changing the usual way of conducting your real estate business will take time, and a different mindset for everyone.
🎭 Be honest with your colleagues: People will have questions and it is important to take time to onboard them; having an empathetic team dedicated to this could ease the transition.
🎭 Start listening: There is no dearth of proptech solutions that can improve your team’s work; but understand that your team members know best what they do and need, so listen to them and involve them in the decision making process.
🎭 Share results: People get excited once they know something's working, so showcase results, case studies and performance reports. This is the most tangible path to motivate them to adopt new technologies.
PSUs Asked To Disclose Value Of Real Estate Assets
Net Worth = Total Assets - Total Liabilities
While liabilities are easy to quantify (the exact amount of money owed to each creditor is always handy 😅) it can be challenging to determine accurate values for some assets.
Not land and real estate though, because those are the most valuable and tangible assets and have a significant impact on any net worth calculation.
The Government Just Found That Out
In an attempt to boost investors' interest in public sector undertaking (PSU) stocks, the Indian government has asked PSUs to disclose the market value of their land and other real estate assets.
PSUs need to share the intrinsic value of their real estate assets which have been “undervalued” based on book value in their balance sheet for years, government sources said.
Being done for the first time, this declaration aims to lift market confidence in PSU shares, which are often undervalued when compared with their private counterparts.
Writing Against An Outlandish Plot
Recently, over 60 researchers worldwide wrote an open letter calling for an “international non-use agreement” on solar geo-engineering tech, citing an “unacceptable risk” to the environment, climate, and vulnerable populations.
Wait, Wait, Wait. Solar What? Solar geo-engineering tech aims to mitigate global warming by dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere. This process would, in theory, mimic the sun-reflecting properties volcanic eruptions often have.
💥 In 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupted, releasing enough sulphur dioxide to cool the planet by around 1 degree Fahrenheit for several years.
🚫 The signatories of the open letter want governments to ban experiments, deployments, patents, and funding for solar geoengineering.
✅ Other scientists disagree, arguing that research on the topic could eventually help save lives as the planet warms faster than ever.
Gif and a deep dive: The Atlantic
The True Cost Of Urbanisation
Urbanisation is the key to a nation's growth and that's why urban land increased from 33.2 to 71.3 million hectares (Mha) between 1992 and 2015, per 2019 studies.
However, all the pride of expansion begins to fade when you realise that in the same time frame, the world may have lost up to 35 Mha of forest to urbanisation.
Cities Need Food. Growing Food Needs Land
As cities expand by directly consuming forest and farmland, they also trigger massive amounts of indirect deforestation for agriculture because both giant metros and small towns need a lot of food to feed their ever growing populations.
Interestingly, the agricultural clearing of forests caused by urban expansion is larger than the original area taken over by urbanisation - between 5 to 10 times larger, studies show.
How Much Is It Truly Costing Us?
Per Global Forest Watch, in 2010, India had 31.3Mha of natural forest, extending over 11% of its land area. Just a decade later in 2020, it had lost 132kha of natural forest, the equivalent to 67.3Mt of CO₂ emissions.
In Germany, construction projects are eating away 52 hectares (129 acres) of land — the equivalent of 73 soccer pitches — every day, according to their Environment Ministry.
🥶 - when we think of deforestation on a global scale after seeing just 2 examples.
Is There A Solution?
To cut the long story short, yes. You see, in 1960, the average German had just 19 sq. m. (204.5 sq. ft.) of living space. 30 years later that had grown to 34 sq. m., and today, another 30 years on, it's 47 sq. m.
And as more building materials are needed for construction, and more energy is needed for heating and cooling that space, every sq. m. reduced is half a ton of carbon emissions, and a few hundred trees saved over the building's life cycle.
🍀 Moral of the story: Let's start living tiny if we are serious about saving our urban planet.
💡 1 hectare (ha) = 2.47 acres.
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Jai Hind and Vande Mataram. We hope there is some cool new hardware to drool over in tomorrow's R-Day parade.
See you on Thursday morning, usual time. 💚
☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai