With the narrow view of the mainstream news bearing down on us with its constant Russia coverage, it’s sometimes easy to forget about what’s going on in the rest of the world. Okay. So we’re not exactly going to cover international news like weird typhoons in the East China Sea here, but there’s some interesting things going on around the world in terms of investment opportunities.

And you otherwise may not be aware of them.

Lucky for you there’s this roundup and this week’s focus—the international edition, or around the world and back again.

Let’s start in North America.

There could be a new big name Bitcoin miner in the wings

Singularity Future Technology (SGLY.Q) and Golden Mainland have agreed to join forces in a Bitcoin mining joint venture.

Singularity is a global logistics and blockchain tech play involved in shipping, charting, logistics and tech services. Golden Mainland is a company that provides electrical services in North America and it’s a surprise that more companies don’t consider pairing with electrical companies in pursuit of the almighty digital dollar.

Well—more than Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA.Q) did with Beowulf, and we all know how that worked out, don’t we?

Regardless, here’s what Yang “Leo” Jie, the CEO of Singularity Future Technology had to say:

“We are excited to partner with Golden Mainland in this Joint Venture. We believe that investing in and building out sites with Bitcoin mining capacity will provide a platform with the scale to support the demand levels in the industry.”

The JV involves plans to invest up to $250 million on a build-out of 1GW of mining sites in Texas, Ohio and other states, with the ability to carry a fleet of up to 300,000 Bitcoin miners, each of which capable of pulling 3,400 watts per hour in energy consumption.

The split looks like this:

Singularity gets 51% of the JV. Golden Mainland gets the rest.

Each will provide capital that works with its ownership interest, with Singularity dropping $10 million from available cash.

African countries look to adopt Open Network stablecoin

Here’s something interesting to keep an eye out for.

Three countries, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and the Republic of the Congo announced earlier this week that they intend to leverage crypto and blockchain solutions to help with their future economic success. Specifically, they’re talking about layer one proof-of-stake blockchain, The Open Network (TON), and they’re presently considering developing a new national stablecoin built on said network.

There’s a reason why countries like El Salvador and now Cameroon, the DRC and Congo are looking into cryptocurrency as a potential resolution to their economic woes and that’s because these four countries are looking to tech to help escape the series of economic headkicks they’ve taken throughout their short histories.

A lot of folks in developed countries like to complain about cryptocurrency—how it’s based on nothing, how it’s going to zero—but it isn’t. Not as long as it continues to represent an alternative third way for countries looking to claw their way to international prominence.

Is this going to work? Hard to tell. Definitely worth watching.

Now onto Europe.

DeFi Technologies follows the roadmap for international crypto legitimacy

DeFi Technologies (DEFI.NEO) subsidiary Valour received approval for a Swiss VQF membership through its DeFi Europe entity.

The Swiss VQF membership was awarded by VQF, which is a self-regulatory association involved with the financial industry in Switzerland. It’s supervised by the country’s financial watchdog, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).

“We see a tremendous amount of development across the broker landscape with continued adoption and demand for ETPs and digital assets. In addition to ETPs, the most innovative brokers are searching for the possibility to offer crypto directly to their clients. With our state of the art infrastructure already in place, in combination with the transparency and trust that is a guiding principle for us at Valour, we see this as our next phase to leverage our existing operations that will enable us to support our counterparts,” said Tommy Fransson, CEO of Valour.

What this means for DeFi Technologies is that their DeFi Europe subsidiary can now operate as a broker for digital assets in full compliance with Swiss anti-money laundering legislation. They can offer access and liquidity to businesses and institutions. It’s the regulatory rubber stamp required to get the company in on the ground floor as an issuer of digital assets. Right now, Valour is the only game in town for ETP with VQF admission.

We’re going to start seeing a lot more of this coming down the line on the international level with cryptocurrency and cryptoasset companies stretching out for greater legitimacy.

Let’s back away from crypto and blockchain for a bit.

Big changes ahead for Zoomaway Technologies

Zoomaway Technologies (ZMA.V) inked a binding letter of intent to pick up a privately held specialty retailer with stores all over Ontario.

It’s a quick way to get distribution, especially if the company (which wasn’t disclosed) has a large enough customer base. After which it intends on spinning off its current business to its subsidiary, Zoom Tech, including all the IP and rights to retail and hospitality tech platforms.

If you’re unfamiliar with Zoomaway Technologies, they’re a tech company involved in the hospitality and travel industries until they say otherwise. They provide software solutions for tourists to help them plan their trips. The company’s core project is called Zoomedout, and it’s a mobile travel app that offers a full 3D environment experience to help the would-be traveller integrate planning, booking, social media.

So we have travel, hospitality, mobile gaming and augmented reality in one app, which is admittedly something of a coup for the seasoned international traveller.  Until you lose your phone. So the moral of the story is don’t lose your phone.

NuRan Wireless inks 4G deal with MTN Namibia

Nuran Wireless (NUR.C) inked a ten-year network as a service deal with MTN Namibia earlier this week, so they can deploy both rural and suburban 4G LTE (long-term evolution) sites in Namibia.

This deal comes on the heels of a memorandum of understanding (MOI) inked in February with the agreement intending to continue to build on the company’s expansion in Africa after their first 4G project. Now Nuran has 2,692 sites under contract on their way to their goal of 10,000 sites.

This is really the biggest international play in this roundup right here.

“We are extremely pleased to have added Namibia to our growing portfolio of African countries. We are even more pleased to have announced our first 4G contract with MTN Namibia. We continue to drive forward towards our goal of 10,000 sites under contract, and adding these important revenues to our projections will further enhance of growing fundamental value and help to solidify Nuran as a leading provider of mobile connectivity to rural and remote regions throughout Africa and ultimately the world,” said Francis Letourneau, chief executive officer of Nuran Wireless.

This is what NuRan Wireless does. They’re trying to break down the digital divide in Africa by bringing portable 4G wireless connectivity to both rural and suburban areas. They’ve already landed on the international scene and are operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.

This ten year deal is expected to bring in $60 million in revenue assuming the 150 sites are completed. The estimated revenues are still subject to project expenses, including satellite bandwidth, site lease, network operation centre operational expenses and more. Fees for the network as a service provided by Nuran under the agreement will be paid on a revenue sharing model with a minimum guaranteed revenue per site.

Nextech AR new AR suite offers avenues into the metaverse

The metaverse is considered international, right? Okay. It’s a stretch.

Nextech AR (NTAR.C) launched their Nextech Metaverse Suite earlier this week. What this does is put all of Nextech’s technology stack of 3D and augmented reality (AR) products and applications into one, SaaS based subscription platform.

Nextech AR Solutions is a metaverse company that makes AR platforms to help with three dimensional product visualizations, human holograms and 360 degree portals to help push along e-commerce, digital advertising, hybrid virtual events as well as training experiences.

Nextech’s Metaverse Suite is easy to use. Customers will have a single login and account, giving them access to all of Nextech AR products as listed below:

Once a customer signs up they can launch the web-based apps, have access to helpful links, the support center, and learn about other products with more information, videos, and examples. This is a major milestone for the company and has significant revenue implications by increasing the Company’s potential for monthly and annual recurring revenue (MRR/ARR).

Customers get a single login and account which gives them access to all of Nextech AR’s products. These include:

• 3D Modelling (ARitize 3D, ARitize CAD, ARitize Configurator, ARitize Swirl)
• 3D Holograms (ARitize Holograms, ARitize CPG)
• 3D Mapping (ARitize Maps, ARitize Maps Studio)

When a customer signs up they can launch their own web-based apps and get access to links, the support centre and watch videos to learn about other products. The company anticipates it will give them a bump in both monthly and annual revenue.

“The focus of the user experience for the Nextech Metaverse Suite design was to create a seamless experience for our clients, enabling them to access their files, and our products, all in one location and in one cohesive experience. We wanted to create a convenient and efficient experience where our clients can not only access and open all of our products, but to learn about upcoming products as well. It’s just the beginning of a multifaceted tool that’s going to be a game changer,” said Brynne Kennedy, director of UX/UI product design at Nextech AR.

And finally, rounding out our whirlwind international theme, back to Canada.

Fandom Sports Media looking to upgrade their look

Fandom Sports Media (FMD.C) received approval from their board to change the company’s name to Fandifi Technologies, and do business as Fandifi.

This company is going to implement a few different upgrades in fact and not just their corporate name.

Fandif is presently working on an open-source prediction and fan engagement platform for content creators. It’ll increase content gamification and fan engagement regardless of how distribution takes place. The company also operates Fandomart, which is an NT marketplace where you can buy, sell or trade rewards.

They’re looking to update and expand their geographic scope of their trademarks for Fancoins as well as the company’s stylized logo. They’re revamping their website, securing an Discord server, a Twitter account and an instagram social media channel. They’re also looking into securing trademarks for their Fandomart, NFT marketplace.

“Given the evolution and expansion of the company’s technology to provide and overlay predictions not only on sports and e-sports but on any type of broadcast content, we believe the transition to the Fandifi brand encompasses a whole suite of opportunities previously not possible with the previous branding and legacy of the company. All our ongoing partner discussions opened the doors to new avenues for deployment for consumer and creator use cases, hence the necessity to strengthen the brand positioning with a unique set of intellectual property,” said David Vinokurov, CEO of Fandifi.

Blockchain forensics will find your transaction no matter where you hide

Bigg Digital Assets (BIGG.C) partnership with white-label software company, AlphaPoint, will have them powering digital exchanges worldwide. Blockchain Intelligence Group, one of BIGG’s subsidiaries, will be providing Bitrank Verified, a tool for fast, easy and accurate risk monitoring.

Park of Blockchain Intelligence Group’s compliance suite, the crypto toolset for forensics and real time risk mitigation, Bitrank Verified is a scoring system that helps determine risk for certain addresses and transactions on the blockchain. It will allow AlphaPoint clients to know who they’re dealing with before transactions are processed with real-time scoring for transactions or addresses associated with terrorism, money laundering, human trafficking and other nasty things that happen on open blockchains.

“Bitrank Verified makes regulatory compliance as simple as a credit score. In light of growing calls for regulatory changes worldwide, technologies for compliance will be seen as essential to drive business growth. We are very excited about our partnership with AlphaPoint to create operating leverage for crypto exchanges with compliance and monitoring,” said Lance Morginn, president of Blockchain Intelligence Group.

The curious point about crypto is that it’s the only truly international technology.  Porous borders and resistant to tampering.  Someone tired of dealing with their government in Moscow today could put their money into cryptocurrency, board a plane for Canberra, and pull it out reasonably intact without any border hassles.

—Joseph Morton