In today’s tech news update: A digital currency fund hopes to raise $300 million; Instagram is fighting bots; and VR sales are far below expectations.
Alphabit launches as digital currency fund
A global fund called Alphabit has launched and hopes to raise $300 million to invest in digital currencies. It’s the latest of a series of digital currency funds launched in the last year.
Others include Polychain Capital, which has raised $15 million.
Alphabit, registered in Dubai and the Cayman Islands, plans to blend strategies, including leveraged trading, algorithmic schemes, and investing in the sale of tokens by blockchain start-ups.
For the full story see: Digital Currency Fund
Instagram cracking down on fake acounts
Facebook-owned Instagram is closing Instagress, a third-party service that said it helped get real followers and become “incredibly popular.” The service let account holders automatically like and comment on photos.
The move is an attempt to stop bot activity.
VR sales lag forecasts
Sales of virtual reality hardware have dropped to 40 percent under forecasts, according to CCS Insight, a tech research group. VR hardware that is selling is primarily cheap goggles for smartphones rather than the high-end headsets from Sony, Facebook or HTC.
That has led some to say VR is in the “trough of disillusionment” of Garner’s well-known “hype cycle.” It’s part of the high and low public expectations ahead of mass adoption of a new technology.
VR disillusionment
