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Want to work in crypto? University programs can give job seekers a leg up

There is a skills gap in the blockchain industry, and universities worldwide have created programs to help produce the next generation of blockchain professionals.

As talk of the Bitcoin halving, exchange-traded funds and other macro factors seem to point to the beginning of the next bull market cycle for crypto, many might be considering starting a career in this space. It happens to many people involved with Bitcoin (BTC), blockchain or cryptocurrencies. 

At first, they are “investors” researching and buying assets in a new digital asset class. For some, this turns into a desire to enter the decentralized ledger technology and blockchain industry. Many have decided to find paths to employment and acquire the skills necessary to jump into careers in this space.

Since the beginning of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, most people have found jobs through informal connections or demonstrable skills.

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Trump appoints former college football player Bo Hines to head crypto council

NFT startup Rario loses founders after $120M funding last year: Report

As part of the restructuring efforts at Rario, a number of roles are also being eliminated, according to a report.

Rario, a Polygon-based platform issuing cricket-related nonfungible tokens (NFTs), has reportedly seen its founders leave the firm after two years after launching.

Rario CEO Ankit Wadhwa and chief technology officer Sunny Bhanot are being pushed out as investors at the startup take greater control, TechCrunch reported on Sept. 8.

Rario CEO Ankit Wadhwa (left) and CTO Sunny Bhanot (right). Source: TechCrunch

Dream11, a major Indian fantasy sports platform and the largest backer of Rario, is also being ousted, according to the report. A number of roles are being removed as part of other restructuring efforts as well.

Besides Dream11, Rario has several other prominent investors, including the global investment company Alpha Wave Global and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. In April 2022, the cricket NFT platform raised $120 million in a Series A funding round, claiming that it had the largest share of cricket NFT rights, with 900 cricketers at the time.

This latest reported shakeup comes amid Dream11’s parent firm, Dream Sports, allegedly making efforts to reduce costs at the company. According to TechCrunch, Dream Sports is currently negotiating many of the licensing deals that Rario had signed to cut the expenses.

Related: Google will allow ads for NFT games starting Sept. 15

At the time of writing, the reported changes are not reflected on the executives’ LinkedIn profiles. Rario and Dream11 did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Rario was founded in 2021 with a mission to create digital cricket collectibles and help fans engage as an online community. As of April 2021, the firm said it sold 50,000 NFTs to sports fans across 20 countries.

Some of the cricket leagues signed by Rario include Cricket Australia, the Australian Cricketers’ Association, the Caribbean Premier League, the Lanka Premier League and Abu Dhabi T10 League Legends League Cricket.

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Trump appoints former college football player Bo Hines to head crypto council

Binance head of product quits as executive exodus continues

Binance product lead Mayur Kamat says he is passing the baton to “next-gen leaders” to take some time off after years of product work.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance continues to lose some of its key executives amid increasing scrutiny of the platform from regulators around the world.

Binance head of product Mayur Kamat has confirmed he is leaving the crypto exchange after nearly two years.

“It is time for me to step down and transition product leadership to Binance’s next-gen leaders. I have worked closely with product leads to ensure a seamless transition,” Kamat told Cointelegraph on Sept. 4.

Kamat also said that it is a good time for him personally to take some time off after 20 years of “non-stop product work.” He added:

“It has been an experience of a lifetime working at Binance and seeing our user base grow. Thanks to [Changpeng Zhao] CZ and the entire leadership team for this amazing opportunity. I will be cheering Binance from the sidelines.“

Formerly a product manager at companies like Google and Agoda, Kamat joined Binance as head of product in January 2022. According to his LinkedIn profile, the exec was heading global product and design teams at Binance, helping grow Binance from 80 million to more than 150 million users in 18 months.

The former Binance product lead is known as an early adopter of Bitcoin (BTC). He reportedly bought his first two Bitcoin in 2011, just two years after the cryptocurrency was launched. Kamat said that it wasn’t for investment purposes, though, but rather to purchase a VPN connection.

Related: Indian crypto exchanges CoinSwitch, CoinDCX cut staff amid market slump

The latest resignation at Binance comes a few weeks after the exchange was hit by a sizable exodus of key executives, including Binance’s chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann. While the exec cited personal reasons for his departure, many cryptocurrency observers suspected that the departure had something to do with the United States Department of Justice investigating Binance.

Among other departures are general counsel Han Ng and senior vice president for compliance Steven Christie, who were reported to have left Binance in early July.

Additional reporting by Cointelegraph journalist Prashant Jha.

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Trump appoints former college football player Bo Hines to head crypto council

Crypto headcount surges over 100% since 2019 despite implosions

While industry giants like Binance hire and lay off thousands of people, other crypto heavyweights like Tether only have 60 employees.

Despite several high-profile cryptocurrency implosions, the number of people working in the industry has soared over the past four years.

According to findings by the crypto research startup K33, the number of crypto-related employees has surged nearly 160% since 2019.

In a report titled “The Emerging Crypto Industry,” K33 estimated that the total headcount of people working in crypto as of 2023 amounted to nearly 190,000 persons. It also estimated that the number of people working in crypto stood at around 73,000 in 2019.

According to the data, the crypto industry peaked in total staff numbers in 2021 at more than 211,000 professionals. The growth came alongside Bitcoin’s (BTC) all-time high price of $68,000, recorded in November 2021.

Cryptocurrency employment by years. Source: K33

Although crypto employees have been reduced by around 11% since 2021, the number is still significantly higher than four years ago. This increase appears to track the dynamics of Bitcoin’s price, which surged more than 300% from its average annual price of around $7,200 in 2019, according to CoinGecko.

Data from some major industry companies reflects K33’s findings, though others appear to be trailing. One of those adding to its global headcount is major cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, which has seen staff numbers rise more than 150% since 2019, the firm’s chief people officer Pranesh Anthapur told Cointelegraph.

“Bear markets reinforce the importance of securing the right talent to scale your operation. Disrupting the foundations of traditional finance isn’t easy,” Anthapur noted. He added that Kraken’s approach to staff retention remains “consistent between bear and bull cycles.”

Trezor, a major hardware wallet firm, has also increased the firm’s headcount by 120% since 2019, CEO Matej Zak told Cointelegraph.

“More importantly, we are focused on building and retaining talent for the long term,” Zak noted. He added that Trezor has been moving to retain and improve talent even in bear markets, as opposed to cyclical hiring and firing based on “short-term market frenzies.” He stated:

“We’ve been in the industry for 10 years, so we’re well aware of how tough bear markets can be, and we plan accordingly. This means we didn’t have to cut staff during the recent bear market; instead, we continued to hire.”

On the other hand, the cryptocurrency industry has also seen multiple rounds of layoffs in the past year, including at firms like Coinbase, Binance, Crypto.com, Dapper Labs and Kraken.

According to online reports, Binance has reportedly laid off more than 1,000 employees in its recent headcount cut over the past few weeks. The alleged layoffs came after the firm announced a 20% reduction in staff in May.

Related: Searches for ‘AI jobs’ in 2023 are 4x higher than ‘crypto jobs’ when BTC hit $69K

While some major firms have been laying off thousands of people, some crypto giants have apparently never employed more than 100 people. Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin and the most-traded cryptocurrency, USDT, only has about 60 people working at the company, a spokesperson told Cointelegraph.

“We have always maintained a cautious approach to hiring. We prioritize the well-being and future prospects of our employees, as evidenced by our track record of not downsizing our staff even during previous downturns in the crypto market,” the representative added.

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Trump appoints former college football player Bo Hines to head crypto council

Nansen lays off 30% of its workforce

The CEO of Nansen cited two reasons for the layoffs, including an overly aggressive hiring phase during the bull market and the prolonged crypto bear market that followed.

Blockchain analytics platform Nansen has announced the trimming of its workforce by 30%. On May 30, the Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik disclosed on Twitter that the company had to make an “extremely difficult decision to reduce the size of the Nansen team.” 

Svanevik gave two major reasons for the reduction in Nansen’s workforce. The first was the company's rapid scaling during its initial years of operation, which “led the organization to taking on surface area that's not truly part of Nansen's core strategy.”

Svanevik also cited a brutal year for crypto markets as the second reason for the layoffs. Despite efforts to diversify revenue streams through enterprise and institutional customers, Nansen's cost base remained relatively high compared to the company's current position. He added that although the company has “several years of runway,” its “priority is to build a sustainable business.”

The CEO said laid-off employees would be entitled to severance packages. 

Related: Crypto layoffs decelerate, with layoffs falling to 570 in February

Mass layoffs continue to plague the crypto industry, though they have slowed significantly in recent months. In January, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced a workforce reduction of 20%. The decision to cut 950 jobs was attributed to Coinbase's efforts to decrease operating costs by approximately 25% amid the ongoing crypto winter. 

At the beginning of the year, companies owned by Digital Currency Group (DCG), a crypto venture capital firm, also laid off over 500 employees due to bearish market conditions exacerbated by the collapse of FTX. 

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Trump appoints former college football player Bo Hines to head crypto council

Shaping the future of Web3 employment: Intropia joins Cointelegraph Accelerator

Intropia enables the development of a professional Web3 network with the help of on-chain profiles and introductions.

The nascent nature of the Web3 landscape, along with the complexity of technical skills involved in crypto and blockchain-related jobs, makes it hard for a majority of companies to find the right talent. On the other hand, Web3 professionals also have difficulty looking for new opportunities on mainstream job platforms designed mainly for Web2 careers. Even when there’s an ideal match for a company and talent, the remote-focused work expectations of the post-pandemic era create a bottleneck for the traditional recruiter-candidate onboarding process.

The latest participant of Cointelegraph Accelerator, the startup booster leveraging Cointelegraph’s media capabilities, Intropia is an introduction-based Web3 talent ecosystem that utilizes the community-centric nature of Web3 to solve the talent bottleneck threatening the growth of the industry. To get a clear profile of the current Web3 talent, Intropia conducted the Web3 Talent Survey with the contribution of over 1,500 Web3 professionals. The survey showed that the Web3 ecosystem boasts a diverse range of talent, from coding experts to hardcore traders, who mostly prefer remote or freelance jobs and want to use pseudonyms. The vast majority of the respondents (80%) are working on several projects simultaneously, having one main job and freelancing for several others.

Intropia’s latest report profiles the average Web3 talent. Source: Intropia Web3 Talent Report

Intropia’s latest report profiles the average Web3 talent. Source: Intropia Web3 Talent Report

All in all, the average Web3 talent would have a hard time filling a job application inside the traditional business world, as a CV with “Web3Nakamoto” in the name section would hardly receive a proper review. That’s why Intropia focuses only on professional capabilities instead and helps Web3 talent find the next gig based on their past experience.

The introduction dynamic of Intropia turns the whole ecosystem of participants into potential recruiters. Web3 users can refer a friend, a colleague or someone from their network for a job opening to contribute to finding the ideal talent — monetizing their professional network in the process, by receiving a portion of the recruitment fee from the Intropia platform. This way, even if the ideal candidates miss a specific job posting, someone from their network can see it and refer them to the job, helping the Web3 talent pool grow in a sustainable way.

How Web3-friendly recruitment works. Source: Intropia

How Web3-friendly recruitment works. Source: Intropia

Professionals can create their Web3-friendly profile on Intropia and seek new opportunities in a gamified environment, while Web3 projects can post detailed job descriptions to grab the attention of new talent.

Launched in early 2023, the Cointelegraph Accelerator Program utilizes Cointelegraph’s leading position in the media landscape and established global audience to help promising Web3 companies reach their full potential.

Trump appoints former college football player Bo Hines to head crypto council

London emerges as world’s most crypto-ready city for business — Research

An examination of eight key data points determined London to sport the highest crypto readiness to entice businesses and start-ups.

Along with pro-crypto regulations, mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies requires a supporting infrastructure that can allow the general public access and exposure to the ecosystem. When considering eight key indicators around taxes, ATMs, jobs and events in crypto, London stands at the top as the most crypto-ready city in the world for businesses and start-ups.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s vision to “ensure the UK financial services industry is always at the forefront of technology and innovation” is on the right path, reveals research conducted by Recap. An examination of eight key data points determined London to sport the highest crypto-readiness to entice businesses and start-ups.

Top 20 crypto-ready cities in the world. Source: Recap

As shown above, leading metropolitan cities such as Dubai and New York made it to the top three in the list. However, Hong Kong, which was positioned as the most crypto-ready country in 2022, fell to seventh place in the research.

Top 50 crypto hubs, city-wise comparison. Source: Recap

The above list shows the top 50 major cities that have an infrastructure ready to experience the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Some key factors considered in the study include the total number of crypto-specific events, crypto-related jobs, crypto-specific companies and the number of crypto ATMs. Some of the non-crypto considerations include quality of life, R&D spend as a percentage of GDP and capital gains tax rate.

Out of the lot, London is home to the most number of people working in crypto-related jobs — an indication of higher interest among the general public in the crypto ecosystem. However, cities from other geographies overshadow London in other metrics, strengthening the case for the global adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Related: Bitcoin nodes data: Frankfurt houses the largest city-wide network

Steering forward in the quest to stay at the forefront, the Bank of England (BoE) and the United Kingdom Treasury highlighted the need to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by 2030.

Cointelegraph previously reported that sources claim that the "digital pound" roadmap is set to be introduced by mid-February. The UK reportedly experienced a 35% drop in cash and coin payments in 2020 — a clear indication of an incoming era of digitization.

Trump appoints former college football player Bo Hines to head crypto council

UK gov’t is hiring a central bank digital currency lead for Treasury team

The team lead will determine the “strategic direction” for Treasury’s efforts to develop a digital pound in line with the U.K. government’s agenda.

HM Treasury in the United Kingdom has begun calling for applicants to lead the central bank digital currency team behind efforts towards a digital pound.

In a job posted to LinkedIn on Jan. 24, the U.K. Treasury called for a team lead for its Payments and Fintech Team of roughly 20 people focused exploring on a “potential digital pound”. According to the posting, the CBDC head would determine the “strategic direction” for Treasury’s efforts to develop a digital currency in line with the government’s agenda, as well as analyze potential policy issues for lawmakers.

“Treasury and the Bank of England are working together through the CBDC Taskforce to explore the case for a digital pound,” said the job posting. “Treasury and the Bank of England have committed to consult jointly on a potential digital pound, and the successful candidate will lead the Treasury team in the wake of the consultation’s issuance, including working with the Bank of England to consider consultation responses.”

Many U.K. lawmakers and industry leaders have all offered their two cents — or rather, pence — on the introduction of a CBDC as the digital asset space grows. Tony Yates, a former senior adviser to the Bank of England, advised against CBDCs in a January interview, arguing it was “not worth the costs and risks.” The current governor of England’s central banks has likewise expressed skepticism about a digital pound.

Related: UK MP says stablecoin is a gateway to CBDC, only crypto can ‘disrupt’ settlements

The U.K. has experienced major shake ups in leadership, from the government going through three prime ministers within a matter of months to Queen Elizabeth II passing in September 2022. However, lawmakers continue to mull policies related to digital asset regulation and enforcement.

At the time of publication, 16 applicants had applied for the CBDC role at Treasury.

Trump appoints former college football player Bo Hines to head crypto council

Remote work could redefine the global workforce for good

While implementing remote work structures seems to be a priority for most tech firms, there are still some concerns about its long-term efficacy.

As the global economy continues to reel from the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is increasing data suggesting that more and more people are now favoring a remote work-based lifestyle. In this regard, a survey sample of working United States citizens shows that Millennial and Generation Z workers prefer joining a remote workforce and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) as opposed to going to an office.

As part of the study, more than 1,100 U.S. citizens were asked to provide their preferences regarding remote work and the emergence of DAOs in recent years. Using research pertaining to DAOs published by the Harvard Law School, the survey showed how DAOs have seen their coffers grow from a respectable $400 million to a whopping $16 billion over the course of 2021 alone. This staggering growth of 3,900% came in concurrence with the number of people participating in DAOs and other remote work ventures surging from 13,000 to 1.6 million.

Simply put, 75% of the survey’s participants believe that in the near-to-mid term, companies will have to offer their users remote work options whether they like the idea or not, with the authors further noting, “The survey results show that a majority of respondents seek all of the things that DACs provide; remote work opportunities, independence from management, and influence over the organizations they work in.”

Is remote work the future?

To get a better overview of how remote work has continued to redefine the global job market, Cointelegraph reached out to Adam Simmons, chief strategy officer of RDX Works — a core developer for the decentralized public blockchain Radix. In his view, the trend of people opting for remote work will continue to garner more and more traction in the near term, adding:

“As an emerging industry, Web3 has a talent shortage. Today, only around 20,000 developers in the world are sufficiently experienced with Web3 tech to work at a production-grade level, signifying just a fraction of the 27 million developers worldwide. Aside from this being a significant barrier to innovation in the space, it means that the companies pioneering a whole new industry must be open to a global workforce.”

A similar sentiment is also shared by Jacob Kowalewski, chief strategy officer of open hosting platform T3rn, who told Cointelegraph that the remote working trend is likely to continue, especially since advances in technology are making it easier and more accessible for people to pursue such avenues. “With more and more young people choosing to work for themselves or starting their own businesses, the traditional office-based workplace is becoming less and less appealing,” he said.

Brett Fincaryk, marketing lead at Qtum — a scalable proof-of-stake platform — told Cointelegraph that over the last couple of years, hiring remote workers has helped his firm onboard new staff without all the traditional overheads that brick-and-mortar entities require.

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“With lockdowns easing across the globe, many workers have been ordered back to the office and simply don’t want to go, so they are now looking for remote work. This has made it easier for us to acquire new talent, and with fewer projects hiring right now, we have more options when sending job offers,” he said.

A look at the numbers

Taking a more statistical approach, Denys Ustymenko, founder and CEO of global IT crypto processing project 1TN, told Cointelegraph that several surveys, including one from Gartner, have shown that prior to COVID-19, 70% of workers had never worked remotely. However, after the pandemic, these numbers have decreased to 38%. And while there are still organizations that are not able to fully embrace remote work, he is convinced that such companies need to adapt to the “new normal” and change their HR policies.

“I would say that Millennial and Generation Z workers pulled the lucky ticket in terms of having the ability to work remotely. In fact, 62% of all employees now expect their employers to allow them to work remotely. Often, organizations may steer away from remote working models for fear their employees may become less productive; however, the opposite is the reality,” he said.

Despite the apparent benefit of the remote working model, Ustymenko noted that being the founder and CEO of a remote-first company has made him realize the challenges that come with it. The most vital being the establishment of a common culture, team building and effective communication among employees. He noted:

“When your entire team is spread across different time zones, poor motivation and a lack of involvement can become a problem. However, such issues can not overwhelm the huge potential that can be reached by making companies remote first.”

Lastly, it should be pointed out that, as of 2022, 16% of companies worldwide now allow 100% remote work, with 27% of these employers reporting a marked increase in company productivity. Moreover, a Forbes article stated that 25% of all professional jobs in North America are destined to become fully remote by the end of 2022.

Not everyone is sold on the idea of remote work

Saad Rizvi, chief procurement officer and partner at SuperLayer — a venture studio focused on Web3 consumer companies — told Cointelegraph he doesn’t believe the idea of an office setting is going to completely disappear or change anytime soon:

“Even large tech companies, which readily embraced the work-from-home model during the pandemic, have been reversing course, drawing the ire of their employees. I think one of the primary reasons behind this effort is the widespread underestimation of the value of in-person interactions.” 

Kowalewski also agrees with this assertion, stating that there will always be a need for some jobs that require face-to-face interactions, and therefore, the trend toward remote work will only partially replace the traditional office-based workplace. 

“But it’s becoming more popular, and we’re likely to see even more companies offering remote work policies in the years ahead. T3rn provides a fully remote work policy with offices in Lisbon and Berlin,” he added.

Harrison Comfort, co-founder of decentralized finance protocol DAM Finance, believes that while virtual conferences tend to work for a vast majority of a company’s internal meetings — especially if everyone comes prepared and carves out the appropriate amount of time — nothing beats in-person interactions.

Furthermore, he pointed out that, owing to the geographic dispersion of most teams, even office-based work is quickly transitioning into in-real-life meet-ups at local cafes — i.e., wherever the majority of the team happens to be that week. This again is because face-to-face communication is much more effective than texting or video calling.

Remote work’s impact on crypto and blockchain jobs

One of the core values of Web3 is decentralization, and from the outside looking in, remote work matches up with this approach. In this regard, Rizvi believes that for the crypto and blockchain job market, geographical borders aren’t as relevant as they are for more traditional industries:

“From our experience, more remote workers can add meaningful value and momentum to our nascent industry, namely by expanding the available talent pool. I think that we have an extraordinary opportunity right now to capitalize on the exodus from big tech fomented in part by the return to office orders.”

Moreover, he pointed out that many of the projects in the blockchain ecosystem don’t run on the same hierarchical approach that is characteristic of traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. 

“By design, these ecosystems are designed to foster collaboration. Collaboration is not limited to an office setting, and the move to remote work is a reflection of that reality,” Rizvi concluded.

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Kowalewski believes that as remote work becomes more popular, the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry will benefit from a more diverse workforce with new perspectives, ideas and talents, noting:

“One of the benefits of remote work is that it allows people to work from anywhere in the world. This gives crypto and blockchain companies access to talent from all corners of the globe. And since remote work is available 24/7, companies can hire workers around the clock regardless of their time zone.”

Another benefit of remote work, according to him, is that it eliminates borders and physical limitations as to where someone can live. “This allows for a more multicultural environment where people from all walks of life can work together,” he added.

Thus, as we head into a future driven by decentralized technologies, it will be interesting to see how the rapidly evolving remote work paradigm continues to define the global job landscape as well as the job culture prevalent across organizations worldwide.

Trump appoints former college football player Bo Hines to head crypto council

Coinbase to cut another 20% of its workforce in the second wave of layoffs

Crypto exchange Coinbase announced a further restructuring plan that involves reducing its workforce by 950 employees to cut operational costs amid the bear market.

Major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is starting 2023 with more layoffs, letting go of another 20% of its employees in a second major wave of layoffs.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong officially announced on Jan. 10 that Coinbase will cut 950 jobs as part of the company’s measures to reduce the firm’s operating costs by around 25% amid the ongoing crypto winter.

Armstrong emphasized that Coinbase is “well capitalized,” and crypto “isn't going anywhere,” but the firm has to proceed with layoffs in order to keep the “appropriate operational efficiency.” As part of a headcount reduction, Coinbase will be shutting down several projects with a “lower probability of success,” the CEO noted, without specifying what projects will be terminated exactly.

“In fact, I believe recent events will ultimately end up benefiting Coinbase greatly,” Armstrong stated, referring to the growing regulatory clarity and Coinbase’s opportunities due to the failure of FTX. He added:

“But it will take time for these changes to come to fruition, and we need to make sure we have the appropriate operational efficiency to weather downturns in the crypto market and capture opportunities that may emerge.”

Coinbase’s blog announcement is accompanied by the firm’s 8k form filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which states that Coinbase’s audited financial statements for 2022 are not yet available.

As part of the restructuring plan to reduce its operating costs, Coinbase expects to spend about 149 million to $163 million, including $58 million to $68 million in cash charges related to employee severance and other termination benefits. The Company expects execution of the plan to be substantially complete by the second quarter of 2023, the filing notes.

The latest layoffs come months after Coinbase initially reduced its headcount by 18% in June 2022, with Armstrong citing a starting economic recession. 

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