Proof-of-PR

Latest Episodes:

Episode 146: Susan Brazer on Investing in Transformative Technologies Oct 11, 2018

Show notes

Susan Brazer is a digital and mobile transformation exec. She has launched disruptive digital media and mobile platforms globally and has worked for companies such as Apple, DirecTV, Viacom, and Nokia. Currently, Susan is an investment advisor with Decentralized Global and the CEO of LionShare Media.

LionShare is a platform that integrates video streaming and blockchain tech to create a decentralized distribution platform.

This episode gives us an inside look into both businesses and uncovers various aspects of investing in blockchain.

Topics covered:

- How Susan and Decentralized Global evaluate companies to invest in.

- Investment strategies: long-term hold, quick exit, or a mix? Every deal is unique.

- Evolving security laws, Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML).

- Countries fostering innovation and welcoming ICOs.

- Negative and positive experiences working globally.

- The excitement around blockchain space and how the speed of change is faster than other technologies in the past.

- How blockchain tech is changing the media space, including media delivery apps for content creators, helping to make way for "frictionless media."

- Advice for people who want to get involved in the blockchain industry.

Resources Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbrazer

https://twitter.com/sbrazer

http://www.lionsharemedia.com

https://www.thundercore.com

https://zilliqa.com

susan@lionsharemedia.com

Episode 145: Applications of Blockchain Oct 04, 2018

Show notes

This episode of Crypto Token Talk was recorded live with Arun Kalaiselvan, co-founder and CTO of Blockdaemon; Niki Williams, Community Curator of ConsenSys; and Cyrus Taghehchian, co-founder and CEO of Splyt at the General Assembly camplus in Santa Monica.

The panel focuses on how blockchain applies and can apply to various industries such as gaming and e-commerce. All three guests give their take on how far away they think we as consumers are from interacting with blockchain technology, how we should make sure it is user friendly, and the extent of awareness the general public may have about the technology.

The guests discuss various career routes that can lead to involvement with the blockchain community and share how people can begin interacting with crypto and learn from trustworthy news sources.

Topics covered:

- A brief background of each guest's company.

- How blockchain will affect gaming.

- The industries that ConsenSys is influencing.

- The problems with present-day e-commerce.

- An open discussion about how far away we as consumers are from interacting with blockchain technology, how it should be kept user friendly, and how noticeable it will be to users.

- How to get involved in blockchain no matter what your professional background is.

- How to tell if a company is just using "blockchain" as a buzzword for publicity.

- Ways that beginners can interact with blockchain and cryptocurrency.

- Recommendations of where to get news about cryptocurrency and blockchain.

- Various databases that could be used instead of blockchain.

- Who would be responsible for a bug on the blockchain.

Resource Links:

https://blockdaemon.com/

https://consensys.net

https:/spl.yt

https://metamask.io/

https://www.uport.me/

https://old.reddit.com/r/ethereum/

https://old.reddit.com/r/ethdev/

https://old.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/

https://trezor.io/

https://mycrypto.com/account

http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/

https://steemit.com/

https://blockchainweekly.net/

https://medium.com/@ConsenSys

mailto:arun@blockdaemon.com

mailto:niki.williams@consensys.net

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikiah

mailto:cyrus@spl.yt

https://twitter.com/cyrusinc

http://blocktune.io/

Episode 143: Kirill Bensonoff on Crypto Trading Sep 20, 2018

Show notes

Today's guest is Kirill Bensonoff from Caviar, a crypto trading platform. Kirill shares how he transitioned from working for a web hosting company to becoming an early investor in Bitcoin. Since his initial investment in 2013, Kirill has become a blockchain advisor and the host of the Boston Crypto Meetup, founder of the Boston Blockchain & AI Angels group. Recently, Kirill wrote about the advantages of bear markets and discusses with us strategies to get through one. He segues to discuss the current shift from crowdfunding to private capital and his assessment of the role of venture capitalists in crypto investing. The episode closes with some advice and resources to entrepreneurs and people who want to get more involved in the space.

Topics covered:

- Kirill's diverse background in technology.

- How Kirill is currently involved in crypto.

- Buying a Bitcoin in-person in 2013.

- Kirill's recent article about bear markets.

- Strategies that can be used during bear markets.

- Investment from venture capitalists (VCs) vs. crowdfunding.

- What Caviar does.

- Tokenizing real estate.

- Advice for other entrepreneurs involved with crypto.

- Advice for beginners in crypto.

Links:

https://caviar.io/

mailto:kirill@caviar.io

https://twitter.com/prankstr25

https://www.linkedin.com/in/prankstr25

https://www.tradingview.com/

Cryptoassets: Innovative Investors Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond

Episode 142: Anita Motwani on Borrowing and Lending on the Blockchain Sep 13, 2018

Show notes

Anita Motwani is the head of business development for Celsius in North America. Celsius is a new way to deposit, borrow, and earn interest with crypto. The platform allows users to earn up to 5% interest while they HODL, or borrow fiat at 9% against crypto stored in a Celsius wallet.

They're aiming to get the next 100 million people into cryptocurrency, and offer an option for those who want to HODL but need cash right away. By taking a loan rather than selling the crypto, users can also avoid large capital gains hits.

Currently, Celsius is only lending to institutions, but their goal is to have the protocol available to everybody. The hope is to provide crypto banking services on the international scale.

Topics covered:

- How Celsius works and why people would want to borrow against their crypto.

- What happens if the price of crypto fluctuates during your loan period.

- Technology behind the Celsius platform and how it's secured.

- How Celsius earns and pays interest.

- What happens if you want your crytpo back.

- Blockchain technology and adoption around the world.

- Types of business partnerships Celsius is currently looking for.

- Following Akon and acoin development.

Links:

https://celsius.network/

https://medium.com/search?q=cryptocurrency

https://cointelegraph.com/

https://bitcoinnews.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/advancedcryptoassettrading/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anitamotwanidean

Episode 141: Juan Hernandez on Trading for the General Public via Security Tokens Sep 06, 2018

Show notes

This episode's guest is Juan Hernandez, CEO of OpenFinance Network. Juan introduces us to the OpenFinance trading platform and explains why there is a high demand for security token trading. He offers up information about the different types of security tokens and why he believes they are the key to attracting more mainstream users for crypto trading. We conclude with Juan's recommendations for first-timers hoping to get involved in crypto.

Topics covered:

- Juan's eighteen years of experience in technology and finance.

- What OpenFinance Network does.

- The difference between a security token and a utility token.

- Investing in STOs (security token offerings) and the four different types.

- Juan's entry point into the crypto space.

- The recent launch of the OpenFinance Network trading platform.

- The user interface of the platform.

- Tasks that Juan sees as a struggle for crypto users.

- The next six months-one year in cryptocurrency and an upcoming buzzword.

- OpenFinance Network's partners and advisors.

- What's on the horizon for OpenFinance Network.

Resource Links:

https://www.openfinance.io/

OpenFinance Telegram Link

https://www.securitytokenacademy.com/

@OpenFinanceIO

Episode 140: Tricia Martinez on Using Blockchain to Advance Opportunities in Emerging Markets Aug 30, 2018

Show notes

Tricia Martinez is Founder & CEO at Wala and Director at Dala Foundation. In this episode, Tricia explains how her research led her to use blockchain to encourage financial growth in emerging markets. The foundation Dala and company Wala are able to operate on a no-fee model and aid consumers and small business owners who are often left out of the current financial markets.

Wala is a no-fee financial app for emerging markets, and Dala is a multi-chain open-source crypto asset. Wala is the first major contributor to Dala's open source development, and the first open source application to allow the use of Dala for transactions and peer-to-peer transfers.

Tricia discovered that emerging parts of the world were hungry for a financial system that worked for users and small business owners. It may come as a surprise, but even in emerging countries, cell phones are quite popular, so the idea to use them for peer-to-peer transactions makes complete sense. Adoption has been extremely fast, providing even more evidence that there's a demand for this type of service and that people can be empowered in a sometimes unbalanced economy.

Topics covered:

- Crypto in emerging markets.

- Financial challenges in emerging markets.

- Creating a system that's fair, borderless, and geared towards ignnored consumers.

- Research findings on universal basic income.

- How Dala and Wala are have experience fast adoption and growth.

- Why decentralization is key in creating financial support in a growing economy.

- Multi-chain cryptocurrencies.

- The relationship between Dala and Wala, and how they're able to operate on a no-fee basis.

- What's coming next for Dala and Wala.

Links:

https://dala.org/

https://www.bitwala.com/

https://twitter.com/TriciaTita

https://twitter.com/GetWala

Telegram: t.me/getwala

Episode 139: David Bleznak on Accessible Trading Aug 23, 2018

Show notes

David Bleznak is the founder and CEO of Totle, a game-changing ERC-20 token trading platform. The idea for Totle sprung from several challenges that David encountered when he first started trading crypto. He wanted to make everything from balancing his portfolio to dealing with multiple exchanges, and using spreadsheets streamlined, accessible and simple.

Totle aims to provide the very best possible user experience to its users. In developing the Totle platform, the user interface was designed before moving on blockchain integration, making Totle a user friendly, decentralized trading platform for everyone-even non aficionados.

Currently in beta, Totle's decentralized exchange platform brings a host of benefits for users, making crypto trading accessible to anyone.

Topics covered:

Challenges that helped David realize the need for a solution like Totle.
What Totle is and how it works.
Totle supports Ethereum and all ERC-20 tokens, which form about 90% of the crypto market.
Advantages of Totle compared with using other exchanges.
How Totle brings traditionally complicated decentralized exchanges to one simple platform.
How development is progressing and where users can get involved with the beta.
Why Totle believes peer-to-peer decentralized trading is the future.
How some decentralized exchanges today are not truly decentralized.
Advantages to centralization and how the comparative drawbacks can be dealt with for decentralized exchanges.

Links

https://www.totle.com/

http://medium.com/totle

https://t.me/totleinc

http://www.facebook.com/totlecrypto

mailto:david@totle.com

Episode 138: Bailey Reutzel Unveils Reporting on Crypto Aug 16, 2018

Show notes

Bailey Reutzel, one of the editors at CoinDesk, joins us this week. She shares with us her journey into the counterculture crypto community and the various projects and stories that eventually led her to her current role at CoinDesk.

Bailey divulges the types of stories she is interested in covering and that most often her goal is to follow the interests of her readers. Analyzing the needs of the reader is the key for Bailey. Her years of experience and knowledge in the crypto scene have eased the challenge of uncovering the core events of the crypto communities. Bailey encourages entrepreneurs and communications teams to similarly consider the needs and interests of the reader when pitching to reporters. We conclude by hearing what resources Bailey likes to use to keep up on crypto, how Twitter may not always be the best resource and her advice for newcomers to the space.

Topics covered:

- Bailey's background and how she first discovered crypto.

- Writing about the initial coin offering (ICO) boom of 2017.

- Figuring out which projects are legitimate and which aren't.

- Choosing which coins and tokens to report on.

- What entrepreneurs should be mindful of when emailing CoinDesk for coverage.

- Industries that Bailey thinks blockchain can disrupt and her skepticism.

- Who Bailey looks up to in the cryptocurrency world.

- Having to read everything to get the right information.

- Bailey's recommendations for learning about the industry.

- How Bitcoin has changed over the years.

Links:

https://www.coindesk.com/author/baileyreutzel/

https://twitter.com/blr13

https://twitter.com/_kevin_pham

https://twitter.com/lopp

The Internet of Money by Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Episode 137: Gavin Douglas on Integrating Successful Participation TV Technology onto the Blockchain Aug 09, 2018

Show notes

Today's guest is Gavin Douglas, CEO of iPowow and founder of the HIT protocol, the media company's blockchain initiative for empowering all players in the ecosystem. iPowow is a participation TV platform which has been experimenting with the use of blockchain and their own token. From the beginning of Gavin's career, he sought to further engagement between viewers and the content they watched. It wasn't until 2010 when the technology caught up to his dream and he was able to found iPowow with a group of engineers and TV producers. iPowow founded the idea of "Participation TV" by developing the technology to connect viewers directly to TV content through their second screen device (i.e. smart phones, iPads, etc.). The next iteration in iPowow's mission to deepen connections between viewers and content providers is to tokenize content viewing by moving iPowow onto the blockchain. In this episode, Gavin delves into this journey, explaining that surrounding himself with experts in storytelling and emerging technology has been key to his success.

Topics covered:

- Gavin's background in television and creating iPowow.

- Hiring producers for iPowow when everyone was telling Gavin to hire engineers.

- What excites Gavin about the HIT protocol.

- Where iPowow has been used.

- How Gavin first discovered blockchain and crypto.

- Adding value to iPowow with a points system.

- The HIT token and monetizing people's attention.

- Rewarding people for sharing their data and redeeming HIT tokens.

- Seeing the opportunity in blockchain and transitioning into it.

- Building a business in crypto.

- Feedback that iPowow has received about using blockchain.

- Advertising on iPowow and maintaining trust with users.

- How people will interact with HIT tokens.

Links

http://www.ipowow.com/

https://twitter.com/ipowow

https://medium.com/@HitProtocol

mailto:gdouglas@ipowow.com

Episode 136: Nisa Amoils on Building Blockchain Communities Aug 02, 2018

Show notes

Nisa Amoils is a venture capital investor with experience as an entrepreneur, a media executive, and a corporate lawyer. She also writes for Forbes and Blockchain Magazine. Nisa tells us about how being part of an Angel Group in New York first got her interested in crypto back in 2013. Today, in addition to investing in blockchain companies, she also works closely with new companies to build communities and raise capital. Nisa educates us about all the industries that blockchain can change, ICO controversies and the adoption rate of cryptocurrency. She shares with us how to create more crypto adoption. To close, Nisa recommends her favorite blockchain literature, with a special focus on a recent book that a colleague of hers wrote.

Topics covered:

- Nisa's previous investments in technology.

- How Nisa discovered crypto and her interest in disruptive technology.

- The tools that Nisa used to discover more about crypto and blockchain.

- Nisa's day-to-day involvement with cryptocurrency companies.

- Projects that have the potential to change the world.

- Use cases for blockchain in a variety of industries and why Nisa likes them.

- People that Nisa respects in the crypto space.

- Things that even Nisa find complicated and intimidating in the crypto space.

- How adoption of the industry can be accelerated.

- Recommendations on how people can get started with cryptocurrency.

- The relationship between internet of things, artificial intelligence, and blockchain.