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US job openings stay elevated, layoffs hit nine-month low

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Back Market

back-market

DePIN Tackles the World’s Most Entrenched Industries

DePIN বিশ্বের সবচেয়ে প্রবেশ করা শিল্পকে মোকাবেলা করে

DePIN nimmt sich der am stärksten verankerten Branchen der Welt an

DePIN aborda las industrias más arraigadas del mundo

DePIN s’attaque aux industries les plus implantées au monde

DePIN दुनिया के सबसे अधिक स्थापित उद्योगों से निपटता है

DePINは世界で最も定着している産業に取り組む

DePIN은 세계에서 가장 확고한 산업을 다루고 있습니다

DePIN aborda as indústrias mais arraigadas do mundo

DePIN решает проблемы самых укоренившихся в мире отраслей

DePIN Dünyanın En Köklü Endüstrileriyle Mücadele Ediyor

DePIN giải quyết các ngành công nghiệp cố thủ nhất thế giới

DePIN 应对全球最根深蒂固的行业

Crypto’s largest exchange just got hit with $4 billion in fines. Its CEO resigned. Rumors are swirling that the largest stablecoin, a crypto version of the US dollar, will collapse under US regulatory scrutiny. Every major US crypto entity is getting sued by investors, users, or the US government. Bitcoin’s price is up 126% this year. The bear market warriors claim validation. The OGs chant “victory!” The bull market champions call for new all-time highs. They all expect crypto will go on an amazing run, they just can’t agree whether that means bitcoin’s price will hit $60,000 before the halving, deliver diminishing returns through the end of 2025, peak sooner than expected in a “left-translated cycle,” or reach some other number on a timeframe that fits within the cycle theories, trading charts, and data models. Torn between two lovers Nobody else seems to believe them. Mainstream commentators seem doubtful. Jim Cramer said crypto’s done. YouTube traders say this is the “B” wave of an A-B-C correction to $6,000 (whatever that means). Your favorite regulators say it’s a fraud. Munger and Buffett say its going to zero. Macro guys tell you the wheels are about to fall off the world’s economy but 2022’s Recessionistas tell you that the recession’s been called off. On-chain gurus say prices have to go up because 75% of bitcoin’s supply sits in the hands of people who either don't care enough to sell or care so much they won’t sell. Data guys say that can’t happen, “the maths” don’t work out. One side of YouTube says the bull market’s confirmed. The other side says prices have to go down because “there is no liquidity,” “interest rates are too high,” and “we need capitulation first.” You're torn between two lovers, a bull and a bear. They both want what’s best for you, but only one is right! Just go along with it Some people simply can’t accept the reality: if bitcoin’s price stays above $15,600, crypto’s been in a bull market for over a year. If that’s you, no worries! What you’re feeling is normal during the disbelief stage of the market cycle, just before hope returns. This is a psychological phenomenon best illustrated by the Wall Street Cheat Sheet, an image that captures the emotions you will feel as you ride the crypto rollercoaster. Take a look: Can you apply that to bitcoin’s price chart? Here it is: You don’t have to believe what you see. You may, however, want to suspend your disbelief. Excuses, excuses Since the start of the year, every upswing has ended with a downswing. You get your hopes up, only to be let down. Priya in the Park insists the end is near, and she’s called every crypto bear market—sometimes more than three years in advance! She’s always right! Billy the Neighbor just bought back the Tesla stock he sold at the 2022 bottom but he’s not hitting you up for altcoin recommendations anymore crypto because “it’s dead” and “I don’t see why it’s valuable.” Your family thinks you lost all of your money. Conspiracy theorists tell you Tether, HTX, and [fill-in-the-blank crypto entity] will collapse from regulators, insolvency, central banks, law enforcement, quantum computers, and whatever else the social media algorithms slip into their feeds. Insolvent exchanges are dumping their customers’ cryptos to raise money. Think of all the excuses you’ve had to keep money out of crypto this year. Curve.Fi gets hacked and seems on the verge of imploding DeFi, so you keep your money out of the market. Death crosses and bull market support bands say you can't buy yet. You haven’t found a narrative that will bring new money into crypto, let alone a narrative that fits what you’re looking for, so you sit on your hands waiting for the altcoin capitulation or some news to get you hyped up again. China has an economic crisis. Supposedly, Europe’s in the middle of one (they don’t know it yet). Canada’s about to collapse. As a result, your mind simply can’t convince you that this market could ever recover. Yet, crypto goes up. Embrace uncertainty You think crypto should collapse, but nothing’s collapsing. Regulators seem to lose or settle every anti-crypto case. Wall Street’s preparing to take over the space. Crypto is not going away. Circumstantial evidence and on-chain behavior suggest stackers and HODLers have settled in for the long haul, and they control the largest portion of the market since 2016. Key sentiment indicators remain in a healthy equilibrium. Key metrics show strong market conditions. China’s stimulus has started to enter the market. Other Asian countries have taken back market share from the US. I could give you a dozen charts that make the future seem hopeless. https://twitter.com/MarkHelfman/status/1705780363040010437?embedable=true Despite all the gloom, the crypto market has turned a corner on every conceivable metric I look at. Bitcoin’s returns beat almost every asset that people like you and me can buy. Hard to believe, I know. Don’t try to believe it. Just try to suspend your disbelief. If you do that, maybe you’ll see a reality you never knew about. This post is also available as a collectible NFT at . https://mirror.xyz https://mirror.xyz/0x9a6600c7B40801dda9A0Fa4E8DE7b1B99FE524a7/ZPqrswR2QxFUPqP0Rng6Gl226NQDpG0nrYNFqx9-gfk?embedable=true Mark Helfman publishes the newsletter. He is also the author of three books and a top Bitcoin writer on and . Learn more about him in his and connect with him on or . Crypto is Easy Medium Hacker Noon bio Superpeer Tealfeed

The Crypto Market Demands You Suspend Your Disbelief

In 2023, one of the oldest blockchain ecosystems will begin to deliver on its original promise at the scale many have hoped for. Ethereum introduced the initial concept of smart contracts and, as such, has had a big head start against rival blockchains, being the most developed DeFi ecosystem. However, other blockchains have been taking back market share, each coming forth with its own unique value propositions and use cases in an attempt to build community and, in turn, attract developers and users. One such blockchain is Cosmos, where Comdex exists. For those new to Cosmos, it can be thought of as an ecosystem of interconnected blockchains, like a hub-and-spoke, with Cosmos Hub at the center. Applications on Ethereum benefit from its Proof-of-Stake security but suffer from certain trade-offs, such as less potential for project-specific customization and less interoperability with other blockchains. With Cosmos, each application can be its own unique Proof-of-Stake blockchain, opening up the potential for an internet of custom-purpose blockchains in the future. Despite having a very strong developer ecosystem, Cosmos DeFi itself has, to date, lagged behind other blockchains, in part due to a lack of available stablecoins. This is changing with the announcement of and the rise in crypto-collateralized stablecoins, covered in detail native USDC coming to Cosmos here. There are several reasons why Cosmos is well-suited for a strong DeFi ecosystem These include: : as each Cosmos application is its own blockchain, they are unaffected by the network congestion as is common with Ethereum. Throughput : blockchain functionality and validator sets can be custom-purposed depending on individual needs. For example, dYdX will have its custom validator set to manage transactions off-chain in order to reduce network congestion. Customizability : projects may build vertically, horizontally, or however they see fit. Teams might wish to make their own core technological changes or introduce a new feature. Control : as more projects build upon Cosmos, network effects grow. Each blockchain will be able to communicate seamlessly and securely with one another using the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. Interoperability : gas fees are now paid in the native token of the protocol, meaning that value accrues to their token rather than to another blockchain network such as Ethereum. Gas Fees has also gained widespread attention, and if successful, may lead to others following suit. All in all, as stablecoins become more widely available within Cosmos and more projects begin to see the benefits of building there, the future may be well-poised for future growth. dYdX’s recent move over to Cosmos The Path Forward for Cosmos DeFi Our goal is to democratize finance by building an infrastructure layer optimized for aggregating cross-chain liquidity with a suite of cutting-edge DeFi products. The primary means of doing this is by providing modules built on the core primitives of finance, allowing builders to utilize them to launch DeFi applications. Builders can now benefit from Comdex’s customizable modules, whether that be primitives for functionalities such as liquidations, lending, oracles, vaults, assets, or much more. This will be extremely relevant as more and more projects come to Cosmos in the future, requiring reliable and customizable infrastructure that’s interoperable with the rest of the Cosmos ecosystem. On the consumer side, Comdex is building out a suite of services such as: CMST: our crypto collateralized stablecoin, mintable through . Harbor Protocol : our decentralized exchange. C-Swap : our borrowing and lending market. Commodo Ethereum projects including Curve, Aave, and Frax have been racing to provide all three of the above solutions. For example, Curve is introducing its own stablecoin, while Frax has introduced its own AMM and borrowing/lending market. Comdex already has all of the above, which can be used by other projects wishing to deploy. With the Comdex chain, builders have access to a stack of modules that allow smoother go-to-market for any dApp launching in Cosmos. The Comdex chain, therefore, acts as the de facto infrastructure layer of interchain DeFi. Also published here. About Siddarth Patil Comdex Co-founder and COO. Before co-founding Comdex, Siddarth’s professional endeavors centered on finance, with working experience in wealth management and investment banking. He began building Comdex in 2018 as a blockchain-based solution to digitize the commodity supply chain industry. Along with the Comdex team, Siddarth launched Comdex chain in 2021 as a DeFi infrastructure layer to power a multi-chain ecosystem. About Comdex A DeFi infrastructure layer for the Cosmos ecosystem. A layer-1 infrastructure for seamless deployment of DeFi applications in the Cosmos ecosystem, powering DeFi in the multi-chain future. The Comdex chain is built to enable the bridging of capital to assets across the DeFi and CeFi ecosystems. A truly decentralized ecosystem of solutions enables limitless access to global liquidity in finance. Comdex aims to deliver a robust infrastructure layer that supports the seamless creation and deployment of DeFi applications in the Cosmos ecosystem. The Comdex chain enhances investors’ access to a broad range of assets that help investors diversify and generate yield on their investments.

The Cosmos We’ve All Been Waiting For

El cosmos que todos hemos estado esperando

Le cosmos que nous attendions tous

जिस ब्रह्मांड का हम सब इंतजार कर रहे हैं

待望のコスモス

O cosmos que todos esperávamos

Vũ trụ mà tất cả chúng ta đang chờ đợi

我们一直在等待的宇宙

Today’s world is full of technological advancement where content with a poor design doesn’t stand out. It is considered to be useless. What attracts potential customers in whatever they want is the design. Nonetheless, it can be quite tricky to stay up on the top due to the ever-changing digital evolution. The user is the common factor who determines different expectations from different angles. So, how do you satisfy the user design preference? As a digital expert, it is a must that you be adaptable to any change at any given point. This implies that to build up and maintain your brand as the most wanted; you should put all your focus on the user’s preference and wants. To achieve this, you must be updated with the latest trends when it comes to UX designs. Let us discuss the following UX Design Trends for 2020 The Dark Theme Inclusive Design No Passwords When Logging in Air Gesture Control Doing away with Hamburger Menus UX Writing Micro-Interactions in Just some years back, marketing and user experience were two distinct areas of study. But in this era, the two go hand hand where each one is dependent on the other. Marketing has an important role when it comes to user experience because it defines how the user feels about the brand. Let us now analyze each of the above named Trends The Dark Theme Before technology, the backgrounds that were often used were made up of shiny and bright colours. But then, who wishes to stay at the same place forever? The digital world is all about evolution and change. From a scientific view, it is clear that eyes are never friendly to bright colours especially for a long period. Therefore, the dark theme took its way towards the transformation. Major apps including Android and iOS, implemented the dark theme strategy, and this paved the way for many applications; they started going the same direction. The reason why dark theme stands out as a trend is a positive impact it brought after being used. Most have adapted to this change and they can always modify themes to suit the preference of the user. UX Designers Note: The application you are using should support dark theme trend for you to use it effectively . Some of the biggest applications using dark theme include: Netflix Spotify YouTube Amazon However, there are applications which are perfect with bright themes such as social media platforms and websites for news. As a designer, it is upon you to decide what works better for you and more so the preference of your audience. Always think wide and make a critical decision. Inclusive Design In simple terms, inclusive design involves expanding your ideas by reaching out to different people on how to design. Different people give you their views and thought, which you, later on, combine with your ideas to come up with the best product. This trend is the most used, and it only means it won’t run out of the market any time soon. It is all about bringing and incorporating ideas gathered from different people from different field of experts. Everyone has their own views. As a designer, you combine all the different perspectives and come up with a brand or a product that suits everyone’s needs. Note: What works for me might not work for you. And what works for you might not work for someone else, and the trend continues. That is why an inclusive design trend is here to solve the equation. Principles of Inclusive Design : In the world of designing, those individuals with permanent disabilities should always be put first in mind. The design should be flexible and easy to use on such people. Thus, when people with disabilities are well catered for, a good number of people worldwide will as well benefit from this. One solution should be extended to many people Since different people will have their own perception in each matter, you can’t include all the perspectives in the design. As an expert, it is your duty to analyze what to add and what to ignore. Know what to ignore: Always consider other people views before starting off with your design to avoid misunderstandings from the very beginning. This means that you should move with other peoples perspectives from the word go. Diversify Ideas: No Passwords When Logging in We are all human, and at times we tend to forget the most important things in our lives. Such things can be pins or even passwords. The same applies to any user out there. About 27.95% of users often forget passwords at least 10 times annually. This is according to Cyclonic passwords Security research. It is a common scenario that users forget their passwords every other day. According to a Cyclonic Password Security Survey, 27.95% of respondents said that users forget their passwords 10 or more times per year. Note: The reason why a person forgets a password is because of the rules involved like involving numbers, punctuation marks, or even special characters. Once you forget even one character or put a lower case in place of an uppercase, that is it. You won’t be able to log in and forced to reset passwords countless times. That is why a trend of logging in without necessarily having to enter a password is here. Passwordless login is an emerging trend in UX design that is not going to end any time soon. Most of the largest companies such as Microsoft are already implementing this strategy. Air Gesture Control Another amazing UX trend is the air gesture. The trend is meant to improve the user experience when it comes to gesture experience. Since touch screens were implemented, a lot has changed. : Apple came up with the idea in the first place and initiated the trend in iOS. The trend did not just stick there. A lot of technological advancement has been made, and some are still in the process. For example, a simple pinch on the phone or even a wave over the phone will keep things moving. Users won’t have to touch on the screens to achieve an objective necessarily. Note One key aspect of gesture control is the level of sensitivity. It has to be extra sensitive for it to act with ease.  Air gesture is among the emerging trends that will keep improving on different dimensions as time moves on. Doing away with Hamburger Menus The hamburger icon serves many people every day.  The users are fond of its convenience, easy and flexible to use. Apparently, the usual menu design of 3 parallel lines is going out of trend slowly despite the fact that it makes the menu appear attractive. The following shows why Hamburger is a UX emerging trends: There is no much attention on the Features The hamburger icon’s main role is to keep important services, vital information concerning the business, and products offered at large. Low Click Rates at the top left corner Do you have a touch screen phone? If yes, have you noticed that the hardest place to reach with your thumb is the top left corner? The same thing applies to the hamburger icon. Since the icon is located at the top left corner, many people find it difficult to access it, thereby leaving your application. As a designer, it is up to you to think beyond hamburger icons. For example, Spotify is already on the move to do away with such icons. Once they removed the icon, productivity increased. This means that change is vital when it comes to designs. UX Writing Catchy and straight to the point words are slowly losing their significance. We are living in an era where individuals only want to hear what they have already perceived in their minds. They need to hear something that steams up a constructive conversation and later on improve productivity. And that is what UX writing is all about. It catches the attention of the user by ensuring the user stays focused throughout. A good and practical example is this; in Google, many users search for a hotel room to book, yet they are reluctant to make the reservation immediately. To catch their attention, a change of sentence is applied. The sentence can read, ‘Reserve your space” instead of ‘check available rooms.’ Tips on how to achieve UX writing Address the user the exact point they need to hear Put all the focus on the key point Embrace the use of active voice and past tense in the sentences. Do not let the user do more research about the objective. It should be instant.Make use of figures where necessary Micro-Interactions Micro-interactions is whereby the design and the user cooperate to form a nice experience. It is all about playing with animation by adding them where necessary. Note: You must be available to experience micro-interactions since it is the user where all the focus lies. A good example is the like button of Facebook. It is the perfect moment to attract potential audience towards what you offer. Originally Posted at: https://www.aalpha.net/blog/ux-designs-to-watch-out-for-come-2020/

UX Design Trends to Watch out in 2020

I wrote this article for Stable Report back in September 2019. I am reposting now since it is a good primer for where we are, and I will be posting a update that will reference this article soon. Please note, that the Digital Euro was not live when I first write this article, but China's CBDC is already functional, and the Digital Euro is expected to go live in the coming few years. In a quest to decentralize the globe, entrepreneurs have strived to create a new status quo for the world. Money, and the functions money serve, have been the main target of innovation. In the half decade past, the industry has blossomed tremendously, with projects like Ethereum, R3’s Corda, Hyperledger and more, becoming platforms for a new generation of high tech solutions facilitated by Blockchain and cryptography. These innovations, although initially supported by small teams working on relatively fringe projects, has now reached highs that seems impossible a few years back. Market behemoths, like JP Morgan Chase, Facebook, Walmart, and more, have all become involved in the space with their own blockchain projects. Although Stable Report focusing on stablecoins, and we see the introduction of large corporates as validation of the potential of this market, we recognize that private corporation are not the only players entering the space. Central Banks and their Digital Currency projects are very real, and will enter the market sooner rather than later. The introduction on Facebook’s Libra (read Stable Report’s article on ) has been a wakeup call for Central Banks around the world. The People’s Bank of China has been leading the way, and the industry media are buzzing with updates on their upcoming plans. But what are Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and how do they function? Who are the key players in the market, which Central Banks will act first, and what is the expected timeline of CBDCs? Is Bitcoin dead again? Libra here Types and Functions of CBDCs: Through a Bank of International Settlements’(BIS) paper on , a breakdown of money types was presented. The “Money Tree”, a Venn-like diagram the divided money characteristics into four separate categories, is presented below. These characteristics are a) digital, b) central bank issued, c) token/value-based, and d) widely accessible. Central Bank Digital Currency The Money Tree, which should be familiar to researchers of CBDCs, is a good tool for differentiating cryptocurrencies, traditional bank deposits and CBDCs from each other. In this diagram, three separate CBDC categories emerge: a) Central bank, account-based CBDCs, b) Token-based CBDCs for commercial banks, and c) Token-based CBDCs for general use. The differences between the two token-based models is slight but important, since the proposed use of the two models focuses on different users. The commercial bank token model is focused on maintaining the Bank’s reserve targets and alleviating the settlement delays between the central bank and commercial banks. This solves pain points like overnight loans, cross-back payments, and more. The general purpose token-based CBDC model, however, would expand these uses to everyday transactions within the market – something like a central bank-sponsored Venmo, PayPal or CashApp using CBDC tokens. The benefit of this model would be the continuation of existing banking practices with little deviation from today’s banking state of affairs. The third option, Account-based CBDCs, however, would expand the functions of central banks in way not seen in the past. This CBDC model would allow citizens and CBDC users to hold their funds in central bank-based accounts, potentially cutting into the market share of commercial banks. As presented in the BIS survey on CBDCs, the potential for users to shift funds from commercial bank accounts and into CBDC accounts can be quite high in certain occasions. There are a lot of other factors a Central Bank needs to be mindful of before issuing a CBDC, but in many ways, selecting which of the above models a central bank will develop is the most important determinant to how significant a CBDC will be to the banking sector and the future of monetary policy. Key Projects and Players in CBDCs: So which Central Banks are exploring CBDCs, and how close are they to being officially issued? As mentioned above, the interest towards CBDCs skyrocketed when the People’s Bank of China announced that it is expediting the launch of their own project; a decision which in turn was fueled by Facebook’s Libra stablecoin. Media coverage seems to suggest that the CBDC will be launching in late 2019, namely around November, and specifically before the launch of Libra in 2020. Official designs for The People’s Bank of China’s CBDC are still not public, but reports dictate that it will be a two-tier system, with tokens being issued to banks and large telecommunication companies directly from the central bank, and through a private blockchain. The second tier system, from banks and telecom business to users, is still no known, although the PBoC aims for a transaction rate of around 300.000 per second. A more in depth analysis can be found in . Binance Research’s dedicated segment on the topic Although PBoC’s CBDC is the world’s leading CBDC project, with research starting all the way back in 2014, you will find, unsurprisingly, multiple other banks extensively researching CBDCs. In the aforementioned BIS survey indicates that out of the 63 central banks which partook into their research, a whopping 70% (or 44 central banks) are currently, or soon to be, engaged in serious CBDC research. In fact, the first consumer-based pilot CBDC program was launched by the Bank of Uruguay in late 2017. The program, otherwise known as the e-Peso, was an effort to increase financial inclusion in the country, and 20m e-Pesos were minted and distributed to businesses and individuals. The fund transfers were instant and peer-to-peer, either through text messages or through a dedicated e-Peso mobile app. The pilot was a success and was concluded in April of 2018. No further trials or plans are public as of yet. An additional CBDC pilot project is underway in Sweden, however no official date is set as of yet. With the ever falling use of cash throughout Sweden, Sveriges Riksbank is exploring a e-Krona CBDC as a digital cash alternative. For Sveriges Riksbank, the rise of private payment providers, namely Swish - and app that has achieved near 60% market penetration by 2018 – brings with it unwanted third party risk, and the e-Krona could be a more secure solution as money enters the digital age. However, the number of projects being researched and tested are plentiful and quite diverse. Accenture’s Global Blockchain Technology division has been particularly invested in CBDC research and implementation. Their reports and do a great job exploring the technical setup and social need for smart CBDC development by central banks. (R)evolution of Money (R)evolution of Money II (R)evolution of Money II lists a myriad of projects Accenture has been a part of. Often times in partnership with R3, Accenture has been instrumental in leading Project Jasper, Project Jasper-Ubin, Project Stella and more, paving the way for CBDC experimentation and proving that the technology is mature enough to handle the volumes of transactions expected by CBDCs. This report mentions the exploratory work on CBDCs by the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank, the Riksbank, the Bank of Japan, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank; and is highly recommended reading for anyone that wants to learn more about CBDCs. This piece would be amiss if it didn’t mention the work being conducted by the Bank of Russia, the Bank of Iran, and Venezuela’s Petro. Although the aforementioned projects are under development, little is known about the structure of Iran’s and Russia’s CBDCs, except that both have been touted as responses to US-imposed financial sanctions. Venezuela’s Petro, although state-sponsored, has more characteristics similar to a traditional asset-backed stable cryptocurrency than a CBDC, and has been highly controversial and mistrusted. On a final note, CBDC exploration does not end there, with multiple other Central Banks reviewing the technology and gradually moving forward with it. The Hackernoon article “ ” is a good resource for anyone seeking to explore country-specific projects. CBCD: 19 Countries Creating or Researching the Issuance of a Digital Decentralized Currency The expected timeline for globe-wide CBDC development is yet unknown, but the space in heating up. China, which is leading the way, is expected to launch before 2020, but the timeline for CBDC issuance by western central banks still seems far away. Expected Timeline of CBDC Launch: In conference, the topic of CBDCs was discussed. Michael Warner, strategist for the San Francisco Fed, argued that a FedCoin is still at least a decade way, and that the Fed will be the last institution to explore CBDCs since the US Dollar is already leading the traditional global financial market. IBM’s Think 2019 In the Europe front, the ECB has mentioned that Wholesale CBDCs are a viable option for the future. In most cases, wholesale CBDCs between commercial banks and central banks seem to be the technology that central banks are most excited to explore. All signs show that these will lead the way. Therefore, it seems safe to say that the 2020s might be the decade of financial innovation on money, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and CBDCs. Everything seems to align with this trajectory, and money is due to change forever. Get ready. Conclusions and Other Thoughts So, where do we stand? CBDCs seem to be becoming a reality sooner rather than later; at least in the East and in emerging markets. What is holding their development back, and are CBDCs a threat to cryptocurrencies? What about stablecoins? The answers are not yet known, but with the information available, let’s try to speculate. For most cases, CBDCs will start through wholesale, with Central Banks issuing token to commercial banks long before you, the end user, gets a hold of them. Why is that? Well, mostly because the technology can help elevate pain points in the settlement process between banks and central banks. Will general purpose, token-based CBDCs enter the retail market? Yes, but probably after wholesale CBDCs become the norm in the back-end of intra-bank and cross-bank transaction. Commercial bank account (or an alternative) will be needed to access these CBDCs when they come. What about the third option? CBDC accounts in the Central Banks for general purposes? The future for such project is unknown, but it seems to bring an unnecessary risk with their implementation. It will be a financial innovation that commercial banks won’t be ready for, since Central Bank accounts will inherently be less risky; and of course less profitable, with no interest returns offered to account holders. But will a meager interest rate counter the uncertainty of keeping your money in commercial bank accounts? Not in times of economic downturn, nor when interest rates are in near historic lows, like today. In most cases, account-based CBDCs will interfere with fractional reserve banking, and I expect them to be the last CBDC version to be explored, and only in countries where financial uncertainty is at its peak. What about Stablecoin competition? CBDCs might just be the main competitor to fiat-backed stablecoins as long as high trust toward the Central Banks exist. However, the cryptocurrency industry was built as a hedge to the whole industry, and decentralized stablecoins will provide exposure to an asset that is theoretically uncorrelated to CBDCs. Would you trust your money with the Central Bank of Greece during the early 2010s financial crisis if they had a CBDC, for example? What about Bitcoin and other pure cryptocurrencies? CBDCs are simply a different beast altogether. No one can offer the privacy protection of Monero, Z-Cash and Dash, and Bitcoin’s value is proven to be uncorrelated to traditional markets and will lead the price of the rest of the blockchain industry. Virtual Machine platforms, like Ethereum, EOS and Cardano, are also significantly different to non-smart contract capable CBDCs, and it looks unlikely that any of the CBDCs researched as the moment will aim to create the smart contract functionality Ethereum or stablecoins like Libra and Terra are focusing on. Lastly, non-backed, algorithmic stablecoins are multi-coin systems that aim to stabilize their price by expanding and contracting the supply of their token. Isn’t that similar to what central banks do since the end of Bretton Woods? It seems that highly innovative projects, like said algorithmic stablecoin, will only flourish when trust and ever expanding usage of their system is established. For that to be the case, it is very likely that a central bank will have to support it – which does beat the purpose initially, but these systems can then be tested accurately, iterated upon securely, and decentralized later on. Does this seem like an impossibility? Well, surprisingly no! Outgoing head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, has brought up the possibility of as they enter the mainstream financial markets. Of course, existing regulations will need to apply to these companies before any such formal action takes place. But as Ms. Lagarde takes the helm of the European Central Bank, the world will follow closely and monitor the way she handles an industry created to leave her out of a job. Until November 1st, when she takes over the ECB, the IMF paper on is a must-read for anyone interested in the topic. Central Banks acting as a lender of last resort to blockchain businesses the Rise of Digital Money As a final word, the world of money is changing, and the efforts of cryptocurrency entrepreneurs seems to have been successful in pushing the status quo in ways that seemed impossible a few years back. CBDCs, in retrospect, seem like an inevitable response to Bitcoin and Stablecoins. Now is the time. Let’s see what these entrepreneurs can accomplish, and how CBDCs will affect their projects’ future. Editorial note: Since the creation of this article, a number of key steps have been taken. First of all, the Digital Euro seems well on its way in Europe. Libra has intentionally reissued it's whitepaper and rebranded into Diem, and Algorithmic Stablecoins has started to remerge as potentially viable money alternatives. This was Xenofon Kontouris. To follow up on my work on Stabelcoins, CBDCs and Crypto, please follow me on Twitter at @XenofonOfAthens

A Primer on Central Bank Digital Currency – What’s going on? 

Feb 2022: Update on crypto markets, stock markets and global macroeconomics. When the bulls are away, the bears will play. If you have been watching the markets in the past few weeks, well… hopefully you have not been looking too closely. In the past, many experts have highlighted some main points about crypto markets and this particular time of year. Some characteristics of crypto markets are similar to stocks. However, there are large differences with crypto, as the market is truly worldwide and open 24/7. First, we have the eternal battle between the bears and the bulls. An actual bear attacks with a downward strike of his claws; in stock and crypto markets, bears want the markets to go down. This is because markets tend to go down swiftly, especially in times of fear, and bears can make more money, more quickly, when markets go swiftly down. A literal bull attacks with an upward strike of his horns; in stock and crypto markets, bulls want the markets to go up. Markets often tend to behave irrationally, but it is frequently said that “markets take the elevator down, and the stairs back up." A downturn in prices can drop further and faster when there is panic in the markets. Markets are driven by fear and greed, and fear tends to be more contagious than a simple pandemic, as you can catch it online as well. When the markets are panicking, it can be hard to keep your cool and think rationally, but that is exactly what the bulls and value investors must do to win. Value investors believe that crypto and blockchain are the future of banking, insurance, technology, and financial systems. Despite the distracting media static, doom and gloom headlines, and other bad news, value investors must keep faith in what they believe and where they think the world will be. "If in doubt, zoom on out" is also great advice. Financial adviser since 1992, Jeremy Britton, says, “if in doubt, zoom right out”. Hourly and daily price fluctuations can cause panic and uncertainty, so it is important to look at price growth over 1, 3, or 5 years. The charts show Bitcoin is up 249% over the last four years, whilst the diversified Bostoncoin crypto portfolio is up over 800% in the same period. What else is driving the markets? Aside from the eternal struggle of bulls and bears, over the past several years, it is noted that seasons and holidays play a role, particularly in crypto prices. Western nations may celebrate Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and similar traditions, but westerners must remember that over two-thirds of the world may not celebrate these dates. Many Asian countries celebrate Chinese New Year instead ( ). 2022 is the year of the Water Tiger, which last occurred in 1962, thanks for asking In many Asian nations, Chinese New Year is a time to spend with family. Millions of factories and businesses close, and hundreds of millions of people take time off work and travel to be with family. Production slows to a snail’s pace, and many investors sell off their holdings to spend funds on travel, gifts, food, or just because there is no work. If you have been around crypto markets for a few years, you will know that crypto investors in Asian nations tend to sell off towards Dec-Jan and then the market slowly recovers leading back into March-April ( ). the date of Chinese New Year is linked to the moon, so it is not the same day every year In the West, many investors are watching the US Fed as it struggles with the outcome of its own cash-printing silliness. There were many people who could not work during pandemic shutdowns, and small businesses, in particular, did require some increased funding. The problem was that under-regulated Fed QE policies saw some very large businesses receiving massive bail-outs, even as their profits rose. The system was not perfect and did not seem fair to all. Anyone who has completed Economics 101 knows that giving boatloads of free cash to anyone and everyone would result in hyperinflation and rising asset prices. Perhaps the boffins working in Central Banks may have skipped class that day? A few weeks ago, the US government was claiming that higher prices, inflation, and supply-chain shortages would be “transitory”. They are no longer saying this, as the realisation of hyperinflation sets in. The only way to prevent record inflation is to increase interest rates, which would likely devastate both homeowners and business owners. Higher interest rates can also trigger a drop in stocks, bonds, and yes, even crypto, as investors are forced to sell down assets to repay debt. On the surface, one can understand why market panic may be driving prices down, even though western rate rises are currently just a rumour. Interestingly, Lloyds of London and other . Draw your own conclusions, but it seems that many banks may be assuming very low interest rates for a decade or more. UK banks are now offering fixed-rate mortgages of 1.66% for ten years Is there any good news? The good news includes: 1)      Bears eventually go back to hibernating, particularly when the seasons change and other news comes out. 2)      Interest rate hikes may be lower and slower than first feared. 3)      The COVID pandemic may be having less of an impact on economies in 2022, as vaccine rates increase, less-deadly variants emerge, and herd immunity increases. 4)      Crypto’s brief forays into lower-price territory can mean some bargains for value investors, especially the brave bulls who have the opportunity to invest before the recovery is fully known. 5)      Tried and tested habits such as dollar-cost averaging (DCA), diversifying, and “buying the dip” still work well, provided you choose quality investments. What is the smart money doing? There is nothing much the bulls can do to reverse the impetus when the bears want to drive prices down. What the ‘zoomers’ (smart money investors who zoom out on charts) can do is take advantage of lower prices when there is market panic, or incidences of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). This month, directors of BostonTrading.co took advantage of lower prices to add additional holdings to some of their existing investments. In a month where market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum were down by 30-50%, the Bostoncoin fund bought more of each asset, just as a smart person would stock up on toilet paper or tinned food when the prices are suddenly slashed. Whether you believe the near future will include an idyllic Metaverse or a zombie apocalypse, people will probably need BTC and ETH just as much as we need toilet paper and tinned corn. Crypto winners this month include •        CRO, even after a drop, still up 220% for the year •        SAND, the promise of gaming and metaverse, up 420% •        SECRET, a wise buy that is now up 476% for the year •        LPT, defying trends to grow by 725% in 12 months •        XYO, still going gangbusters at 8 580% increase for the year In other news… Directors double-down during the dip When Bitcoin was first created, the founder(s) never held any tokens for themselves just because they knew how. If anyone wanted to get Bitcoin, the person had to either add power and value to the network by mining or buying BTC from the open market. There were no special privileges for a select few. From all accounts, it seemed that Satoshi Nakamoto despised the elites and their "enrichment for the 1%" agenda. Some (dodgy) coin issuers engage in unfair market practices by holding back a large chunk of coins for founders, developers, marketers, and influencers. The scammers release 20-50% of the coins to the market, and when the price increases, they can dump their own “free” coins for a profit and get rich whilst they crash the market. This has happened time and time again with . Let the buyer beware, especially of celebrities who are not experts, and always do your homework. worthless meme coins and tokens pushed by celebrities The founding team of BostonCoin and BostonTrading.co is comprised of all investors, who put in their own funds before the coin was launched to the public. There were never any preferential tokens held back from the open market, and none were awarded to anyone for any reason. This is known as a “fair launch” or “fair issue”, where, just like Bitcoin, everyone is invested on an equal opportunity basis. During the recent price drop, the Bostoncoin team invested more into the portfolio whilst the price was down. This is a show of confidence, and the team is proud to be long-term value investors. “It is important to believe in what crypto stands for. We avoid the scammers, FUD-sters, and nay-sayers. News media changes every day, but long-term, value investing always beats the market fluff and hype. To those who HODL for the long-term, and to those who double-down on the dips, we salute you,” said CFO Jeremy Britton in his latest newsletter. Cathie Wood’s flagship ARK Innovation ETF is now trading at around a 56% discount from its peak last year, and some investors may be wondering whether to take notice of her clarion call to buy innovation which is on “sale.” Speaking last Tuesday at Ark Investment Management’s virtual Big Ideas Summit 2022, following a big drawdown from her flagship ETF, Wood declared, “Innovation is on sale and it will be really important to investors to get to move towards the right side of change, given the amount of disruption that we do expect.” Nine of the fifty ARK Innovation ETF’s holdings have grown revenues at over 100% per annum, including those that have grown revenues at a rate of over 50% brings the total number to 21, just under half of their 50 stocks. Considering the average returns in traditional stocks, such as the ASX200 (3.7% for the past twelve months) and the SP500 (18.8% for the year), crypto markets, with their innovation and double or triple-digit returns, can no longer be ignored.

Crypto is Down But Not Out

The Power of Market Disruption: How to Detect Fraud With Graph Data

Are your sales coming too slowly? Maybe you’re spending some money on Marketing, just to realize that you are not getting a return on your investment… Ugh, that feeling of powerlessness is painful. Right? If your startup is gonna have any chance of survival, you HAVE to grow. There is no way around that. No investors want to invest in a stagnating startup. As a previous VC investor, I can share an insider benchmark: if you want to raise more than $1M, you need to grow at least 10 % per month. Sure, you can bootstrap… But with small revenues, it’s impossible to sustain costs. So even if you bootstrap you absolutely need to grow. So now you’re thinking: But if marketing isn’t working, how the f*** are you supposed to grow? Marketing is the only source to grow, right? Well, then my reaction is Eeehhhh... no not at all! Marketing and sales are of course important, but it is far from the only component to achieve growth. It is only the first step. Let me present UX for startup founders. No, I’m not talking about button design or color schemes. I’m talking about the experience that the user meets from first hearing about you until becoming a loyal customer. That’s a long journey with a lot of steps. As a startup coach, I’ve realized that this is completely overlooked by most startups that I meet. Those who don’t completely overlook this… become the few startups who actually succeed. User Experience is the second component of growth. It’s that missing piece that stands between your market and the success of your startup. You don’t only need to attract the market. You don’t only need to have traffic to your website. You don’t only need to build your list of leads. You also have to convert those people to loyal customers. Users will only convert to loyal customers if the user experience is top-notch. So if your marketing efforts are not generating the growth you hoped, it definitely has something to do with your User Experience. The 2 Frameworks You Need So how do we fix the conversion rate from marketing to growth? To explain this, I would like to present you with 2 frameworks. (If you would rather skip the explanations and move ahead to fill out the template directly, then download the template here) The 1st one is the AAARRR (pronounced arr - pirates not included!) which explains each of the steps that your users need to achieve to become a loyal customer. It stands for-- Awareness 👂: making your market aware of you and getting them to take the first step towards you (for example, click the link of your ad or answer when you’re cold calling them) Acquisition 💥: getting that website visitor or lead to say “yes” a first time, either by downloading your app, book in a demo meeting or starting a trial. This is usually where a marketer considers their job “done”; the rest is up to you as a startup founder. Activation: getting your user to use your product for the first time. If you have a productivity platform it will be to create the first task. If you have a mobile game, activation would be when the user completes the first game. At the activation step, the user should feel “Aha! This is really great”. When does that happen with your product? Retention: returning users coming back using your product over and over again. If achieved, it is proof that you create value for your users. If they keep on coming back it means that your product is needed and loved. Revenue 💰: monetizing on your customers--if you create large value for them, they should be ready to pay you for the service you offer. Referral: word of mouth, getting your very happy customer to spread awareness about your startup. If you nail this step, you don’t need to depend on paid advertising. Very few startups actually manage this, and many can succeed anyhow. You’ve probably seen this structure before but in the shape of a funnel. Maybe you’ve even seen this in a marketing or growth hacking course. This is awesome, you’re off to a great start to improve that User Experience! It is important to define these steps because then you can start measuring them. When you know how many of your users have done each of these steps - you can start measuring the conversion rates. The conversion rates tell you how well you’re doing at your user experience. Higher conversion rates = better user experience! But that is not all. Since you’re a startup and innovating a new technology or business model, you’re not like a normal business. As an innovative startup, YOU also need a second framework. The reason why someone converts is that they feel like what you communicate and how you communicate resonates with them. So in short, to increase that conversion rate, you need to create something that resonates with your users. But… it’s absolutely impossible to create something that resonates with EVERYONE. To improve that connection with your users and create something that resonates, you need to limit ourselves to a smaller target group. To figure out our target group, we need to figure out the 3Ws, which our AAARRR framework is then built on top of. The 3Ws stand for Who, What, and Why. This is to be clear on who your customer is, what they want to buy, and why they would want to buy. The 3Ws stand for Who, What, and Why. This is to be clear on who your customer is, what they want to buy, and why they would want to buy. To answer WHO your customers are, you need to define their exact profile and how you will segment the market to identify them. To answer WHAT your customers want, you need to look at the difference between what you’re selling and what they think they’re buying. To answer WHY your customers buy, you need to find the difference why they think they’re buying and their deep underlying motivations for buying. It’s not enough to just explain the 3Ws in a sentence. You need to go to a very granular level. This also means that you can’t be too broad when defining your target market. Imagine that you are going after a subset of a sub-market. Don’t tell yourself that you’re going after coffee shops, that’s too broad. You’ll never be able to create a user experience that is top-notch compelling for ALL types of coffee shops. A better target market would be, coffee shops in London owned by a small business with a founder below 40 years of age, who have already set up their Google Maps profile. How the Frameworks Will Boost Your Success To make your AAARRR effective, you’ll need to be extremely well-informed about your 3Ws. As an example: if you know why the user downloaded your app and what the user is looking for, it will be much easier to successfully onboard and activate that user. If you don’t figure out your 3Ws, your AAARRR will fall apart: When a user is exploring a new product, that might help solve a problem for them, they are looking for proof that your solution is right for them. If you don’t know exactly in detail, who your user is, what and why they want to buy from you -- how are you supposed to successfully convince the user that your solution is right for them? Sounds impossible, right? When these two frameworks are successfully applied and combined with marketing - your success will skyrocket. Then, you acquire new users and you keep them on your platform… and that is how you really achieve growth! Do you see the power in this?! From my own network, I have seen startups such as Backmarket (Fr), Meero (Fr), and Karma App (Swe) succeed with this combination of marketing + user experience. Now it’s up to you to make this happen for your startup! To help you get started, I’ve created multiple free templates for you, you can download the free templates here. Are your sales coming too slowly? Maybe you’re spending some money on Marketing, just to realize that you are not getting a return on your investment… Ugh, that feeling of powerlessness is painful. Right? If your startup is gonna have any chance of survival, you HAVE to grow . There is no way around that. No investors want to invest in a stagnating startup. As a previous VC investor, I can share an insider benchmark: if you want to raise more than $1M, you need to grow at least 10 % per month . you HAVE to grow you need to grow at least 10 % per month Sure, you can bootstrap… But with small revenues, it’s impossible to sustain costs. So even if you bootstrap you absolutely need to grow. So now you’re thinking: But if marketing isn’t working, how the f*** are you supposed to grow? Marketing is the only source to grow, right? Well, then my reaction is Eeehhhh... no not at all! my reaction is Eeehhhh... no not at all! Marketing and sales are of course important, but it is far from the only component to achieve growth. It is only the first step. Let me present UX for startup founders. No, I’m not talking about button design or color schemes. I’m talking about the experience that the user meets from first hearing about you until becoming a loyal customer. That’s a long journey with a lot of steps. As a startup coach, I’ve realized that this is completely overlooked by most startups that I meet. Those who don’t completely overlook this… become the few startups who actually succeed. Those who don’t completely overlook this… become the few startups who actually succeed. User Experience is the second component of growth. It’s that missing piece that stands between your market and the success of your startup. You don’t only need to attract the market. You don’t only need to have traffic to your website. You don’t only need to build your list of leads. You also have to convert those people to loyal customers. Users will only convert to loyal customers if the user experience is top-notch. Users will only convert to loyal customers if the user experience is top-notch. So if your marketing efforts are not generating the growth you hoped, it definitely has something to do with your User Experience. The 2 Frameworks You Need So how do we fix the conversion rate from marketing to growth? To explain this, I would like to present you with 2 frameworks. (If you would rather skip the explanations and move ahead to fill out the template directly, then download the template here ) download the template here download the template here The 1st one is the AAARRR (pronounced arr - pirates not included!) which explains each of the steps that your users need to achieve to become a loyal customer. It stands for-- It stands for-- Awareness 👂: making your market aware of you and getting them to take the first step towards you (for example, click the link of your ad or answer when you’re cold calling them) Awareness Acquisition 💥 : getting that website visitor or lead to say “yes” a first time, either by downloading your app, book in a demo meeting or starting a trial. This is usually where a marketer considers their job “done”; the rest is up to you as a startup founder. Acquisition 💥 Activation : getting your user to use your product for the first time. If you have a productivity platform it will be to create the first task. If you have a mobile game, activation would be when the user completes the first game. At the activation step, the user should feel “Aha! This is really great”. When does that happen with your product? Activation Retention : returning users coming back using your product over and over again. If achieved, it is proof that you create value for your users. If they keep on coming back it means that your product is needed and loved. Retention Revenue 💰: monetizing on your customers--if you create large value for them, they should be ready to pay you for the service you offer. Revenue Referral : word of mouth, getting your very happy customer to spread awareness about your startup. If you nail this step, you don’t need to depend on paid advertising. Very few startups actually manage this, and many can succeed anyhow. Referral You’ve probably seen this structure before but in the shape of a funnel. Maybe you’ve even seen this in a marketing or growth hacking course. This is awesome, you’re off to a great start to improve that User Experience! It is important to define these steps because then you can start measuring them. When you know how many of your users have done each of these steps - you can start measuring the conversion rates. The conversion rates tell you how well you’re doing at your user experience. Higher conversion rates = better user experience! But that is not all. Since you’re a startup and innovating a new technology or business model, you’re not like a normal business. As an innovative startup, YOU also need a second framework. As an innovative startup, YOU also need a second framework. The reason why someone converts is that they feel like what you communicate and how you communicate resonates with them. So in short, to increase that conversion rate, you need to create something that resonates with your users. So in short, to increase that conversion rate, you need to create something that resonates with your users. But… it’s absolutely impossible to create something that resonates with EVERYONE. To improve that connection with your users and create something that resonates, you need to limit ourselves to a smaller target group. To figure out our target group, we need to figure out the 3Ws, which our AAARRR framework is then built on top of. The 3Ws stand for Who, What, and Why. This is to be clear on who your customer is, what they want to buy, and why they would want to buy. The 3Ws stand for Who, What, and Why. This is to be clear on who your customer is, what they want to buy, and why they would want to buy. To answer WHO your customers are, you need to define their exact profile and how you will segment the market to identify them. WHO To answer WHAT your customers want, you need to look at the difference between what you’re selling and what they think they’re buying. WHAT To answer WHY your customers buy, you need to find the difference why they think they’re buying and their deep underlying motivations for buying. WHY It’s not enough to just explain the 3Ws in a sentence. You need to go to a very granular level. This also means that you can’t be too broad when defining your target market . Imagine that you are going after a subset of a sub-market. Don’t tell yourself that you’re going after coffee shops, that’s too broad. You’ll never be able to create a user experience that is top-notch compelling for ALL types of coffee shops. you can’t be too broad when defining your target market A better target market would be, coffee shops in London owned by a small business with a founder below 40 years of age, who have already set up their Google Maps profile. How the Frameworks Will Boost Your Success To make your AAARRR effective, you’ll need to be extremely well-informed about your 3Ws. As an example: if you know why the user downloaded your app and what the user is looking for, it will be much easier to successfully onboard and activate that user. If you don’t figure out your 3Ws, your AAARRR will fall apart: When a user is exploring a new product, that might help solve a problem for them, they are looking for proof that your solution is right for them. might If you don’t know exactly in detail, who your user is, what and why they want to buy from you -- how are you supposed to successfully convince the user that your solution is right for them? Sounds impossible, right? When these two frameworks are successfully applied and combined with marketing - your success will skyrocket. Then, you acquire new users and you keep them on your platform… and that is how you really achieve growth! you acquire new users and you keep them on your platform… really Do you see the power in this?! From my own network, I have seen startups such as Backmarket (Fr), Meero (Fr), and Karma App (Swe) succeed with this combination of marketing + user experience . succeed with this combination of marketing + user experience Now it’s up to you to make this happen for your startup! To help you get started, I’ve created multiple free templates for you, you can download the free templates here . you can download the free templates here you can download the free templates here

UX For Startup Founders: How to Grow Faster With Less Marketing Spend

Marketing has evolved a lot over the centuries, and it will keep on changing. There are various factors, such as fashion, culture, and technology that contribute to the changes. It will not be a wise decision to sit back and relax, particularly if you own a business or if you are working in a marketing field. If you do not update yourself, you will cease to be relevant. One of the most revolutionary technologies that impacted marketing was the Internet. After the evolution of the Internet, we got digital marketing, huge internet-based corporations, and more. Over the past few years, we saw many revolutionary technologies that impacted marketing significantly, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, Big Data, and so on. All of them have affected a lot on how we carry out marketing operations. According to , the global revenue of marketing research companies exceeds $45.5 billion. In this rapidly changing world, you can expect the growth of the income of marketing research companies and the introduction of new marketing strategies and disruptions. Statista The growing shift towards digital marketing has increased the value of digital marketing. If you want to capitalize on the massive shift of money towards digital marketing, I recommend you to opt for . It will help you get started with your digital marketing career and keep you updated with the latest marketing tactics that work for businesses. digital marketing training What are the top marketing disruptions to watch out for in 2020? We witness a lot of minor changes in today’s marketing all the time. However, there are some major marketing disruptions that you cannot ignore. In this article, I will reveal the top 5 marketing disruptions that you cannot ignore in 2020. 1.  More marketers will shift from guesswork to a data-driven creativity approach According to Mckinsey , around 80% of business decision-makers believe that improving customer experience is the most critical factor that contributes to the success of the business. They also think that customer loyalty plays a crucial role in business success after customer experience. study The guess works cannot offer customers what they want. The marketers are starting to realize it, and they are now opting for data-driven creativity. It allows businesses to create the right content that caters to their targeted audience. The IoT and Big Data technologies have now allowed marketers to pull out filtered data from various sources. After gathering the data, the marketers will know what their targeted audience wants. They also know the types of marketing channels that would help them better reach out to their targeted audience. With that information, the marketing campaigns will produce a better result. Furthermore, it will also reduce the cost of marketing campaigns. Today, marketers can get quick access to real-time data. It allows them to create better pieces of content at a faster rate. They can also capitalize on the recent trends before it dies out. Useful reading- Remarkable Marketing Strategies to Survive COVID-19 2. Voice search will see explosive growth, while visual search will also start taking off Voice search volume has now surpassed one billion searches. According to the study, voice search will comprise of 50% of the total search volume by 2020. More and more people are getting familiar with searching and buying via voice assistants. The also shows that voice shopping will rise from $2 billion to $40  billion by 2022. Those who are ignoring voice search optimization will start getting serious about voice search. The businesses will risk losing the massive opportunity of raising brand awareness and increasing revenue without voice search optimization. study There will be more attention towards optimizing websites and sales pages for voice search. Let’s get into visual search now. Google’s reverse image search has been around for a while. Some marketers are focusing on voice search, but they have ignored visual search. Search engines have improved their ability to identify images due to the recent upgrades in technology. users are using images of food categories, fashion items, home decor items, vehicles, pets, and so on to know more about that specific thing. You should focus on using images and optimizing them to rank well for visual search queries. Search engine 3. Retailers will fight back with experimental commerce We have seen the rise of eCommerce showing an entry path to many huge retailers. It is not that eCommerce market growth will slow down, but what I’m saying is that retailers will stay on the game with experimental commerce. Like I’ve said in the earlier part of the article, the customer experience plays a vital role in determining business success. That is what experimental commerce is all about. The experimental trade is about refining your strategies for offering the best possible experience to your customers. It is possible to build strong customer loyalty if we offer a great shopping experience for them. The key here is to focus on customer loyalty, rather than a one-time transaction. The growth of augmented reality will play a vital role in experimental commerce. Most of the customers search for product information via their smartphone. We are likely to see retailers using augmented reality and providing great mobile experience to offer them real-time data to make them visit the store. We will also see many online brands shifting to the traditional retail model. The shows that the customers who purchase the product via both online and offline have a 30% extra lifetime value. study 4. More focus on personalization, but in an ethical way In the early days of the introduction of the Internet, all marketers were reluctant to send bulk emails to their list without taking care of any personalization factors. The aim then was to get a few sales out of the bulk email campaigns. However, the same approach will not only be a colossal flop, but it will also be liable for a fine. The trend today is personalization.  Businesses are now focusing on getting as much information as possible about their targeted audience and customers to offer the most relevant and exciting content to their users. There are revolutionary technologies like AI, Big Data, and so on to help marketers customize at a whole new level. However, we are only doing a basic level of customization. In 2020, the term “one-to-one marketing” is likely to gain momentum. The focus will be on the creation of a single view of a customer. Microsoft recently announced the to allow companies to connect their data in multiple ways and create a single view. Companies will focus more on building an agile marketing execution model that would enable professionals from different areas to leverage the available data more efficiently. Open Data Initiative The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be stricter, which will force organizations to collect and use information by following the rules. GDPR is one of the biggest shocks to digital marketers, as they are no longer free to market their products and services like before. There are plenty of things that one must consider before sending emails to the list. Here are some of the useful hacks that can help you personalize your emails in an era of GDPR: Try to collect just enough information from your customers by asking their permission Having a lot of information about a specific customer will not help you enhance the quality of your personalization. Instead, you will be stuck with analysis paralysis. It means that you will be overwhelmed by the quantity of information that you collect. Furthermore, the customers may feel awkward with your brand knowing a lot about them. You should collect just enough information that is not super personal, but good enough for you to personalize. It will let your company be on the safe side and will not alert the customers. Furthermore, you will only have crucial information that will save you time and enable you to create on-the-point sales copy. If you are collecting leads, start by collecting only their email address. The first-time visitor often does not want to fill out a lot of information, and a single email address is enough to foster your relationship with your potential client. Also, make sure that you are asking their permission to send continual email letters. This point might sound counter-intuitive, but it is not. By getting rid of unengaged people on your list, you will be able to focus on people that are more likely to do business with your company. You can also dedicate more time to knowing more about those people for giving them a better experience. Clean your list and give your audience clear information with compelling headlines Over 80% of the income usually comes from 20% of the customers. In addition to that, you should have great headlines telling your audience what you will do with their information. Be transparent so that they will not feel hesitant to give away their data. 5. More marketers will start focusing on understanding Gen Z Most of the marketers, still to this date, are only focusing on how to lure millennials to buy more products and how to win their loyalty. It is logical to focus on millennials as the significant chunk of the US population and in other parts of the world are millennials. As a matter of fact, there are over 82 million millennials in the US. The millennials have money and making them your customer can bring you a ton of revenue. With that said, millennials are not the only people that need attention from the marketers. Gen Z is a generation that needs a lot of attention. After all, they are the ones who will be a significant chunk of customers shortly. It is essential to build up a sharp brand image among them if you want to sustain your business for a long time. Gen Z is starting to enter the workforce, which means they will start generating income. If they can spend, it means marketers need to understand their taste and preference to market products and services to them in an efficient way. The Gen Z generation is more tech-savvy and exposed to social media platforms. They want authenticity. We can expect more and more marketers to customize their strategies to cater to Gen Z in 2020. A few things marketers must know about Gen Z There is plenty of information that you need to know about Gen Z as a marketer. You will get to know more about them over time as you market your product/service. However, the information that I’m about to reveal will help you get started. Try to sound intelligent Do not assume that the young generation is unaware and stupid. It might set you back as a marketer. Gen Z is aware of the current events and market. You need to sound intellectual when you are dealing with Gen Z so that they will feel that they are doing business with a reliable brand. Do not try to act like you have the perfect solution Nobody's perfect and trying to fake it will only make things worse when you are dealing with Gen Z. Be genuine and honest to make your Gen Z audience feel that you are a real person with flaws, which will help them resonate with you. Gen Z expects more from businesses This finds that over 70% of Gen Z finds technology helpful, while over 45% of them find tech stressful. Gen Z expects honesty, transparency, and more out of the information that they share with businesses. They want technologically-optimized messages. It is a huge factor that determines your chances of winning the heart of Gen Z. study What’s Next? It is tough to predict the future of marketing. However, we can say that the current technologies will be better in the future by looking at the massive investments pouring into them. There will be new trends and techniques that will impact the way we market our products and services, as innovation never stops. The new changes will pose challenges for marketing; however, we can expect better and ethical marketing strategies in times to come. Have I missed out on any considerable marketing disruption? If yes, you can add value to this article by letting us know in the comments below.

The 5 Big Disruptions to Marketing in 2020

Marketing has evolved a lot over the centuries, and it will keep on changing. There are various factors, such as fashion, culture, technology that contribute to the changes. It will not be a wise decision to sit back and relax, particularly if you own a business or if you are working in a marketing field. If you do not update yourself, you will cease to exist. One of the most revolutionary technologies that impacted marketing was the internet. After the evolution of the internet, we got digital marketing, huge internet-based corporations, and more. Over the past few years, we saw many revolutionary technologies that impacted marketing significantly, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, Big Data, and so on. All of them have affected a lot on how we carry out marketing operations. Image Source: According to , the global revenue of marketing research companies exceeds $45.5 billion. In this rapidly changing world, you can expect the growth of the income of marketing research companies and the introduction of new marketing strategies and disruptions. Marketingmix Statista The growing shift towards digital marketing has increased the value of . digital marketing training What are the Top Marketing Disruptions to Watch Out in 2020? We witness a lot of minor changes in today’s world marketing all the time. However, there are some major marketing disruptions that you cannot ignore. In this article, I will reveal the top 5 marketing disruptions that you cannot ignore in 2020. According to Mckinsey , around 80% of business decision-makers believe that improving customer experience is the most critical factor that contributes to the success of the business. They also think that customer loyalty plays a crucial role in business success after customer experience. The guess works cannot offer customers what they want. The marketers are starting to realize it, and they are now opting for data-driven creativity. It allows businesses to create the right content that caters to their targeted audience. The IoT and Big Data technologies have now allowed marketers to pull out filtered data from various sources. After gathering the data, the marketers will know what their targeted audience wants. 1. More marketers will shift from guesswork to data-driven creativity approach study They also know the types of marketing channels that would help them better reach out to their targeted audience. With that information, the marketing campaigns will produce a better result. Furthermore, it will also reduce the cost of marketing campaigns. Image Source: Datafloq Today, marketers can get quick access to real-time data. It allows them to create better pieces of content at a faster rate. They can also capitalize on the recent trends before it dies out. Useful reading- Remarkable Marketing Strategies to Survive COVID-19 2. The voice search will see explosive growth, while visual search will start taking off The voice search volume has now surpassed one billion searches. According to the study, the voice search will comprise 50% of the total search volume by 2020. More and more people are getting familiar with searching and buying via voice assistants. Image Source: Statista The also shows that voice shopping will rise from $2 billion to $40 billion by 2022. Those who are ignoring voice search optimization will start getting serious about voice search. The businesses will risk losing the massive opportunity of raising brand awareness and increasing revenue without voice search optimization. study There will be more attention towards optimizing websites and sales pages for voice search. Let’s get to visual search now. Google’s reverse image search has been around for a while. Image Source: Medium Some marketers are focusing on voice search, but they have ignored visual search. The search engines have improved their ability to identify images due to the recent upgrades in technology. Image Source: SEJ The users are using images of food categories, fashion items, home decor items, vehicles, pets, and so on to know more about that specific thing. You should focus on using images and optimizing it to rank well for visual search queries. search engine 3. Retailers will fight back with experimental commerce We have seen the rise of eCommerce showing an entry path to many huge retailers. It is not that eCommerce market growth will slow down, but what I’m saying is that retailers will stay on the game with experimental commerce. Like I’ve said in the earlier part of the article, the customer experience plays a vital role in determining business success. That is what experimental commerce is all about. The experimental trade is about refining your strategies for offering the best possible experience to your customers. It is possible to build strong customer loyalty if we offer a great shopping experience for them. The key here is to focus on customer loyalty, rather than a one-time transaction. The growth of augmented reality will play a vital role in experimental commerce. Most of the customers search for product information via their smartphone. We are likely to see retailers using augmented reality and providing great mobile experience to offer them real-time data to make them visit the store. We will also see many online brands shifting to the traditional retail model. The shows that the customers who purchase the product via both online and offline have a 30% extra lifetime value. study 4. More focus on Personalization, but in an ethical way In the early days of the introduction of the internet, all marketers were reluctant to send bulk emails to their list without taking care of any personalization factors. The aim then was to get a few sales out of the bulk email campaigns. However, the same approach will not only be a colossal flop, but it will also be liable for a fine. The trend today is personalization. The businesses are now focusing on getting as much information as possible about their targeted audience and customers to offer the most relevant and exciting content to their users. There are revolutionary technologies like AI, Big Data, and so on to help marketers customize at the whole new level. However, we are only doing a basic level of customization. In 2020, the term “one-to-one marketing” is likely to gain momentum. The focus will be on the creation of a single view of a customer. Microsoft recently announced the to allow companies to connect their data in multiple ways and create a single view. The companies will focus more on building an agile marketing execution model that would enable professionals from different areas to leverage the available data more efficiently. Open Data Initiative The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be stricter, which will force organizations to collect and use information by following the rules. A few hacks to take your personalization to the next level keeping GDPR in mind GDPR is one of the biggest shocks to digital marketers as they are no longer free to market their products and services like before. There are plenty of things that one must consider before sending emails to the list. Here are some of the useful hacks that can help you personalize your emails in an era of GDPR: a. Try to collect just enough information from your customers by asking their permission Only having a lot of information about a specific customer will not help you enhance the quality of your personalization. Instead, you will be stuck with analysis paralysis. It means that you will be overwhelmed by the quantity of information that you collect. Furthermore, the customers may feel awkward with your brand knowing a lot about them. You should collect just enough information that is not super personal, but good enough for you to personalize. It will let your company be on the safe side and will not alert the customers. Furthermore, you will only have crucial information that will save you time and enable you to create on-the-point sales copy. If you are collecting the leads, start by collecting only their email address. The first-time visitor often does not want to fill out a lot of information, and a single email address is enough to foster your relationship with your potential client. Also, make sure that you are taking their permission to send continual email letters. b. Clean your list and give your audience clear information with compelling headlines The point might sound counter-intuitive, but it is not. By getting rid of unengaged people on your list, you will be able to focus on people that are more likely to do business with your company. You can also dedicate more time to knowing more about those people for giving them a better experience. Over 80% of the income usually comes from 20% of the customers. In addition to that, you should have great headlines telling your audience what you will do with their information. Be transparent so that they will not feel hesitant to give away their data. 5. More marketers will start focusing on understanding Gen Z Most of the marketers, still to this date, are only focussing on how to lure millennials to buy more products and how to win their loyalty. It is logical to focus on millennials as the significant chunk of the US population and in other parts of the world are millennials. As per the , there are over 82 million millennials in the US. report The millennials have money and making them your customer can bring you a ton of revenue. With that said, millennials are not the only people that need attention from the marketers Image Source: Forbes Gen Z is a generation that needs a lot of attention. After all, they are the ones who will be a significant chunk of customers shortly. It is essential to build up a sharp brand image among them if you want to sustain your business for a long time. Gen Z is starting to enter the workforce, which means they will start generating income. If they can spend, it means marketers need to understand their taste and preference to market products and services to them in an efficient way. Gen Z generation is more tech-savvy and exposed to social media platforms. They want authenticity. We can expect more and more marketers to customize their strategies to cater to Gen Z in 2019. A few things marketers must know about Gen Z There is plenty of information that you need to know about Gen Z as a marketer. You will get to know more about them over time as you market your product/service. However, the information that I’m about to reveal will help you get started: a. Try to sound intelligent Do not assume that the young generation is unaware and stupid. It might set you back as a marketer. Gen Z is aware of the current events and market. You need to sound intellectual when you are dealing with Gen Z so that they will feel that they are doing business with a reliable brand. b. Do not try to act like you have the perfect solution Nobody's perfect and trying to fake it will only make things worse when you are dealing with Gen Z. Be genuine and honest to make your Gen Z audience feel that you are a real person with flaws, which will help them resonate with you. c. Gen Z expects more from businesses The finds that over 70% of Gen Z finds technology helpful, while over 45% of them find tech stressful. Gen Z expects honesty, transparency, and more out of the information that they share with businesses. They want technologically-optimized messages. It is a huge factor that determines your chances of winning the heart of Gen Z. study What’s Next? It is tough to predict the future of marketing. However, we can say that the current technologies will be better in the future by looking at the massive investments pouring in it. There will be new trends and techniques that will impact the way we market our products and services, as innovation never stops. The new changes will pose challenges for marketing; however, we can expect better and ethical marketing strategies in times to come. Have I missed out on any considerable marketing disruption? If yes, you can add value to this article by letting us know.

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