Deriskly

- HackerNoon, the independent technology publishing platform, is pleased to announce the nominees for its annual “ ” award, featuring the most promising and innovative companies in the Seattle startup ecosystem. Seattle, WA - May 23,2023 Startups of the Year The list, compiled by the HackerNoon team, showcases that are making significant contributions to the Seattle economy and driving innovation in their respective industries. 200+ startups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqIW54yMsNc&t=2s&embedable=true Nominations are open. You can nominate your company as the . startup of the year in Seattle here The for Startups of the Year 2023 include: nominated Startups in Seattle Xealth Diagrid Twelve Labs XetData Coda Derisk pyq Logixboard Otto Robotics Protect AI Augment AI Proxi XetData Bungee Tech InsightStudios Pipe17 Coffee Meets Bagel Symbl.ai DefenseStorm Ozette Karat Kevala Moment Veeve Observa Cakework Forum3 Hal9 MotherDuck Read SBL Spiral “We are thrilled to recognize the top startups in Seattle and celebrate their achievements,” said . “Starting and sustaining a company is difficult. We’re honored to showcase their work and impact.” David Smooke, HackerNoon Founder & CEO is a community-driven voting platform that recognizes startups that are changing technology and the world for the better. Starting May 8th, 2023, the internet can nominate and vote for the best ventures in their city. The voting period will remain open until December 31, 2023, and winners will be announced in January 2024 after a comprehensive evaluation by the HackerNoon team. Startups of the Year 2023 In its , a total of 44,427 startups were nominated in 16 different regions, and the community cast 234,344 votes during a 6-month long campaign in favor of budding companies that were growing and trending across every major city in the world. The received perks from sponsors and a free from HackerNoon. previous iteration 1,382 winners tech company news page As a proponent of the open data movement, HackerNoon releases the unique social data gathered from Startups of the Year on GitHub as “ ” for valuable insights. /where-startups-trend Apart from validation from the world's greenest tech publication, all nominees relevant to their domain, region, and funding. They will also receive an and a free version of their very own on HackerNoon. These pages include business overviews (such as head count, founding year, bio, social links, and domain ranking) coupled with dynamic updates every time the company is mentioned in HackerNoon stories or relevant headlines around the web. get free interviews amazing discount package designed for their startup Tech Company News Page People can , and vote once per day per award for who they think should be Startup of the Year all the way up to December 31st. until June 8th nominate their favorite startups In addition to the award itself, winners receive exclusive interviews, an exclusive NFT from HackerNoon, and a .Tech Domain for life. About HackerNoon HackerNoon is a technology publication that aims to empower developers, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts to share their knowledge and expertise with a global audience. With a readership of over 4M+ monthly visitors, HackerNoon provides a platform for startups and innovators to showcase their work and connect with a vibrant community of like-minded individuals. Did you know that companies that actively engage in blogging experience a whopping 67% increase in leads? Take advantage of HackerNoon's ' ' to kickstart your own company's blogging journey. Startups Package Startups Of The Year 2023 is sponsored by . .Tech Domains For more information about the “Startups of the Year 2023” list and the nominated companies, please visit our . FAQ page Nominations are open. You can nominate your company as the . startup of the year in Seattle here

Startups of The Year 2023: 200+ Startups Nominated in Seattle

If you are somebody who has strong convictions of a technological future and possesses enough emotional resilience to cope with the barrage of FUD that accompanies this space, there is tremendous opportunity smiling at you. P.s. None of this is financial advice. What sets apart the conscious being that is man from all other forms of life on earth is our ability to not only plan for the future but to proactively participate in the construction of it. While it may be impossible to predict how society will continue to evolve with perfect accuracy, we can however have a strong sense for the direction of its evolution. Short of a solar EMP that permanently disrupts the radio frequency waves on Earth and renders computers useless, it is safe to say that moving forward, every faculty of human life will converge toward technology. The lowest-hanging fruit en route to this convergence also happens to be an area of extreme interest to every sane person on the planet; finance. Regardless of how many boom and bust cycles have swept through the industry, there is (should be) no doubt about the fact that cryptocurrency is the technological realization of finance. As the world strengthens its acknowledgment of this maturing economic sector's permanence, a radical shift in behavior is taking place. Organizations and individuals from every class are rushing to get exposure. This then leads us to the next question, how can somebody get involved in crypto? 1. Buy the Digital Assets This is the most straightforward method to get involved. While it may seem simple and obvious on the surface, buying crypto is a form of art. Excessive fees, regulatory ambivalence, and sharp short-term movements can confuse and even dissuade participation. With the abundance of onboarding applications available today, understanding when and how to enter still eludes the vast majority of people. Highly desirable for those looking to own the underlying assets and arguably the form of exposure with the highest risk due to price volatility, direct ownership is not the most optimal choice for everyone. It demands extreme organizational dedication around the security and storage of it; a level of organization that the vast majority of users do not have or simply do not want to be tasked with. 2. Mining There are two ways to get into mining: A. set up your own equipment Not for the lazy and not for the technically challenged. So many people are deluded by the demands of mining. It is commonly thought that mining is a “set it and forget it” approach. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The complex process of setting up your own mining rig requires a strong basic understanding of hardware and networking. Then after it is set up you must constantly monitor the equipment to make sure that everything is running properly. You must be able to keep up with the developers of your network to always patch any incoming software updates. You must work out a strong financial model that accounts for the amortization of equipment, constant energy costs, fluctuations in network emissions, adjustments of hash rate, and of course, the cryptocurrencies price. Then you must work out a secure storage plan and ultimately an exit strategy. Moreover, the landscape of machinery is always advancing, as new devices with greater performance become available, your equipment loses its prominence and your operation becomes less profitable. B. cloud mining contract (not advised) Due to the high-touch daily monitoring and complex technical process of mining, there are online services that provide consumers with contracts to rent out servers and electrical consumption remotely, in return for the cryptocurrency that is extracted from the efforts of their machines. While there is merit to all attempts at getting into crypto, this one I personally am not a fan of. These contracts are designed to derisk and make money for their operators. 3. Company Stocks Misunderstood by crypto-natives and decentralization maxis, owning stocks of companies that have Crypto on their balance sheets or are somehow involved in the industry translates to a form of exposure vicariously. In some jurisdictions around the world, there is no simple way for large institutions or wealthy individuals to get involved in the digital asset industry without being scrutinized by their nosey governments. Some organizations even have legally binding operational agreements that downright forbid them from allocating capital outside of their confined sectors. This grade of exposure is unique in the vector of value it captures. Owning Bitcoin directly is a radically different risk/reward profile than owning shares of a company involved in BTC markets. Whether public or private, there are 4 general classes of stocks to explore: A. Mining companies Mining is one of the most prominent business models of public companies involved in crypto. Riot, Marathon, Cipher, Canaan, among others are such companies. Prices/valuations of these companies tread tightly with the greater crypto market price cycles, but do have a small degree of difference in their volatility (it is smaller). B. Equipment Manufacturers Companies producing ancillary products that support the crypto industry. I'm not just talking about BitFury or Bitmain that produce ASIC miners, I'm talking about everything from NVIDIA to AMD for graphics cards and ECX for cooling equipment. Whenever close attention is paid, there is tremendous opportunity to be found. C. Holding companies The traditional definition of a holding company is one that holds a vested interest in a group of other companies. Here I am referring to any business that is willing to hold crypto on its balance sheet instead of just dollars or other legacy financial instruments. The best example of this is Michael Saylor and Microstrategy. While Microstrategy is an Enterprise Business Intelligence company, the fact that it holds so much BTC in its treasury gives the stock price a very unique trading pattern versus other similar companies. D. Exchanges Were talking about centralized exchanges of course. Exchange businesses earn money regardless of the general market cycle. Their models allow them to benefit from activity/velocity on their platforms rather than price. Coinbase, Gemini, OKX, Binance, and countless others. The vast majority of exchanges are not publicly traded, therefore these opportunities are typically available only to private groups of insiders/investors. * Hedge funds and VC firms also qualify for this category. However, they are money managers that have radically different risk tolerance and time horizons. 4. Earn Crypto This is the silent kingpin of all methods. Highly favored due to the absence of sensitivity to price. Earning crypto is a subtle adaptation of DCA. Of course, if you earned $1,000 in BTC and a week later it falls down to $900, it doesn’t feel too great. However, if you earn $1,000 BTC again while at the lower price, you will accumulate more BTC. Once the price rebounds, you would have in effect earned more than just $2,000; you earned $1,000 + ($1,000 + ~11%). A. cashback This is such an undervalued vehicle for accruing crypto. Surely the raw size of cashback is never going to be huge. But, odds are that you need to eat. If you are spending money anyway, you might as well be earning some cashback rewards for doing so. There are plenty of platforms that now provide users cashback every time they make a purchase, the two that I personally use are and . Fold App Lolli (Happy stacking!) B. Incentives for the use of platforms Almost every new product that arrives on the market needs to have some kind of user acquisition game plan in place. Majority of the time, these plans are to provide some kind of incentive, in the form of cryptocurrency, for people to use/test their platforms. These can range from something as simple as signing up for an account and simply interacting with a GUI to something more complex as proving liquidity on a DEX. C. Hackathons & Bug Bounties This one is for the developers among us. Protocols and software applications are constantly providing incentives for finding vulnerabilities in their codebases. Both early-stage and mature companies will have some form of bug bounty available all year round. Occasionally, coding festivals called “hackathons” (a mixture of the words Hacking and marathons) are hosted, where teams from around the world come to compete against one other in utilizing their development skills for creative problem-solving. D. Writing contests There has been a consistent rise in platforms that provide rewards for creating content. and are constantly partnering with sponsors to host creation contests. If you are talented at or just love to write, this might be an option for you! Hackernoon Publish0x 5. Get an Industry Job As unsexy as it might present itself, this is one of the most effective ways to get exposure. Aside from the personal reputation and skillsets that you will develop along the way, you will build a network of like-minded individuals that will provide you with a wealth of insights and knowledge that would otherwise be impossible to gain. Cheeky? Maybe. True? Absolutely. There are two calibers of companies to consider, startups and established giants. Startups are tricky to work with as they might offer to provide their own token as payment. High risk as you would then be dependant on their success before you have any chance of securing your value. More established companies might offer to provide payments in stablecoins. The choice is yours. There is no right or wrong way to find yourself getting into crypto. As is the case with anything else in life, trial and error, is the only guaranteed path to improvement. There are certainly other creative ways to find exposure, such as marrying a hodler or divorcing one. Scamming perhaps? But let's assume that everybody who is here, has a moral compass and leave these manipulative tactics of social engineering and dramatic politics off the table. Thank you for reading. I hope you found some insight throughout this passage that will provide you with a greater understanding of how broad the actual landscape of opportunities really is. Live long and prosper 🥂

Getting Exposure to Crypto: An Inside Look at 5 Different Methods

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加密货币入门的 5 种方法：初学者指南

🔭 Insight Design of Cross-chain Bridge In the last year, cross-chain bridges have been one of the hottest theses. Over one year, the cross-chain market grows from 0 to 1. Now new players face fierce competition in the cross-chain bridge market. It is time to review what happened in this market and look for real innovations. During this time, developers find three approaches for bridge designs: Local Verification External Verification Native Verification These designs try to balance between . trustless, extensible, and generalization Let's Go, Snail Trail! Snail Trail is a racing game based on Avalanche Network. The game theme is quite interesting: a racing competition between snails. In this post, we’re going to introduce: How to play/win Family & genes system Snails’ adaptions to the racing environment Breeding system DNA Crossing How to earn and play competition race Personal strategy However, Snail Trail is still under maintenance, and the game has not started yet. We do not know the actual gaming experience yet while looking forward to it. 💫 Weekly Digest How To Sell Your BS "Web3" Idea To a VC This post enumerates several keys to get fundraising: Team, Problem, Obfuscation, Acceleration, Clincher, and Competition. ZK Machine Learning In the demo, ZK-MNIST runs a neural net inside a SNARK. With this new tech, we can make either input or model private to ourselves. 📰 News Stack released AI-powered crypto trade insights in the Beta version. ZK Block: Boilerplate for ZK Dapps Web3 Salary Transparency Ribbon Finance releases V3 Unpacking Celestia Derisk helps you calculate the selling price to profit un.Block Newsletter is a weekly newsletter about crypto, blockchain, DeFi, and NFT. Feel free to discuss crypto and contribute to writing with us. If you like this newsletter, feel free to like, subscribe and share it with your friends. This helps us a lot. You can share your idea about crypto with us on . We can help you construct your research report. Twitter Email Subscription: Revenue Medium: @unblock256_en Twitter: @unBlock256_en Email: team@unblock256.com Chinese Version: unBlock 周报 Visual Design: Mockup Design

🟧 un.Block #39: Design of Cross-chain Bridges; Let's Go Snail Trail!

Interview with a Head of AI: Pawel Godula

The Amazon Effect: How do Ecommerce Companies Make Money? Amazon is the ecommerce titan the industry has been waiting for. Net sales have been rising since 2014. In 2016, Amazon grabbed 70% of the total sales, and service sales have only been growing since then. For all those wondering is ecommerce profitable, the answer lies in Amazon’s undeniable success, so much as that the “Amazon Effect” has even entered the lexicon of industry analysts. In terms of operating income, growth has been driven by high margins from service sales. Revenue sources, AWS services and Amazon Prime subscriptions have been rising at phenomenal rates, too. A revenue generation model is a critical component of the ecommerce business plan. Anybody looking to understand how to start a successful ecommerce business needs to understand that is the key to thriving and not just surviving. The ecommerce business model unlocks value and is the key driver of value. It makes all the difference between a unicorn and a failed startup. Scaling up to a billion dollar value is a dream come true for many ecommerce businesses. For understanding how to do ecommerce businesses make money, business models offer further clarity. making money Getting Into the Unicorn Circle Whether it’s through commissions, asset sales, subscription plans, ads, usage fees, licensing and rent or lease, getting into the unicorn circle is not just about following a model. Ecommerce businesses like Amazon don’t follow one model. They follow many in a hybrid way, unlocking value in the long term. Here’s what drives ecommerce money-making ventures: #1 Fixed Subscriptions Registered sellers can host products on the ecommerce platform for a fixed rate of subscription. Fixed closing fees may also be charged by the ecommerce company. #2 Commissions Based on the product category, the company charges registered sellers certain percentage commission based on the value of the product sold. This commission generally ranges from 5 to 20%. #3 Logistics Logistics and shipping are addition sources of revenue for ecommerce companies. The ecommerce brands like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Myntra or even Jabong earn delivery and shipping fees. #4 Deep Discounting Justification for deep discounting of products for online retailers is that discounts are being offered, in turn, by the registered seller. The benefits of deep discounting benefit every ecommerce business from Flipkart and Amazon to Snapdeal and Myntra. The ecommerce brands come equipped with cutting-edge analytics capabilities and dedicated resources for comparing prices of products across stores and websites. Based on the price-linked research, registered sellers can then peg their price. Further, sellers get compensated for discounts offered by online retailers, leading to a win-win outcome, besides a level playing field for even the smallest ecommerce seller. Online shopping remains at the core of successful ecommerce businesses, which essentially focus on buying and selling of goods or services online. Given that ecommerce is the fastest growing retail market, estimated to reach USD 4 trillion in sales by 2020, the question “is ecommerce profitable?” is just an empty one! #5 Finding the Right Niche Before they build their online stores, these ecommerce businesses focus on what to sell and how to source it. Finding a successful niche is the key to mastering the markets. Keeping a finger on the social media pulse can also make sure your ecommerce business is heads and shoulders above competitors. Suggested products, reviews and YouTube videos can prove to be valuable for researching which niches to concentrate on. #6 Tapping Social Media Once the store is up and running, all you need to know is spread the word. For this, social media remains a powerful marketing tool. Leading ecommerce brands like Amazon and even niche sellers have their own Facebook business page. Cashing in on Instagram influencers is another key to successful ecommerce growth. #7 Targeting the Right Audience Leading ecommerce retailers target the right customers. For example, if the ecommerce business is selling fitness watches, the focus is on active people who visit the gym regularly. If diet formulas are being sold, your target is those trying to lose weight. #8 Reinvesting Profits As the business scales and demand grows, reinvesting profits makes sense. After all, ecommerce businesses will only sustain the growth momentum if they put money back into the business to cater to a new influx of customers. #9 Using Marketing Collateral To Drive Traffic The hardest part of an ecommerce business is the generation of traffic, whereby most online retailers rely on exceptional marketing collateral to cut through the noise and build a powerful voice and brand narrative that resonated with customers. An effective inbound marketing campaign drives growth. Content marketing by these ecommerce giants focuses on the customer research journey and addresses the client’s pain points. #10 Set Up Targeted Ads Another way ecommerce businesses make money vital to their long-term growth is through targeted ads that aim for customers and profitable niches right from the start. Using product specific ads has helped ecommerce companies to grow. Remarketing ads have also served as catalysts for the growth momentum. #11 Using Multichannel Product Distribution Methods Ecommerce businesses need to be in more than one location online to propel growth. Growing the ecommerce business commences with diversification, backed by clear channels of distribution is the key. Whether it’s Amazon, or eBay, Walmart, Rakuten among others, companies that focus on optimizing and listing products on win hands down. They also have registered trademarks and warranty when products are sold through authorized resellers. Clear distribution agreements also are in place with retailers and distributors regarding what they can and cannot sell including quality control, measures and anti-diversion. This remains an awesome strategy for growing your ecommerce brand. multiple channels #12 Automate Processes The more ecommerce processes are automated, the faster and easier it is to grow for the business. Setting up systems can be time consuming, but it’s well worth the effort. From order fulfillment to accounting and marketing, automation can make a huge difference to efficiency, bottom lines and profit margins for any ecommerce startup. For instance, sales data are automated from the ecommerce cart onto accounting software. Email follow-ups are also automated based on customer behavior and profiles. The more automated processes and systems are, the more ecommerce entrepreneurs can focus on high value growth activities for their business. #13 Invest in Search Marketing Organic reach notwithstanding, platforms like Amazon rank products as well. So online retailers need to be clear on search marketing strategies relating to the store and industry keywords. Software tools, case studies, reports, metrics and data are equally essential. Case Study 1: Flipkart B2C ecommerce company Flipkart offers sale of products through multiple channels, such as websites, apps(mobile and web), tele sales, affiliate networks and social buying. Percentage commission depends on product and sale type. It can range across 5–20% depending on taxes and discounts as well. Flipkart is a Singapore registered company with Indian subsidiaries to carry out diversification and derisk the revenue model from competitors. The web portal is the prime source of income. There are listing fees and convenience fees levied alongside as well as shipping and delivery charges. Flipkart operates its own payment gateway, logisitcs, digital media and wholesale division. It also competes in the fashion category through companies like Myntra. Phone Pe is its mobile payment interface which directly competes with Paytm and other mobile payment apps. Flipkart also sells co-branded banner opportunities on its home page, besides targeted search results and physical products on an online platform, deriving ad revenue from this. Flipkart’s enormous user base, daily visits, page views offer incredible returns. A case in point is Flipkart’s partnership with Xiaomi in India. Case Study 2: Amazon Driven by Jeff Bezos’s vision, a customer-centered focus is the defining strength and USP of Amazon. Amazon identifies strong trends to embrace these. Consider its focus on AI and machine learning to accelerate business growth. As per Similar Web estimates, Amazon notches 2.7 billion visits per day in the US alone. On an average, people spend more than 6 minutes on the site and look through as many as 9 pages to purchase what they want! Amazon is the 4th most popular ecommerce site in the United States. The focus for Amazon is on selection, price, convenience, and by extension customers. The website is designed to allow easy access. Amazon is also a manufacturer on the side, selling electronic devices like Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets. Deep discounts, free shipping courtesy Amazon Prime and a host of customer-focused initiatives make Amazon an exceptional ecommerce player. It also offers programs that enable sellers to grow their business, sell products on their sites and their branded websites and fulfill orders through Amazon. For its seller programs, Amazon earns fixed percentage fees among other types of compensation. Amazon also serves developers and enterprises of different sizes through its AWS or warehousing system. Broad set of global compute, storage, database and service offerings are available. Through its Publishing service, the ecommerce business model it follows lets authors and publishers choose a 70% royalty option and make books available through Kindle and Amazon Publishing. App developers, musicians, filmmakers further publish and sell content on Amazon. In a nutshell, Amazon works to generate value for several stakeholders. How Does Amazon make Money? Amazon makes most of its revenue from product sales. Products have high costs, so margins Amazon makes on them are thin. Their operating income is powered by services like AWS, Amazon Prime and seller services. Amazon’s business model derives its profits from Amazon Advertising, Amazon Prime, Amazon AWS which run with higher margins. The online stores are a foundation for further growth. Amazon collects payments from customers fast, then paying vendors with longer payment terms. The short term liquidity is used by the ecommerce giant to invest back to speed up its growth. Through this, Amazon has become a disruptive force, offering agility for the entire industry. The Numbers Amazon has doubled ad revenues from the first 9 months of 2017 as against 2018. Revenues went up from USD 2.92 billion in 2017 to USD 6.72 billion in 2018. Compared to Facebook’s USD 38.37 billion and Google’s more impressive USD 83.68 billion, Amazon is still an emerging player. But given that it runs a diversified ecommerce business, with several revenue streams, Amazon has donned many avatars. It’s mantra for success is its ad business which netted USD 6 billion in revenue in the first few months of 2018 alone, besides its impressive infrastructure. Amazon Prime remains a powerful business catalyst as does Amazon AWS, the latter being worth USD 17 billion in 2017. The Bottom Line Affiliate links, online ads and sponsorships can bring in revenue. But building an entire business with diverse sources of revenue in the ecommerce industry requires innovation. Ecommerce is a common business model for online retailers and companies to make money. As long as margins are managed and processes are scaled up, these businesses thrive and flourish. Concluding Thoughts Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon, is quoted as saying his online behemoth strives to be “an ecommerce destination where customers can find and discover anything.” At a larger scale, technology is the answer as margins will grow, when ecommerce prices come down, instead of shooting up. Companies that scale besides offering deep discounts in the long run are succeeding in the ecommerce industry. That is the secret sauce behind their growth and the recipe for their success!

The Amazon Effect: How do E-commerce Companies Make Money?

El efecto Amazon: ¿cómo ganan dinero las empresas de comercio electrónico?

The Problems With ICOs Preamble: please note, I am an investor, blogger and podcaster in the Crypto space. I have only raised capital once, for my tech startup ( Bantr ), which ultimately failed. I am not a VC and don’t understand all the nuances of Venture Capital. These are my thoughts as I look at the market through my lens. Please critique as necessary. This article is written in two parts: Part 1: The Problems With ICOs (this) Part 2: The Opportunity with ICOs The ICO Death Spiral The ICO market has successfully proved the token model for raising capital works, but the failure to deliver value beyond speculative investor returns combined with a Crypto bear market risks pushing this new model into a death spiral. There are too many (questionable) ideas, raising too much capital, from impatient investors, with few, if any, delivering products and/or value to the market. The speculative recycling of profits from ICO to ICO works in a bull market, but when investment capital dries up, and token prices consistently dump on exchange listing, the model breaks. While speculation exists in the stock market, experienced investors have value indicators to support their decisions: The Price-to-Book Ratio (P/B) Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E) The PEG Ratio Dividend Yield Even with tech startups, the old model of building an audience and figuring out the business model later is dead. Investors want value; making a piece of technology might be valuable to the founders, but it only creates value when people use it in a way that generates revenue. At some point these startups must: Replace the investment capital which funds generated by the business Deliver a return to investors ICO projects have raised capital based on weak business models and/or unproven token economics which will not be able to deliver on either of the above. The 2019 crypto bear market has exposed the inherent weaknesses in many of these business models and flaws in the token valuation theses which many white papers were reliant upon. Show Me The Money! In a market flush with capital, even in these bearish times, there is a willingness to throw good money after bad ideas. While experts declare that this is the most significant opportunity since the dawn of the Internet and the entire market cap for Crypto Assets is in the hundreds of $billions, where are the products? Where is the traction? Where is value being created? The ICO market is ignoring the painful lessons of the dot-com bubble and investors are losing money. A lot of money. Crypto/blockchain startups are unique and they will not create value just because they use a blockchain and some will argue that most do not need a blockchain at all. They are tech startups, facing the same challenges as any tech startup. Thus, any deviation from sound economics model will not end well. not So let’s not pretend these Crypto startups are anything other than a tech startup facing the same questions: What problem are you solving that people are having? How will you solve this problem? How will you find users for your solution? What is the value exchange which ensures economic viability? Bitcoin has this: money transfer requires a trusted third party Problem solved: a network of distributed nodes to validate balances and transactions Solution: word of mouth Traction: proof of work Financial model: Bitcoin has succeeded without investment capital, what tech startups call bootstrapping, but the stark reality for any startup, crypto or not is that: If you are not solving a problem, you won’t find users If you can’t find users you won’t build traction If you don’t achieve traction, you won’t generate revenue If you don’t generate revenue, you will run out of capital If you run out of capital, your project will die If your project dies, investors lose money If investors lose money, they have less money to invest in new ideas Alas, the ICO death spiral! The problem is that most of these founders are finding solutions to problems which don’t exist, which don’t require a blockchain, which aren’t delivering a usable product and are creating new problems with poor treasury management and holding faith in unproven token models. Finding the Crypto Golden Geese Amidst the chaos of nonsense ICO projects is an opportunity for all startups. The dot-com bubble burst because the ideas were delivered before the market was ready. Over-investing in infrastructure ahead of consumer adoption collapsed the entire market when revenues did not hit projections. As capital ran dry and investors realised that these companies had unrealistic models, many collapsed under the weight of their burn rate. Out of the ashes came the golden geese. New business models of search, social and e-commerce built upon realistic models were able to raise capital and grow into some of the largest companies in the world. The crypto market is repeating the same mistakes, over engineering the infrastructure before application use cases are proven. The red herring is that all ideas must be decentralised to create value, yet the underlying blockchain infrastructure presents an opportunity to build new centralised models upon decentralised protocols. Coinbase is a great example, as said in his article: Brian Armstrong Is Coinbase creating a centralized or decentralized financial system? “There will be both centralized and decentralized products which help create an open financial system.” Centralisation is not a bad word! . Follow The Money Money will always flow towards the point of least resistance and innovations in blockchain tech have reduced friction in the flow of capital and created a fairer system for investors: cheap and fast transfer of value globally Always on connected liquidity pool: where digital wallets and exchanges enable anyone (outside of US accredited investor rules), to be an investor Open system: allowing for fractional asset ownership recorded in the same infrastructure as digital money Asset tokenisation: a new model for raising capital Initial coin offering: Blockchains (decentralised ledgers) have few use cases beyond what Bitcoin and the clones provide. They are a buzzword for selling conference tickets and exciting investors. The $280m Parity wallet freeze highlights the risk of immutable records and smart contracts, and there is little evidence that the trade-off is something the corporate world wants. The focus on decentralisation is a distraction from the opportunity. Taking crappy crypto/blockchain projects out of the ICO mix and replacing them with startups solving genuine problems could well be the golden goose of crypto. Raising capital is hard, I know, I have been through the hustle, therefore a problem, and what do we do with problems? We solve them: raising capital for startups is hard Problem: it is hard to get meetings; it is hard to get a commitment as it requires a small number of large cheques; it takes a long time (weeks to months) and comes attached with preferential strings for the investor Why is it a problem: raise capital through an ICO Solution: a global pool of liquidity, fractional investment, programmable equity, asset liquidity and share issuance on the blockchain Why is it the solution: The crypto world does not need to be a walled garden of blockchain and decentralised projects, the innovations listed above can be used by any company or startup especially with innovations in tokenised securities. Raising capital in the crypto liquidity pool vastly reduces the time it takes to raise money and gives more control to investors. It opens up investment to more people and increases liquidity. The Broken ICO Model The ICO model is broken because of market immaturity. Inexperienced investors are providing inexperienced founders with capital and what ICOs gain in access to liquidity they lose by not having experienced Venture Capital money: Retail investors lack the objective scrutiny of experienced VCs Crypto hedge funds have exacerbated the FOMO Sums of capital raised break the incentive model for founders Capital not raised against milestones Lack of transparency around founding teams Detachment between investors and founders post capital raise Lack of mentorship Furthermore, assets are often traded in open markets ahead of product delivery. Investors trade speculative value in volatile markets, open to manipulation, often distracting founders from the goal of creating a product which people use. Equity in traditional startups is rarely traded until: Product/market fit Scale Proven revenue model You know, a sustainable business. Think Spotify, Facebook, Tesla etc. Speculation exists, Tesla is a great example, but with Tesla, they are changing the automotive world, not just promising to, and they have delivered over 250,000 cars. ICOs are raising IPO levels of capital before meeting any of the above conditions on the promise of a whitepaper. Let’s call this what it is: lunacy! A prosperous economy requires real value to be created, an exchange of money for goods or services which give value on both sides. What value has Crypto delivered outside of MoE and SoV: Cryptokitties? The Problems for Investors The argument that Crypto is one big Ponzi scheme holds true if the investor mindset is to invest, take a 10x return and move on to the next project. It requires a never-ending supply of new investors and new speculative projects. The Ponzi argument is further proven by the number of ICOs now failing to hit their hard cap targets. The well is dry, the market has run out of new investors to exploit with the false narrative of endless crypto riches. Many retail investors will have lost money during this bubble and will likely not return to the market. This isn’t a bad thing, while I support an open playing field for wealth creation (SEC accreditation sucks), not everyone has the skills or mental strength to be an investor. Investors need to shift their mindset to investing in value creation and demonstrating patience. The 10x hunt is counterproductive to the market. The Problems for Founders The market and structure for ICOs does not help founders either. Many lack the skills to take an idea to market. Furthermore, founders are juggling new problems created with the ICO model: Treasury management & crypto volatility Custody (a number have had their capital stolen) Unproven and unsuitable token models Once founders have raised capital, they have one goal: achieve product/market fit. Therefore, delivering a product to market, which enough people will use and pay for. The ICO model has solved the problem of raising capital but has created new problems which many founders have failed to address. ICOs will often hold funds in crypto, which creates two new problems: If prices crash before the raised funds are converted back into fiat then their runway changes (bills are usually paid in fiat) The wallets are a honeypot for hackers, and there are too many examples of Crypto startups having their investment capital stolen Furthermore, many are building these businesses based on unproven token models, where M = PQ/V, I’ll cover this in part 2 of this article. Baking utility into the token has allowed startups to raise funds yet utility comes with problems: Traction is hard; therefore the value of a token could drop to marginally above $0 if they deliver a product which struggles to find a significant number of users The underlying mechanics of many tokens ensure there is no incentive to hold the token as this will incur a price risk, wrote about this in his article Kyle Samani Understanding Token Velocity Token-based products are likely a usability nightmare for the average Joe who sits outside of Crypto Founders need to shift their mindset to solving problems, understanding product/market fit and derisking their burn rate. Conclusion While not perfect, the VC model has evolved into a formulaic problem-solution factory for building startups, yet the VCs hold the purse strings and create the rules in their favour. ICOs are a paradigm shift in raising capital, creating an open market for investors and allowing founders to write the rules back in their favour, but they risk failing to deliver by not addressing unnecessary new problems. Go to Part 2 where I explain how I would fix the ICO market. I am a freelance blogger and podcaster. You can read more on my articles on my website, What Bitcoin Did and follow me on Twitter . My podcast is available on iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, YouTube, Stitcher and TuneIn, all links are available on my website .

How to Fix the ICO Market (Part 1)

There is nothing like a bear market to inject a dose of reality into the world of Crypto. With prices crashing and most assets having fallen by +70% — even our darling Bitcoin — it is a little easier to be objective about the market. With the Lambos on hold and Crypto facing an identity crisis, the more opinions I read about the future, the more I ask myself: “Are you sure?” What Problem Are You Solving? With traditional tech startups, unless you have a track record of high-value IPOs and/or exits then you will struggle to raise money without: A great idea A great team A working product No successful VC pitch starts with a 50-page whitepaper. The process has evolved to a simple 10 slide pitch deck explaining the problem you are solving, how you will solve it, what it will cost and how you will make money. The problem being solved is key. Without this you have no use case. Without a use case you won’t build traction.Without traction you won’t build a profitable business. If you can’t build a profitable business then why would a VC invest? Even if you are successful at raising funds for your idea, your initial raise will be small, and you will be sharing a shitty apartment with your co-founders, working 24/7 and living on microwave meals. If you manage to build some traction with your live product, you will need more capital to scale and with each round of financing you will dilute your position futher. Only a small group of founders exit with life-changing money. Why? This shit is hard, therefore raising capital is hard. VCs know what they are doing, what might work, what probably won’t and what they are looking for in a team and an idea they can back. They have the capital and create the rules, usually in their favour and if you don’t like it, tough. For every Mark Zuckerberg, there are thousands, maybe more, who have tried and failed. The rules of the game have changed with Crypto. Where a Venture round will come from a small number of large cheques, the token model allows for small fractional investments from a global liquidity pool of naive retail investors who lack the experience and objectivity of the Sand Hill Road. We now have teams raising money with: Crappy ideas An unproven team No product To steal from , they have sprinkled a little blockchain fairy dust on a successful centralised business model and are expecting success, yeah, because every idea needs a blockchain. Jimmy Song I’ll let you into a secret; they don’t, as : John Wolpert wrote “The first rule of blockchain is that you probably don’t need blockchain.” Tech startups need to feel the struggle; it creates the incentive model to work hard and build something the world needs. When teams are raising millions, 10’s of millions, even hundreds of millions based on a whitepaper, we lose the Darwinian effect of weeding out crap people building crap products. Our Darling Bitcoin There is no doubting the success of Bitcoin. It is pretty amazing that someone was able to create a network worth $billions, used globally, existing entirely on the Internet, outside of the control of governments. Sounds like magic, magic Internet money. Let’s be practical about it for a moment. How usable is a wildly volatile Bitcoin? Yeah, yeah 1 Bitcoin is worth 1 Bitcoin, sorry, this is a shitty and pointless argument in the real world. Most of us are living pay cheque to pay cheque, with little savings and a looming pension crisis. Every Pound, Yen or Dollar we invest in Bitcoin has an opportunity cost. Whether you consider Bitcoin a Store of Value or a Medium of Exchange, unless it is going up in value it has little benefit to the majority of the world.Don’t get me wrong, the problems that Bitcoin solves are important: Censorship resistance was great for Wikileaks when Mastercard blocked donations A Store of Value is great for Venezuelans living with hyper-inflation Trustless money would have been great for when the Cypriot government were stealing money from bank accounts (as long as the value was stable or going up) The only problem Bitcoin solves for me is the need to make money; therefore it is no different from investing in stocks, commodities or any other market. Yes I know, governments are evil: they print money, debase our savings and buy missiles to bomb weddings in the Middle East. Of course, this is bullshit, the libertarian ideals are right, but it is easy to be a vocal libertarian when you have $millions of Bitcoin, most of us are just trying to get through life, end our shitty work week and have the occasional holiday. Moreover, as much as we might want to hate the traditional banking system (I do, ), it does work, though archaically: my pay cheque goes into my bank, my bills get paid, and I can access my money almost anywhere in the world. I wrote about Spending money with Bitcoin compared to this is much harder: Option 1: open wallet, scan debit card and the amount is debited from my bank account Option 2: swipe mobile phone and the money is debited from my bank account Option 3: buy Bitcoin from an exchange and lose a little value in the conversion, find a retailer which accepts Bitcoin, send payment and wait any random number of hours for the transaction to confirm. Also, hope that before you spend it that the price hasn’t dropped 20%. Sure, 1 Bitcoin = 1 Bitcoin, but £1 = £1 in the shops and they don’t give a shit what happens to the price of Bitcoin. Sure sure, Lightning Network is coming, fast and instant payments, yet this doesn’t solve the numerous other problems such as protecting your private keys from an army of hackers who want to steal your Crypto. If you are not a Libertarian and can’t trade, then a volatile Bitcoin has as much value as most forms of investment/gambling. But you live in England Peter, what about the Africans? They don’t have a bank in their village; they are poor Peter, Bitcoin helps them have a bank and stops them from being poor. No, it doesn’t! Firstly the majority of the developing world lives on less than $2 a day, they are not going to switch their daily hustle for a Crypto wallet on a mobile phone, especially when that $2 suddenly becomes $1 because some whale dumps on Bitfinex. Yes we need a global currency, but: Unless it is going up in value it has no use to the Western World Unless it is stable it is no use to the Developing World But ‘The Tech’ There are some cool things in ‘the tech’. Sending payments globally with Crypto is a pleasure compared to waiting for the banks to update their ledgers, but they could solve this if they had the incentive. Programmable money I hear you say, Ethereum smart contracts for the global financial system you tell me. I give you Parity. Sorry, but software bugs are never going away. Coders make mistakes, and they can’t foresee every eventuality. I guarantee you right now, large institutions are not going to risk trillions of dollars on an immutable database. It.Won’t.Happen. Where the average Joe is happy with a centralised bank, which refunds stolen money, global businesses prefer centralised systems and databases where bugs and problems can be centrally fixed. Relying on a teenage Russian genius to decide on whether or not our frozen funds should be released is not a viable option for the business world. If you solve one problem by creating a more significant problem you haven’t solved anything. . That is twice I have mentioned Jimmy, I like Jimmy, Jimmy is a realist: Jimmy Song wrote about smart contracts recently Making a contract trustless means that we really can’t have any room for ambiguity. This trustless execution makes the smart contract the judge, avoiding the need for a judiciary system. It.Won’t. Life isn’t that simple. I can guarantee if there is something found to be wrong in the agreement, then the judiciary system will be used to challenge it. A smart contract is just a more efficient way of processing agreements, which is a cool idea when money is programmable, but this will only work with fiat pegged stable coins, where you have the benefit of Crypto money flow but the reliability of $1 equalling $1. Just ask those Crypto startups who raised $10m in Ethereum and now have less than $5m because the price crashed. They still have to pay their bills and staff in fiat but their runway is now much shorter. The idealised concept does not meet the practical realities of running a business. I recommend you read the Jimmy article, he is much more knowledgable than me and explains it is far more eloquently. Decentralised v Centralised Finally, we need to get away from this nonsense concept of decentralising everything. The world is not about to switch over from a centralised architecture to a decentralised one, without strong economic arguments: We don’t need a decentralised Uber.We don’t need a decentralised Facebook.We don’t need a decentralised Google. Not everything needs to be decentralised, trustless and censorship resistant. These blockchains really aren’t efficient, and while the dream of cutting out bad actors is admirable, decentralised governance is another way of saying decision by committee. Committees are slow, arduous and compromise too much. We need strong leaders and visionaries. I‘m aware I am probably coming across as a moody shit right now but it isn’t all negative. I actually think there are plenty of opportunities with the tech. We just don’t need 10 different cryptocurrencies with 10 different consensus mechanisms, we don’t need 10 different protocols and we don’t need to decentralise every successful centralised idea. Where the dot-com boom was built on a vision of ecommerce but the killer apps were search and social, the killer apps outside of Bitcoin have not been proven. Over the next few years we will see a high failure rate with these projects, either the tech won’t scale, the projects won’t find traction or these unproven tokenised economies just don’t work. Crypto won’t go away though, it will evolve based on where success is found, as Brock Pierce said, this is one big live split test. My recommendation is to follow the money, the clever money. Most likely it will be a where centralised applications and processes are built upon the decentralised innovations in Crypto: A connected global liquidity pool Middlemen inefficiencies The relationship between digital assets and money People have been attracted to Crypto because of the financial returns of a bull market, rather than the tech, the tech has been an afterthought for the majority of projects (though not all). The market crashing is a good thing, it puts the focus back on good ideas. Look at the current state of the ICO market, who is hitting their hard caps? Rekt retail investors don’t have the money and the experienced VCs are more cautious. Raising Crypto capital will require better ideas from better teams with a sound economic plan. I expect a proliferation of fiat pegged stable coins, which derisk the opportunity for investors. And for Bitcoin, it is no longer an experiment, it is proven and here to stay, whereas the many clones will likely face a slow fade. What it becomes and how the world uses it in 5, 10, 20 years is yet to be seen. I am a freelance blogger and podcaster. You can read more on my articles on my website, What Bitcoin Did and follow me on Twitter . My podcast is available on iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, YouTube, Stitcher and TuneIn, all links are available on my website . My collaborative White Paper research project is in development, go to to find out more. Open Paper

The Deluded World of Crypto

Opportunity — Derisory and borderline offensive Interest Rates — Knowledge gap between the data a bank has on each customerand the intelligence itcan provide for consumer benefit Lack of Intelligence — 99% of us can’t access asset classes reserved for richest 1% Inequality — A majority of people aren’t going to awaken tomorrow and embracetokenisationand cryptographicwallets even though they should Innovation — Internet’s broken,advertisingas revenue will die within a decade Future Stage 1 — Tokenise Interest Users forego interest on deposited money and instead, receive tokens at the end of each month (Proof-of-savings mining concept) This money seeds a fund which invests in speculative asset classes — Venture Capital, Commercial/International real estate etc. This leads to the establishment of an asset backed disitial currency which enables a new type of online economy to emerge. Tokens equate to fractional ownership of the fund Stage 2 — Data Analysis Banks know how much I pay for my recurring expenses, as well as all every other customers. The knowledge gap exists because the data is not comparable. They don’t know what products, package or services we have. Tokens let us buy that data and benchmark all user spending. Where you pay more for anything we tell you how much (Free tier). This will eventually give way to a product which allows us to undertake these negotiations on our users behalf (Premium tier). Stage 3 — Your Attention as a Service People want to act in their own mutual self-interest. We harness and direct that trait to make it economically beneficial to do so. Imagine the power of 100k users requesting their supermarket stock a product that we invest in or 1m people sharing a message on their social media profiles. This enables us to influence the success of nascent companies while significantly reducing customer acquisition costs. By doing so, participants earn a higher % of ownership in the fund,spread the reach of their investments and increase the value for everyone else as well. A portion of all tokens will be retained for charities and social enterprises to use. Stage 4 — The Future The periphery of legality indicates future revenue models online Digital taxation will become the mechanism white redistributes capital when advertising as a form of revenue is marginalised due to people protecting their identities more effectively online. What this means is that you would forfeit a % of your GPU/CPU which is used to mine Cryptocurrency. This is paid to the creators of products, services and content online who are paid as per the duration of attention their product holds. Your Nexves account is at the heart of participation. Stage 5— Diversification What will become critical is the engage with younger demographics at earliest possible moment. This not only enables them, to begin funding their future but it become a ramp for participation in traditional financial services before banks. Our intention would be not only to educate them on financial matter, but allow them to make a meaningful contribution to the world through their actions. This also allows people to participate and earn who have no money yet Stage 6— Open Ecosystem Nexves becomes the key piece of infrastructure which enables Web 3.0 . It requires no alteration to existing behavior by innovating around services people are already familiar with lowering all bariers to participation. A digital passport for universal trust online, tying an anonymous wallet to an online profile cultivating the next evolution of the internet. What this will allow in time is for others to reiterpret existing online services in decentralized form while disrupting other indiustries by creating products and services which are not currently possible. Actions can be controlled, letting you maintain ownership of content and data which will be critical. Snapchat but screenshots are punished, images overlayed with watermarks for safety, engagement is monetised. Dating services with bad actors removed. Airbnb/Uber with more trust. Everything else you can imagine. Initial Token Sale To seed fund there will be a controlled initial token sale which will run alongside the Stage 1 tokeneisation of interest scheme. Tokens will be sold at the same price as interest generated tokens1 token = £15 What we intend to achieve is the most fiscally responsible token sale in history which conforms to or exceeds all regulatory recommendations. There will be a £1,000 limit on tokens purchased per person with no limit of interest based deposits as there is no risk to this capital. Fund your Future, Fund the Future, Become the Future or Join our Whatsapp Group Join our Slack Channel

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