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Just over a decade ago, people would have laughed at you if you decided to hold some noticeable part of your investments in cryptocurrency. The abstract nature of virtual currency secured through various cryptographic and computer-generated means was puzzling and frightening. However, after a while, people's interest in crypto has skyrocketed, thanks to new highs, investment opportunists, and payment methods brought by it. Regardless of whether you like it or not, cryptocurrency is practically everywhere these days, challenging traditional (fiat) currencies and payment methods. Despite fluctuations ad instability of exchange rates, people are overwhelmed by the anonymity and confidentiality it proves. The fact is that many traditional businesses are actively and efficiently integrating cryptocurrency into their platforms in some form or the other or using it as a means to launch different types of products, accept payments, and simply be ahead of their competitors. For sure, such cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or Ethereum have a constantly increasing track record of holding and gaining in value over time. Never mind the recent massive dips that crashed the market for a while. However, less spread and known cryptos are certainly much more speculative, risky, unpredictable, yet, potentially profitable. According to official statistics, as of 2021, it was estimated that global crypto ownership rates were an average of 3.9%, with over 300 million crypto users worldwide. Last year, over 18,000 businesses were already accepting cryptocurrency payments, and probably those as much were planning to. Yet, their central dilemma was to learn how to do it properly, which is safe for all parties involved and does not generate extra fees. E-commerce and Crypto Payment Methods Cryptos and e-commerce walk hand in hand with one another, nicely complementing each other and appealing to digitally-savvy clients and customers. Cryptocurrency used as a payment method offers another more convenient and flexible way to pay for goods and services, probably forming an inevitable part of e-business and a must-have for an e-commerce retailer. The same demand that has propelled the digital retail world initially is fueling digital payments. Cryptocurrencies are said to provide much more freedom of choice, not being bound to credit cards, banks or cash. It is also less traceable and often more secure. Yet, the matter is to do it the right way to not damage but complement your existing pool of services. And yes, we do appreciate the recent volatility in cryptocurrency prices and even the failure of some crypto. Nevertheless, the fact is that massive e-commerce platforms like BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and even Shopify are anticipating those risks via supporting cryptocurrency payments using crypto wallets like Edge, Coinbase, BitPay, GoCoin, or CoinPayments. The Ways to Accept Payments Using Cryptocurrency The prime two methods available in accepting crypto payments as e-commerce retailers are relatively straightforward. Namely, you can use your own private crypto wallet or involve a third-party payment processor. Let's consider both of them in more detail. Obviously, if you want to use your personal crypto wallet, the minimal requirement is to have one available. These are usually quickly downloadable to various devices, varying among cloud and physical device solutions. That is to say, that information can be stored using a special hard drive or a cloud. Both have their pros and cons, but it is you who should handle all of the admin work. Outsourcing this process is another feasible solution so that a third-party payment processor, such as for instance BitPay or CoinBase will handle the whole process for you. In simple terms, it is just like credit or debit card providers do. This saves you a great deal of admin work plus protects you from an adverse currency fluctuation. Since cryptos are well-known for price volatility, such processors can automatically convert the cryptocurrency received into fiat or other assets of your choice. Hence, you ensure you obtain the amount you charge, not having to worry about the potential risk of a sudden extreme or dramatic change in the crypto exchange rate. Surely, choosing a wallet is not an easy process as not all of them can be trusted or relied on. Also, they charge a fee, which can often be quite considerate and not much welcomed by your customers. If you are interested in starting your own crypto trading platform, you need a team of blockchain developers and prepare to spend substantial time and resources. However, in case you are not, there is a much faster and almost instant solution to start accepting cryptos for your business. Please continue reading to learn more details. Welcome SHKeeper We are pleased to introduce you to — a self-hosted and open-source cryptocurrency payment processor allowing you to accept crypto payments almost immediately. SHKeeper It offers the profound combination of gateway and merchant, resulting in a revolutionary new opportunity for those seeking to accept crypto payments avoiding extra fees, third parties, and intermediaries. SHKeeper Background VSYS Host always aims to be one step ahead of the market; hence, once we've identified the need for our own crypto payment processor, we did not hesitate long. All our clients and customers greatly appreciated this innovation, which allowed us processing of crypto payments smoothly and commission-free. No need to mention a great deal of competitive advantage we've received. Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Litecoin, are waiting for you to start accepting crypto payments, not having to pay tributes to go-betweens and unwanted fees. However, we don't have bad habits of keeping all good things to ourselves! This is why we decided to roll our SHKeeper at , available to everyone who may ever need it. GitHub It is not rocket science to connect it, but in case you may want to save yourself some time or simply require assistance, our team is always happy to help. SHKeeper Features Multi-Currency Direct Crypto Payments Ability to Set Your Exchange Rates, Commissions, or Fees Crediting the Overpayment to the Balance Partial Payments Setting Auto-Payments Into a Cold Wallet No Transaction Fees No Third-Parties Increased Privacy and Security No KYC Non-Custodial Independent Software SegWit Support Easily Embed Payment Buttons Full Internal Wallet With Hardware Wallet Integration Brief SHKeepper Installation and Launching Instructions All you need to do is install SHKeeper into Kubernetes, Doker, or cloud. Then attach cryptos of your convenience. Receive payments. That's it. SHKeeper inevitably detects all other crypto wallets. The processor makes it also possible to make payments into other wallets or crypto stock exchanges. SHKeeper can also be integrated into any existing CMS or payment system. If you would like to run Bitcoin and Lightning Network nodes, the minimal requirements are as follows: •	2GB Ram
•	5 GB of storage for each cryptocurrency and 5 GB for the Docker controller. Use It As Your Own Wallet Noticeably, using SHKeeper as a daily multi-currency crypto wallet is not a problem. The processor is straightforward to use and relatively safe to store your riches. It can be accessed at any time using your private key. It allows you to back up the blockchain key and restore the key through your other crypto wallets. Overall very practical and efficient. No different from an ordinary wallet: store, transfer, and accept payments as you do. SHKeeper is a strictly confidential crypto-wallet that does not require the user to provide personal information. Personal information cannot be leaked because it does not store/transmit user/device data or private financial information. Hence, it does not provide cybercrime, not providing any grounds for it. Popular CMS, plugin, or billing system connection friendly SHKeeper is set for integration with any of the most ubiquitous CMSs, plugins, and billing systems. This makes it especially attractive to a wide range of business owners/representatives of online stores/e-commerce. SHKeeper enables you to accept payments in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Dogecoin, LiteCoin. However, the processor is commission-free, eliminating any room for maneuver for intermediaries or third-party services, benefiting yourself and your clients. SHKeeper is available to any e-commerce project Seeing is believing but trying SHKeeper is the most optimal and feasible option. After all, it is open-source and available on GitHub, featuring 0% commission and a high level of security. Mind you, we have also eliminated intermediaries. We've got plenty of options for you, one of them DIY – install SHKeeper in your e-commerce project to accept cryptocurrency payments. However, it may look more feasible if you involve us to assist you with installation and configuration, whereas our team is always standing by for any further assistance or maintenance. Perhaps, we can take it even further by customizing our processor for the very need of your particular project. Either way is to your benefit, whereas sharing expertise is not a problem on our side. SHKeeper makes it feasible for store-owners and charities to obtain Bitcoin, Ethereum, LiteCoine, and other cryptocurrency payments, allowing for a significant increase in the privacy and confidence of donors and customers. Key Benefits The processor is absent of subscription or transaction fees. The lack of an undesired intermediary significantly improves the censorship resistance, privacy, and security for you and your clients. SHKeeper's non-custodian nature totally guarantees money management and safety. A private key ensures your total money control; no one else can withdraw money but you. Importantly, this was inspected and validated by GitHub as subject to any back doors or other fraudulent possibilities. KYC is out of scope as not required, saving time and significantly reducing complexity. This option is especially favored by customers, reducing unnecessary complexity. Since almost everyone suffered so far from identity proof, photo verification, and all other "perks". Summarizing We did our best to incorporate the maximum strong points but reduce to the minimum unwanted or weak parts. Plus, open-source is obviously easier to try, especially bearing in mind that full tech support is always available, including configuring, adapting, and installing everything for you and your project. At last, SHKeeper makes it possible for you to become a processor yourself. Then you decide whether you want to focus on the local market or take it further to the international landscape.

How to Accept Crypto Payments for e-Commerce Projects

In the following video I talk with Koinos Group co-founder and Koinos blockchain architect Michael Vandeberg about upgradeable smart contracts and why they're so important. When most people think about upgradeable smart contracts they think about the complicated upgrade mechanisms that the of dApp developers have built into their Ethereum smart contracts which use proxy contracts to get around the fact that Ethereum smart contracts can't be upgraded. overwhelming majority Immutable Contracts: Feature or Bug? With , we take the opposite approach. There is no reason smart contracts to be immutable, and the fact that most dApps introduce risky mechanisms to overcome this limitation demonstrates that this is more of a bug than a feature. Koinos have Once we abandon the assumption that smart contracts be immutable, we can program the blockchain to allow developers to upload a new smart contract to an address thereby replacing an old contract with a new one. must Blockchains Change, A Lot One of the reasons people seem to have difficulty understanding this concept is because they believe that "immutability" means that the blockchain cannot be changed. But obviously, the blockchain changes all the time because people's token balances change all the time! Nothing is more important than people's money, so if we allow that to change, why not contracts too? As Michael explains, immutability means that of transactions cannot be changed, but obviously the contents of the various databases are constantly being changed, and a smart contract is just another entry in a database. the record Giving Developers Options For developers, upgradeable smart contracts are a game-changer because they no longer need to cobble together complicated systems in order to make their contract upgradeable. They can focus on making the best smart contract possible. If they and their users want a smart contract to be non-upgradeable, they still have that option. But developers are no longer forced to use a system that will most likely add needless complication and development work to their lives. Eliminating Hard Forks But upgradeable smart contracts play an even more important, and foundational, role in itself because Koinos leverages this capability to make hard forks a thing of the past. Hard forks are the single biggest factor limiting the progress of blockchains because they create a technical and bottleneck that is highly disruptive to the operation of the network which massively handicaps the process of upgrading the system. Koinos political How does circumvent this terrible bottleneck? , more than anything else, is a platform for smart contracts. That's because smart contracts can be used to solve practically any problem. Seriously any! demonstrates this incredible potential arguably more than any other blockchain because it is the first to use smart contracts to define the system itself! Koinos Koinos Koinos contains innovative technology that allows all of the features people typically associate with a blockchain (consensus algorithm, governance system, resource management, etc.) to be implemented as smart contract modules and through a special "system call" layer those smart contracts can reprogram the blockchain with new behaviors. Koinos On-Chain Upgrade Path Of course, not just any developer can upload a smart contract and begin reprogramming the blockchain. If someone has a smart contract they think can improve the system, they first have to upload it to the blockchain just like any other smart contract, at which point governance will decide whether that smart contract should be given the necessary privileges to revise the blockchain's existing programming. This process will no doubt still be somewhat political, but it will be transparent, on-chain, and in the sense that governance is no longer approving a dangerous, omnibus-style hard fork, but a small, targeted patch, that will fix a specific problem without disrupting the operation of the network. granular Securing Upgradeable Contracts This brings us back to a very important point with respect to upgradeable smart contracts. The initial discomfort people usually have with the idea is extremely justified ! At Koinos Group our highest value is developer-obsession. One consequence of this philosophy is that, whenever possible, we aim to give developers as many options as possible. But one important exception to this rule is if we are setting the developer up to fail, and in a way that threatens the overall security of the network. The thing that makes this all work is also a great example of why moving the system logic into smart contracts pays incredible, and sometimes unexpected, dividends. Many developers may choose to simply make their Koinos smart contracts non-upgradeable . This feature still provides an incredible benefit to the blockchain because the system can still improve at a more rapid rate than any other blockchain with the hard fork bottleneck removed. and that's fine But those developers who decide to take advantage of the upgradeability of smart contracts (which we expect to be the majority) will need an authority system to manage the upgrade process of their smart contract. Leaving that development up to the individual developer wouldn't just create an incredible burden for them, it would also introduce an unacceptable and systemic security risk. Koinos Unparalleled Composability Fortunately, the system itself will contain an authority sub-system which, like every other part of the system, will be specified within a smart contract module. This will give dApp developers a trustworthy reference for designing their own authority system and users will be able to easily evaluate the security of those solutions based on their similarity to the system contract. Koinos This property of enabling people to use existing building blocks to safely and easily construct their own applications is called " " which is quickly becoming one of the most popular buzzwords in blockchain. For us "composability" just means "good engineering." While we didn't set out to build the "most composable" blockchain, no other blockchain has moved its entire system into smart contracts, which means that developers can't use most of the system logic to inform their own designs. composability But this is an incredible waste because the system is written by the people who know the most about the system ... because they built it! By moving all of the system logic into smart contract modules, we don't just eliminate the massive hard-fork-bottleneck, we give developers incredibly powerful (like the authority system contract) which will enable them to maximally leverage the upgradeability of Koinos smart contracts, thereby them to build incredible dApps, that will empower through blockchain technology. models empowering their users I know, people always think that Koinos sounds too good to be true, but I have great news ... the Koinos testnet is coming soon! That means that very soon you will be able to run a node, connect to other nodes, and test out upgradeable smart contracts for yourself! Not only that, but the process of setting up a node will be easy. Anyone, no matter their level of technical expertise, will be able to run a node in minutes! Koinos insanely Hot tip: If you download Docker now, I guarantee you will be running a testnet node in under 5 minutes! To learn more about , go to . Koinos koinos.io

What are Upgradeable Smart Contracts? (Watch Video)

Pioneer blockchain investor says BTC could $100,000 by end of the year, but there will be volatility. Brock Pierce is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist with an extensive track record of founding, advising, and investing in disruptive businesses including many major blockchain and crypto projects. Pierce is a pioneer in the market for digital currency and has raised more than $5 billion for companies he has founded. Pierce is the Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation and co-founder of EOS Alliance, Block.one, Blockchain Capital, Tether, and Mastercoin (first ICO).
 He is the founder of: IMI Exchange, the world’s leading digital currency marketplace for games;  ZAM, one of the world’s largest media properties for gamers; and IGE, the pioneer of digital currency in online games. Pierce is co-founded GoCoin, Blade Payments, Five Delta (sold NASDAQ: SRAX), Xfire 2.0, Playsino, Evertune. He is an early investor in Bitcoin and one of the largest investors in the Ethereum crowd sale. We interviewed Brock as part of a report on Bitcoin outlook for 2021 and would like to share his responses in total (with some editing for length) here. These responses are from January 15th, so do not refer to any subsequent actions in the crypto market. Brock Pierce, Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation Where do you see BTC going in 2021? "Well, I think a lot of where Bitcoin heads depend on a number of other factors in the world. The economic situation, the political unrest, with the way that everything is lining up, I expect Bitcoin to go much higher - really as we started to see. After breaking all-time highs of 20,000, how quickly we moved up to 40,000, there really are not that many levels where I start to see Bitcoin seeing resistance. We could really get anywhere from 70,000 to 100,000 by the end of the year, but it will not be without volatility." "Altcoin Season" -- has this happened but not as dramatically? Do you expect it to happen for ETH or anyone else? “In terms of ‘Altcoin Season,’ for people who are looking at a lot of the Altcoins that really didn’t have a purpose, a lot of those have continued to be “left for dead.” Whereas, we have seen a lot of strength in some of the stronger ecosystems, with Ethereum leading the way, and Polkadot, Cardano… the whole DeFi wave, with Yearn.Finance, and Aave and a handful of other projects there." Are BTC HODLers getting carried away? Or is the hype justified? “No, I don’t think Bitcoin HODLers are getting carried away, a lot of the reasons and merits for Bitcoin that people have been talking about for the last eleven years now, we have seen start playing out in the last year or two. It’s one of those things we can not control when people come around to it, or when exactly you need Bitcoin to protect you from inflation and a number of other things… but we have pretty high confidence that it is not about ‘if,’ just ‘when.’” These comments appeared in part in my recent Benzinga article and will also appear in a collected report by Bitbuy along with responses from other top crypto influencers. *Cover image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Where is Bitcoin Going in 2021? An Interview with Brock Pierce, Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation

Although cryptocurrencies have been around for more than ten years and Bitcoin was first introduced in 2009, there is still a lot of skepticism around the crypto industry. Despite the market’s annual capitalization growth, many institutions in traditional finance do not recognize the role of digital assets in the global economy. However, this paradigm is starting to change. As you can see in the chart below, the number of blockchain wallet users worldwide has grown significantly since 2016. Moreover, the global economic crisis and high inflation of the fiat currencies in 2020 have forced people to look for new financial tools and strategies. Thus, the number of blockchain wallet users has reached 50.71 million. Source: statista.com In addition, hundreds of platforms for crypto trading have been founded. Such European exchanges as Coinbase, EXMO, and Kraken have millions of active users and million-dollar monthly trading volumes. No doubt that the interest in digital assets is growing. We are experiencing governments of major countries such as the UK and USA enforcing laws to regulate the crypto market. Many trustworthy exchanges including mentioned above Coinbase, Kraken, and EXMO are aiming to comply with the regulatory standards. The same goes for titans of the traditional finance industry. The crypto media is bursting with news on such companies as PayPal, Visa, and Western Union actively exploring and investing in the crypto market. Crypto vs. Fiat To understand the reasons why more and more finance giants are actively investing in the blockchain technologies, we need first to determine the key differences between fiat and crypto. Decentralization As the illustration above indicates, one of the main differences between cryptocurrency and a fiat asset is decentralization. Fiat currencies are issued by the government of a particular state and are often regulated by the central banks. The crypto assets are decentralized and cannot be controlled by any organization in the world. Emission Another key factor is emission. We have already established that the state’s central bank issues fiat currencies. It means that the state can print an unlimited amount of fiat currencies based on the economic situation. Emission of Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, is, on the other hand, strictly limited. Currently, 18 out of 21 million coins have been mined, and by 2036 more than 99.2% of all Bitcoins will be discovered. Consequently, the inflation rate of the cryptocurrencies is generally low. As for the fiat assets, high inflation is a regular issue. Capitalization Although the crypto market is not even close to the fiat market’s volumes, the numbers don’t lie: the industry is growing. Besides the growth of the crypto wallets users, the total capitalization of the crypto market is increasing. Source: coinmarketcap.com As the chart above shows, since 2014, the total crypto market capitalization has grown to 250 billion dollars. Of course, these numbers are incomparable to the capitalization of fiat currencies. For instance, the USD capitalization alone is higher than the total cap of the crypto market. Source: fiatmarketcap.com Volatility One of the main reasons cryptocurrencies face so much criticism is volatility. Many argue that Bitcoin and other altcoins cannot be considered a stable investment because of the price fluctuations. Source: charts.woobull.com Although Bitcoin’s volatility index is higher than that of such fiat currencies like USD and EUR, the chart shows that emerging currencies and oil also have high volatility. There is no doubt that crypto technologies changed traditional finance’s perception and is becoming an important part of the global economy. Increasing capitalization and the public’s interest in cryptocurrencies force many finance companies to invest in blockchain technologies and enter the crypto market. Blockchain — a technology of the future We have already shown that more and more attention is brought to the crypto industry in general. On the example of major financial companies, including Visa, PayPal, and Western Union, we will illustrate the integration of cryptocurrencies in the global financial life. Visa Visa was one of the first international corporations that began investing in the crypto industry. In 2018 Visa offered product developer positions for the crypto department. It became clear that big finance companies are starting to take the crypto industry more seriously. The same year the first crypto debit cards began to appear. The two good examples are MCO Visa Card by Crypto.com and Flexible Crypterium Card. The former cannot be bought with money. To get an MCO card, the company offers to lock from 50 to 50.000 MCO tokens. This debit crypto card can be very beneficial for Crypto.com users as they can receive cashback and special bonuses. Source: crypto.com As for the Crypterium Card, it became the number one cryptocurrency card. People from all over the world (178 countries) can order Crypterium card to pay with cryptocurrencies in everyday life. It is important to note that the main currency of Crypterium and MCO Visa Cards is the US dollar. All cryptocurrencies are being converted into USD at the moment of purchase. It is a live example of how crypto assets integrate into the global financial system. Source: crypterium.com This tendency of partnering with blockchain platforms to issue crypto debit cards is continuing now. For instance, in 2020, Visa partnered with a FinCEN-registered crypto exchange CoinZoom and a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Eidoo. However, Visa’s involvement with the crypto market did not limit to partnerships with promising blockchain projects. In May 2020, USPTO (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) announced that Visa corporation applied to develop a digital currency using the blockchain technologies. It will include such central banks’ assets as the US dollar, euro, pound, and yen. The centralized computer receiving requests containing the serial number and denomination of physical currency will be used for this technology. According to the USPTO , “the central entity computer causes removal of the physical currency from circulation in a fiat currency system.” The main goal of this digital asset is to replace cash transactions. We are looking forward to seeing if this patent by Visa will revolutionize the finance system. filing PayPal Many may be surprised to see PayPal in our list as this payment system did not support the blockchain technologies and was quite skeptical of crypto wallet users. However, the dynamics are changing. The company’s first involvement in the crypto industry goes back to 2014. Although there was a lot of skepticism surrounding the emerging world of blockchain, in September of that year, PayPal entered into a partnership with major crypto platforms: Coinbase, BitPay, GoCoin. Nevertheless, starting in 2018, the corporation made several investments in the blockchain projects. For instance, PayPal became an investor for Cambridge Blockchain that aimed to give users more control over their crypto assets. The payment system also became one of the founders of the Swiss blockchain project The Libra Technologies. However, in 2019 the company officially withdrew from the association focusing on developing its own projects. Even more attention to PayPal’s plans on crypto was brought in the summer of 2020. According to the anonymous sources of Coindesk, the payment giant is planning to list Bitcoin on its platform, meaning that more than 300 million users will be able to buy and sell Bitcoin directly via PayPal without third parties. The crypto community has also noticed that the payment system has opened several positions for blockchain developers. According to , one of the job offers for Crypto Engineer included this description: Cointelegraph ”The person will be responsible for “new initiatives for PayPal global with a focus on agility, time-to-market, and innovation. The role includes designing, developing, and maintaining key crypto products/features targeted towards availability, performance, and scalability of PayPal services.” As it turns out, the rumors surrounding PayPal’s plans to explore the crypto world were true. According to the to the European Commission in March, the company is taking “unilateral and tangible steps to further develop its capabilities in this area.” letter The entire crypto community is looking forward to seeing what PayPal is going to offer in the near future. Western Union There is not much history between Western Union and blockchain technology. However, it may change soon. In June 2020, the information on the possible takeover of MoneyGram by Western Union has been circulating in the media. It is believed that the payment giant has already made an offer. How is it related to cryptocurrencies? First of all, MoneyGram uses blockchain for fiat transfers. In addition to this, MoneyGram is the partner of Ripple, one of the most popular crypto platforms with their own coin. Taking this into account, this merger can be the beginning of Western Union’s relationship with the cryptocurrencies. Although neither party has confirmed the rumors, the experts argue that the takeover is likely to happen. Mastercard Mastercard also belongs to the finance companies that are quite skeptical about cryptocurrencies and their role in the financial system. For example, in one of the interviews, Mark Barnett, President of Mastercard Europe, revealed that he doubts that blockchain and cryptocurrency can change the existing payment system. On the other hand, he believes that this technology can be used in other industries: “I think it [blockchain] can most likely be used in digital identification - for example, to identify a person or for valuable commodities trading,” stated Barnett. He also added that it would be an overstatement to say that Mastercard is working with blockchain. Nevertheless, it was recently announced that Bitpay would partner with Mastercard to issue a prepaid crypto card after the contract with Visa expires in December 2020. To conclude Although cryptocurrencies emerged only ten years ago, their popularity is rising quickly. The number of crypto wallet users and the total cap of the market are growing each year. Such attention from the public forces traditional finance corporations to recognize the importance of blockchain technologies despite the skepticism. The integration of cryptocurrencies in the largest payment systems has already began. Such companies as Visa, PayPal, and Western Union are actively exploring the crypto market and investing in blockchain development technology. Although these are just baby steps, it is an undeniable proof that the dynamic is changing. Even the traditional finance representatives are starting to acknowledge the role of cryptocurrencies in the financial system. There is no doubt that we will see more interesting partnerships between crypto platforms and finance giants in the future. Disclaimer: This material is not sponsored by any organization mentioned in the article.

How VISA, Paypal, MasterCard, and Western Union Could Integrate Cryptocurrencies

Great applications deserve great marketing sites, which is why we’re always on the lookout for new developments and trends in content management systems (CMSs). While traditionally a space occupied by open-source giants such as WordPress and Drupal, ever since the back in 2017 there has been a resurgence of interest in static-sites. Smashing Magazine relaunch Given the complexity of modern front-end , the desire to return to the simplicity of plain HTML is perhaps unsurprising — after all, many of today’s problems (performance, async data, caching etc) are either irrelevant or come as standard with the removal of a dynamic server-side language. development While there are many vocal proponents of modern static sites, the biggest champion is Mathias Biilmann of , who is responsible for the somewhat absurd sounding ‘ ‘, and has helped popularise static-based workflows with tools such as a and . Netlify JAMStack static CMS e-commerce API ↑ Mathias Biilmann talking about the JAMStack at a conference. The JAMStack has become so popular it even has its own , birthing a whole ecosystem of plugins, services, articles and even . So what exactly makes it different? newsletter conferences Defining the JAMStack The JAMStack boils down to: JavaScript to handle async data requests/interactivity. APIs to handle dynamic data retrieval/requests. Markup compiled into static HTML files. Despite the original acronym, these principles could easily apply to blogs of yesteryear. The difference is characterised by the advanced tooling, workflows and ecosystem that have sprung up to accommodate the renewed interest. By combining the modern tooling of with services such as and a ‘static’ CMS (such as Netlify’s own), the JAMStack suggests that static-sites need not be relegated to esoteric developer blogs or hobbyist sites, but are serious contenders for client projects. Jekyll Gatsby Formspree The include performance gains, improved security and an escape from the bloated content-management systems we have become accustomed to: purported benefits “It’s a new way of building websites and apps that delivers better performance, higher security, lower cost of scaling, and a better developer experience.” However, we think there’s more than a few reasons why you should give this particular innovation a miss: Enforced minimalism Unfortunately, nearly all of the advantages of a static site are simply due to enforced minimalism. For instance, performance will be the (all else being equal), since there is no overhead to serving pages that come with dynamically generated content. The site will be considerably more secure only by virtue of there being no server-side language or database to provide a vector for intrusion. Hosting will be more economical and scaling will be infinitely easier because there are no requirements for a server-side language or database. TTFB best it possibly can be ↑ A performance chart from CSS Tricks demonstrating speed improvements from adopting the JAMStack. To say a static site is faster, more secure and more scalable is undeniably true, but it’s akin to removing the engine from a car and heralding it as a more economical means of transport. If the features were expendable in the first place, then the real question is why they were included at all. It’s true that it’s easier to start lean than it is to make something slow and bloated quicker, but a well-configured full-page cache (using something like or ) will effectively give you the performance of a static-site for ‘free’. Even Eric Meyer’s recent plea for sites to ‘ ‘ so they may better serve the traffic demands of a COVID-19 world suggests this: Redis FastCGI Get Static I can’t tell you how best to get static—only you can figure that out. Maybe for you, getting static means using very aggressive server caching and a cache-buster approach to updating info. Immature (but complex) tooling While tooling has come a long way, most static-site builders don’t provide anywhere near the flexibility of more traditional CMSs or server-side frameworks. Basic features such as named/aliased routes are rarely present, and the (while interesting) will struggle to rival the editing experience of Craft’s or ACF’s . Anyone who has spent more than a couple of hours with modern CMS-as-a-service offerings knows how much they’re lacking compared to their predecessors, missing key features all the way from conditional inputs through to . Netlify CMS Matrix Flexible Content Fields required fields Ironically it’s the content-editing experience itself which suffers the most from the JAMStack approach since, despite the developer obsession with plain text, it’s surprisingly painful to create complex editorial content the aid of a configurable CMS. If you imagine a content-builder with variable content types and related-entity fields, this becomes extremely problematic to represent in Markdown, unwieldy as and counterintuitive as JSON – especially with long-form content. without YAML Moreover, if you decide to avoid the CMS and just enter these as front-matter yourself (which admittedly works), you’ll be entirely responsible for remembering the fields and their types yourself. Forget the type-checking, restrictions (such as related entity/foreign key constraints) and the conditionals afforded by conventional CMSs. ↑ You can get part of the way there with typed MDX files, which let you intersperse React components with Markdown, but it’s a very developer-centric solution. As a result, it’s hard to provide anywhere near as robust an editing system as any CMS on the market. This isn’t just an issue for ‘less-techy’ editors, but a serious inconvenience for all involved. Fighting the JAMStack system The most perplexing JAMStack case-studies are not those which are static marketing sites, but those with a . genuine need for dynamic features Smashing Magazine itself requires advanced search capabilities, basic e-commerce features, a multi-user CMS and an integrated comments system. These are features to the success and functionality of their business and have already been excluded by their choice of stack. integral Instead of these being problems (as the developer), and choosing if/when to farm them out to third-party services, the JAMStack leaves you with little choice other than to distribute responsibility to a variety of (often unproven) 3rd parties. In much the same way as server-less is just “someone else’s server”, the JAMStack usually requires “someone else’s backend”. your Reading the dependency list for Smashing Magazine reads like the service equivalent of , including , , , and a variety of Netlify services to name a few. There is a huge amount of value in , but it is amusing to note the complexity that has been introduced in an apparent attempt to ‘get back to basics’. This is to say nothing of the potential fragility in relying on so many disparate third-party services. node_modules Algolia GoCommerce GoTrue GoTell knowing what to outsource (and when) If you can be that a project will never require a ‘dynamic’ server-side feature, then perhaps the JAMStack is appropriate. However, the second you need a dynamic feature (such as a form or comments) you either have to rely on a 3rd party or build a separate API yourself (essentially creating a backend). This solves nothing, but instead just awkwardly spreads the responsibility. certain This is even a minor blow for since features traditionally provided for ‘free’ (such as form validation messages) and e-commerce options will JavaScript, where before they did not. Anything dynamic be client-side, meaning the more holes that need to be plugged the worse things become. This is not to mention the potential performance issues created by moving an abundance of logic (possibly unnecessarily) to the client. progressive enhancement require must Conclusion There’s still a place for static sites on the web, but it’s shrinking, not growing, and likely still the domain of developer portfolios and side-projects. Sure, it’s possible to engineer a workflow in 2020 that manages to smoosh together a set of disparate 3rd parties, a version-control-system backed CMS and a bunch of template files into a working (and fast!) site, but the value is questionable. Instead of reducing complexity, the JAMStack just shifts it around. Security and performance are real concerns and will undoubtedly continue to plague developers, library authors and product owners as long as software development lives, however, the solution won’t be found in a reduction of responsibility. It’s fitting that we have taken the simplest form of a website — static HTML — and transformed it into a complex landscape of build processes, tooling and services that more than rivals the complexity it set out to supplant. Previously published at https://www.browserlondon.com/blog/2020/04/20/issues-with-jamstack-you-might-need-backend/

The Issues with JAMStack: You Might Want To Get a Backend

Hype Around Skills Crisis And Waiver Of Formal Education We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control… After the World Economic Forum in Davos, everybody is literally baffled by a new problem on the labor market. The annual meeting’s main topic was the dilemma of the outdated current shape of education, which does not change sufficiently over the years and thus unable to support the development of the technological process. Consequently, everyone cherished the idea of abandoning the formal education system, suggesting that we can organize the education process better through short-term courses and special programs. But is this really so, or is it just another hype in the tech world? Does anybody question where will such a radical decision lead us? Let’s analyze the situation soberly. How The Story Began And Who The Instigator Of The Entire Warning? A world’s top business leader and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty announced that in the upcoming tech era, specialists without higher education but with extensive experience will be more in demand. Rometty stated that all private companies should be oriented towards such employees, and the refusal to finance this direction in the near future will provoke a skill crisis. Actually, this is not the first time, as Rometty is well-known for her educational extremism. In her opinion, universities are a waste of time for those who are going to be a data scientist, software developer, computer engineer and more. The IBM-CEO is not just wasting her breath, she revealed her disagreement with the existing system of education also a few years ago. Then she said that IBM is introducing its own training program for future coders, or as she said “new-collars”. The program P-TECH (Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools) is an analog of a technical school, where the study lasts six years. Currently, there are 100 such schools in 13 countries of the world, internships are held in 500 partner organizations. At the forum in Davos, Rometty returned to this issue and was even more categorical than before. “There is a large part of society that does not feel that this is going to be good for their future,” she noted, referring to the problem of finding specialists for technology companies. The only way out of this dilemma for Rometty is the usage of specific programs like P-TECH (promoted by IBM). It’s too early to start jumping to conclusions, but it seems there is a definite connection between this, isn’t it? A Critical View Of The Situation “Leaving Stanford” — is already something like a meme. It seems that every second author of popular books about business, start-ups, personal growth, etc. did it at least once in a lifetime. The choice of university to quit is not random. Not Harvard, not Princeton, not Yale, and not even Berkeley. Stanford is a university directly associated with Silicon Valley, both in geography and biography. The point of view of Rometty is balanced by the point of view of Peter Thiel, one of the “founding fathers” of PayPal, the ideologist of technological libertarianism and the guru of a startup. In 2012, he created a fund to support young tech talents and founded the “20 to 20” program: twenty young people received financial support for the implementation of their projects, provided they discontinue their studies at the university while working on projects. Then, in 2012, Thiel made a speech at his alma mater — Stanford (which for some reason he did not quit!) on the matter of his famous Startup course, which formed the basis of the best-selling book Zero to One. High technologies dictate fashion in the modern world. Undoubtedly, the university has a bunch of superfluous things, but does it mean that a university is not completely needed for the future? Students should be educated in universities to be critical intellectuals, no matter the tooling, but still, those information gaps are incomprehensible. Because to be a critical mastermind you need to be a researcher, hungry for knowledge and capable of finding answers, constantly improving your workflow and bringing some results. Will 17-year-old person do this right after school, is he/she able to properly build this process? What About Famous Technology Leaders And Their Bachelor’s Or Master’s Degrees Bill Gates was a college dropout but no one would say that he is unqualified to run Microsoft. Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard and ended up founding and running Facebook. But, isn’t it an outdated stroke? It is hard to name them super-geniuses, but they definitely managed to accomplish brilliant projects. Their education is not a key point. It doesn’t necessarily mean all those who left university will equally become successful persons, is not it? By the way, in 2014, Mark Zuckerberg gets a Harvard degree 12 years after dropping out to start Facebook. He returned to the Ivy League school to pick up his degree. Billionaires And Their Doctorate Background The insurance company GoCompare has studied the level of education of hundreds of the richest people in the world according to Forbes magazine over the past 20 years. Although there are billionaires without higher education at all, most of the businessmen on the Forbes 400 list received a bachelor’s degree. According to Forbes, in general, about 84% of the richest people in the United States have a bachelor’s degree and above, while among ordinary Americans, the figure is 33%. By the number of bachelor graduates billionaires are ahead of the US adult population — their rate is higher at 68 percent. Billionaires with a probability of three times more will have a master’s degree or Ph.D. All these means, the university builds an important groud for further education, pushes to self-knowledge and creativity. But most importantly, all success depends on your passion and desire. Here is the main purpose, not the presence or absence of a diploma. Tech Leaders With Diploma Here is a list of people who have received a master’s or bachelor’s degree and cemented their success by dint of it: CEO founder of the American multinational tech and social-media enterprise, which he built as Snapchat Inc. while studying at Stanford. Evan Spiegel. Remarkable businessperson and the CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS). He received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, where he was advertising manager of The Harvard Crimson, accompanied by an MBA from Harvard Business School. Andy Jassy. Is there any other most-talked-about person on Earth than Elon? As a technology entrepreneur, he took main part in creation such labels, as SpaceX, Tesla, PayPal and more. At the age of 17, he moved to Canada to attend Queen’s University, which he left later to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania, from the latter one establishment he holds a degree in economics and physics. Elon Musk. Amazon-CEO is an alumnus from Princeton University with a 4.2-grade point average and Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. Jeff Bezos. She has been working at IBM since 1981, her first position is a systems engineer. In 2011, she became the first female leader in the story of IBM. She certified with high honors from the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in computer science and electrical engineering. She has accepted honorary doctoral degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Northwestern University. Ginni Rometty. Is education really does not matter in the formation of these leaders? If it did does, maybe they would not initially go to get doctoral degrees? All these things and more show that not everything that glitters is gold, not everything you touch turns into a footprint. Each of us has different situations, and it is worth going from individual situations. Having done a degree may be helpful in training you to think more broadly and critically and hence, better arrange a career. Of course, this is not a guarantee, but the alternatives to education offered by Mrs. Rometty are also not. It all depends on us and this should be the main focus of attention! Conclusion: To Quit University Or Not? Everything is developing at a record pace demanding workers’ skills enhancement. But this does not mean this problem can be solved by abandoning formal education. A learning system that we have now, of course, has some imperfections. But in general, it has already been tested for centuries. A university, as well as a school, is important for general human development, for the ability to structure tasks and solve them. Even if the university does not give super excellent knowledge in the profession, it is needed in order to help students become full-fledged personalities and finally decide on which way to go and avoid the mistakes of youth. Consequently, we must soberly assess the situation and don’t make hasty conclusions. In the end, we do not know what the consequences of total denial of it might be. Perhaps this will ruin the whole situation even more?

Unbiased Analysis Of Hype Around Skills Crisis And Waiver Of Formal Education

2019 outlook, when a bear market is a good thing There were close to and blockchain billionaire Brock Pierce spoke at many of them. He was there at CoinAgenda Global until late, gathering the faithful around campfire-like tales. He was there at the NASDAQ Crypto Summit, hosted by Justin Wu and Chris Champion, rebutting playboy personality Dan Bilzerian on the merits of Bitcoin. Kicking off 2019, he’s going to be on my panel at CES next week for . 500 crypto conferences in 2018 The Great Crypto Debate He’s been so ubiquitous at the shows, I’ve been starting to feel like Rolling Stone reporter Cameron Crowe’s character in the cult classic, , an embedded journalist following the life and times of a rock star. Almost Famous Just last week, he gave me 71 minutes to ask him anything. Below are highlights from the interview. Founder of firsts So prolific has his career been as both founder and funder, I asked him to describe the role he’s played in the evolution of the industry. A childhood actor (best known for ), Pierce began his adult career in streaming video, then moved into gaming. In 2009, when the Bitcoin network went live, Pierce tinkered with mining and amassed his early wealth in Bitcoin. It wasn’t until October 2013 that he formally invested in the space when he founded Blockchain Capital with Bart and Brad Stephens. The Mighty Ducks “Before Blockchain Capital, I was cranking out startups like an incubator,” Pierce told me, “I started a payments company called GoCoin, an exclusive distributor of top mining equipment called KnCMiner, took over exclusive distribution rights for the first Bitcoin ATM for all of Asia called Robocoin, gave CZ of Binance his first job in crypto, started [Puerto Rico’s] Noble Bank which was the first crypto bank in the world, started Expresscoin. I was one of the founders of Mastercoin and created the first ICO in the summer of 2013, then started Tether which now does $2 trillion a year in transactions, is the second most traded token after Bitcoin, and was the first real world asset to be put on the blockchain.” “Tether was one of the last startups I did before I went full time on the funds side,” Pierce said. “That’s really why Blockchain Capital started. I realized I couldn’t fund 10 to 20 companies simultaneously because I also had eight other businesses outside of crypto. The only way I could scale and get exposure in the ecosystem was by being a full time investor.” “Blockchain Capital was the first dedicated venture fund to invest in crypto and blockchain. I was the main founder and put it together with 15 to 20 friends who co-invested, including Bobby Lee of BTCC China, Charlie Lee of Litecoin, and Matthew Roszak of Tally Capital. There were no fees on the first fund. We weren’t doing it as a business at first, we were just doing it for fun. Then Bart and Brad got very engaged and formalized it.” Birth of the security token Wary of the regulatory risk involved with launching ICOs in the United States, Pierce explained to me how he and his partners knew the timing was right when they launched the first security token during the second quarter of 2017. “We dd the first security token for Blockchain Capital’s third fund, BCAP. The team was Bart, Brad, Jeremy (Gardner, co-founder of Augur), and myself. I was pushing for it. I ran one of the top ten syndicates on AngelList and saw where crowdfunding, equity funding and venture capital were going to converge. I was also an advisor to DSTLD Jeans, the second Reg A offering in the U.S. related to the Jobs Act, and I knew it could be done compliantly.” “Externally, we were supported by Stan Miroshnik and Emma Channing of Argon Group. Emma is one of the great unsung heroes in the space and should get credit for being the first to structure an security token. We were two years ahead of everyone. When you’re a pioneer in a heavily regulated market, this is not an industry where I advise anyone to be a cowboy. Dot your i’s, cross your t’s, cover your bases. This is not traditional entrepreneurship where you just go out there and ask for permission later. Repercussions for messing up in this area can cost you your life.” “Right after BCAP, I stepped down from being managing partner for Blockchain Capital so that I could become a co-founder of Block One. Once you’re managing really large institutional funds, you’re not allowed to be a co-founder of things. So I chose not to run future funds so I could go back to being an entrepreneur. It was the best decision I ever made in my life but very hard to walk away from after spending four years building one of the pre-eminent funds in the space. I’m still involved with Blockchain Capital but not part of the management team. I have no formal role other than having been a co-founder.” Blockchain Capital would go on to raise $150 million for their fourth fund in March 2018, and two months later, Block One raised $4 billion in the biggest ICO in history. Pierce left Block One, developer of , to launch , a community non-profit formed with music artist AKON and other EOS investors to focus on governance issues for the delegated proof of stake network. EOS.IO EOS Alliance Pierce is also chair of the Bitcoin Foundation whose board members include Vinny Lingham, Bobby Lee, Bruce Fenton, Michael Perklin, and Llew Claasen. Impacting a billion Yet Pierce’s lasting legacy might just be his philanthropic work to rebuild Puerto Rico. He moved there following Hurricane Maria in late 2017 after the storm devastated the island. In March 2018, he launched the Restart Foundation to help with recovery efforts. I asked him what progress has been made in the past year since the hurricane hit. “We’ve done a lot of little things in the context of putting solar panels on homes, bringing power to those that don’t have it, and feeding people, but the big ticket item has been encouraging entrepreneurialism. We held the first ever hackathons in Mayaguez and Ponce with Parallel 18, an accelerator that gives government grants of $40,000 per startup for no equity. A wonderful program that gets 500 applicants per cohort and admits up to 40. There are two startups that have raised over a million dollars each in Series A funding. The angels funding these companies are Act 22 people that come from an entrepreneurial background in crypto and blockchain. Act 22 people that come from hedge funds and equity funds don’t fund startups, that’s not in their DNA.” refers to 2012 legislation that provides a tax haven to businesses and high net worth individuals that set up bona fide residence in Puerto Rico. Act 22 “I’ve become a meaningful donor to the University of Puerto Rico, helping them rebuild their library and expand their maker studios. They’re the number 15 engineering school in the U.S and NASA, Google and Facebook have basically full time recruiters there. They’re producing incredibly talented people but they have to move if they want a good job. If you’re an entrepreneur with a dream to build a startup, for the first time, the tools are here. Now you have the right accelerators, incubators, hackathons, coworking facilities, hacker houses, and capital formation. This is how an ecosystem gets started. I’m so incredibly enthusiastic over the long term prospects for Puerto Rico.” “Puerto Rico is similar to Singapore. It’s a market that doesn’t have a population that’s large enough to make it relevant for most investors. The reason why Singapore is interesting is because people view it as a hub and spoke model. When you think of Singapore you think of it as a gateway to Southeast Asia and because it has rule of law. Investors don’t want to incorporate in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia. They want to know it’s in a Singaporean company focused on those markets because they want their capital to be in a safe jurisdiction.” “Puerto Rico has a similar opportunity as an island of three million people with rule of law. It has all the safety of the United States but without the U.S. tax problems. You can build companies here that can target the Caribbean and Latin America. Venezuela is not stable, Argentina is only slightly better, most of Latin America is not a place many institutional investors are comfortable putting their money. Puerto Rico is Spanish-speaking and geographically situated to serve as a gateway. Basically what Miami has been trying to become,” Pierce added. I asked him if he knew how many Act 22 crypto and blockchain entrepreneurs moved to Puerto Rico in 2018. “These are just estimates but it feels like 500 of the 1,500 who said they’re moving here did.” It’s not clear if people are rethinking their move to Puerto Rico after the 2018 crash in crypto. “We’re trying to more effectively track it,” he explained. “Mostly we’re seeing a one-third drop-off rate because it’s a big commitment to upend their lives, many are coming from California and New York.” Pierce has been trying to raise visibility for Puerto Rico while on the speaker circuit to attract funding for the island. He speaks about trying to make a difference with impact investing. Repeating his mantra, he told me, “A billionaire is someone who can positively impact a billion lives. My KPIs are not about how much money I’ve made. I care about how many people’s lives I’ve positively impacted. That’s the unit of measurement I measure myself by.” How low can it go? I asked Pierce whether he felt the crash in FAANG and crypto back in November were correlated, possibly in anticipation of a recession or trade concerns. “Coincidence more than correlation but there are broader market movements that can be correlated,” he replied. “Yes, there’s probably some overlap. Generally the crypto markets aren’t really correlated to anything else. That’s one of the main benefits of the crypto markets is that they operate independently, but a lot of people that invest in crypto also invest in technology. They’re similar industries in some way. There’s definitely a number of large shareholders in crypto that are also large shareholders in FAANG stocks.” he replied. “What do you think the cause of the sell off was?” I asked. “A necessary market correction. We’ve been through multiple cycles, prices run up, people get excited, a bunch of people rush in. Prices keep going up beyond what was rational and then the market has to go through a correction phase, it’s a good thing. When the price starts running up too fast, a lot of entrepreneurs come into the industry for the wrong reason. Correction creates a purging, a necessary cleanse. Bad actors typically go away, and true believers stick around and build great things.” He continued, “The ICO market in particular was overvalued, people didn’t even have a prototype or working product. They had a white paper and a team of inexperienced people that in most cases never shipped a product and they were raising money at ridiculous valuations without giving up any equity. Things were going up like Internet stocks in 1999. Everyone was buying Ethereum to invest in things that were doubling everyday. The only reason why Ethereum went to $2,000 was because you needed ether to buy ICOs. People weren’t investing in good projects with good traction or real results. It was basically gambling and wasn’t sustainable so everyone started to realize, like in the year 2000, that this is not a rational market. The question in the game of musical chairs is when does the music stop?” “Or who stopped the music?” I asked, “Do you think there might have been market manipulation that triggered the sell off?” “I’m sure absolutely there was some of that. Mostly the guys in New York who work for hedge funds. Most of the real market manipulators are on Wall Street.” replied Pierce. “It’s all good. The price is the primary barometer of sentiment. It doesn’t track fundamentals. It’s driven through emotion, FOMO (fear of missing out), and profit seeking.” “Where do you think the Bitcoin floor is?” I asked. “Some have said it’s where the last run up began, as low as $500.” “My guess is it’s around $3,000, but it could be as low as $1,000. I’d be shocked if it went below $1,000. I’d be surprised if it went below $2,000. There’s so much interest and activity in the space, my intuition, and it’s not my area of expertise, is that the floor is probably around $3,000.” I asked what will drive the next runup. “One of two things: Either major uncertainty in the traditional markets, meaning a catastrophic event with the financial system that causes a crash in the world’s currency, bond, or equity markets, this ecosystem benefits because of its resilliency and decentralized architecture; or we start to see market adoption of use cases.” he replied. I then asked him about the metrics he uses to analyze investments. “Most interesting attribute I look at is community. When you have open source software, you can copy and paste code so the tech doesn’t differentiate. Tech provides a first mover advantage but what sustains your project and delivers long-term success is the quality of the community you build and nurture. I look mostly at the quality of the stewardship. The other thing that matters is developer adoption. How many developers are building on that system. It doesn’t matter how good your chain is if no one is building on it. Ethereum has a huge developer community, they’re number one. EOS is number two. Tron is number three, which I was a little surprised by, but they’ve done a good job at building community, Justin Sun, the founder, being on Twitter, and the tech has caught up. This is how you build community, not by being quiet but by being vocal and people hearing the music and saying I want to dance to that beat.” “Is the next killer dapp gaming?” I asked. “Yes, gaming is going to be a huge part of it. Earliest adopters at scale of crypto were gamers. That’s why Korea and China are so big because these were the markets where people played video games and bought and sold virtual currency for games like Second Life and World of Warcraft. It’s that community of users around the world that have driven the first wave of crypto adoption and so I think there’s a very good chance that gaming in all its forms will be one of the major drivers of success of the ecosystem.” he added, “Messaging and peer-to-peer payments to bank the unbanked as well. Two-thirds of the people on the planet don’t have access to financial services.” RegTech is Red Hot My last question was about his 2019 outlook. “Security tokens are going to be revolutionary, they’re going to give birth to a quadrillion market,” Pierce told me, “that’s because we’re seeing the tokenization of the world’s fiat money, debt market, equities, real estate, art…” He concluded with this thought about the upside of down markets. “We’re going to see big things being built, multiple applications hitting a million users. I love the fact that prices are down. When prices are up, very little gets built because teams don’t stick around. Everyone is getting rich too quick and that de-motivates people. All the best things I’ve seen built in this ecosystem have been built in bear markets.” Posted in on January 2, 2019, by me! The FinTech Times

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