Are You Planning to Set Up Your Own Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform?

In today’s world, every person in the world is running day and night with one last thought in their mind – to mint money.

With increasing possibilities every day and diversifying areas in which an individual can make money, along with the risk factor, one of the upcoming platforms to increase cash is online betting.

Betting – A brief overview

Betting has always been a well-established platform where people can make a fortune. People are betting on the various categories available and have seen a steady increase in money with the initial investment in the field.

Anyway, today there are online betting companies to make things much easier for people who are interested in betting. It wasn’t long before people went to the brick-and-mortar facility to bet on a specific event or sport with a designated bookie. The establishment of online booking companies has made the betting experience as seamless as possible for people, which is very beneficial for people who play a wide range of bets.

Online betting company – features

Online betting platforms have attracted a large number of people who are skeptical about this area of ​​making money to start betting on various categories.

These platforms have succeeded in attracting a larger audience and imparting an intensive knowledge of betting so that even a common man can understand the detailed activities of betting and eventually feel confident enough to start betting.

Some important features of the online betting company are briefly mentioned as follows:

Exit Convenience: Unlike conventional betting establishments where people have to move from their residence to the facility to place their bets, online betting platforms eliminate the need to travel from one place to another. People can easily bet anytime from anywhere via smartphone or computer. It also removes the time restrictions imposed on physical betting companies so that they can bet at any time through the available online betting platforms.

Periodic promotions and offers: This is one of the features that make it different from regular bets. Various diversified online betting platforms offer periodic bonuses for consumers and promotions for first-time entrants to their platforms, thus providing all consumers using the platform a head start without requiring an initial out-of-pocket investment. This allows the consumer to explore the area and find their interests to bet on the category of their choice.

Multiple options: Online betting companies offer another unique feature. They can find all available betting events and categories under one website, unlike the old days when there were limited events at a particular facility. They will have to move from one place to another to find the event they are interested in. Online betting companies provide a one stop function for all needs to find all available events and bet as you wish.

Event flow: Online betting companies provide free streaming of all events for those registered as members of the company. Thus, a person can stream all the events they bet on at no extra cost and conveniently from their smartphone or computer. Thus, members will not have to take out a separate channel subscription to stream an event they are interested in betting on.

Wide range of payment options: With the current pace at which various new payment options are introduced globally, there are very limited payment options when it comes to physical betting options compared to online betting companies. Online companies have accommodated almost all available payment options from debit/credit cards, net banking to the latest payment option of paying through cryptocurrency. This helps reduce the effort of paying with physical cash, thus making payments through digital sources much easier.

Bitcoin is known as the first decentralized digital currency, they are essentially coins that can be sent over the Internet. 2009 was the year when bitcoin was born. The name of the creator is not known, but he was nicknamed Satoshi Nakamoto.

Advantages of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin transactions are made directly from person to person over the internet. You don’t need a bank or a clearinghouse to act as the middle man. Due to this, transaction fees are very low, they can be used in all countries of the world. Bitcoin accounts cannot be frozen, there are no prerequisites for opening them, same for limits. Every day more and more merchants start accepting them. You can buy anything you want with them.

How Bitcoin Works

It is possible to exchange dollars, euros or other currencies for bitcoin. You can buy and sell like any other country’s currency. To store your bitcoins, you need to store them in something called a wallet. This wallet is located on your computer, mobile device or third party websites. Sending bitcoins is very simple. It’s as simple as sending an email. You can buy almost anything with bitcoins.

Why Bitcoins?

Bitcoin can be used anonymously to buy any kind of goods. International payments are extremely easy and very cheap. This is because bitcoins are not actually tied to any country. They do not follow any rules. Small businesses love them because there are no credit card fees. There are people who buy bitcoins for the sole purpose of investing, to increase their value.

Ways to get Bitcoin.

1) Buy on an exchange: people are allowed to buy or sell bitcoins from sites called bitcoin exchanges. They do this using their own country’s currency or any other currency they have or like.

2) Transfers: individuals can simply send bitcoins to each other via their mobile phones, computers or online platforms. It’s the same as sending cash digitally.

3) Mining: the network is maintained by some individuals called miners. They are regularly rewarded for all newly confirmed transactions. Theses transactions are fully audited and then they are recorded in a ledger known as a public transparent ledger. These individuals compete to mine these bitcoins by using computer hardware to solve difficult math problems. Miners invest a lot of money in hardware. Nowadays there is something called cloud mining. Using cloud mining, miners simply deposit money into third-party websites, which provide all the necessary infrastructure, reducing hardware and energy consumption costs.

Storage and storage of bitcoins.

These bitcoins are stored in what are called digital wallets. These wallets exist in the cloud or on people’s computers. A wallet is something similar to a virtual bank account. These wallets allow people to send or receive bitcoins, pay for things, or simply store bitcoins. Unlike bank accounts, these bitcoin wallets are never insured by the FDIC.

Types of wallets.

1) Cloud wallet: the advantage of having a cloud wallet is that people don’t need to install any software on their computers and wait for long synchronization processes. The downside is that the cloud can be hacked and people can lose their bitcoins. Nevertheless, these sites are very safe.

2) Computer wallet: the advantage of having a computer wallet is that people protect their bitcoins from the rest of the internet. The disadvantage is that people can delete them by formatting the computer or due to viruses.

Bitcoin Anonymity.

When making a bitcoin transaction, there is no need to provide the person’s real name. Each recorded bitcoin transaction is known as a public log. This log contains only wallet IDs, not people’s names. so basically every transaction is private. People can buy and sell things without being tracked.

Bitcoin innovation.

Bitcoin has created a whole new way of innovation. Bitcoin software is open source, which means anyone can review it. Today, it is a fact that bitcoin is changing the world of finance in the same way that the internet has changed everything about publishing. The concept is brilliant. When everyone has access to the entire bitcoin global market, new ideas emerge. Reduced transaction fees are a fact of bitcoin. Accepting bitcoins is cost-effective and also very easy to set up. Chargebacks are not available. The Bitcoin community will generate all kinds of additional business.

Being involved with technology solutions professionals see things that could be a real threat to you, your staff or even your business; while the internet can be seen as a wonderful tool (cloud based communications and solutions for example) and all of the other great achievements that the internet has created there is a far darker side to it all; of that there is no doubt and it can be a real threat.

And factually you have in your business nowhere to run or nowhere to hide; sooner or later it becomes a high odd’s bet that employee, you or your company will suffer and in severe cases the effects could even close your company overnight.

Don’t believe this? Read on where examples of actual major threats are shown below. Not worried? You should be!

It’s so dangerous that Deloitte opened a cyber threat hunting service!

But on an everyday level to ordinary SME’s just like your business there really is no amount of anti virus this or anti malware that available that is really going to help; the examples below show you exactly why; things these days have moved on exponentially to levels that you may not believe, but some are revealed that are actual examples highlighting just how bad these threats have become. There will be casualties no doubt but you don’t want to be one of them!

Email has been a driving force that has moved forward communications between every aspect of business that anyone could imagine, from sales, customers, support, management, publicity and many more important areas; but it’s obvious that the underlying technology of email servers are flawed and because it’s now a worldwide transport for communications that’s hard to fix; these communications channels have to be compatible with every other email server in the world and that creates massive inherent vulnerabilities.

In almost every town, city or country, government bodies are working towards combating fraud and other nasty things from many areas, but email is one of the most widely abused platforms there is because of the ease of abuse by non-experts. And if you’re not an expert it does not take long to learn how to be one!

One organisation in the UK is Action Fraud operated by the police and while they handle other areas of fraud, email scams are very high on their list.

But here’s where things start to get nasty. Since the advent of cryptocurrency worldwide fraud has increased exponentially. And in the USA SEC Rejects Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund because they are very concerned about investor losses in Bitcoin.

However, this article is specific; Bitcoin is being used fraudulently and in both of the cases shown below Bitcoin is clearly involved in the transportation of monies to the perpetrators of these illegal demands on you, your staff or even your business. It’s no joke and anyone ignoring these really bad potential harms to their organisation will sooner or later come unstuck in maybe a really big way. The results could be catostrophic.

The first example shown below included personal details of the recipient that have been removed for security reasons. But this email (that passed every check through a company’s infrastructure) is threatening the life of an employee and should never be ignored.

Note that bitcoin and email addresses are edited for security purposes throughout this article.

HERE IS EXAMPLE ONE VERBATIM:

“From: kristin*********

Sent: ******

To: *********

Subject: How to save themself

Read this warn carefully, since it can be the last in your life.

People are by nature envious. Given the fact of successful development of your business, people (your contestant ) paid me 30,000 Pound Sterling for your head on a stick.

It’s not the first time I’ve done this kind of work, but I’m already tired of these envious bastards and your life will be the last one I’ll take or will not do, it’s up to you.

Under normal circumstances, I would just do the work for which I was paid without going into the details, but I’m going to get away from it and go on a long-awaited vacation.

You have 2 versions for deciding this problem.

Adopt my proposal or refuse.

You pay me 5 thousand GBP for safe your life and you receive all the information about the customer with whom you apply to the police and thus you save your life and the lives of your relatives.

The second option is you ignore my proposal and turn to the police, but by the same token you will only postpone your judgment day, even if I can not do the work, then somebody else will do it, not within a week and say in a month or half a year, but order for your head will be fulfilled sooner or later.

Thus, you will be afraid of every rustle, walk around looking and thinking that you are being persecuted.

If you want such a life, your choice, but if I were you, I would think very well.

Tickets to England have been taken for July **, and you have exactly 3 days to transfer money to an anonymous account bitcoin 1QJNjRmon3iD3RwdjaGomFLHs25B******.

I can check the last time receipt of money before the flight to you, on the **th

In the event of receiving a reward, I will not come to take your life, but will also pass all the information about your customer (Let the bastards get what they deserve) and you can protect yourself, otherwise you know the consequences.

The well-being of the future life depends on your choice.

Think about your life, you family.

on all will of Allah”

END OF EMAIL MESSAGE ONE

The above email is unedited except for recipients details and Bitcoin account numbers. It can be clearly seen in this email that there is a threat on the life of the recipient. While some recipients would simply brush this type of email off, others become extremely concerned; it’s easy to see exactly why. Indeed some recipients will go and pay the demanded money and not think twice. Imagine that a key employee received this email and they completely believed its contents? The resultant downfall of the employee could be extreme. This email threatens the recipients life and mentions their family etc.

Notice that the spelling is incorrect for English on this example (undisclosed but its in the content) and somehow the writer suggests that the email is the ‘will of Allah’. Probably not. But the user identified the recipient was in ‘England’ likely from the email address so the recipient could believe some of the contents.

The above email passed numerous checks throughout the receiving companies infrastructure. Now it’s easy to see if you are tech savvy, but most email users are not. And if you’re a small SME then things could happen that could literally create very serious effects on your business even though the email targeted an employee. But if you’re not tech savvy and a company owner, would you believe the above? and send money? Many will have and that ‘feeds’ the criminals for millions of pounds or in this case $US.

Bitcoin in the above example is used because Bitcoin CANNOT be traced to the ultimate recipient of the payment. This is a major flaw in crypto currency and one reason (irrespective of some suggesting it’s an easy way to make money) you really should have nothing to do with it. Criminals use Bitcoin all the time.

As suggested, you just might not believe the above email if you received it, but there is no doubt that you might well believe the next example because it has information in it that is only known by you!

HERE IS EXAMPLE TWO VERBATIM:

From: “Gloriana Feany”

To: *********************

Date: *********

Subject: (HERE WAS THE USERS NAME AND THEIR PASSWORD)

I know ****** is your password. Lets get right to the purpose. You may not know me and you are most likely thinking why you are getting this email? Nobody has paid me to check you.

actually, I actually setup a malware on the X videos (porn material) web site and you know what, you visited this site to have fun (you know what I mean). While you were viewing videos, your web browser initiated operating as a RDP that has a key logger which gave me access to your display and webcam. Immediately after that, my software program gathered every one of your contacts from your Messenger, social networks, and emailaccount. And then I created a video. First part displays the video you were watching (you’ve got a fine taste hehe), and 2nd part displays the recording of your web camera, yea it is u.

There are two different possibilities. Let us take a look at each one of these options in details:

1st alternative is to skip this message. In this case, I most certainly will send your very own video clip to all your your contacts and visualize concerning the humiliation you will see. Moreover if you happen to be in a committed relationship, how it will affect?

Next choice should be to give me $3000. We are going to call it a donation. In this scenario, I most certainly will quickly remove your videotape. You will continue your way of life like this never took place and you will never hear back again from me.

You will make the payment through Bitcoin (if you do not know this, search for “how to buy bitcoin” in Google search engine).

BTC Address: 18PvdmxemjDkNxHF3p3Fu9wkaAZ********

[CASE sensitive, copy & paste it]

In case you are thinking about going to the law enforcement officials, very well, this e-mail can not be traced back to me. I have covered my actions. I am also not trying to charge you a lot, I simply want to be rewarded. I’ve a unique pixel in this e-mail, and at this moment I know that you have read through this email message. You have one day in order to pay. If I don’t get the BitCoins, I will certainly send your video to all of your contacts including family members, colleagues, etc. Having said that, if I receive the payment, I’ll erase the recording right away. If you really want evidence, reply Yup! then I will send out your video to your 7 friends. This is the non-negotiable offer, and thus please do not waste my personal time & yours by responding to this e mail.

END OF EXAMPLE TWO EMAIL:

This is an entirely different threat. The recipient picked this email up because of a multitude of reasons that were simply incorrect and not representative of their actions on the internet; however, the stated password was about 80% shown (and it would be reasonable to assume the perpetrator knew the rest of the password). This could be seen by many as a factual document and it’s credibility is created in the recipients mind by the inclusion of the password in to the threat.

Imagine owning a SME business that might indeed be a larger business, the threat demanded much more money and the recipient had viewed what was suggested in the email? People do. It could be seen as likely or at;east a possibility that the recipient might well pay the money to the perpetrator through Bitcoin. And again Bitcoin rears its ugly head.

Again in this second email instance shown the email passed all checks and tests in the company where the email was received. So these are real threats to individuals or business.

But consider this; how did the perpetrator get the recipients password? (it was an old password but nevertheless was mostly valid). The perpetrator suggested key logging on a site known for pornographic video and images. But that is most likely not where the perp got the details from.

When reading about companies like Facebook, TalkTalk, Dixons Carphone Warehouse, Equifax, Adobe, AOL, Apple, AT&T, British Airways, Mastercard and Visa, Compass Bank, Dominos Pizza, DVLA UK, Dropbox, Kmart, Hewlett Packard, eBay, Experian, Trump Hotels, Gmail, Vodaphone, Walmart, Morgan Stanley, NHS, Ofcom, SnapChat, Adidas, Macys, Sony Pictures (and the list goes on) is it really no wonder that most personal details of importance (even financially) of individuals and businesses are all over the internet. There is a Wikipedia about these breaches of data that is extremely concerning reading as these breaches involve all kinds of information that will no doubt be available to buy on the internet. With the incredible reductions in share prices at Facebook maybe that might be the start of a mass exodus from those sort of ‘social media’ sites; but of course Facebook is merely one of the very long list of companies that have let you down through not protecting your data properly as the list above clearly demonstrates.

Its easy to see why GDPR has become law and countries will continue to pass GDPR legislation accordingly. Thank all of the companies mentioned above and many more for allowing this ridiculous situation that could be the start of the downfall of the internet as it is known today.

But is it time to go back and retrospectively fine each and every company involved in the dispersal of personal details? Are those companies any less ‘guilty’ now? It seems for many companies that the only thing they understand is when they are faced with very large fines; and even the fines might be irrelevant to organisations like Facebook and Google because large fines seem to be ‘petty cash’ to some of those companies. But shere price reduction wakes them up.

If anyone is concerned about a ‘key logger’ from the above email example getting your information Kaspersky latest offering of internet security includes software that stops key loggers from logging your information as you type.

A third example of fraud covered in this article relates to a company that received an email pro-forma invoice to pay from one of its regular suppliers. One day the finance department received a pro-forma invoice that needed to be paid immediately. The email address and the invoice itself looked entirely unremarkable. The sending company advised the finance department that they had recently changed banks and that the new details were on the invoice attached. Finance paid the £60,000+ ( $US 80,000) invoice.

The only problem was, that the invoice was completely fraudulent, the email address did read correctly unless you looked close (instead of wonderful.com it was wonderfull.com (just made up example to illustrate the methodology used) and the recipient in the finance department saw and read what they were used to seeing. The real question is, how did the perpetrators get all that information about what an invoice should be like, the real suppliers details, etc., their website and email addresses and more; it’s food for thought and make no mistake it can be so easy to allow one of these scams through your business; the chances are pretty high and the consequences could be dire and even bankrupt your business if taken to the extreme.

There is no doubt that the underlying email systems are no longer fit for purpose in general and have not been for some time. Notice that in the first example the scammer sent mail from ‘mail.bg’ and the second one (even more concerning) was from ‘outlook.com’. While the sending email addresses can be ‘replaced’ with any email address upon examination those two shown emails seemed to be real; indeed one of the perps even used Google to advise how to use Bitcoin for payment. But there are multiples of very large companies that every day offer a service but allow their email servers and systems to send out such threatening emails to users. Maybe it’s time to pressure these organisations (outlook.com, gmail.com and there are multiples of others) to actually filter their emails properly as well as the sendersbefore these sort of threats go out and create serious harm that these sort of messages could easily do.

Of course there are millions of other examples of fraud through an outdated abused email system (and other related internet technologies) that could be shown here, but the aim of this article is to educate readers so that they don’t fall foul to these sort of appalling scams.

One company, Network Systems has seen many of these sort of internet related issues and offers a cybercrime service to SME’s to help to create a safe environment for empolyees and business as they work on the internet today.

Hopefully this article will at least make the reader think very hard about how they are going to ensure protection of employees and their company and if nothing else that is a wothwhile objective. Using specialist companies will always help more than by just trying to put solutions in place created by someone without experience in this area and could actually save your company.

Crowdfunding is all the rage, with new platforms emerging more frequently. Many see it as the future of investing, while others warn that its risks are often underestimated. And then there are different types of crowdfunding: reward-based, equity-based, debt-based, flexible, fixed, etc. It may all seem confusing, but like most things, the underlying logic is simple.

The most important benefit of crowdfunding is that investing in small companies and startups is accessible to everyone. That’s why it’s more important than ever for people to fully understand this new world, as most of the negative publicity surrounding crowdfunding focuses on misuse and misunderstanding of the platforms. In this article, I’ll cover the different types of crowdfunding platforms, along with the main incumbents in each category, and explain some of the main pitfalls that trap many newcomers.

But first a definition.

What is a crowd?

Ordinary, everyday people. And that’s what the “crowd” in crowdfunding refers to. You see, fundraising isn’t really about business plans or market appeal or financial projections: it’s ultimately about belief. And the higher the risk of harm in life, the more important trust becomes. For this reason, most people do not hesitate to put a few pounds into sponsoring a charity race or lend a friend a few pounds; There is a general acceptance that you should not expect to see this money again, and so the level of trust in the person you give the money to does not need to be particularly high. But if someone asks you to invest a few thousand pounds, the situation is radically different. For most people, this is not an amount they can afford to lose. Therefore, most people are left out of the investment world where small businesses need thousands of pounds to invest.

So it makes sense that the traditional routes for founders to finance a business have been through channels like loans from banks, high net worth individuals, friends and family. The founder’s ability to raise money has largely depended on their collateral in the case of bank loans, or their personal network in the case of investments from individuals, and large chunks of money from a small handful of people who trust them. or we have thoroughly checked them. The alternative – raising small lumps of money from a large number of people – is largely impossible unless the founder happens to know hundreds of people and is unwilling and unable to deal with the huge administrative burden of working with that many people.

Enter the Internet, with its long history of both eliminating administrative headaches and connecting large groups of people. Crowdfunding essentially facilitates matching between ordinary people who are interested in investing in things and ordinary founders who do not have access to large networks of collateral or wealthy individuals. The software that runs the crowdfunding platform handles all the administration, while the internet itself provides a large pool of potential people for the founder to market at scale.

In short, crowdfunding allows you to raise small amounts of money from a large number of complete strangers. That’s why it’s great.

The main types of crowdfunding platform

There are four main types of crowdfunding platform, all with different advantages and risks. Below are the main ones with links to the biggest or best-known officials.

Rewards-based crowdfunding

Major players: Kickstarter, Indiegogo

The closest sibling to the traditional charity fund, reward-based platforms take money in the form of pledges or donations, and in return you receive some sort of return or reward from the business. For example, you can get a discounted unit of a funded product after production, or you can get a customized version of the same product as a thank you for supporting it for a higher donation amount. This is the “reward” in question, and usually the higher the pledge amount, the better the reward.

For obvious reasons, you tend to find mostly physical products on reward-based sites where the money is used to take the first concept prototype into production. They are also popular for creative projects such as movies, games or music albums, where fans can support their favorite artists and in return receive bonuses such as credits at the end of the movie.

The downside of reward-based sites is that they are vulnerable to fraud and scams. There is usually little or no due diligence on companies or individuals raising money, and the barrier to entry on the investor side is minimal, with minimum pledges starting at £1. Scammers often present fake product prototypes in a video featuring concept art and renderings, only to disappear with the money after the campaign ends. Investors, in this case, have little recourse other than to complain to the crowdfunding platform itself for a refund, but the lines of responsibility around risk are somewhat hazy.

Reward-based platforms have fantastic opportunities to support interesting projects, but the risk is the highest and the return is generally not noticeable. Investing in a reward-based platform should be driven by passion for the product you’re investing in, not an expectation of financial returns.

Equity-based crowdfunding

Major players: Seedrs, Crowdcube

Closer to traditional investing, equity-based platforms facilitate investments in businesses in exchange for equity in those businesses. Stock platforms are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and investors must meet certain legal requirements. However, these are not particularly rigorous and usually involve a simple credit check and filling out an online survey. Minimum investment amounts are still quite affordable, usually around £10, although some share platforms have higher minimum stakes.

However, the entry process is tougher for businesses looking to upgrade. Due diligence is done on each company, and the submission process usually involves several rounds of iterations and approvals before the campaign goes live. The obvious benefit to investors is an added layer of protection for their investments. Fraudsters or fraudsters are less likely to start on share platforms, and FCA regulations require companies to back up their claims with evidence that the platform will validate themselves before allowing the campaign to begin. Because of this, up to 90% of all applications for stock-based platforms fail to launch a campaign.

The advantages for businesses raising money are access to a more sophisticated group of investors outside their network (traditional investors are increasingly flocking to such platforms), as well as a simplified process for working with groups that are smaller than other crowdfunding platforms. of investors. There is also a growing trend for equity platforms to act as nominee shareholders on behalf of investors, meaning that a business takes on one new shareholder instead of several hundred, making management much easier and future investments simpler. This particular point is often overlooked by businesses looking to raise money, but it’s the main reason we chose Seedrs for our fundraising campaign.

Equity platforms will typically hold funds in escrow until the campaign ends, adding another layer of protection for investors. Of course, normal risks apply in terms of expected returns: most investments will return nothing, if not much, but those that promise great financial gains compared to other investment options. In general, this type of crowdfunding is what is mentioned in speculations about the impact of the format on the future of investing in general.

Debt-based crowdfunding

Key Players: Funding Circle, Zopa

Debt-based crowdfunding, otherwise known as peer-to-peer lending, takes the main advantages of crowdfunding—administrative advantages and access to large groups of people—and applies it to business lending. Simply put, investors put their money into a fund managed by the platform, and the platform lends the money to businesses seeking capital. Investors can either choose the business they want to invest in or let the platform automatically choose on their behalf.

The main difference, obviously, is that the investor should expect to get the money back with interest. The appeal of putting one’s money into a credit platform instead of an equity-based platform is due to the reduced risk factor provided by the fact that businesses go through the same rigorous due diligence procedures as they do when borrowing from banks, and the fact that returns are reduced. often much higher than a simple BSA or pension. For businesses that meet the lending criteria, the benefits are better rates from a bank with more transparency.

While not generally ideal for early-stage startups with no collateral, for more established startups looking to grow, it offers access to cash without having to give up capital or take on hundreds of investors. For more risk-averse investors, this is a safer alternative to equity crowdfunding at the cost of missing out on the potentially large returns that successful startups can sometimes bring.

Blockchain crowdfunding

Key players: Smith + Crown, Waves

Blockchain crowdfunding, the newest and least known type of crowdfunding, uses the power of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to generate cash from the creation of new tokens in a process called Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a nod to the more traditional Initial Public Offering. IPO) process we are used to in the stock markets.

It’s quite complicated to explain how it works here, and understanding how blockchain and cryptocurrencies work is important before even considering this route (those interested can read my article “A Quick Guide to Blockchain…for Normal People”) . So businesses raising money via this route are mostly blockchain-related, and investors into ICOs have a very high risk appetite.

The appeal is the potential returns for investors from the cryptocurrencies themselves. As an example, the cryptocurrency Ether doubled in value in just three days in March 2017, while the currency Monero gained 2,000% in value last year alone. Of course, this level of volatility could also go the other way, as anyone who has invested in Bitcoin recently will attest.

Blockchain’s decentralized architecture and trustless, crowd-sourced approach make it an obvious candidate for the preferred crowdfunding approach in the future, but the technology as a whole is still in its infancy and therefore prone to fraud and scammers, as well as high volatility in the currencies themselves. . Not for the faint of heart.

Which one should you choose?

As an investor, the decision of which crowdfunding platform to invest in depends largely on your risk appetite. If your goal is to make any kind of income, premium based platforms should be completely avoided. Additionally, debt-based platforms can be a good option if you’re simply looking for a better rate than an ISA can offer, otherwise if you want to be a ‘real’ investor, go for the equity crowdfunding option. Blockchain is for gamblers.

As a business, stick to rewards-based platforms for consumer products in the concept or prototype stage, perhaps moving to equity platforms once your product is launched. Debt-based platforms are a better option for bridging finance, if you are more established and a blockchain startup, blockchain is an obvious choice.

No matter what stage you’re at, make sure you shop around and do your research before you dive in, and as long as you keep your wits about you, there are exciting opportunities like never before. For this reason alone, crowdfunding is a wonderful innovation.

What is blockchain?

The term blockchain has been used in numerous social and corporate conversations in recent years and it seems that everyone has heard of blockchain technology, but most of the population does not really know what it means.

In order to clearly explain what blockchain technology actually means, let us give you a brief overview of how money transactions have evolved. Historically, when people exchanged valuables, there were intermediaries whose sole purpose was to mark the authenticity of both parties and establish trust between them. Nowadays, these intermediaries are known as banks. The use of banks and brokers continued over time, and with the emergence of digital assets such as stocks, electronic money, and intellectual property, a more secure method was needed. This is because digital assets are usually files inside a computer and are therefore vulnerable to manipulation and theft. Thus, the use of blockchain technology allows parties to conduct open and transparent transactions, ensuring that the exchange is safe and efficient.

The Future of Bitcoin

Blockchain has the ability to completely disrupt the financial industry in the same way social media disrupted mainstream media or Netflix destroyed Blockbuster movies. Blockchain technology has the potential to be used as a platform to provide financial services anywhere in the world, including people in developing countries who do not have access to traditional banking services and cannot afford the fees required to make large transactions. . This technology has the potential to make major breakthroughs in almost all major industries that are usually manipulated by large corporations.

Using Blockchain technology in education

In education, blockchain technology can be used to identify students who really need scholarships and those who can afford them. This is because several students bypass the system and obtain funding. This will actually be detrimental to needy students who drop out or accumulate so much debt that they barely work.

Finally, they can bury their heads in the sand because a large portion of the population wants blockchain to go away right now, but this piece of technology isn’t necessarily going anywhere. In the near future, we will all be trading using blockchain as part of our daily activities, our grandchildren will be reading about money and ATMs, just as we read about barter trading and gold. Therefore, it is important that we jump in and adapt as soon as possible before we forcefully adjust.

Corda is a solution to any and all frictions in blockchain business by fulfilling the great early promise of blockchain technology while also addressing business needs for interoperability and privacy. For example, it allows businesses to transact directly, eliminating the costly frictions involved in any business transaction. In addition, it ensures that all business parties are always in sync, which in turn provides dramatic efficiency benefits for complex business operations.

To understand what the Corda project is all about, let’s take a deeper look at what it is, its benefits, and how it achieves the privacy it promises.

What is cord?

In short, Corda is an open source project in blockchain business developed by the R3 community. As a result of collaborations between technology partners and financial institutions, Corda was specifically designed targeting businesses from the ground up to serve a variety of purposes. These include:

• Integrate directly into enterprise systems.

• Facilitate rapid implementation of the new process.

• Ensure a smooth transition to new processes.

As a platform, Corda does not contain any cryptocurrency, but rather one that controls existing and proven infrastructure and technology. Thus, Corda does not require mining-style consensus. This results in large costs associated with the small business benefit.

Benefits of Corda in Blockchain World

Based on the aforementioned design goal, the blockchain world should celebrate Corda – because it has created more positive impacts in the blockchain world. The main ones are:

• Allowing parties to transact directly – Through modern cryptographic techniques, Corda has effectively enabled the direct transfer of value as systems agree. These in turn help to eliminate costs and ultimately facilitate and initiate the existence of direct transactions between the parties involved.

• Ensuring and maintaining privacy over transaction history – Maintaining privacy and ensuring integrity and reliability is a major challenge in the blockchain world, Corda has another reason to be celebrated as it offers a solution to the problem. Through its various techniques, Corda guarantees both the reliability and integrity of transactions—confirming competing and conflicting transactions in the transaction history. While doing the above, Corda also ensures that it maintains its privacy.

Jordan’s ways of achieving privacy

With one of Corda’s main benefits in the world of blockchain ensuring and maintaining privacy, it does this by:

• Full encryption- It targets peer-to-peer network for this.

• Key randomization and rotation – It will do this together with automatic identity management while aiming to anonymize transactions.

• Intel Software Security Extensions – Through these, Corda will enclave the technology and ultimately allow records to be verified simultaneously and encrypted for all participants.

• Structuring operations – Corda will structure operations in a Merkle tree, which in turn allows it to discover only selective information.

Parting shot

Since expensive friction is a popular and common phenomenon and a problem in business, there is a need for the blockchain world to embrace Corda as a solution. Corda will eliminate such frictions and in turn will have benefits adapted to the blockchain world, such as having a direct transaction between parties and maintaining privacy over the transaction history. So there is no doubt that Corda is the real solution in the blockchain world.

Surely everyone has heard the words Ethereum and Bitcoin. Being part of the blockchain world, they have gained worldwide attention through extensive media coverage. In general, blockchain technology has gained business interest due to its decentralized, immutable and transparent nature. Other notable projects that have emerged in recent years include Hyperledger.

What is Hyperledger?

Hyperledger is an open source project of blockchains and related tools managed by the Linux Foundation. It was founded in 2015 and aims to develop cross-industry blockchain technologies. Hyperledger does not support cryptocurrencies and does not represent a cryptocurrency network or traditional blockchain system.

So what is Hyperledger for? The project aims to facilitate developers and businesses to adopt blockchain. It provides the necessary standards and infrastructure to develop and implement blockchain solutions in various industries.

Hyperledger structure in depth

The Hyperledger project can be visualized as a house with open source development tools and libraries as a foundation and modular frameworks under the roof.

One widely used digital ledger is called Hyperledger Fabric. It is a permissioned blockchain infrastructure that serves as the basis for building applications or solutions with this modular architecture.

Hyperledger Besu is an enterprise-grade Ethereum client for both public and private use cases of permissioned networks. The next Hyperledger Burrow framework runs on smart contracts and represents a complete single-binary blockchain distribution that supports EVM and WASM.

Hyperledger Indy can work autonomously or even work with other blockchains. Indy is designed exactly for decentralized identities. Another easy-to-use modular distributed platform is called Hyperledger Iroha. The framework includes a role-based authorization model and multi-signature support. Iroha is adapted for digital asset management systems and is used to manage identity and serialized data. As part of the Hyperledger system, there is no cryptocurrency presence here either.

The digital ledger Hyperledger Sawtooth offers a modular architecture where smart contracts can define business rules for applications without knowing the underlying design of the system. Sawtooth uses the Python programming language, which makes it easy to deploy and maintain the latest software.

Hyperledger applications compared to other enterprise solutions

Let’s take a look at the differences between traditional web portals and blockchain-based solutions. The former lack speed, security and traceability, while blockchain offers high transaction speed and enhanced security provided by smart contracts and encryption. Especially when it comes to Hyperledger dApps, they stand out for their ability to handle complex business processes within hours.

There are several key differences when it comes to permissionless blockchain solutions and permissioned Hyperledger implementations. Permissionless blockchain solutions involve zero regulation, allow anonymous cryptographic identities, and generally represent public systems on a shared ledger. Fake tracking is code-based and operations cannot be changed.

Hyperledger applications are both public and private systems whose workflows are controlled by regulators. Participants in Hyperledger applications are real and identifiable, and transaction identities are traceable.

In general, Hyperledger guarantees the exchange of false information and the cryptographic confirmation of contract terms and transactions. The toolkit is rich with platforms and frameworks that can be chosen according to business specifications. Ultimately, implementing a solution will help consolidate databases, increase performance and scalability, minimize fraud risks, protect sensitive data, and streamline ROI.

Industries are ready to adopt Hyperledger

Hyperledger has already entered many fields such as supply chain management, retail, healthcare, FinTech, IoT, banking and manufacturing. Companies using the technology include Walmart, Amazon, Nestle, Visa, Maersk, Postal Savings Bank of China, etc.

To start your enterprise innovation through Hyperledger implementation, you need to choose a competent Hyperledger development company that will develop a customized solution to solve your business problems.

Startups moving towards blockchain technology in 2018!

The first application of blockchain technology to gain worldwide attention is Bitcoin, the first digital currency. Blockchain creates a decentralized ledger that runs on a network of smart contracts. Blockchain can provide high security by using the concept of public and private keys for authentication. Thus, blockchain technology can be used in any industry where value is exchanged. This technology has more applications than just cryptocurrencies.

Below is a list of startups that will bring change in the future –

Agrello

It is an Estonian company. Since smart contracts are a huge component of cryptocurrency and blockchain transactions, Agrello hopes to revolutionize them.

It aims to combine legal documents with artificial intelligence to bring smart contracts to the general public without a comprehensive blockchain experience. Agrello’s creates an interface that allows users to easily create their own legally binding smart contracts on the Ethereum network. For this, they do not need to have extensive programming experience or legal knowledge.

Elastos

Elastos started in 2000. It focuses on the development of an internet operating system that re-decentralizes the internet with blockchain. It produces a secure new operating system (Dapps) that works peer-to-peer without centralized control. It aims to make digital assets rare, recognizable and tradable.

Everex

Everex provides currency exchange, microfinance, and more to people without access to standard financial institutions. plans to give a chance to use such services. They will create a platform using blockchain technology called “cryptocash”. Users can convert their local currency to cryptocurrency through the Everex platform. This cryptocurrency token will gain value equal to the specified fiat currency.

Puregold.io

Founded in 2010, Puregold becomes the first payment gateway to use gold-backed cryptocurrency. The name of the gateway is called “PG_PAY”. This includes various payment terminals, Gold ATMs and highly secure mobile money transactions. The Puregold team used Ethereum blockchain technology and successfully created an e-commerce gold business network consisting of a gold-backed cryptocurrency.

There are many blockchain applications emerging to make things more organized and secure.

To read more articles visit – http://cryptonewsusa.com

Get Ethereum and Bitcoin Blockchain News!

We provide daily updates on cryptocurrencies. You can watch and give your feedback –

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cryptonewsusa/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Crypto_NewsUSA

Insta – https://www.instagram.com/cryptonewsusa/

Startups are the foundations that keep economies moving. Hedging process for capital growth for new age ideas is the main background of growth platforms. This shift creates a potential growth benefit for companies and the population it serves.

So why do we think cryptocurrency is a viable solution for financing?

Startups are mostly innovation-driven companies that strive to make it to the big leagues for a living, and ideas can be implemented over a period of time. Therefore, they must grow rapidly and remain consistently large. To do this, investors are the key to buy into and believe in the innovation with the spending power that shares it. Angel investors or venture capitalists are buzzwords for those who provide and manage companies based on capital or lucrative returns with strict rules and policies that drive them forward.

Secure funding alternatives with investors and capital growth is an extremely difficult combination to work with, all geographically competitive under the law. Finding an approach is an important factor in startup growth. With the availability of blockchain alternatives like Ethereum, they can earn and raise capital in the form of Initial Coin Offerings.

An unregulated method for funds is raised by a cryptocurrency enterprise. In an ICO campaign, a percentage of the currency is sold to the first project bankers in exchange for off-chain currencies such as Bitcoin. This method of trading digital tokens for stock growth is the main principle of the whole system working for the benefit of the whole system without any government regulation or shareholder pressure that indicates company control for the main members.

This process allows the founding members to control the majority of the startup and not deviate from the investor’s ideas and processes. This negates the prospect of non-dissolution of companies due to termoil and non-aligned purposes.

The Running Rule is key to creating the technical foundation for organizational benefits and initial coin offerings, and by cryptocurrencies collecting an arbitrary amount of monetary benefits from anyone on the Internet, a cryptocurrency wallet is thus the hedge they need to move forward. With technology like Ethereum, psuedo-anonymity provides a decentralized blockchain that blocks activity.

Without having to meet aggressive expansion requirements, ICOs bring freedom to ordinary people with the opportunity to invest in private companies.

So, Startups no longer have to go to a tech hub to secure funding. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have paved the way forward with obvious pros and cons by taking risks and overcoming security breaches.

@page { margin: 2 cm } p { bottom margin: 0.25 cm; line-height: 120% } a:link { language: zxx }

For example, the ICO features of crowdfunding allow investors in India to invest in revolutionary fishing techniques and growth opportunities in Indonesia and Africa without any restrictions or coercion from relevant governance.

The statistics could no longer be ignored. Once the frenzy and ‘FOMO’ involved in the crowdsale wears off, most ICOs fold and stall once the tokens hit the cryptocurrency exchanges.

Most observers of the ICO phenomenon universally agree that the trend over the past few months has been for ICOs to lose value after the crowdsale, with many buyers waiting in vain for the promised “bear” once the cryptocurrency hits the market. portal.

However, what is not discussed is that the main reason we are witnessing this phenomenon and the crowdsale participants, including the rating companies many of us trust to make choices, are wrong in choosing which ICO is worth the most. or there is a best chance that the value will rise after the crowdsale is over.

While there are many reasons that can legitimately be offered for this phenomenon, there is one fact that I think is more responsible for it than any other controversial reason: ICO token valuation and the undue emphasis on “blockchain experts”, “ICO consultants”. ‘ or ‘technical hunters’ for erc20 tokens.

When the project isn’t really trying to create a new coin concept, I’ve thought that the need for blockchain technical experts or ICO technical advisors is overstated or even completely wrong when the project is judged by these criteria. The real highlight for most ERC20 Tokens and copy coins should be the management antecedents and executive profiles of the Business Plan and Team leaders behind the token.

Anyone involved in the industry should know that creating an ERC20 token from Ethereum or similar tokens from other cryptocurrencies does not require any great technical skills or an overrated blockchain consultant (in fact, with the new software out there, the ERC20 Token is a completely new technical can be done by a beginner in less than 10 minutes.

So technical excess should not be a big deal for verses). A basic business plan should be; level of work experience; the competence of the project managers and the business marketing strategy of the parent company raising the funds.

Frankly, as a lawyer and Business Consultant for over 30 years in several companies globally, I don’t understand why people use some Russian, Korean or Chinese “Crypto Vhiz” or “Crypto Consultant” to determine the strength of an ICO. they are looking for Mainly for a crowdfunding campaign for a BUSINESS CONCEPT…

I strongly believe that this is one of the main reasons why most ICOs never live up to their pre-launch hype. In an age of token creation software, platforms, and freelancers galore, a disproportionate focus on blockchain experience or technical ability of promoters is largely misplaced. It’s like trying to judge the likely success of a company based on the employees’ ability to create a good website or app. This train has long since left the station with the proliferation of technical hands on freelancing sites like Guru; Upwork, freelancer and even Fiverr.

People seemed too attached to the hype and the technical skills of the people promoting the ICO, especially the ERC20 Ethereum based tokens, and then wondered why a technically superior Russian, Chinese or Korean guy couldn’t finish the company after the fundraising campaign.

Even many of our ICO Ratings seemed to allocate a disproportionate number of points to the team member’s crypto experience, how many crypto advisors, and ICO success experience they had on their team, rather than focusing on the underlying business model. it is created due to the collected funds

Once you realize that over 90% of cryptocurrencies and ICOs out there are tokens created to simply crowdfund an idea, people will shift their focus to more technically relevant valuation work. the business idea itself and the corporate business plan.

Once we go through this evaluation period before deciding to buy or invest in cryptocurrency, we will begin to evaluate the future prospects or value of our tokens based on sound business judgment:

– Swot Analysis of the company and its promoters

– Management skills and experience of team leaders

– Strength of business idea beyond token creation

– The company’s marketing plan and strategy to sell those ideas

– Ability to market key products

– Customer base for products and services to be created by the company

– and a basis for predicting market adoption

What most people fail to understand is that the potential for their tokens to increase in value after the ICO is not so much dependent on anything technical as it is on good things happening in the company and fundraising and expected growth in the company’s valuation. presents the business plan and presents the business products.

Of course, buying cryptocurrency is not buying a stock, and it is not buying the security of any company. We understand this, but tokens react like stocks react to good news or bad news about a company. The only difference is that in the case of cryptocurrencies, the impact is multiplied 100 times.

So when a company meets some financial or business milestone, the price of its token on the stock market will go up…and if nothing good happens, it will drop rapidly. So what the company will do after the ICO and how it will do it should be very important to anyone who doesn’t want to see the value of their Tokens go down and stay down forever.

Of course, most of the tokens will go down because of those who want to make an immediate profit after the tokens hit the crypto exchange after the ICO, but whether it will come back to give you the expected multi-digit profit will always depend on the criteria. I already mentioned above. After buying a token, the cost of the ‘crypto consultant’ and ‘technical whiz’ is reduced to zero relative to the monthly potential of your tokens.

After this reality, I think a smart crypto buyer or investor should focus less on how many crypto advisors the project has or how technically sound the team is (unless the company’s emphasis is technical) and more on management, marketing and potential customer base of the company raising funds through ICO .

In other words, spend more points on the business and management side of the ICO than on the technical jargons that won’t help your token in the market when the money is raised!