• Skip to main content

Biz Builder Mike

You can't sail Today's boat on Yesterdays wind - Michael Noel

  • Cryptocurrency Exchange
  • Blockchain Consultants
  • About Us
  • Blog

html

Jan 20 2021

Indiegogo’s New Partnership with Japanese Pre-Order and Support Platform Makuake

Today we’re excited to announce a new partnership with Makuake, the leading pre-order and support platform in Japan, to empower entrepreneurs and consumers worldwide to unite around unique product ideas and, together, bring them to life.

Through this partnership, Makuake and Indiegogo will be combining resources, expertise, and a global network of communities to connect forward-thinking entrepreneurs in Japan with enthusiasts who power their innovation. The partnership will also allow successful campaigners on Indiegogo to find new audiences in Japan.

As the biggest pre-order and support platform in Japan, Makuake has an extensive track-record of supporting Japanese creators in developing and launching their products. We’ve done the same on the global stage over the last 12 years, having helped over 900,000 entrepreneurs successfully raise a total of more than $2 billion in funds directly from customers. Now our two platforms will join forces, bridging the gap between previously disparate crowdfunding markets. 

This announcement comes hot on the heels of a series of Japan-oriented developments to the Indiegogo platform — including an expansion of the Indiegogo Global Fast Track Program into the Japanese market, which aims to help Japan’s top innovators build international brands faster; a partnership with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) to give Japanese entrepreneurs additional support for launching successful crowdfunding campaigns; and a new option for entrepreneurs to receive their funding directly in Japanese yen when their campaign ends.

These improvements, along with our latest partnership with Makuake, will grant consumers access to products that were previously out of their reach and give entrepreneurs in Japan a seamless way to raise funds for their products from backers around the world.

“Millions of people around the world visit Indiegogo to find clever and unconventional things that solve everyday problems large and small,” says Andy Yang, CEO of Indiegogo. “We are very excited to partner with Makuake, who share a very similar mission with us, so that together we can unite the world through bright ideas, all while providing the best opportunities for our creators and entrepreneurs to reach their goals.” 

“Our mission is to connect the world through the creation of new things,” says Makuake CEO Ryotaro Nakayama. “This partnership between Makuake and Indiegogo lays the groundwork for Japanese makers and creators to spread their innovative products and passion throughout the global market. In addition, Japanese consumers will be able to discover more global innovative products in Makuake.”

Want to learn more? Find additional information in the Indiegogo Japanese Crowdfunding Field Guide. 

<!–

Comments are closed

–>

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: brands, ceo, Crowdfunding, Entrepreneurs, funding, Global, html, ideas, IGG, information, innovation, international, japan, market, markets, more, partnership, platforms, product, Products, trade, us, world

Jan 19 2021

Worldline Joins Forces With Gold Global SA to Launch “Davinci Gold” Token

Worldline, (Euronext: WLN) a European payments and transactional services firm, announced on Tuesday it has formed a co-operation partnership with Gold Global Currency Corp to offer the “DaVinci Gold” token, which is notably based on Worldline’s stablecoin management infrastructure. According to Worldline, the initiative further expands the capability of Worldline’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform and will assist in fulfilling the company’s goals to be at the forefront of stablecoins and blockchain technology.

“Developed by Worldline, the DAM Platform is the first asset management solution of the stablecoins category to take advantage of a private Blockchain with full control, guaranteeing security, scalability and longevity of the solution. The Worldline DAM platform is designed to seamlessly and securely manage any type of an asset’s lifecycle within a given business process, amidst the various parties participating in this product or service.”

Worldline further reported as a result of the strategic partnership agreed with Gold Global, the Worldline DAM platform brings to life the DaVinci Gold purchasing solution. The first of its kind, it allows consumers to buy, save and sell genuine physical gold coins or 24-carat hallmarked bullion in a simple and secure way. Speaking about the collaboration, Nicolas Kozakiewicz, Blockchain Fellow Expert and Innovation Executive Advisor at Worldline, stated:

“While the WL DAM Platform was first applied to stablecoins and CBDCs, it is perfectly suited for many other sectors, such as retailing and loyalty schemes, intra-group industrial offsets, public/urban transport. Creating an industry-grade ready-to-deploy asset manipulation infrastructure was a long-time need hardly solved, until Blockchain technologies came to real maturity.”

Worldline then added in accordance with most of Worldline’s Business verticals, from merchant interfacing to core-banking services, from Digital Cities requirements to highly regulated Public or Private services, the new Worldline DAM platform is designed to solution problems, from small early pilots to full-scale services.

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding, cryptocurrency · Tagged: blockchain, Blockchain & Digital Assets, business, cbdcs, Cities, cryptocurrency, Currency, DAM, davinci gold, digital, digital asset, digital asset management, digital assets, digital currency, Global, gold, gold global sa, html, Infrastructure, innovation, other, partnership, payments, product, security, Stablecoin, stablecoins, Technology, token, worldline

Jan 15 2021

High-tech Babel fish: How the Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator breaks language barriers

Normal conversations are energetic and messy. You and your friends might talk over each other, interrupting each other with new ideas and clarifying questions. Which means that if you and your friend don’t speak the same language, a traditional translator would slow down your conversation to the speed of a walkie-talkie. Helpful, but not exactly a replacement for a fluid chat.

The Timekettle WT2 Edge is the first in-ear translator that preserves the nuances and flow of a natural conversation. The WT2 Edge are bi-directional simultaneous translation earbuds that translate in real-time as you speak and listen, delivering what you said to your listener’s ear in as little as 0.5 seconds with up to 95% accuracy in 40 languages and 93 accents. 

We sat down with the Timekettle team to learn more about how they made a working Babel fish and how they hope to foster more connections worldwide by breaking down language barriers.

Who are the team members of your project? What’s their story?

Timekettle was founded in 2016 by Leal Tian, who was named to the Forbes China 2018 30 Under 30 list. Over the past four years, the Timekettle team has acquired a number of rising stars: Doctor Liang Tian, who works in neural machine translation; Wei Shiei, one of the leading experts in the vector voice algorithm field; Yuman Wang, a software and hardware architect with over a decade of experience; and Alex Qin, a serial entrepreneur who has generated millions of dollars with his business successes. Timekettle has become an open and international start-up, and our staff includes specialists from Japan, the United States, France, and more.

How did it all begin?

We knew we could make a handheld translator faster than an in-ear style, but we believe the cross-language conversation is more than the translation itself. A face-to-face conversation involves exploring and enhancing a relationship from start to finish, and we knew that our design would determine whether our translator would push the conversation forward or hold it back. The in-ear translator seemed to be the best way to achieve our goals, but we lacked a technical solution to make the concept a reality. We re-rooted codes and architected the software and hardware. We spent more than one million dollars and worked on it for a year and a half, but we still failed. We thought about abandoning the in-ear concept and reverting to a handheld translator instead, but we believed in designing a product that made the conversation so natural, it was like the translator wasn’t there at all.

We were lucky: We broke through our technical bottleneck and created a wearable, in-ear translator in 2018. Timekettle WT2 series Translator earbuds are still the best experience translator in the world. We appreciate the backers who supported Timekettle’s product idea, and media outlets like Techcrunch who introduced our idea to the world. They inspire us to feel what we’re doing is worthy. We’re excited to help people break the language barrier in a new way.

How did backer feedback help you make this latest version of your earbuds?

Over the past year, more than 100,000 backers and users from 89 countries and regions have used the WT2 Plus Translator. We received thousands of emails with feedback on the product that helped us design new features. We’ve created a more intelligent voice pick-up capacity, and we also released a feature that allows people to chime in while the other person is still speaking. With other translators, speakers have to wait their turn to talk, but that isn’t how a real conversation happens. Simultaneous Mode lets people speak more naturally. It also enables people to use the Translator in places where there might be a lot of background noise, like streets, restaurants, shopping malls, and more. We’re excited to showcase these features with our new model, WT2 Edge.

Can you briefly explain what your product is? 

Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds are the world’s first two-way translation earbuds, meaning you can speak and hear other people’s translations at the same time. The vector noise reduction and bi-directional simultaneous translation make our earbuds different from other existing translators. The WT2 Edge effectively prevents interruption from the external environment and improves translation accuracy significantly to give you a natural and fluent conversation with your friends around the world.

What are you raising funds for? What is the purpose of your campaign? 

It takes years to transform our ideas into a final product. Indiegogo is a global platform for innovative products from all over the world where we can receive feedback from backers around the world. Crowdfunding for the product allows us to continuously update the hardware and improve the software to bring our customers a refined user experience.

What inspired you to make your product? 

Our team was inspired by the Babel fish in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The Babel fish is small, yellow, and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the universe. When the main character, Arthur Dent, puts it into his ear, it translates the universe’s languages for him and allows him to finish his exploration of the galaxy. 

We wanted to make a real-life Babel fish — something that made communication between people who speak different languages as easy as it was for Arthur Dent. We believe that communication is connection. Translation is about more than words: It’s expression, eye contact, and body language. The WT2 Edge expands on its predecessors to make connections even easier. 

Why did you choose to do crowdfunding? 

Language barriers have divided human beings for thousands of years. For most people, language translation is very expensive. Plus, it’s difficult to find a good interpreter. And learning a new language yourself is time-consuming and hard to do well.

In 2016, artificial intelligence technology was growing fast and neural machine translations were already being used in travel, social networks, business communications, and more. However, very few people were paying attention to the industry back then, and they didn’t realize that this new technology could be turned into a wearable device and bring consumers a cost-effective translation experience. We knew we wanted to launch our Translators through crowdfunding to find our early adopters.

Crowdfunding backers are engaged and supportive. They’re passionate about sharing their ideas for how to optimize products, and passionate about telling their friends and family about a product they backed. Through crowdfunding, we build the Timekttle brand together with our backers.

What have been your biggest challenges so far? 

2020 was an unstable year, and the pandemic has restricted most of our international travel. Timekettle is also a startup, and as a new company, our staff’s time is limited. While some companies were spending 2020 changing directions and putting their efforts into new businesses, our team was working hard to improve our translating system to create an accurate and stable technology that encompasses multi-lingual support. We believe in our mission because of the encouragement, love, and anticipation that we see in our backers all over the world. We made our Translators because we believe that language barriers should be overcome. 

Want to support Timekettle? Check out their campaign page to back their campaign today!

<!–

Comments are closed

–>

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: 2020, algorithm, artificial-intelligence, Behind The Scenes, business, Businesses, chat, Chime, china, company, conversations, Crowdfunding, Design, entrepreneur, Environment, Family, four years, Global, hardware, html, human, ideas, intelligence, international, japan, Media, Model, more, other, pandemic, product, Products, said, Shopping, social, Software, startup, story, style, Success Stories, supported, TechCrunch, Technology, The Conversation, travel, United States, us, world

Jan 15 2021

Capitol Insurrectionists Were Funded in Part By Bitcoin: Chainalysis

Terrorist financing has always been one of the primary concerns about cryptocurrency use worldwide. In the wake of what many have called a terrorist attack on the United States, Bitcoin appears to have played a role.

According to a recent report from blockchain forensics company Chainalysis, donors had helped bankroll the recent riots that shook the United States Capitol last week.

Possible Dead Donor 

Chainalysis’s report confirmed that on December 8, a French-based entity had donated 28.15 BTC (about $522,000 at the time) to several addresses linked to far-right internet personalities and activists. 

An additional report from Yahoo! News confirmed that many of these activists had been present at the riots on the United States Capitol on January 6.

Yahoo! News reported that of the 22 addresses that got part of the funds included Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist commentator and podcaster. Daily Stormer, a news source with white supremacist links, was also among the recipients, as was Gab – the free speech-based social media platform credited for the rise of hate speech.

Chaunalysis added that the donor appeared to have committed suicide the day after donating. 

A suicide note from the donor read that Western civilization is dying, and that he felt like leaving his wealth with specific causes to ensure that his name lives on following his death.

Federal investigators are still looking to track the donor.

Riot Fallout Continues

The January 6 riots had come from supporters of outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump. The supporters had been protesting the results of the November General Elections that saw their preferred candidate lose to President-Elect Joe R. Biden.

Following multiple lawsuits and a substantial lack of proof, the Trump campaign had run out of resources to fight Biden’s win.

Trump supporters eventually gathered in Washington on January 6 – the same day that Congress was set to certify Biden’s win officially.

After hours of protests and the death of five people (and counting), the rioters were eventually cleared, and the repercussions have been swift since.

Biden’s win is now certified, and social media platforms have cracked down on Trump’s accounts. His accounts on social media platforms have been taken down, and several payment processors have blocked donations to anything Trump-related. Apple, Google, and Amazon have also taken down Parler – a conservative-focused social media site.

The report of Bitcoin donations to the cause aren’t exactly surprising. Bitcoin holders have been known to support controversial causes in the past, leveraging the asset’s privacy to keep their identities secret.

Last week, Whale Alert noted that crypto donations had been pouring into the legal defense fund of Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblower site WikiLeaks. In one transaction, someone sent 8.48 BTC – about $280,000 at the time. Another transaction was worth 4.51 BTC ($125,000).

Assange remains in a U.K. prison and is facing charges of violating the 1917 Espionage Act. District Judge Vanessa Baraister ruled against his extradition to the United States last week, citing health issues.

Capitol Insurrectionists Were Funded in Part By Bitcoin: Chainalysis

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: cryptocurrency · Tagged: amazon, apple, bitcoin, blockchain, btc, Capitol Riots, chainalysis, company, Congress, crypto, cryptocurrency, DC, donald trump, donations, Elections, founder, fund, Google, health, html, identities, Internet, Julian Assange, lawsuits, legal, Media, news, note, Parler, payment, platforms, president, Privacy, report, social, Social Media, Suicide, transaction, Trump, u.s., United States, Washington, Wealth, WikiLeaks

Jan 15 2021

Bitcoin vs. Altcoins: A Lopsided Battle

Investors often ask me why I focus so much on bitcoin instead of altcoins.

I get why people ask this question. Bitcoin is already huge. And many investors assume they’ve already missed the boat, so they want to find the next bitcoin. 

Here’s the thing. Most people still don’t realize just how far ahead bitcoin is in this race. Bitcoin was built to serve as an alternative financial system. It is already fulfilling this purpose.

People around the world buy bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and reckless monetary policy. In Venezuela, where hyperinflation runs rampant, bitcoin has become a major part of the economy. Many citizens choose to store their savings in bitcoin rather than the bolivar. And they only convert bitcoin to bolivars when they need to buy something. 

The map below, which is part of an excellent piece of research by Coindesk, shows volume on peer-to-peer bitcoin trading platform LocalBitcoins compared to GDP (the larger the bubble, the more peer-to-peer trading volume, adjusted for size of the overall economy).

Venezuela bitcoin

As you can see, Venezuela leads the world in peer-to-peer bitcoin trading volume (adjusted for GDP). It’s no coincidence that the country also has the highest inflation rate.

And if you haven’t read the 2019 New York Times article “Bitcoin Has Saved My Family” yet, I recommend it. Here’s an excerpt:

I keep all of my money in Bitcoin. Keeping it in bolívars would be financial suicide: The last time I checked, the rate of daily inflation was around 3.5 percent.

So bitcoin’s usefulness is not hypothetical. It’s very real.

Now let’s briefly talk about liquidity. Bitcoin is by far the most liquid cryptocurrency around the world. In almost every country, you can convert bitcoin into local currency through either official exchanges or peer-to-peer platforms. Its impressive trading volume is what makes institutional buying possible (more on that here).

And when it comes to security, the bitcoin network also stands apart. No other coin has nearly as much computing power securing it. Some estimate that the Bitcoin network currently uses around .21% of the world’s electricity. Yes, that’s a lot. But securing a decentralized financial system is no small task. 

Bitcoin is also far more decentralized than 99% of altcoin projects. There are hundreds of thousands of mining machines and nodes operating around the world. There’s no central authority controlling the supply. I believe this will become increasingly important as the market digests the SEC’s recent actions against Ripple (XRP).

Altcoins: (Mostly) Unrealized Potential, For Now

Altcoins, meanwhile, are still speculative investments without much real world utility. There’s nothing wrong with that — but we should recognize it. None comes close to bitcoin in terms of fulfilling their stated purpose.

Ethereum — the second largest crypto — does have a fair amount of real world utility. The Ethereum network has serious potential to provide decentralized finance (DeFi) applications in the future. But today, it’s still mostly used to facilitate the creation of and investment in other coins/tokens.

Eventually, whether it’s in five years or 30, it’s likely that some new coin will come and give bitcoin a real run for its money. But I don’t expect it to happen any time soon. I see bitcoin continuing to build on its lead in liquidity, utility, security and infrastructure for years to come.

To be clear, I’m not saying altcoins aren’t worth researching and investing in. There’s certainly money to be made in altcoins in this environment. And some altcoins will inevitably outperform BTC for periods. But there’s a heck of a lot more risk with alts. When bitcoin “crashes,” altcoins often go down 2x as much, or more.

Bitcoin should form the core of any crypto portfolio. It’s the most likely, by far, to see continued upward momentum. It’s the only crypto I see as a true inflation hedge. If you want to add in some high quality altcoins, great. Just be careful, do your research and limit your position sizing.

Source

Written by wpengine · Categorized: business, cryptocurrency · Tagged: altcoin, altcoins, article, bbc, bitcoin, btc, bubble, Computing, crypto, crypto portfolio, cryptocurrency, Currency, decentralized, decentralized finance, defi, Early Investing, economy, electricity, Environment, ethereum, Ethereum network, Exchanges, finance, Future, GDP, Go, html, inflation, Infrastructure, Investing, investment, Investments, market, mining, Monetary Policy, money, more, New York, other, platforms, portfolio, research, ripple, risk, security, Suicide, trading, Venezuela, world, xrp

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 7
  • Go to Next Page »

Copyright © 2021 · Altitude Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in