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Ways to invest for capital growth

6 ways to get capital gains

There are basically two types of investment income. Capital gains and return on investment.

Investment income is the income you receive from an asset, examples of investment income are interest on savings, rent on property and dividends on shares.

Capital gain is an increase in the value of an asset; an example of capital gains is an increase in the value of property, stocks and other assets.

Some investments provide capital gains but do not yield income; examples of these are precious metals such as gold, bitcoin, antiques and other collectibles.

Here are the investments that provide capital gains:

Stock market

The stock market offers great opportunities for capital. For most people, investing directly in the markets is not an option because the transaction fee after buying and selling shares is not worth their time, however there are many managed funds in which investors with limited funds can participate. New Zealand alone. Investors can dig money into markets with Sharesies, and have the opportunity to invest in different funds or individual companies. Other similar types of platforms in New Zealand are Investnow, Kernelwealth and Hatch. However, these are not the only ones.

Your pension scheme invests in managed (mutual funds) and they are also a form of capital gain. In New Zealand, joining Kiwisaver is not easy. Kiwisaver is a New Zealand pension scheme.

Property

The real estate market has been a popular Captain Gains tool for many investors who use not only their own money but also other people’s money in the form of loans. The income comes from the rent that pays the mortgage. All the costs involved are the most popular form of capital gains and the easiest for a novice investor to get their degree in the markets and learn as you go, because there are several mutual funds that are available and start-up costs are minimal . In New Zealand Sharesies cost only $ 1 to enter, giving you the opportunity to invest in managed funds or individual companies. This is a great way to tax. This type of investment can turn into a custard, for example, wayward tenants. If you are willing to take a risk, then this investment may come up.

Your own home is a good source of capital gains if you are going to sell at some point.

Another way to get on the real estate ladder is to buy shares of real estate investment companies in the stock market. This can be done by investing in individual companies or managed funds that invest in real estate.

Compound interest

You’ve probably heard of compound interest; that is, if you invest in fixed-term accounts at x% interest. Instead of receiving interest payments to your bank account, you allow them to be added to your principal amount, and you receive interest on the principal amount and interest prepayments. This is called compound interest.

An increase in your capital is called a “capital gain”.

Currently, interest rates are very low (2020); in some cases below inflation, which makes this type of investment less attractive. It is therefore important to exercise due diligence and not succumb to the fact that a financial company offers higher interest rates than usual, because with higher interest rates the risk increases. These financial companies, which offer higher interest rates, issue loans to borrowers with higher risk.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t invest your money in these companies, but exercise due diligence and at least diversify your portfolio, rather than investing all your savings in one company.

Gold

This is purely speculative in nature, but can be a good insurance against recession in the markets. The only drawback of gold – to find a place to store it. Another way to invest in gold is to buy gold on the stock exchange. Purchasing gold coins from auctions such as eBay and Trademe is another option. As with other investments, you should do your homework and read everything you can about gold and other precious metals.

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin and the like, should be considered a speculative investment, so invest in it only if you can afford to lose them. I say use your discretionary income to buy crypto currency. This type of investment can be slippery, but one piece of advice that can be helpful is not just to buy all your cryptocurrency in one transaction, but to do it weekly, bimonthly or monthly so that chances are you have done purchase when the currency is small. This is called averaging.

Collectibles / Antiques

Investing in collectibles can give you a sense of satisfaction and profit if you are going to sell. You really need to know your stuff when dealing with antiques. Always remember that something is only worth what others are willing to pay for. If someone is willing to pay $ 1,000 for a painting at auction, that’s what it’s worth, however, if another painting is sold at auction for only $ 10, it’s worth it. The cost of something is only a matter of opinion.

Recently (2020) some of Banksy’s paintings were sold in New Zealand for $ 100,000. In London (UK) a few years ago the seller of the paintings paid a total of $ 500 for them. It just shows how profitable a deal can be.

For small items such as postage stamps, banknotes, beer labels and so on, collectors can list their duplicates on auction websites to help fund their hobby.

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First week on Fiverr ($ 500 earned)

Fiverr is a freelance platform developed in Israel to give users the opportunity to purchase “concerts” for only $ 5.

The service, launched in 2010, has grown exponentially, thanks in part to accessibility for digital marketers – everything from SEO to Amazon FBA vendors outsourcing small tasks to experts offering their services through the platform.

By 2015, there were stories of service providers receiving substantial revenue / revenue from the system, with one – SPXMAC – reporting revenue of $ 40,000 per month (an excellent achievement).

With that in mind, people with the genuine skills, experience and expertise they can offer have been involved in providing their services through the system, including me.

To that end, I felt the need to share some of the achievements I have made with the platform. It’s not a big number, but it can give some people an idea of ​​what works and what doesn’t.

Fiverr Internet System (how it works)

The most important thing to appreciate in Fiverr is that the vendor should create an offer for the customer.

Although there are many other freelance websites, they rely on the customer to open vacancies / concerts and the providers to help by posting offers. The customer will then analyze the offers and make a choice.

Due to the opposite nature of the Fiverr system, it has opened up a new way for the freelance system to work.

Instead of offering a job, a service provider may, in effect, provide a range of “products” / “services” through which they can provide buyers with a more structured, systematic set of jobs.

For example, if you are a supplier of logos – you will sell your service “logo design” for $ 150, which buyers can come to, ask questions and buy.

The fact is that this new model is different, and in many cases better than the previous one. All attention is focused on the offered products / services and encourages the supplier to systematize the delivery process as much as possible, which allows to obtain even higher quality, cheaper prices and more efficient provision of services.

If you want to create effective (profitable) products / services for placement on the site, the key is to understand what buyers are actually looking for, and the opportunity in the easiest way to facilitate it. This is where I started my service offering.

Products / services for sale

Obviously, every market / platform has its winners and losers.

The most important thing I found on the platform is that there are really “two” ways to list products / services:

  1. List products / services based on your experience – if you’re a graphic designer, create e-book covers, logo designs or website templates for a fee
  2. List products / services based on market demand – as mentioned, many “digital marketers” use Fiverr as a source of low-cost but quality services for their growing online business.

The first will probably take longer to bear much fruit; the latter will be much faster but will allow less creativity in the proposal.

I tend to try to mix the two – determine what’s popular, and put my own view on it.

Some of the most popular lists I’ve found are the services of writing “Amazon Product Descriptions”. The most successful of these is SPXMAC, which earns more than $ 30,000 / $ 40,000 a month.

There are currently 3 providers of this service who typically receive 15 to 30 orders per day for their concerts. SPXMAC is definitely a leader.

My experience

To explain, I did it not under my own name; I helped a friend adjust and we shared the profits.

To do this, I started by listing a number of common services in the Fiverr system based on my friend’s real-world experience (it was related to finance).

We started by writing an article – imagining that a number of high-end “financial” blogs (which relied on quality, accurate and operational content) will be willing to hire an expert who has participated in many transactions, trades with a private consortium in London and is also very good at technologies.

I wrote a profile list explaining his work in the industry, his experience and (importantly) why he posted his services on Fiverr.

In the last part, I explained that he is looking to expand his personal brand, and thought that writing articles for money would be the most appropriate way to do it. Instead of sending guest messages, this would set an instant precedent for the person making the purchase.

This seemed to go relatively well (with a number of blog operators buying his articles and using his name / face as an “author” on their sites).

As for the products we offered, the first thing we tried was the Forex writing service. It hasn’t been too popular as it is a very crowded market and usually runs cyclically (IE when the USD / GBP currency pair falls, etc.).

Very well done “crypto” articles – which we wrote for $ 25 for 10. It was very low, but allowed us to make some progress in terms of reviews / reviews of the system.

Most people who bought packages simply allowed us to determine which articles to write (we wrote mostly about current market trends, the importance of the blockchain, etc.) – and began to focus on maximizing expansion.

The “crypto” articles were good (we earned $ 500 each for the first week), but it was unsuitable at such a low price. We both burned out and so decided to raise prices a bit, which significantly reduced the amount of interest / bandwidth.

However, reviews have earned and the quality of shoppers has improved significantly, although the frequency of purchases has decreased.

Recommendations

The most important thing I found on the internet was to use my own face.

In the past, I’ve done a number of things under pseudonyms. Some were legitimate (running the second largest Webkinz site), but most simply because I didn’t want people to know what I was doing.

While this was a legitimate reason to hide my identity, the simple truth is that it didn’t allow me to grow very quickly. To that end, one of the key things I started doing for my friend was to emphasize the importance of owning your name – to ensure that you highlight your unique experiences, ideas, and experiences as the core of why someone should consider you.

If you choose to participate in Fiverr, I would suggest that this is one of the few ways you can “own” your name online by providing real content. Think of it as an extension like LinkedIn or Twitter – a “social” point of contact through which the “online” community can interact with you.

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Top 5 blockchain projects in the telecommunications sector

  1. DENT:

DENT is a blockchain-based platform that works to create a global marketplace that allows everyone to buy and sell mobile data packages. DENT’s mission is tokenization, the release and democratization of mobile data and bandwidth. The company has developed a marketplace and mobile application that allows you to buy and sell mobile data packages using blockchain technology.

The platform runs on a blockchain based on Ethereum and creates a transparent and simple data pricing landscape.

How does it work?

The work of the DENT platform is quite simple. All users who are registered in the DENT network, just need to exchange existing mobile data packets for more suitable and more economical for them. This platform will allow end users to easily interact with the telecommunications industries and thus lead to improved transparency and use of mobile data.

Partnerships

The DENT network operates successfully around the world through partnerships with several areas of telecommunications.

In the United States, the company works with AT&T and Verizon, in Mexico with Telcel, Nextel and Movistar, in Brazil with Oi and Vivo, in Bangladesh with Airtel, Robi, Grameenphone and Banglalink, in South Africa with Vodacom, MTN, and CellC, in Morocco. with Orange, Moroc Telecom and Inwi, in Spain with Vodafone, Orange and Yoigo, in Singapore with M1, Starhub and Singtel, in Sri Lanka with Airtel, Etisalat, Mobitel, Hutchison and Dialog, with Claro in Puerto Rico and Claro Costa , Tigo in Guatemala and Du in the UAE.

Road map

Launched in 2017, the DENT network has successfully managed to become the best blockchain-based telecommunications project with 3.5 million users worldwide. In the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2018, the company seeks to expand its partnerships with more countries and operators, as well as get on the list of more cryptocurrencies.

In 2019, the company focuses on launching a worldwide voice and SMS service, video calling, retail data bonuses, and gaining 15 million users in 70 countries by the end of the 2nd quarter of 2019.

Token value information

Total bid: 100,000,000,000 DENT

Current stock: 17,241,387,101 DENT

Market capitalization: 44,036,974 US dollars

ICO cost: $ 0.000639

Current price: $ 0.0025 USD

  1. QLINK (QLC):

Now known as the QLC Chain, Qlink is the first public blockchain for a decentralized network. QLC Chain is a system where users can buy a connection from their colleagues. That is, renting someone’s Wi-Fi access, selling unused data to other users, and receiving a cellular signal from a base station in someone’s home.

In a broader sense, the project is working to create a “Network as a Service” infrastructure that will implement smart contracts to facilitate PPP and other network functions and features.

The QLC Chain network is trying to solve the problems of excessive network capabilities, lack of network access, centralized operations, etc. by decentralizing the telecommunications market and connectivity.

How does it work?

With the QLC Chain platform, anyone from anywhere in the world will be able to operate a small base station from their home, providing cellular services in the area. Each time a user connects to another user’s base station, a small percentage of their payment will be transferred to the base station operator.

The platform also accepts advertisers who can pay for the inclusion of their content in the Qlink network.

Partnerships

The QLC Chain team has partnered with more than 40 telecom operators around the world to provide decentralized mobile data services to 6 million of its customers. The network also has a partnership with NEO, as it is built on the NEO blockchain. Other network partners include Binance, Ontology, Block Array, Centro and intop.

Road map

Launched in December 2017, the QLC chain was aimed at developing a standard Wi-Fi exchange protocol and E2P SMS application. At the end of the 2nd quarter of 2018, access to data and distribution of content in the public chain were developed and deployed.

Towards the end of the 4th quarter of 2018 the network will launch a public QLC chain in the core network and integrate with IPFS.

Token value information

Total supply: 600,000,000 QLC

Current stock: 240,000,000 QLC

Market capitalization: $ 12,239,064

ICO cost: $ 0.352 USD

Current price: $ 0.050

  1. TELCOIN (TEL):

Telcoin is the first cryptocurrency to work to improve the interaction between mobile telecommunications and blockchain technology. It is built on the Ethereum blockchain and can be used for payments anywhere, given that the mobile phone number is known.

Telcoin is a cryptocurrency that will be distributed exclusively by GSMA mobile network operators.

How does it work?

Telcoin will be distributed by mobile network operators, who will further sell it to their customers. This will facilitate efficient money transfers, access to cryptocurrency and crypto-card payments.

The work of the platform begins with end users, who with their crypto-wallet, fully integrated with the Telcoin API, will gain access to wallets with multiple signatures with three private keys. Telcoin will keep records of users’ mobile phone numbers, their public key and one encrypted private key.

Telcoin provides a cheaper and faster way to send and receive money, and even people who do not have a bank account can easily use Telcoin.

Partnership and road map

The Telcoin network was launched in 2017 and operated in the first quarter of 2018, identifying its potential partners around the world. In the second quarter, the company partnered with telecom operators in Europe, South Africa and Japan. In the same quarter, it also initiated applications for any necessary permits in India, Pakistan, the UK, Indonesia and other key markets.

In the 4th quarter of 2018, Telcoin will appear in Japan, and in the first quarter of 2019 will serve remittances in Europe, East Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Token value information

Total supply: 100,000,000,000 TEL

Current stock: 32,034,497,783 TEL

Market capitalization: $ 20,304,392

ICO price: $ 0.0071 USD

Current price: $ 0.00063 USD

  1. BUBBLETONE (UMT):

BubbleTone is a blockchain-based telecommunications project that is working to eliminate roaming. The platform connects mobile network operators and end users worldwide in the marketplace using a blockchain. The project gives traveling users the freedom to become legitimate local customers of any foreign terrestrial operator in any country they travel to, without having to replace their SIM cards.

With BubbleTone users will be able to call and use data-based services worldwide at local rates with a direct connection to local operators. As for the operators, this platform provides an opportunity to reach the global level without the need for any complex network integration.

How does it work?

BubbbleTone aims to eliminate the problem of international roaming, which incurs unnecessary costs for both operators and users. With the BubbleTone blockchain, travelers can easily become verified local customers of the country they are traveling to, without the need to replace a SIM card.

The platform also has its own mobile application, which is primarily its marketplace that connects subscribers and LAN operators around the world.

The network is powered by UMT (Universal Mobile Token), which will be used in smart contracts to execute transactions. This token can also be used to replenish the balance of users to pay for the communication services they choose.

Partnerships

BubbleTone is currently collaborating with Crypto Vallley, REVESystems, CountryCom, Multi Digital Services, ShoCard and IDEMIA. In addition, the company works with telecommunications providers in more than 80 countries to provide unimpeded travel for users.

Road map

The initial version of the network’s smart contracts was ready in the first quarter of 2018. The second quarter saw the launch of a Web-API to integrate mobile operators and service providers in more than 80 countries. By the end of the third quarter of 2018, the company plans to obtain the approval of the International Telecommunication Union with the subsequent expansion of the list of mobile operators and service providers with which they cooperate, until the 4th quarter of 2018. In the first quarter of 2019, the company will sign agreements with all operators and launch the first prototype of the global SIM chip for embedding in mobile devices.

  1. BLOCKSIMS (SIM):

BLOCKSIMS is a decentralized payment gateway that works to solve problems related to traditional telecommunications using blockchain technology. The platform aims to completely eliminate the fees charged by data and voice service providers, and provides users with rewards and invoices created through digital advertising.

The platform is working to ensure the smooth dissemination of information through the development of new revenue channels, which eliminates intermediaries in the telecommunications process.

The BLOCKSIM platform uses the Ethereum blockchain to provide a level of transparency while encouraging users to accept and use the platform.

How does it work?

BLOCKSIM cooperates with leading telecommunications industries around the world and makes international SIM cards available through its SIM token. This will give BLOCKSIM users unlimited voice and data services worldwide, and users will receive a promotion of up to $ 100.

Each SIM token holder will have a LOCKED SIM card that will be valid for life, including unlimited and free data and voice services.

Partnership and road map

The BLOCK SIM and SIM tokens were conceived in April 2017, after which research and development was conducted, culminating in the launch of BLOCKSIM ICO in March 2018. The ICO ended in April 2018, and in October the world will see the introduction of the BLOCK SIM with the mobile app. for Android and iOS. The company aims to have at least 15% of BLOCK SIM card users in the world by 2020.

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Unbreakable Digitization: 5 Simple Estimates of the Benefits of the Digital Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Figures show that the digital economy is becoming a significant part of the global economy worldwide. In many sub-Saharan Africa, some aspects of the digital economy have already had a huge impact on the daily lives of the population. This is especially true for mobile payments. In a country like Kenya, mobile payments make up 10% of annual GDP. Other factors, such as the emergence of equipment in the market for affordable devices and increased communication, are driving the movement towards the digitization of socio-economic and cultural issues. So there are a lot of positive outcomes that these countries need to focus on and improve. Here are five such benefits:

1. The digital economy promotes business creativity and entrepreneurship

The connection between the digital economy and creativity is almost obvious. The main technological services of recent years are based on subversive ideas. Creativity is the driving force that allows us to solve problems around us and seize opportunities. Now is the perfect time to break the rules, build and innovate in culture, find original ways to monetize ideas and ultimately have a profound impact on society. The idea of ​​inventing a medical tablet with a touch screen came to a young Cameroonian engineer when he was an intern at a public hospital. During the internship, he decided to address the critical shortage of cardiac surgeons by building a device that could conduct medical examinations in remote locations and transmit results to physicians for interpretation and diagnosis. To be and remain competitive in this digital age, you need to invent new business models and approaches to customers and access to markets. The good news is that people can be inspired by many successful examples in today’s world.

2. The digital economy has a direct impact on employment

There are many potential jobs related to ICT, such as computer and electronic products, software publishing, telecommunications or IT. There is also a demand for professionals in the global ecosystem: mobile application developers, data scientists, social media professionals. Of course, skilled workers are needed all over the world, and this enables anyone to promote their career locally or globally at any time, even without leaving their own home. Self-employed people and entrepreneurs can take advantage of many opportunities to start their own business. But it is important to note that people need to work together, share new ideas, evaluate their projects and develop synergies. Also for both employers and employees may be relevant to deep thinking about changing work habits with the “uberization” of the labor market.

3. The digital economy is opening up Africa as a global potential market

Contrary to what some falsely think, Africa is not a country. But one of the promising prospects of the digital economy, especially for investors, is the opportunity to look at the African market as a whole or at least as blocks of potential customers with similar purchasing power and / or lifestyle. Nowadays, many executives and business developers are increasingly focusing on growing African urban consumers as they become stimulators of demand. Africa Internet Group (a startup founded in Nigeria in 2012) now operates e-commerce companies in 26 African countries and recently received an additional investment totaling $ 245 million to support its continued growth. Today, entrepreneurs need to have the mindset of African musicians, as many have thought of their art as something to be valued in many African countries. And so they list the cities that they think will be successful in their business: Douala, Abidjan or Nairobi, and even other cities outside the continent.

4. The digital economy has positive social consequences

For some people excluded from the financial system, mobile devices have been a channel of access to certain financial services. It was even the first step towards connecting them with the rest of society. Currently, with the help of mobile money, everyone can buy a plane ticket (or train, or bus) from a mobile phone without a bank account, which requires, for example, confirmation of official work. There are still ways to study the compliance of microcredit with mobile money in an optimal way that can address dynamic populations without the funds and ideal projects in which to invest. In the same way, areas such as m-health and m-education are just beginning to be explored.

With the digital economy, the production chain is a label, and cooperation is the path to great achievements. The fact that information is instantly available to all reduces inequality among citizens. Everyone can be able to take their destiny into their own hands, not necessarily connected by a powerful network. With the potential growth caused by these models, and when different stakeholders implement good practices, sustainable development is a common result of these positive impacts.

5. The digital economy is conducive to sustainable development

It really requires fewer warehouses, fewer facilities and sometimes no need to have stocks; “Dematerialization” is positive for the environment. For example, when people buy fewer cars because they share with other people through a digital platform, it can effectively help reduce traffic in our cities and bring more environmental balance.

In addition to the social and economic dimensions, culture is crucial in today’s demoralized world, according to a recent UNESCO report. It’s time to create local relevant content that will be used due to increased demand for books, music or movies. The quality of many tools allows serious artists to create and offer their work to the world. And it’s even easier to access funds through crowdfunding and other digital funding.

The digital economy is emerging in sub-Saharan Africa as a powerful catalyst for growth and development. But people need to learn to work together and be open to the world. You need to have creative ideas and find subversive ways to make things happen. There are opportunities everywhere to meet personal needs and help others.

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A brief introduction to the blockchain – for normal people

Crypto-what?

If you’ve tried to dive into this mysterious thing called the blockchain, you’ll be forgiven for being horrified to have strayed from the opacity of the technical jargon often used to design it. So before we delve into what cryptocurrency is and how blockchain technology can change the world, let’s discuss what blockchain really is.

Simply put, the blockchain is a digital ledger, unlike the ledger we have used for hundreds of years to record sales and purchases. The function of this digital ledger is essentially almost identical to traditional accounting ledger as it records debit and credit between people. This is the basic concept of the blockchain; the difference is who keeps the ledger and who checks the transactions.

In traditional transactions, payment from one person to another involves some kind of intermediary to facilitate the transaction. Let’s say Rob wants to transfer Melanie £ 20. He can either give her cash in the form of a £ 20 bill, or use some sort of banking program to transfer the money directly to her bank account. In both cases, the bank is the intermediary that checks the transaction: Rob’s funds are checked when he takes money from the ATM, or they are checked by the program when he makes a digital transfer. The bank decides whether to conduct the transaction. The bank also keeps a record of all transactions made by Rob, and is fully responsible for updating it each time Rob pays someone or receives money into their account. In other words, the bank keeps and controls the ledger, and everything goes through the bank.

This is a big responsibility, so it is very important that Rob feels that he can trust his bank, otherwise he will not risk their money with them. He needs to be sure that the bank will not deceive him, will not lose money, will not be robbed and will not disappear overnight. This need for trust underpinned virtually all major behaviors and aspects of the monolithic financial industry, to such an extent that even when banks were found to be irresponsible with our money during the 2008 financial crisis, the government (another mediator) chose to bail them out. rather than risking destroying the last fragments of trust by allowing them to collapse.

Blockchains work differently in one key respect: they are completely decentralized. There is no central clearing house like a bank, and no central ledger kept by one organization. Instead, the registry is distributed over a wide network of computers called nodes, each of which stores a copy of the entire book on its hard drives. These nodes connect to each other through software called Peer Client (P2P), which synchronizes data over a network of nodes and ensures that everyone has the same version of the book at all times. .

When a new transaction is entered into a blockchain, it is first encrypted using the latest cryptographic technology. Once encrypted, a transaction is converted into what is called a block, which is basically a term used for an encrypted group of new transactions. This block is then sent (or broadcast) to a network of computer nodes, where it is checked by the nodes and after verification is transmitted over the network so that the block can be added to the end of the book on each computer, under a list of all previous blocks. This is called a chain, so the technology is called a blockchain.

After approval and entry in the book, the transaction can be completed. This is how cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin work.

Accountability and confidence building

What are the advantages of this system over a banking or central clearing system? Why would Rob use bitcoin instead of regular currency?

The answer is trust. As mentioned earlier, it is very important for the banking system that Rob trusts his bank to protect his money and manage it properly. For this to happen, there are huge regulatory systems in place to check the actions of banks and ensure that they are meeting their objectives. Governments then regulate regulators, creating a kind of multi-level system of inspections, the sole purpose of which is to prevent errors and misconduct. In other words, organizations like the Financial Services Authority exist precisely because banks cannot be trusted on their own. And banks are often wrong and misbehaving, as we have seen too many times. If you have a single source of authority, power is usually abused or abused. The relationship of trust between people and banks is awkward and shaky: we don’t really trust them, but we don’t feel there are many alternatives.

Blockchain systems, on the other hand, don’t require you to trust them at all. All transactions (or blocks) in the blockchain are checked by network nodes before being added to the book, which means there is no single point of failure and no single channel of approval. If a hacker wanted to successfully hack a blockchain ledger, he would have to hack millions of computers at once, which is virtually impossible. The hacker is also largely unable to disable the blockchain network, because, again, they will need to turn off every computer in the network of computers distributed around the world.

The encryption process itself is also a key factor. Blockchains, such as Bitcoin, use deliberately complex processes for their verification procedure. In the case of bitcoin, blocks are tested by nodes that perform intentionally intensive processors and time-consuming computations, often in the form of puzzles or complex mathematical problems, meaning that verification is neither instantaneous nor accessible. The nodes that allocate resources to verify the blocks are rewarded with a transaction fee and the generosity of the newly made bitcoins. It has the function of both encouraging people to become nodes (because processing such units requires quite powerful computers and a lot of electricity), as well as handling the process of generating – or minting – currency units. This is called mining because it involves significant effort (in this case using a computer) to produce a new product. It also means that transactions are verified in the most independent way, more independent than a state-regulated organization like the FSA.

This decentralized, democratic and highly secure nature of blockchains means that they can function without the need for regulation (they are self-regulating), government or other non-transparent intermediary. They work because people don’t trust each other, not the other way around.

Let the significance of this for a while realize, and the excitement around the blockchain will begin to make sense.

Reasonable contracts

Where things get really interesting is the application of blockchain outside of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Given that one of the basic tenets of the blockchain system is secure independent transaction verification, it’s easy to imagine other ways in which this type of process can be valuable. Not surprisingly, many such programs are already in use or under development. Some of the best:

  • Smart Contracts (Ethereum): Probably the most exciting blockchain development after Bitcoin, smart contracts are blocks that contain code that needs to be executed for a contract to be executed. The code can be anything as long as the computer can execute it, but in simple words it means you can use blockchain technology (with its independent verification, unreliable architecture and security) to create a kind of deposit system for any type of transaction. . As an example, if you are a web designer, you can create a contract that checks whether a new client’s website is running or not, and then automatically allocate you funds as soon as it is. No more chasing or billing. Smart contracts are also used to confirm ownership of an asset such as property or art. The potential for reducing fraud with this approach is huge.
  • Cloud storage (Storj): Cloud computing revolutionized the Internet and led to big data, which in turn gave rise to a new AI revolution. But most cloud systems run on servers stored on single-site server farms owned by one person (Amazon, Rackspace, Google, etc.). This presents all the same problems as the banking system, as your data is controlled by a single opaque organization, which is the only point of failure. Dissemination of data in the blockchain completely removes the problem of trust, and also promises to increase reliability, because it is much harder to destroy the blockchain network.
  • Digital Identification (ShoCard): Two of the biggest problems of our time are identity theft and data protection. Due to extensive centralized services such as Facebook, which store so much data about us, and the efforts of various governments in developed countries to keep digital information about their citizens in a central database, the likelihood of misuse of our personal data is appalling. Blockchain technology offers a potential solution to this, wrapping your key data in an encrypted block that can be verified by the blockchain network whenever you need to verify your identity. The application of this varies from explicit replacement of passports and identity cards to other industries such as replacement of passwords. It can be huge.
  • Digital voting: very relevant in connection with the investigation of Russia’s influence in the recent US elections, digital voting has long been suspected as unreliable and very vulnerable to fraud. Blockchain technology offers a way to verify that a voter’s vote has been successfully sent while maintaining anonymity. This promises not only to reduce election fraud, but also to increase voter turnout as people will be able to vote by mobile phone.

Blockchain technology is still in its infancy, and most applications are far from common. Even bitcoin, the most established blockchain platform, is exposed to huge volatility, indicating its relative status as a newcomer. However, the potential of the blockchain to solve some of the major challenges we face today makes it an unusually exciting and enticing technology. I will certainly be watching.

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7 basics of the music business that you need to know

Several industries are as diverse and as difficult to define as the music industry.

From independent musicians and recording studios to major labels and well-known music venues, there are dozens if not hundreds of elements that make up the industry as a whole – and they are not always connected or integrated in any noticeable way.

But if you have a passion for music and you are determined to build your own music business or become part of an industry on some level, here are seven things you need to know about the state of the music business.

1. Most musicians embraced new technologies early on. Whether it’s the latest social media or crowdfunding platform, musicians are often the first to pick up new tools for a test drive, and some are succeeding. For example, independent musician Daria Musk has found interest in Google Hangouts.

2. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to succeed. This is especially true for such a personal and subjective as music.

3. Technology is changing the way studios work. LANDR is an online tool that automatically learns recorded music – and reportedly the end results are pretty good. The constant development of technology continues to reduce the need for traditional recording studios with a large budget, and the production process is increasingly automated. Home recording equipment is also affordable and high quality.

4. Blockchain could become the future of the industry. The technology underlying popular cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin is known as the blockchain, and it can offer an opportunity for more music companies and musicians to monetize their work without third parties taking a bigger piece of the pie. But the current structure of the industry is preventing this from moving forward.

5. This is the only industry from Payola. Radio stations are prohibited from airing music in exchange for money unless they declare it a “sponsorship”. Unfortunately, corruption continues, and the mainstream air is dominated by music from the top 40, which is an extremely popular minority. If you thought the Arctic Monkeys were “independent,” you wouldn’t even understand the independent majority.

6. The flow of music is a growing market. And we will continue to see innovation and new developments in this area. There may now be dozens of streaming sites, but that number is likely to grow to hundreds, maybe thousands.

7. Human beings cannot be cornered. As it turned out, machines are capable of creating beautiful, emotional music that has long been considered impossible. Will it change the way you create music? Will it make musicians obsolete? Hard to say.

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Two Secrets To Increasing Income In Your Small Business

If you are a small business owner and want to grow your business quickly, there are two ways to do it without having to spend extra money on advertising. Keep reading to learn more.

Many small business owners are not marketing experts. They are entrepreneurs, people-ideas and inspirers for everyone else they interact with. The standard answer for many small business owners is to go out and knock on the cobblestones if they want more business. After all, if you want more money, you need more customers, right? Well not always.

There are two other things you can do if you don’t need to increase the number of customers. In fact, many small businesses are unloaded and cannot take more customers into their workload. Instead, try these two things:

1. Increase the amount in dollars of each customer’s order– Here you really get in, roll up your sleeves and find out what else the client wants. Find out what their problem is and offer them MORE products or services to help solve the problem.

Suppose you own a hardware store. A customer comes in, looking for a screw for 39 cents. You help them find it by spending 15 minutes with them and they leave satisfied. What if you ask them about a problem they are trying to solve. Perhaps they were trying to hang a rusty bird feeder. You can show them your full line of stainless bird feeders, as well as a package of premium seeds, increasing your order by 39 cents to $ 39.

If you already have a customer in your business and they have already made a commitment to purchase, this is the time when you need to work on solving their exact problem. The customer will be grateful and you will earn much more money in the process.

2. Increase the frequency when your current customers return to make another purchase– Here you need to become a master of direct marketing. Using your current customer list, you will need to contact them on a regular basis. Create opportunities for a call to action when you pull a customer off the couch and enter your business. This can be achieved through time-limited coupons, contests, free consultations, entertainment and many other things designed to bring them back. Loyalty programs will also fall into this category.

By doing just these two things, some businesses have doubled or tripled their revenue in just a few months. All you need to do is perfectly solve the customer problem and often remind them that you are still in business.

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Collect bitcoins for use in transactions

The big question is how to get bitcoin.

After gaining a basic knowledge of what bitcoin is and how a wallet actually works, you may want to get into the world of digital currencies and get some bitcoins for yourself. So you have a big question: how do I get bitcoin?

It’s getting hard.

Once you learn about the origins of each bitcoin that is based on the mining process, you will believe that the best way to get them is to join this mining process. The fact is that it has become very difficult because the popularity of crypto is growing fast.

Sell ​​products or services.

Each bitcoin is the result of a previous transaction. So, the way to get them when you don’t have them is to get a transaction from someone else if you buy them for cash or also mining new bitcoins.

If you know a person who uses bitcoin, you can ask him / her to get bitcoin. In case you don’t know anyone who owns them, you can get bitcoin by offering a different type of transaction only with another bitcoin user, causing you to be paid in bitcoins. An alternative is to extract them yourself.

Mining.

In case you can’t buy bitcoin from someone else, you can get them by mining them. The term mining here means: the solution of a complex mathematical problem, the purpose of which is to verify the transactions of others. In return you get bitcoin. Receiving bitcoins is sometimes free, but you may be charged for sending them, depending on the online platform you use. Before you start mining bitcoin, you need to understand that it is a difficult way to get bitcoin, it requires some technical knowledge that may be impractical for you.

Buy.

In case you don’t know anyone who owns bitcoins, you have nothing to sell to exchange for bitcoin, there is a way to buy bitcoin. There are several online platforms, they sell bitcoin through a process called trading / exchanging. Here are some ways to buy bitcoins:

Buy bitcoin from a person.

There are online marketplaces where you can buy bitcoin on a person-to-person basis. You can pay these individuals in cash or in other ways. It is good to think that you and the seller can agree on the method of payment: cash in person, cash on deposit, bank transfer, PayPal, etc. The key element here is finding someone you can trust. Good advice – use an online escrow service so you can protect yourself from any kind of scam. The good thing about this online deposit platform is that everyone has to upload their scanned ID, which ensures security during transactions.

Buy bitcoin on the stock exchange and in the outlet.

Exchanges or Bitcoin outlets are mostly online services that make it easier for buyers and sellers to make transactions with bitcoins. To become part of one of them, all you need is to create an account and verify your identity before you can buy or sell bitcoin.

Buy bitcoin through an ATM.

Some cities around the world offer physical bitcoin ATMs. You just get your bitcoins through them using local fiat currency. Governments regulate the use of these ATMs for security purposes. Sometimes finding a bitcoin ATM near your location can be difficult because even the place where they are installed is regulated.

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How Bitcoin works

Bitcoins are a decentralized form of cryptocurrency. This means that they are not regulated by a financial institution or government. So, unlike a traditional bank account, you don’t need a long list of documents such as an identity card so you can set up what is known as a bitcoin wallet. Bitcoin wallet is something you will use to access your bitcoins and send bitcoins to others.

How to set up an account

You can purchase a bitcoin wallet from a bitcoin broker such as Coinbase. If you open a wallet through a certified broker, you are given a bitcoin address, which is a series of numbers and letters, similar to the bank account number and a private key, which is also a series of numbers and letters. which serve as your password.

How bitcoin works as an anonymous payment processor

You can do 3 things with bitcoins, you can make a purchase, send money anonymously to someone or use them as an investment. More and more merchants are accepting bitcoin as a form of payment. By using bitcoin instead of cash, you are essentially making this purchase anonymously. The same goes for sending money, based on the fact that you don’t need to make a mountain of payments to anonymously set up bitcoin, in fact, you can send money to someone else anonymously.

How bitcoin works as an investment

The value of bitcoin fluctuates from time to time. To put things in perspective, back in early 2013, the average price of bitcoin was about $ 400 per bitcoin, but by the end of 2013, the price of bitcoin had risen to more than $ 1,000. This meant that if you had 2 bitcoins worth $ 800 in early 2013 and you kept them as an investment until the end of 2013, those two bitcoins would cost more than $ 2,000 instead of $ 800. Many people keep bitcoins due to the fact that their value fluctuates.

Bitcoin casinos and poker sites

Because of the anonymity of bitcoin, the gambling industry has taken bitcoin as a method of payment. Both bitcoin casinos and bitcoin poker sites come to life and offer their players to make deposits, play with bitcoins at tables and withdraw directly to their bitcoin wallet. This means that there are no taxes or opportunities for state control. Just like a regular Nevada casino where you don’t need to register anywhere and all your transactions are anonymous.

How to send bitcoin

In order to pay for goods and services or send a bitcoin to an individual, you need 3 things. Your bitcoin address, your private key and your bitcoin address. From now on, through your bitcoin wallet, you will post 3 pieces of information that are: entry, balance and exit. Input refers to your address, balance – to the number of bitcoins you are going to send, and output – is the address of the recipient.

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The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Staff and Business Survival

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.