Around the Coin

This week Brian, Faisal and Mike are back into the thick of things, discussing payments. Brian covers his epic attendance of the ETA conference and what he saw there. Mike and Faisal discuss with Brian, the emergence of Amazon Echo and what it means for the masses, both in the developed world and in the developing world. Is Amazon Echo going to be the game changer?Sponsors:Otter Labs www.hireotter.com- Hire great and inexpensive developer with staff augmentation through Otter.Redeeem https://redeeem.click/qdza- Redeeem is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that lets you save 15% or more on gift cards using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian and Mike back at it for an intense discussion about altruism and how people think about donating money and charity. In the first part of the conversation Brian and Mike initially discuss their favorite product of the week then spend time on Amazon's new announcement about the new Echo with a camera. Brian take a bullish stand on how new Echo will impact the fashion industry which he write more in detail here. We took a deep dive into the effective altruism - which seeks to answer the simple question: "how can we use our resources to help others the most?" Brian's product of the week: Victor Scheinman -16 year old student invents Emvi, a voice recognition system in the 1950s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYEhE11gqGw&t=14sMike product of the week: A curated directory of resources & tools to help you build your Startup:www.Startupstash.com: This week’s special shout outs are:Nathan Kontny CEO Highrisehttps://m.signalvnoise.com/speed-reading-2ff843053cc6 Chad Grills Founder of the Missionhttps://medium.com/the-mission/you-wont-win-until-they-start-betting-against-you-a97a3141690eShaunta Grimes How to know what to write about.https://medium.com/startup-grind/how-to-know-what-to-write-about-bf539223ba32Show note links:- https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/being-good-and-doing-good- https://www.effectivealtruism.org/- http://readmultiplex.com/2017/04/26/the-amazon-look-will-transform-the-closet-and-the-fashion-industry/- http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/Sponsors:Otter Labs www.hireotter.com- Hire great and inexpensive developer with staff augmentation through Otter.Redeeem https://redeeem.click/qdza- Redeeem is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that lets you save 15% or more on gift cards using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sponsors:Otter Labs www.hireotter.com- Hire great and inexpensive developer with staff augmentation through Otter.Redeeem https://redeeem.click/qdza- Redeeem is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that lets you save 15% or more on gift cards using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian and Mike back on the show for another fun thought provoking discussion across many topics. We first covered Brian’s in person presentation to startup founders, investors and payment executives at Propeler VC last week. This week’s two special shout outs are:Jason Fiedler VC Investor @ Red Sea Ventureshttps://medium.com/@jasonfiedler/the-magic-of-mobile-pay-60136a886f9aBrett Caine CEO Urban Airship https://medium.com/mobile-engagement/the-question-for-mobile-payments-isnt-when-but-how-c4b45d78cc58During the conversation we discuss banks - the purpose of them in the past vs the future, and how banks will or won’t survive the change on the horizon. We touch on the benefits of writing on paper vs. typing on a computer to retain information as well as whether it is appropriate to take notes on your phone during business meetings. We next dive into blockchain in healthcare and talk about some opportunities for innovation there. A healthy portion of the conversation was spent covering the Jeff Bezos’s annual shareholder letter which was released this week. This letter was different than years past for one big reason! Lastly, we wrapped up with an always engaging debate about the power of A.I. and the incredible rate of progress. It remains to be seen how quickly A.I. will catch up to all human interaction capabilities, but recent developments are astonishing. Enjoy and let us know if you have suggestions for guests, topics or special shout outs!Sponsors:Otter Labs www.hireotter.com- Hire great and inexpensive developer with staff augmentation through Otter.Redeeem https://redeeem.click/qdza- Redeeem is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that lets you save 15% or more on gift cards using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest Matthew Mezinskis dials in from Latvia where he's lived for the last 10 years working in banking, finance and payments. Matthew is the founder of Crypto Voices (https://cryptovoices.com/) a audio blog that focuses on Bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrency, digital ledger technology and broader FinTech, including all of the benefits and challenges that come with these breakthrough technologies.Matthew Mezinskis and Mike Townsend have a passionate conversation about the decisions facing Bitcoin that will make or break the currency. Specifically, the 1MB block limit that says Miners can mine blocks up to the 1MB fixed limit, but any block larger than 1MB is invalid. Whatever happens, this will have huge implications on Bitcoin. The second major topic touched on was the idea of monopolies and how they affect the surrounding economy. We discussed government controlled monopolies and whether or not there is any role for a monopoly in cryptocurrency. Matthew has a inspirational story and a unique perspective living in Latvia. Enjoy!Sponsors:Otter Labs www.hireotter.com- Hire great and inexpensive developer with staff augmentation through Otter.Redeeem https://redeeem.click/qdza- Redeeem is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that lets you save 15% or more on gift cards using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sponsors:Otter Labs www.hireotter.com- Hire great and inexpensive developer with staff augmentation through Otter.Redeeem https://redeeem.click/qdza- Redeeem is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that lets you save 15% or more on gift cards using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this edition of Around the Coin, Faisal Khan interviews Olivia Chow, the Project Lead of Finder.com's Money Transfer Award. Olivia discusses how for the first time in the remittance industry, Finder.com is presenting awards to money transfer companies. These awards are based on weeks of detailed research that Olivia and her team conducted on various online money transfer companies in the US.Sponsors:Otter Labs www.hireotter.com- Hire great and inexpensive developer with staff augmentation through Otter.Redeeem https://redeeem.click/qdza- Redeeem is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that lets you save 15% or more on gift cards using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this edition of Around the Coin, we interview Luke Salinas, SVP Strategy for Adyen. Adyen is one of those companies, unless you're working with them not very many people know about them. This Dutch based payment processor started more than a decade ago and has become huge! Processing for the likes of Netflix, Uber, and Spotify to name a few.Sponsors:Otter Labs www.hireotter.com- Hire great and inexpensive developer with staff augmentation through Otter.Redeeem https://redeeem.click/qdza- Redeeem is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that lets you save 15% or more on gift cards using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I got to sit down with the Founder & CEO of TerraPay, Mr. Ambar Sur. Ambar started his career in the RF design of cell sites and has now gravitated towards payment. His idea of an interoperable payments world is slowly taking shape. We ask him what TerraPay is all about, how it got started, where it is today and where it is heading.Sponsors:Otter Labs www.hireotter.com- Hire great and inexpensive developer with staff augmentation through Otter.Redeeem https://redeeem.click/qdza- Redeeem is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that lets you save 15% or more on gift cards using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Brian, Faisal and Mike are back on the air again. We discuss Brian's Multiplex application, Faisal's traveling and Mike changing the direction of his company. In addition we talk about Amazon Alexa hitting 10,000 skills, yet it is difficult to make an income from it. PayPal buys TIO Network and what does it mean for the unbanked? Alibaba's Ant Financial scoops up MoneyGram - what will they do with it? And TransferWise now uses Messenger Bots to transfer money!Sponsors:Otter Labs www.hireotter.com- Hire great and inexpensive developer with staff augmentation through Otter.Redeeem https://redeeem.click/qdza- Redeeem is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that lets you save 15% or more on gift cards using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices