LAB Radio

I recently ran into Tatiana Moroz, of Crypto Media Hub while we were in Las Vegas together for the Unconfiscatable conference. Tatiana is one of the coolest people in the Bitcoin ecosystem. She throws great dinner parties with awesome guests. If she's not the one throwing the party, she always knows where the best one is. Oh, did I mention she can sing and play guitar. On top of all this, she's a great person and a pleasure to speak with too.

On this occasion, we got to chat about maximalism and why she decided to attend the Unconfiscatable conference. She stresses the importance of knowing and "hodling" your friends close during crypto winter. We dive into the intersection her career in music and blockchain technology. Tatiana tells her thoughts about the current state of cryptocurrency adoption. Shout out to Marshall Hayner from Metalpay. Tatiana tells us what she's been up to and what she's got cooking for 2019.

Tatiana Moroz is the founder and CEO of Crypto Media Hub, a PR, advertising, and marketing agency for the Blockchain industry. She is the advisor on several crypto projects.

Tatiana is a pioneer female singer-songwriter in the Bitcoin and activist community and is the creator of Tatiana Coin, the world's first ever artist cryptocurrency. Her music brings a fresh take on that folk style of the revolutionary 60's and 70's, and is an original blend of alt country, pop, rock, and blues.

As a graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tatiana has had an extensive music career managing and promoting top New York recording studios and touring the globe singing and speaking alongside Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and Judge Napolitano at dozens of events including Inside Bitcoins, SXSW, Bitcoin South, NASDAQ, many blockchain events worldwide, aand several Libertarian National Conventions. With three independently produced and released LPs, EPs and several singles, Tatiana's third EP "Keep the Faith" released in 2017 having been completely funded with cryptocurrency.

As a prominent figure in the Bitcoin community, Tatiana has appeared on NASDAQ, Market Watch, Yahoo Finance, Fox's Stossel, Reason Magazine, the NY Times, Billboard, RT America, Infowars, International Business Times, Bitcoin Magazine and many more.

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Of all the people to run into during the Unconfiscatable conference in Las Vegas, it was awesome to see Scott Bambacigno. Alphapoint Scott, as he's known, is one of the first people I remember being involved in a crypto company as early as 2014. Not only is he a rockstar amongst his peers, he is a founding member of Alphapoint. Alphapoint is one of those companies that you probably don't know exists. It's a software company with one of its main focuses on helping its clients build crypto exchanges.

Scott and I grabbed a quiet corner and some loungey black leather chairs, then settled in to catch up. I asked him why he chose to attend Tone Vays' Unconfiscatable conference and whether or not he is a maximalist. Scott dives into how he got started with Bitcoin and his career in Silicon Valley. He talks about what the industry was like in 2013. We get into topics like, "What is a Blockchain?" and how some archaic systems are poised for collapse. He shares his bright outlook on how the industry may mature and grow.

Senior sales leader with over 15 years of experience driving revenue for startups and well-established businesses. With a consistent and successful record of revenue attainment as an individual contributor, entrepreneur, and sales leader, my focus is on making my company, team members, and - most importantly - my clients successful.

As a company leader responsible for the sales and marketing teams I play a lead role in defining strategy and tactical execution to win on product, marketing, and business development. As head of sales, I recruit and hire sales and marketing talent, define value proposition, sales strategy, presentation, pricing, and competitive positioning.

Intellectually curious and creative, as a continuous learner I dedicate time for reflection and self-improvement. Strong focus on taking care of teammates. Adaptive and introspective, willing to learn, teach, lead and follow.

As one of the faces of the company, I am active in the ecosystem attending events, presenting at conferences and acquiring strategic business accounts on a global scale. Track record of success with world-class enterprises and top brands (some cannot be named at this time) including Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Scotiabank, Credit Suisse, IBM, American Express, Wolters Kluwer, Campbell's Soup Company, Priceline.com, and Bluefly.com.

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Here we are at the Unconfiscatable conference in Las Vegas. I've been pleasantly surprised with the venue, quality of content and the the number of familiar faces. One of those faces belonged to Gabe Higgins. Gabe and I have been crossing paths since 2013 on twitter and 2015 at events and through the Edge Slack channel as Ambassadors.

Gabe is such a great guy. He has the type of values and big picture vision that make him someone you want to work and hangout with. Gabe also runs an incubator/coworking/events space called BlockSpaces, which offers a collaborative environment for the crypto and blockchain communities and also hosts educational events.

Gabe and I set up shop in the media lounge and started to chatting. Gabe talks with us about how he got started in Bitcoin back in 2013. We cover why he came to the conference and the difficulties of having to pivot your business' focus. I ask Gabe what it's like to be in a relationship with your cofounder. We talk about if the children they're both raising have any idea about what Mom and Dad are doing and if they understand how this stuff works. We find out about his stance on maximalism. Finally, Gabe shares his views on what may happen with Bitcoin in the next 1 to 2 years.

Highly interested in emerging technology, specifically with distributed p2p networks, bitcoin (cryptocurrencies), blockchain tech, smart contracts, IoT, decentralized autonomous organizations, InfoSec, EdgeSec, and anything that promotes autonomy.

I've been advising VC funded blockchain companies with branding, PR, social media marketing, and strategic partnerships. Been active in the bitcoin space since early 2013. Lead organizer for bitcoin & blockchain meetup groups together having over 1500 members and sponsored by Edge and Bitcoin.com. Collaborated with leading bitcoin payment processor BitPay for the St. Petersburg Bitcoin Bowl in Dec 2014. Had over 200 local merchants begin accepting bitcoin at the time and the area remains one of the largest bitcoin hotspots in the world.

Now starting to merge my Meetup group with the connections in the industry to create a blockchain technology community & development center where we help educate the public, train developers, and incubate blockchain related startups from our center.

Twitter - @Crypto_Edge

LinkedIn - Gabe Higgins

Website - BlockSpaces

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On this episode of LAB Radio we talked global remittances, markets, market making and how to use the Blockchain to help the cash-in and cash-out businesses.

We brought on George Harrap, CEO and co-founder of Bitspark, a bank-less money transfer ecosystem. Bitspark enables businesses and people to cash in and cash out of cryptocurrencies and fiat across developing nations (and is enabling liquidity for 150+ foreign currencies)

George Harrap, CEO and co-founder of Bitspark

"A Cryptocurrency and Blockchain pioneer, one of the early users of Bitcoin since 2011, I co-founded Bitspark (Hong Kong) in 2014 with the mission of bringing low cost fast cryptocurrency based settlement to cross border transactions. Often an international speaker around the world, I am focused on empowering individuals and businesses with blockchain based payments to further financial inclusion and bring greater cost efficiencies leading to better world without the need for the legacy banking system."

Here's a timeline of their company and activity to date:

Their business began as a cash in cash out remittance service and still has roots in it:

Now they have added DEX functionality which allows traders, investors and other users to add liquidity and capture market opportunities.

All while helping provide fuel to the underlying ecosystem Bitspark provides.

Learn more as we dive in with George Harrap on this episode of LAB Radio.

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• George's background and how he ended up in Hong Kong as an Aussie
• The regulatory landscape and differences between places like Singapore and Hong Kong's rules and approach to Crypto businesses
• Why and how they chose their current Headquarters location
• How George got status in Hong Kong as an Australian citizen
• The original intent of Bitspark and why they are Crypto Agnostic
• The nature of the cash remittance business and the problems and opportunity George saw to be solved
• How as little as 5-20% of people have bank accounts in many developing nations
• How the cash in, cash out shop process works and the value proposition they provide
• Why George didn't want to change human behavior but rather improve the process of what people were already doing
• How Bitspark benefits users, shop owners and traders behind the scenes
• An arbitrage opportunity for traders to help create liquidity for shop owners and cash remittance customers
• About Bitshares being the first stable coin that has been working since 2014
• How MakerDAO is a fork of Bitshares built on Ethereum
• Why the promise of not having to trust a companies reserves for a stable coin is a big deal (Hint: Crypto-based parallel FX market)
• How Bitshares experienced a black swan event and what Global Settlement is (and how to avoid that in the future)
• The process for Bitshares to incentivize traders to create Foreign Currency derivatives on their platform to help add liquidity to their
• How market making works through a can of coke analogy

On this inaugural OG Crypto Series episode, I, Chris Groshong sit down with Managing Partner at Stillmark Capital, Alyse Killeen to discuss what it takes to have longevity in the Crypto and Blockchain industry.

This is a new series we're launching called The "Crypto OG Series" where I tap into my rolodex of VIPs, movers and shakers from the Blockchain space that have been around the industry and share their knowledge, perspective and philosophies.

In this one, we talk about Venture Capital in Crypto and Alyse's philosophical approach to investing through Stillmark Capital.

Are there any differences between LA and Silicon Valley approaches to investing?

And what does she look for in founders and does emotional intelligence play a factor?

Hear a story about the history of entrepreneurship in her family dating back several generations.

Alyse and I first met at an afterparty in June of 2014 as part of a conference (no longer in existence) called Coin Congress.

She said some very motivating words to me that helped me push through tough times.

I point this out because this industry is small compared to other Technology categories.

You never know how the words you speak will be received or the importance someone may give to them.

The people you affect may become allies, liaisons or partners in the future.

Be positive, genuine and spread goodwill. You will be rewarded many times over.

About Alyse Killeen

Founding Partner StillMark Co. Founder and Executive Director of City Fellows Consortium and Women in Venture. Mentor at Silicon Valley's Plug and Play Tech Center and Alchemist Accelerator, and to NYFTL by the Partnership Fund for NYC and Springboard Enterprises. Fintech Fellow at Singapore University of Social Sciences in Singapore. Company Advisor contributing on issues of Strategy, Finance, Org and Ops, and more. First learned about company building alongside a successful entrepreneurial grandfather, catalyzing an affinity for and commitment to entrepreneurs. Rooting for Underdogs and Outsiders.

This episode of LAB Radio was a part of our coverage of CryptoBlockcon where Chris Groshong interviewed Erin Nakamoto.

As described on Erin's website, here's a brief bio:

"My story is a relatively short one. I was working in DTLV in the group sales department of the D Las Vegas in 2014 when they announced to the staff that they were now accepting bitcoin for payment. They had us open a Blockchain wallet, told us not to lose our passwords (private keys) and gave us all a small amount. That same day, I had a gentlemen call me and ask if he could host a bitcoin meetup at our hotel. We met, and the rest is history!

…WELL, fast forward a couple of years, I absolutely lost my private keys, but that same gentlemen that called…not only did we plan an awesome meetup together, but we fell madly in love and are still together today. So, all in all, I lost $75 bucks but I found the love of my life so it worked out pretty well for me. My life has changed drastically.

I have since taken over the Las Vegas Bitcoin Meetup and host them monthly. Kingsley and I live in Las Vegas with our amazing pets and we live off of our crypto! It has been an experience, I'll tell ya. Lots of highs and lows, but I feel like my life got way more interesting since I've started living this way. I have way more adventures and it's a great conversation starter. If you ever need advice on how to survive off of bitcoin, I'm your girl. I've got tips for days. I believe in the power of the blockchain and believe it will change all of our lives. I believe in trustless, peer to peer, borderless technology. I use my crypto like I use my cash and while not everyone does that, I feel that this is the only way that we're going to spread mass adoption. But hey, that's just my .2"

Erin is a consummate influencer, event organizer (Las Vegas Bitcoin Meetup), connector and networker. We were thrilled to connect with her and talk Crypto at CryptoBlockCon.

Check out the post here: https://coinstructive.com/ep51-erinnakamoto/

This episode of LAB Radio was a part of our coverage of CryptoBlockcon where Chris Groshong interviewed Adam Koltun, Lead Business Strategist of Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL).

Chris Groshong (left), CEO of CoinStructive Inc, and Adam Koltun (right), Lead Business Strategist of Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL)

As Adam so eloquently put it in their recap blog post, the conference itself was a cornucopia of very different industries squished together in an expansive venue:

"The event was held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. In addition to CBC, the MLB Winter Meetings, and a National Finals Rodeo competition was being held nearby, so many of the competitors were staying at Mandalay Bay. Certainly, literal cowboys, baseball executives and blockchain enthusiasts rubbing shoulders made for some interesting juxtapositions. As much as those of us within the industry can sometimes get weary of terms like "adoption" or "mainstream" or "awareness" — moments like these serve as an eloquent reminder, to me, that blockchain/cryptocurrency are still completely unknown to large swaths of American society, at least. It's useful, I find, to sometimes recognize that for all the drama this space can sometimes produce, that in the long-run, these are minor speedbumps that will be hardly (if at all) remembered by the vast majority of crypto users within the next 10 years."

As stated on their website:

"The Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL) is a first of its kind, future-proof post quantum value store and decentralized communication layer which tackles the threat Quantum Computing will pose to cryptocurrencies.

This is backed by provably secure, peer-reviewed XMSS (instead of 256-bit ECDSA) with a proof-of-work(POW) algorithm, Cryptonight v7, which will later be hard forked to Proof of Stake."

QRL aims to future proof the Blockchain from Quantum computing through peer-reviewed and proven precursors like Extended Merkle Signature Scheme (EMSS):

"QRL provides a blockchain that is resistant to both conventional and quantum computing attacks. The future of the internet will be built on decentralized protocols and abstraction layers, and we plan on being ready for that future, as well as any sudden quantum computing development ("Y2Q") that may usher in that reality sooner than expected.

Our blockchain will utilize the previously vetted, provably secure Extended Merkle Signature Scheme (XMSS) to ensure that our network is resistant to quantum computing attacks. We aim to secure our network against not only the inevitability of quantum computing, and all that implies for the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, but also the potential for a black swan event to rapidly and irreversibly advance the technology with no immediate warning.

By utilizing an address format that allows us to change hash functions down the line if necessary, we have created a blockchain that is both secure today and adaptable tomorrow."

For show notes and more visit: LAB Radio

On this LAB Radio, episode Aaron Mangal and Chris Groshong talk security, the Internet and origin story of how MetaCert helps protect users from malicious links with CEO and founder, Paul Walsh.

Paul Walsh, CEO and founder of MetaCert and co-founder of W3C Mobile Web Initiative

Paul is an early web pioneer in security and safety for users having helped create projects like the W3C Mobile Web Initiative who's mission includes "ensuring that the Web be available on as many kind of devices as possible".

He also helped create standards and classifications for Uniform Resource Locations (URLs) as a part of his work at the W3C organization.

"I'm CEO of MetaCert. In 2017 we completely eradicated phishing on Slack for the crypto world. In 2018 we pretty much brought a stop to phishing for the crypto world on Telegram. 2019 is going to be our most important year - our mission is to eradicate phishing for everyone who uses our new email security solution for native mobile email.

Previously...

I was part of the team that helped to launch technologies such as AIM, Internet Radio, Online Games and X2 56K Modem Protocol while working at AOL during the 90's.

I co-instigated the creation of the W3C Standard for URL Classification/Content Labeling and I'm one of the seven original Founders of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative. I also own a full patent for Malware and Phishing detection and prevention inside a mobile app WebView with more pending.

I own an Indian restaurant in Ireland - Michelin Star for 10+ years.

[I am a] Irish. Father. Wine Drinker. Advanced Open Water Diver, Snowboarder, Skydiver Wannabe and Seasoned Traveller."

-Paul Walsh

This new broad access of the web we are seeing today has brought new challenges such as malicious individuals who seek to steal peoples data and even worse Cryptocurrency and the value within.

The MetaCert team began by providing authenticity and monitoring of social media channels like Telegram and Slack which has a wave of malicious bot attacks on users, encouraging them to click on compromised links and put their sensitive data into fake websites which ultimately leads to theft.

MetaCert aims to protect businesses from malicious threats and unsafe URLs inside Messaging Apps

MetaCert has a patented enterprise-grade security API which can lookup over 2,000 shortening services and check it against a massive database of 10 billion classified URLs across 65 categories in a fraction of a second.

MetaCert boasts the biggest threat intelligence system on the planet. The second to them is OpenDNS (run by Cisco) which has classified 2 million domains across 60 categories.

One of the reasons for building its own threat intelligence system was to prevent false positives (which is a problem with current solutions on the market automatically blocking too many innocent sites).

MetaCert recently released a beta of their email security solution which helps verify the safety of links:

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• How Paul was an early semantic web pioneer in the 90s and created the W3C Mobile Web Initiative
• Why Paul felt websites and search engines should show more metadata and have an identity certificate
• What a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) is and why they are important
• How Webview works and was a vulnerability in our mobile use of the Web
• Why they got a patent in place for security around Webview to protect themselves from tech giants like Google
• Why the first iteration of MetaCert was for child safety and built a database for pornographic content
• How MetaCert saw the opportunity to organize and classify URIs and created the biggest Cyber Threat Intelligence Database to date
• How the MetaCert API works
• How MetaCert leverages a reward system for compensating people (Validators) for helping identify and log links
• Why the MetaCert "Green Shield" icon has become a pillar in their branding and marketing to the public
• Paul's vision for decentralizing governance around content, link filtering and working group/committee creation
• A fake news identifying browser add-on called TrustedNews which is 100% powered by MetaCert
• About how Paul is considering moving away from Ethereum (first time mentioned in public)

For show notes and more visit: LAB Radio Episode 49

On this LAB Radio, episode Aaron Mangal talks technology, Blockchain and BUIDLing with Barbara Bickham, founder of Trailyn Ventures and the International Blockchain Accelerator.

Barbara Bickham is a CTO, Investor and Entrepreneur and founder of the International Blockchain Accelerator

Barbara is a Berkley, University of Chicago Alumni, coder, CTO and Technology Advisor with extensive experience across industries like: FinTech, Fashion, Wearables, Wireless, Security, Media and Entertainment, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain.

Her current areas of expertise are in Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and Internet of Things (IoT).

She even won an award from Gartner for her work writing a REST API for an IoT platform.

"I bridge the gap between professionals that speak in technology terms with professionals that speak primarily in financial terms. I represent a company to investors, key clients and strategic partners.

I also have over 4 years experience preparing and evaluating companies for private equity or venture capital financing. Founded an investment association connecting Southern California businesses with venture funding." -Barbara Bickham

The International Business Accelerator is a combination of private sector and non-profit entities' efforts:

"The International Business Accelerator is a joint program of the Community Vitalization Council, an economic development non-profit, and K5 Ventures, an early-stage venture fund that partners with and invests in technology-driven businesses led by visionary founders.The IBA was started in 2014 with support from the US Small Business Administration...

...In 2018 the IBA announced its first sector-specific accelerator cohort on Blockchain for Global Growth taking place at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. In 2019 the IBA will announce new cohorts for more advanced tech, Global Fintech, Female-founders & Women-led companies, a partnership with Southern California's leading hardware accelerator and a Menlo Park cohort partnering with international legal and accounting firms in Silicon Valley."

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• How Barbara began as a coder and eventually CTO, investor, entrepreneur and advisor
• The Catalyst for Barbara to cross the worlds of Investing and Technology
• The emergence of Digital Coast and eventually Blockchain Beach in Socal
• What a CTO is a what role they play in a company
• About the Blockchain Accelerator being hosted at USC's Blackstone Launchpad
• What types of people are joining the accelerator and what they learn
• The most exciting things to Barbara about the Blockchain world

For show notes and more visit: https://coinstructive.com/ep48-blockchainaccelerator/

On this LAB Radio, episode Chris Groshong talks shop with Jeff Zhou, founder of TrustNote, a mineable public DAG ledger with a two-tier consensus mechanism. (Cryptographic Algorithms: BLAKE2, BIP32-Ed25519)

The architecture is designed for high concurrent transactions and confirmation times.

Jeff Zhou, Founder of TrustNote

Jeff's background began with chip making and eventually led him to realizing the lack of scalability with Bitcoin:

"A few years back Jeff Zhou started working on blockchain and at that time he developed BTC+LTC dual mining chips and hardware, the technology was sold to a world-wide market.Jeff then tried to develop an IoT software platform based on blockchain technology, and after several months of trial and development, he encountered serious issues with scalability and the transaction fees were very high. Issues like these prevent mass adoption of the blockchain technology and ultimately drove the foundation of the TrustNote open source project and its development of a fast, scalable, and light platform to provide high-performance for everyone on every device at a lower cost."

Now with TrustNote Jeff aims to create a new alternative architecture to the traditional Blockchain construct.

The TrustNote whitepaper elaborates on the details of the project and core architecture:

"Today's blockchain technologies face many challenges such as network congestion, high transaction fees, and long delays in transaction confirmation. TrustNote seeks to address these problems by building the world-leading public Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) ledger which is minable, capable of handling high concurrent transactions yet still maintain quick transaction confirmation."

Above is a breakdown of how the TrustNote DAG compares with two other DAG focused projects, IOTA and Byteball.

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• About how Jeff worked on secret projects for the Chinese Government before moving into the chip-making industry
• How they combined multiple algorithms into one chip (allowing multiple mining algorithms under one unit)
• Why Mining is big and concentrated in China
• Jeffs thoughts on China and how the worlds borders are opening up thanks to technology like Bitcoin
• What a DAG is and how they are using this technology as a Blockchain alternative
• Why Consensus is one of the biggest challenges to Blockchains
• Why they are aiming to solve this through a hybrid approach of architecture options
• What TrustNote is and how it works and when it's mainnet will be ready
• Why Jeff began with learning C languages (like C++) but also like other languages like Rust

For show notes and more please visit: LAB Radio