Proof-of-PR

Our guest for today is Tongtong Gong, COO and Co-founder of Amberdata. She moved to the U.S. from Beijing, China when she was 17 years old, and her inability to speak English properly influenced her to choose Computer Science as an area of study because programming languages actually felt less intimidating to her. She started learning about crypto in 2013 and kept diving deeper from there.

Amberdata is a data infrastructure company that provides blockchain network data and market data in a single API, which allows people to build on top of it. During the ICO boom, it seemed like a necessity that could help contribute from a data infrastructure perspective. Amberdata's customers fall into three categories: developers, traders, and major institutions moving into the digital assets space. In the following five years, Tongtong believes the industry will be growing and, based on financial history, she thinks that it won't be in a linear, predictable fashion. Rather, it will be a punctuated equilibrium because new players will come in and be critical in the development of digital assets.

Topics covered:

- What Amberdata is and how it came to be

- Examples of Amberdata's customer types

- Fears of major market manipulation

- Recommended resources for people who have questions about crypto

- Anecdotes that surprised Tongtong from analyzing data sets

- Things that Tongtong has seen go miraculously wrong

- Internal transfers that hide information

- Predictions for the next five years in the crypto industry

-Biggest threats to the cryptocurrency and blockchain space

Links to Resources:

Website: https://amberdata.io/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Amberdataio

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/amberdata/

Medium: https://medium.com/amberdata

Email: tongtong(at)amberdata(dot)io

In the Season 2 finale, CEO of Fold Will Reeves is our special guest. Prior to dedicating himself full-time to Fold, he worked in consumer tech and payments in Silicon Valley. He has experienced the challenges and rewards involved with both running his own startups and working for massive companies.

Will credits his first time hearing about bitcoin to a friend he met when he was living in Argentina who explained why it could be useful as a global currency. Will organized a pilot called Lightning Pizza that set out to prove bitcoin's use as a payment method, and he fills us in on its ongoing impact. Will then describes how Fold is changing behavior through incentives and explains why bitcoin cashback is better than airline miles. Thanks to his work in traditional payments, Will is very knowledgeable with the problems of legacy payment systems and discusses why bitcoin is superior. Regarding user privacy, Will feels that data collection is out of control and speaks to the risk it poses for consumers. He reveals the percentage of Fold users that choose bitcoin as their payment method and articulates why he expects the number to grow even more. Additionally, Will shares his thoughts on what roadblocks stand between cryptocurrency payments and mass adoption.

Topics covered:

- A background of Will and what he was doing before crypto.

- How bitcoin can immediately improve the lives of consumers and merchants.

- The Lightning Pizza project and its results.

- Fold's target market of crypto enthusiasts and newcomers.

- What sets Fold apart from other crypto cashback programs.

- Promotions that Fold offers for the holiday season and a new feature.

- Payment problems that Will witnessed in his endeavors before crypto.

- The importance of data privacy.

- Big changes to e-commerce and payments on the horizon in 2020.

- Consumer behavior that Will observes from mobile users versus desktop users.

- Where Fold users spend their rewards.

- Hurdles facing Fold and bitcoin on the adoption journey.

Links to Resources:

Fold: https://foldapp.com/

Will on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wlrvs

Fold on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fold_app

Lightning Pizza: https://ln.pizza/

Andreas Antonopoulos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ

Jameson Lopp: https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information.html

What Bitcoin Did: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/

The Founder of GiveBitcoin, Cory Klippsten, is our guest on today's podcast. He has had a long career in big technology, having worked for the likes of Microsoft and Google. After leaving Google in 2013, Cory became involved with startups as an investor, advisor, and occasionally an operator.

Cory got involved with Bitcoin in May of 2017 and recalls that the price and social signaling from his professional network were large factors in attracting him. There is a lot of noise in the cryptocurrency space, so Cory gives advice on what newcomers should do to properly inform themselves. When he received his first bitcoin, Cory made a mistake that he aims for GiveBitcoin to solve. He explains that GiveBitcoin is great for new users because it provides education on Bitcoin while keeping it stored safely. The mission of the company is to allow for the giving of bitcoin in a safe and easy way. Cory talks about why the process some people have gone through when receiving bitcoin using other methods has been annoying to them. In the beta phase of GiveBitcoin, Cory was excited to see a large amount of bitcoin being sent and then shares his thoughts on how bitcoin will evolve. He also says that GiveBitcoin's take is not to be the only resource for the Bitcoin community. Ending this episode, Cory describes his sentiment on Bitcoin in both the short- and long-term.

Topics covered:

- What initially got Cory excited about Bitcoin.

- Finding a mentor to steer you in the right direction.

- The first bitcoin Cory received in January 2014 and what this inspired.

- GiveBitcoin and some of its features, such as time locking.

- Directing users to educational resources from a user perspective.

- Kelley's experience of gifting her friends and family bitcoin a few years ago.

- The custodian that GiveBitcoin uses to protect funds.

- Limits and fees on the GiveBitcoin platform.

- Cory's thoughts on bitcoin not being ideal for use as a currency.

- A tease of GiveBitcoin's new referral program.

- Some resources that Cory likes sending to new bitcoin users.

- Cory's rationale for being bullish on bitcoin long-term.

- Education before accumulation.

Links to Resources:

GiveBitcoin: https://givebitcoin.io/

GiveBitcoin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/give_bitcoin

Nakamoto Institute: https://nakamotoinstitute.org/

Jameson Lopp's Bitcoin Information: https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information.html

The Bullish Case for Bitcoin: https://medium.com/@vijayboyapati/the-bullish-case-for-bitcoin-6ecc8bdecc1

Stephan Livera Podcast Episode 71: https://stephanlivera.com/episode/71/

Kevin Ting, Co-founder of CryptoCanary, joins us in this episode. He is a crypto entrepreneur who has a background in engineering. After graduating, Kevin went to Silicon Valley to join the startup space and got involved on the business side tech before diving into crypto.

After first discovering Bitcoin in 2013, Kevin learned about Ethereum in 2017 and all of its possibilities. These days, Kevin educates new crypto users through the media group, Bitcoin For Beginners. On the YouTube channel, people can learn everything about Bitcoin and blockchain on the tech and financial side. Most recently, Kevin started working on a new project called CryptoCanary, which is akin to Yelp for the crypto world in which users can rate and comment on token projects. A beta version was launched a few months ago and the site is growing every day.

In response to Kelley's question about the biggest misconceptions in cryptocurrency, Kevin discusses the early days of bitcoin being used on the dark web. Now, the reality is that illicit activities comprise a very small percentage of all the ways crypto is used. Instead, Kevin and others in the space are using crypto in e-commerce. He mentions crypto.com as a way to easily use crypto in day-to-day purchases. Additionally, Kevin and Kelley discuss volatility as attractive in a thrill-seeking way but also as an obstacle to mass adoption. The ethos of decentralization and open-source project development are the aspects of the industry that excite Kevin the most.

Before buying any crypto, Kevin recommends doing plenty of research, including watching YouTube videos and reading articles. Finally, Kevin reminds people to always ask questions and to take all advice with a grain of salt. Bitcoin and Ethereum are top of Kevin's list when it comes to projects that he is most enthusiastic about, but he also believes gaming has great potential for crypto integrations.

Topics covered:

- What Kevin was doing prior to crypto.

- What CryptoCanary does and why Kevin likens it to Yelp.

- How Bitcoin For Beginners built its impressive audience.

- The difficulty of finding reliable information and why this inspired CryptoCanary.

- Monetization of Bitcoin For Beginners and CryptoCanary.

- The most common misconceptions of cryptocurrency.

- Concerns about volatility in the crypto market.

- What excites Kevin about blockchain, both now and in the future.

- Extra layers of friction that don't make for a good user experience.

- First steps for new users who want to get involved in crypto.

- Resources that Kevin recommends for learning about this space.

- Developments in blockchain gaming.

Links to Resources:

CryptoCanary: https://cryptocanary.app/

To get in touch with Kevin, visit CryptoCanary's Telegram: https://t.me/cryptocanaryapp/

Bitcoin For Beginners Website: https://www.bitcoinforbeginners.io/

Bitcoin For Beginners on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/bitcoinforbeginners/

Bitcoin For Beginners Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cryptoforbeginners/

Bitcoin For Beginners Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/realbtcforbeginners

Andreas Antonopoulos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ

Buy, Sell, and Pay with Crypto: https://crypto.com/en/

In this episode, Kelley Weaver chats with Dennis Lewis, author of Behold the Cryptopreneurs: How to thrive in the new blockchain economy without feeling slimy. Dennis got into the space a few years ago when a friend called him up who needed help marketing an initial coin offering (ICO).

Dennis has seen many projects fail, prompting him to identify areas in which crypto companies should improve. He expresses changes that need to be made so that cryptocurrency doesn't end up as a speculative backyard to the financial industry. Dennis is excited about blockchain technology in general but reveals one use case in particular that he sees as a huge opportunity. A distributed ICO is one way that can prevent a problem that Dennis identified, and he explains how it can help. We hear about Dennis' belief that every entrepreneur, even those not directly involved in this space, should educate themselves on crypto, beginning by accepting it as a form of payment. He also gives his thoughts on the touchy subject of developers titling themselves as CEOs. Finally, he stresses the importance of putting in an effort to understand this revolutionary technology.

Topics covered:

- How Dennis made his way into this industry.

- Fundamental reasons that Dennis saw leading to the failure of projects.

- Helping the industry begin solving real problems facing real people.

- Providing projects with the funds that they need.

- Dennis' definition of a cryptopreneur, as outlined in his book.

- The value in deciding whether to share our data or not.

- The ability of distributed ICOs to raise funds over time.

- Advice for entrepreneurs in and out of the blockchain industry.

- Trends in fundraising today and what the future holds.

- Skills to design a blockchain versus skills to run a business.

- Bridging the skills gap by focusing on the problem that blockchain solves.

Links to Resources:

Crypto Trader News: https://cryptotradernews.com/

Dennis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dennishlewis

Dennis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennishlewis

Download the first 4 chapters of Behold the Cryptopreneurs: https://cryptopreneurs.club/

Behold the Cryptopreneurs: How to thrive in the new blockchain economy without feeling slimy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/107806363X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Today's episode was recorded on-site at the Crypto Mondays LA meetup co-hosted with crypto consulting, business solutions, and investing firm BitPros. At this event, Crypto Token Talk Host Kelley Weaver and other attendees set out to break the record for most women to ever attend a crypto meetup. An all-star panel drew a packed room of both women and men, leading the group to shatter the existing record. Kelley fills listeners in on the context of the event before launching into a panel featuring illustrious female guests in the crypto sphere:

Guests include:

- Najah Roberts, Founder and CEO of Crypto Blockchain Plug, one of the first brick and mortar cryptocurrency over-the-counter help desks and education centers. They are focused on bringing affecting change and fostering mass adoption in every area of the crypto space.

- Crystal Rose, CEO and Co-founder of Sense.Chat, a decentralized messenger that allows for a crypto-friendly messaging experience that doesn't spy on you.

- Barbara Bickham, Founder and CTO of Trailyn Ventures, a blockchain advisory company. She also works with the Women's Innovation Fund Accelerator which helps advance women in blockchain.

- Zayi Reyes, Partnerships & Marketing Lead at Unstoppable Domains, which offers easy-to-remember addresses and domains for sending cryptocurrencies. Zayi is also a board member of The Rabbit Hole Network.

- Kseniya Lifanova, Co-Founder, Partner, and Smart Contract Developer at Upstate Interactive LLC, a tech consultancy which began offering smart contracts as part of its services.

Topics covered:

- How each guest first got involved in the cryptocurrency/blockchain sphere.

- Najah's educating of young people.

- Crystal's thoughts on the importance of privacy.

- How Barbara's work helps foster and grow the blockchain industry.

- Why Zayi thinks good marketing is often underestimated in the crypto space.

- How we can avoid repeating the mistakes of the dot com boom in Kseniya's opinion.

- Breaking the record for most women to ever attend a crypto meetup.

- Hopes for blockchain as we head into 2020.

Links to Resources:

Crypto Blockchain Plug: https://www.cryptopluginglewood.com/

Sense.Chat: https://www.sense.chat/

Barbara Bickham: https://www.barbarabickham.com/

Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/

Upstate Interactive: https://upstateinteractive.io/

BitPros: https://www.mybitpro.com/

CryptoMondays L.A.: https://www.meetup.com/Crypto-Mondays-L-A/

The Rabbit Hole Network: https://www.rabbithole.network/

Dan Conway is our guest in this episode. He is the author of Confessions of a Crypto Millionaire: My Unlikely Escape from Corporate America. Dan discovered Ethereum when he was working as an executive with a large company at a time when his job was unstable.

When first reading about Ethereum, Dan believed that it had the power to take on big corporations someday. He shares his views on what Ethereum will become but admits that it is not ready for scaling yet. In the future, Dan believes there will be projects that can plug into a distributed project like in the original concept of DAOs. Dan and his wife gained around $100,000 thanks to various fortunate events, all of which they invested in Ethereum. His wife never wanted to talk about money but understood how much better their life became thanks to this investment. Dan instills that a good amount of research should be done before making a crypto investment and talks about the dishonesty of some projects.

Topics covered:

- Dan's life before getting into cryptocurrency.

- Use cases that Dan saw for Ethereum when he first invested and now.

- The financial pressure that Dan's family was under during the recession.

- Dan's giant investment into Ethereum.

- Being confident and certain about investing in cryptocurrency.

- What Dan's life looked like after Ethereum began rising in value.

- Dan getting fired from his job and how it affected his life.

- Critics of Dan and his story.

- Recommended activities before investing in cryptocurrency.

- Sell pressure on Ethereum because of previous ICOs.

- Pitches that Dan has received from crypto companies.

Links to Resources:

Confessions of a Crypto Millionaire: https://amzn.to/2OshJ43

Dan Conway: https://danconwaywriter.com/

Dan Conway on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanConway650

Should You Invest in Crypto Now?!: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2019/09/09/should-you-invest-in-crypto-now/#10ee6d0bca0f

Two guests from the AnthemGold and Hercules projects join us for this episode. Cynthia Blanchard is the Co-Founder and President of these companies, while Julie Mei is the Chief Technology Officer.

Cynthia's husband, Anthem Blanchard, was adopted into a family with a deep history involving gold. She shares the story of how her father-in-law, James U. Blanchard III, led the charge in lifting laws restricting ownership of gold in the United States. AnthemGold aims to build on Blanchard's vision with its gold-backed asset token that enables easy transactions using gold, one of history's most widely trusted and universal mediums of exchange.

Julie explains the technology behind Hercules, a blockchain-based supply chain solution, and its use to track the purchase, movement, and ownership of gold bars represented by AnthemGold tokens. Cynthia believes that as Hercules demonstrates its utility as an enterprise supply chain solution, various industries will wake up to the value of blockchain technology as a data verification and tracking tool. Julie says that the big changes in crypto are coming from the small players and that the current aim for AnthemGold and Hercules is to stay small enough to easily meet the needs of clients. Cynthia and Julie share their predictions of where bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general are headed in the coming years.

Topics covered:

- The vastly different ways that Cynthia and Julie discovered crypto.

- Cynthia's ties to Anthem Blanchard and companies, AnthemGold and Hercules.

- An explanation of AnthemGold and how it stores gold reserves.

- How the Hercules software applies to AnthemGold.

- An example of blockchain use in a supply chain.

- Industries and applications that will really benefit from blockchain.

- Cost benefits of Hercules compared to Ethereum.

- Scaling dilemmas in the cryptocurrency space.

- Resources that Cynthia and Julie use to stay up-to-date on news and developments.

- The future of cryptocurrency.

Links to Resources:

AnthemGold: https://anthemgold.com/

Hercules: https://herc.one/

Julie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sudobangbang

Anthem Blanchard on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthemhayek

Hercules on Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/E_FZdg4HNKlqnxKXEEeYxw

AnthemGold on Telegram: https://t.me/anthemgold

Today's guest is Michael Seitz, Marketing Manager at Dash Core Group. He lives in San Diego and first learned of cryptocurrency in 2012. Dash is a payment-focused cryptocurrency whose team introduced the idea of master nodes to the crypto landscape. Master nodes work by having major stakeholders park their Dash on a second server and earn Dash for providing the essential network service of verifying transactions.

Michael began researching crypto seriously in 2014, and actually made his first purchase with the help of the Second Life game. He explains the path he took to eventually end up working with Dash and provides reasons why Dash is superior to other cryptocurrencies. Unique among cryptos, any amount of Dash can be sent to anyone, anywhere in the world, in just one second and for about a penny in fees. Dash's low fees and speedy transaction times creates a sharp contrast with bitcoin, whose fees increase in-line with the price of the currency. Research suggests Dash would scale well as a global payments network.

The biggest market for Dash thus far has been Venezuela and surrounding countries because of the hyperinflation experienced there. We also hear about how partner businesses, such as Crypto Mobile, have been instrumental in Dash adoption in Latin America. We return to the topic of why Dash is referred to as the "granddaddy of governance," and Michael does a deep-dive into the distinction between Dash Core Group and the Dash cryptocurrency. Impressively, Dash is one of the most decentralized cryptocurrencies with on average between 4800 and 5000 master nodes operating at any given time. To the question of how to learn more about crypto projects, Michael underlines the importance of doing your own research and reading white papers.

Topics covered:

- How Michael first discovered cryptocurrency.

- The crypto miner that Michael built using a milk crate.

- An explanation of master nodes.

- Aspects that make Dash superior to other cryptocurrencies.

- Where Dash can be bought, and which wallets can be used to store it.

- Markets that Dash has gained traction in and why.

- Cell phones that come with the Dash wallet pre-installed.

- Dash's approach to helping vendors accept their cryptocurrency.

- The adoption of Dash compared to other cryptocurrencies.

- Governance in the Dash network.

- Deep-dive into Dash Core Group and how it works.

- Learning about cryptocurrency projects.

Links to Resources:

Dash Website: https://www.dash.org/

Dash Blog: https://blog.dash.org/

Buy Dash on: https://uphold.com/

To Learn More About the Dash Core v0.14.0.3 Release: https://blog.dash.org/overview-of-mainnet-stress-test-and-dash-core-v0-14-0-3-release-db6b978da42c

Michael on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sdseitz

Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sdseitz

Sam Radocchia is back for her second appearance on the podcast in today's episode. She is part of the Chronicled team, a company which builds blockchain protocols for supply chain management in the pharmaceutical industry.

Because of the misinformation that exists in the blockchain space, Sam wrote the book Bitcoin Pizza to educate newcomers about it. She says that writing this book was one of the hardest things she has ever done. We hear about an interesting method that Sam used to write some parts of her book. While Bitcoin is ever-changing, Sam discusses how she attempted to write Bitcoin Pizza as a timeless piece that focused on culture. This means that there are several Bitcoin cultural references in the book, and Sam shares a few with us. With privacy concerns on the internet growing, a conversation begins about how blockchain can help with big data. Aside from her book, Sam knows a lot of good blockchain informational resources which she shares. Bitcoin Pizza presents insight on the different segments of people involved in the space, so Sam provides a brief overview of some. Sam then discusses the benefits of meeting up with like-minded cryptocurrency users.

Topics covered:

- Sam's background and how Chronicled has grown.

- Reasons why Sam wrote Bitcoin Pizza.

- The difficult process of writing the book after blogging for so many years.

- Intimidation that some people feel when entering the cryptocurrency space.

- The different feelings of publishing something on the internet versus publishing a book.

- Headings used in the book and some sneak peeks.

- The story behind the name Bitcoin Pizza.

- Reliving the internet's past with Bitcoin.

- Dangers of automation and false data.

- Resources that Sam recommends learning about cryptocurrency from.

- A live directory that Sam is working on.

- The Twitter culture surrounding blockchain.

- How Sam's attitude of storing cryptocurrency has evolved.

Links to Resources:

Buy Sam's Book, Bitcoin Pizza, on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2YnJ3GL

Sam's first appearance: https://cryptotokentalk.io/podcast/episode-120-sam-radocchia-talks-non-finance-blockchain-use-cases/

Chronicled: https://www.chronicled.com/

Bitcoin Pizza: https://samantharadocchia.com/bitcoin-pizza-book

The Collective Future: http://collectivefuture.io/

Sam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/samradofficial

The Bitcoin Standard: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Standard-Decentralized-Alternative-Central/dp/1119473861

Debt: The First 5,000 Years: https://www.amazon.com/Debt-First-5-000-Years/dp/1612191290