The Bit

We humans produce nearly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. But do we care enough about the security and privacy of that data?

With Stephen Stonberg for this episode of The Bit is Nagu Thogiti, CTO of Folder Protocol. The company’s focus is decentralized storage: in an alternative to centralized, cloud-based storage, nodes distributed across the world provide space for moving large amounts of data, all with the performance, scalability, and security of a cryptographic solution using second-layer protocol. The popularity of decentralized storage has soared in the last 6-12 months, as many believe that cloud storage providers have become too emboldened to censor their customers. As Thogiti says, Folder Protocol takes “trust and authority and data ownership from these big companies and [gives] it back to you.” Stonberg and Thogiti discuss Folder Protocol’s vision as a provider for data-intensive blockchain startups, what it will take to care more about our own data security and privacy, and how soon non-technical users will plug into decentralized storage.

Listen as Bittrex Global’s Stephen Stonberg sits down with Lars Hoffmann and Mike Rogers, research analysts from The Block, to discuss their findings over the years. Hoffmann and Rogers focus on stablecoins, digital assets whose price is tied to a cryptocurrency, fiat money, or an exchange-traded commodity. In this episode, they cover several topics including different locales’ preference for different stablecoins, the explosion of stablecoin transactions from $6 billion in 2020 to $70 billion now, and how the concept of privately issued currency was established over a century ago – plus, the factors that may lead to the continued trajectory of stablecoins.

In this latest episode of The Bit, Founder of DigitalBits and Zytara, Al Burgio, talks about how he sees blockchain: as an additional fourth dimension beyond the “3-D” traditional finance world we’ve all been living in. This realm of possibilities we’ve barely begun to explore, he says, “makes you want to have a front-row seat.” Among many subjects, Burgio discusses how areas of friction in gaming and esports inspired the creation of the Zytara dollar stablecoin (ZUSD), and how Zytara Labs’ collaborations with musical artists, gamers, esports companies, actors, celebs, and brands are leading to consistent NFT creation on the DigitalBits (XDB) protocol layer blockchain.

Al Burgio founded DigitalBits in 2017 to help tokenize assets and branded currencies. In 2019, he founded payment platform Zytara to fill a sorely unmet financial need in esports. These days, among several NFTs in the works from as-yet unannounced personalities and brands, Zytara Labs have been busy preparing for the highly anticipated May 26th launch of the exclusive Floyd Mayweather NFT collection.

In the newest episode of The Bit, CEO of Bondly Finance Brandon Smith discusses a gamut of topics: his unique entry into the world of crypto (via eBay), his deep background in traditional finance, and some of the clearest indicators he’s seen that NFTs are not only here to stay but represent the next steps in DeFi and in attracting more investors to crypto. As they become more widely adopted, Smith believes, an NFT’s meaning is shifting from asset to identity.  

In our latest episode of The Bit, xBTC Founder and CEO Mark Sgambelluri sits down with Bittrex Global’s Stephen Stonberg to discuss the first-ever token that acts as a Bitcoin dominance hedge: xBTC. To benefit holders, xBTC’s team has set two forces against each other: negatively descending Bitcoin dominance versus positively ascending demand. During the conversation, Mark also delves into the timely circumstances of his entry into the world of crypto, what he’s learned in the crypto “dog years” since that time, and how his passionate evangelism of decentralized monetary policy inspired the creation of xBTC (wxBTC on Bittrex Global).

In this episode, we speak with Alex Mashinsky about Celsius (CEL), a utility token that rewards its HODLers with meaningful benefits. In 2017, while Wall Street’s shrinking yields continued to benefit only the 1%, Mashinsky and his team were the first in the world to create yield on the blockchain and deliver 80% of it back to its community of depositors. Celsius is the eighth business Mashinsky has started in his career of contributing to several communication/tech infrastructure breakthroughs.

Listen as Stephen Stonberg discusses with CUT founders, Matthew Pickup & Ethan Gilmore, the token’s origins, how carbon offsetting actually works, ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) investing, and the advantage to their action-oriented approach to carbon offsetting. Behind CUT is a large pool of best-of-breed, in-use projects that utilize renewable and carbon capture technologies to reduce and stop CO2 from entering our atmosphere. CUT brings climate impact full-circle, offering investors a measurable stake in our planet’s future.

Listen as TheFutbolCoin CEO and Co-founder Steve van Zutphen discusses the origins of the only app and token ecosystem meant for the largest community of sports fans across the globe. After founding a software company at the age of 26 and dipping a toe into crypto in 2013, van Zutphen is now revolutionizing football culture with decentralized digital assets. In his estimation, using crypto in this way is the next generation of social networking and revenue-sharing that will create “an 80-trillion market, minimum."

In this episode, we delve into non-fungible tokens, or NFTs and how they work in the world of gaming. We talk with Sebastian Borget, the founder and CEO of The Sandbox, a decentralized gaming platform. Borget is also president of the Blockchain Game Alliance, which advocates for blockchain in gaming.

Jack Mallers, founder and CEO of Zap and the payment platform Strike, talks with about how his family’s legacy in finance led him to exploring a career in cryptocurrency. Mallers looks at the future of payment for work and explains why professional athletes and entertainers are looking to get paid in Bitcoin. Passionate about asset inflation and why Bitcoin is a better option than U.S. dollars, Mallers talks about how to use Bitcoin to preserve individual wealth. It’s a thought-provoking episode that touches on how everyone can use Bitcoin to their benefit in their daily life.