Today we’re talking to the CEO of Centrifuge, Lucas Vogelsang. Back in 2012 everyone seemed to be pitching him on Coinbase and while he loved the idea he decided not to get involved. Lucas says he thought it would only ever be a fringe thing. Lucas had been working in startups and techs for twelve years when he decided to take some time off. He told himself that when he came back he wanted to do something harder, possibly in crypto or AI. It was 2017 when he decided to start with crypto and got sucked in. He loved the idea of money having more functionality, and so he started Centrifuge.

Lucas says that before he got into crypto, he was working for a fintech startup and saw over and over how convenient and cheap access to capital was for global2000 companies. It gives them an advantage over smaller companies that have to use a bank and deal with a lot of middle men. Centrifuge wants to create a market that's open to anyone, with no middle man to put you at a disadvantage. They’re trying to open up defy to easy users, a several trillion dollar market. Lucas says most people don’t own crypto yet, they have houses, cars, and student debt. What if they could collateralize their assets, providing liquidity? It would restructure how finance works.

As a business, you need money to grow, and you would usually go to a bank to get it. With the current tech, you would deal with an asset originator to essentially turn loans into a credit fund, and it’s all done on chain. The loans are secure and all priced correctly on chain. Small borrowers have a new advantage when they can go wherever the cheapest liquidity is; money just flows in defy. No more going to the bank, finding out the rate, applying, jumping through hoops, hoping they accept you.

Lucas says they launched their live version on centrifuge.io in November and grew to ten million in assets. As of yesterday, Maker has on-boarded the first of these pools as collateral. Investors can now deposit some directly into Maker and get a loan. Centrifuge should be able to start on-boarding real world soon. If you're interested in learning more, visit centrifuge.io.

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Divi is creating the world's first closed-loop, vertically-integrated cryptocurrency ecosystem. Much like Apple's ecosystem is anchored by iCloud, the Divi Project blockchain serves as the core of the Divi network of technologies. Thanks to a keen understanding of the divide that separates the mainstream from the crypto world, the Divi team is able to create solutions to the industry's biggest problem: adoption by non-technical users. Divi's user-friendly, one-click solutions aim to bring blockchain-based payments into modernity with great UX. In this podcast, we will cover all aspects of cryptocurrency, hot topics, and technology as worldwide adoption grows.

Today we’re talking to Sam Kim, founding partner of Umbrella Network. In 2013 Sam started a mobile ad tech company called Gimbal where he had a brilliant employee that stopped being productive. All he wanted to talk about was bitcoin. Sam was curious to know about what was drawing his employee away from work, and so he attended a meet-up to learn more. Everyone there was so passionate that Sam went home and immediately did more research. Sam says he loved the idea of decentralization but didn’t see a career in it for himself, especially with Gimbal doing so well, so he put it in the back of his mind. In 2017 Ethereum came on the scene and a friend introduced him to how smart contracts work. Sam realized it could solve a lot of problems in the digital advertising space. He thought they could create a shared ledger and so Lucidity was started. Lucidity is blockchain-audited media for greater transparency.

Fast-forward to his newest endeavor, Umbrella Network, which collects data from multiple sources to calculate the most accurate price in the market. Umbrella Network is a community owned decentralized oracle. Blockchain apps can’t pull data directly from API’s like traditional apps. Oracle provides that tool of on-boarding data from traditional sources and making that available on blockchain, securely. Sam says it needs to be scalable and data needs to be current and accurate. They anchor data on the chain, and you can be confident the data is what was agreed on during consensus. By doing this, they drastically lower the cost of on-chain data. For one blockchain transaction, instead of a one to one, they’re doing thousands to one. With low-cost data they’re also able to update more frequently, getting the most accurate, current, and secure data.

Outside of Umbrella, Sam says he’s excited about the progression of technology. He says it’s like in 2012 when mobile was all 3g, data was limited, and band length was slow, then came LTE. Data was made much cheaper, it was an explosion of innovation. More and more apps took advantage of LTE and the cheaper data. Sam says we’re in a similar time frame today when it comes to blockchain. He’s excited to see what app developers come up with.

To learn more, visit www.umb.network. They can also be found on Telegram and Twitter.

Today we’re talking with the CEO and President of Lisk, Max Kordek. Lisk is a blockchain application platform with an SDK providing developers with a set of tools making the process of creating blockchain applications easy. Max says he’s always been fascinated by technology and finance, so the crypto industry caught his eye in 2012. While studying electro-engineering he asked the best student in class what he thought about bitcoin and blockchain. That student told Max that it was too late, and he’d never make any money, so Max dropped it for a few months. When he read about it again, he knew he had to get involved. While working for a design agency inside the crypto space, he knew he wanted to be a part of a team that pushes a blockchain project forward. Two years into working on a project they ran out of money, but Max wasn’t ready to give up. He went on to continue the vision with his own company, Lisk.

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Divi is creating the world's first closed-loop, vertically-integrated cryptocurrency ecosystem. Much like Apple's ecosystem is anchored by iCloud, the Divi Project blockchain serves as the core of the Divi network of technologies. Thanks to a keen understanding of the divide that separates the mainstream from the crypto world, the Divi team is able to create solutions to the industry's biggest problem: adoption by non-technical users. Divi's user-friendly, one-click solutions aim to bring blockchain-based payments into modernity with great UX. In this podcast, we will cover all aspects of cryptocurrency, hot topics, and technology as worldwide adoption grows.

Today Steve talks to Peter Wall CEO of Argo Blockchain, a publicly-traded blockchain technology company focused on large-scale cryptocurrency mining. Peter first was introduced to crypto when he was in Indonesia running a coworking space. A guy came in talking about bitcoin, how he had quit his job in the US, and had moved to Bali. He started weekly meet ups at Paul’s co-working space to learn about bitcoin. Peter says his company was actually the first business in Bali to accept bitcoin payments. Down the road Paul would get in touch with the co-founders of Argo who were trying to bring crypto to the UK. They asked Paul if he wanted to be one of their first employees and Paul jumped on the opportunity.

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Divi is creating the world's first closed-loop, vertically-integrated cryptocurrency ecosystem. Much like Apple's ecosystem is anchored by iCloud, the Divi Project blockchain serves as the core of the Divi network of technologies. Thanks to a keen understanding of the divide that separates the mainstream from the crypto world, the Divi team is able to create solutions to the industry's biggest problem: adoption by non-technical users. Divi's user-friendly, one-click solutions aim to bring blockchain-based payments into modernity with great UX. In this podcast, we will cover all aspects of cryptocurrency, hot topics, and technology as worldwide adoption grows.

Today we’re talking with CEO and Co-founder of DSTOQ, Craig McGregor. DSTOQ is an app that helps you get unrestricted access to stocks, bonds, or ETF’s with zero fees. Before DSTOQ Craig was working in finance in South Africa, investing in companies all over the world. He was first introduced to cryptocurrency when some of his poker friends were using bitcoin to make deposits and withdrawals for online casinos. It was some of those same friends that would introduce Craig to the man that would become his co-founder, Christian. Christian was trying to move money down to South Africa and was getting charged big fee’s by traditional banks. With Craig’s background in financing, his understanding of crypto, and being from an emerging market, he realized a lot of finance in emerging markets is broken. This is when Craig realized cross border transactions were one of the best use cases for cryptocurrency and DSTOQ was born.

DSTOQ is a decentralized trading platform for people to invest from emerging markets to developed markets. The company is focused on first time investors with an app that makes it as user-friendly as possible to buy shares of companies like Apple and Tesla. With DSTOQ the settlement time takes just five seconds instead of five days. A settlement is when legal ownership of what you bought is transferred, and a lot of bad things can happen in five days. Craig says that’s why settlement time is so important. One side of DSTOQ is the traditional infrastructure with traditional banks. DSTOQ will buy all shares of a company and then create a token on Stellar blockchain with a one to one link. It’s then possible to trade those tokens on the Stellar blockchain. It allows transactions peer to peer without the middle man.

Craig says they’re mostly based in Europe but have the most users from Brazil and Nigeria. The DSTOQ team is rather small with a core team of just three people. The team has created an e-learning course for people that don’t know where to start with investing. Craig says education is needed especially in emerging markets and that education is the ultimate equalizer. The e-learning can be found directly on the app.

To learn more about DSTOQ, visit dstoq.com or find them on Twitter and Instagram.

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Divi is creating the world's first closed-loop, vertically-integrated cryptocurrency ecosystem. Much like Apple's ecosystem is anchored by iCloud, the Divi Project blockchain serves as the core of the Divi network of technologies. Thanks to a keen understanding of the divide that separates the mainstream from the crypto world, the Divi team is able to create solutions to the industry's biggest problem: adoption by non-technical users. Divi's user-friendly, one-click solutions aim to bring blockchain-based payments into modernity with great UX. In this podcast, we will cover all aspects of cryptocurrency, hot topics, and technology as worldwide adoption grows.

Today we’re talking to the Chief Customer Success Officer at Core Scientific, Russell Cann. With a background in tech, Russell began his career at a consulting firm where he spent 20 years in startups and growing them towards an exit. In 2017 someone approached Russell about a data center he owned, asking if they could use it to mine crypto. Russell then went down the rabbit hole and was hooked. They did a lot of GPU mining with Ethereum. While they do some hosting they’re mostly focused on self mining. Russell says it’s an exciting environment to work in where things move quickly.

When it comes to sustainability and energy, Russell is watching the space mature in North America. Where bitcoin uses more energy than Switzerland, clean energy will begin to accelerate. Part of inexpensive power is taking abandoned power infrastructures for use as data centers. In a town of 300 people in North Carolina, an old denim plant was turned into a massive data center. Russell reminds that a lot of the affordable power is green, such as solar or hydropower. Core Scientific is already 50% carbon-neutral and Russell says as bitcoin network matures, green energy is where it will go. Also, every year bitcoin machines become more efficient. At Core, it used to take 350,000 machines to power 450 megawatts, and now takes 150,000 machines. Core uses software to be more efficient as well. They currently have 75 patents with a majority around software.

While Core doesn’t really cater to individuals, a year ago they were serving mostly family offices and now are seeing a tremendous move by hedge funds and public companies. A lot of people are looking for diversification in digital assets. With clients all over the place they have 10’s of thousands of GPU’s. Right now they’re BTC heavy, but they will bounce between coins to make the most revenue, making them very competitive. Russell expects to see bigger payment processing companies like PayPal and Facebook Pay get involved. He says we’ll see tokenization of payment systems with an easier user interface. Where it’s still a pain to set up a wallet and transfer money, things need to be easier for everyday use.

If you’d like to learn more about Core Scientific, visit their website at corescientific.com. They’re also active on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Telegram.

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Today we’re talking to COO of Dan Holdings, Anthony Lauriola. Dan Holdings is an investment firm focused on ventures, tokens, and projects related to blockchain technology, digital currency, and digital assets. Anthony first was introduced to crypto by a childhood friend in early 2013 right before the major crash. At the time he didn’t really understand it and moved on. A year or two later he started working with that childhood friend and started learning all that he could about the crypto space. By 2017 Anthony was heavily involved. He saw the space go through an ICO boom and all fall down, but he stuck with it because he believed in it.

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Divi is creating the world's first closed-loop, vertically-integrated cryptocurrency ecosystem. Much like Apple's ecosystem is anchored by iCloud, the Divi Project blockchain serves as the core of the Divi network of technologies. Thanks to a keen understanding of the divide that separates the mainstream from the crypto world, the Divi team is able to create solutions to the industry's biggest problem: adoption by non-technical users. Divi's user-friendly, one-click solutions aim to bring blockchain-based payments into modernity with great UX. In this podcast, we will cover all aspects of cryptocurrency, hot topics, and technology as worldwide adoption grows.

Today we have special guests Justin Woodward and Michelle O’Connor from TaxBit, a company looking to make taxes as easy as possible in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Justin says he was first introduced to crypto when, as a tax attorney, he had a Fortune 500 client asked how they could accept crypto on their platform. Michelle joined BitReserve in 2015 and watched it slowly become more mainstream, especially in the last six to eighteen months.

Justin says you shouldn’t have to be a tax attorney to understand or trade cryptocurrency. One thing to consider is that the IRS doesn’t see crypto as currency but rather as property. Just the same, all that property needs to be tracked from a tax perspective. Cryptocurrency is still relatively new and the regulations are changing all the time. TaxBit aims to automate all the regulatory hurdles. Michelle believes that the world will be a better place once we have widespread adoption because of the power it gives consumers.

With more and more industrial corporations accepting and facilitating crypto it’s wise to know the tax implications. If a brokerage just sends you a 10-99 at the end of the year and that’s the first you know what you owe, that doesn’t work. People may not know the impact of trading in this space when it comes to taxes. TaxBit would let them see it’s effects on taxes in real time. That in turn would give them more opportunity to maximize trade.

Justin says trading can have a positive or negative impact on taxes, so it’s important to know. When staking assets and appreciating wealth, that’s taxable. When you receive an asset that’s income and when you sell if you have a gain you're taxed on income and gain. In the ideal situation you would gain losses and defer gains to get a tax refund at the end of the year. The worst trap you can fall into is figuring out taxes at the end of the year. TaxBit allows you to think about it year round as you make your trades.

To learn more about TaxBit you can visit taxbit.com or find them on Twitter @taxbit. Michelle says they’re also active on LinkedIn and Reddit. They love to engage with the community and encourage anyone with any questions about their circumstances to reach out. Justin also suggests everyone try the free trial of TaxBit.

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Divi is creating the world's first closed-loop, vertically-integrated cryptocurrency ecosystem. Much like Apple's ecosystem is anchored by iCloud, the Divi Project blockchain serves as the core of the Divi network of technologies. Thanks to a keen understanding of the divide that separates the mainstream from the crypto world, the Divi team is able to create solutions to the industry's biggest problem: adoption by non-technical users. Divi's user-friendly, one-click solutions aim to bring blockchain-based payments into modernity with great UX. In this podcast, we will cover all aspects of cryptocurrency, hot topics, and technology as worldwide adoption grows.

Today we have Jonas Simanavicius, the CEO of Syntropy. Jonas started off in the investment banking world after graduating with a software engineering degree. He ended up teaming with some individuals that were very excited about blockchain and knew how life changing it could be. They weren’t exactly sure how they were going to change the world with it yet, but they knew the possibilities were there. What started as a content delivery network called NOIA would soon become what is known now as Syntropy. Jonas and his colleagues continued to find more and more problems with the internet and thought how those could be solved using decentralized technology. Jonas knew that Syntropy and blockchain technology could make the internet decentralized.

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Divi is creating the world's first closed-loop, vertically-integrated cryptocurrency ecosystem. Much like Apple's ecosystem is anchored by iCloud, the Divi Project blockchain serves as the core of the Divi network of technologies. Thanks to a keen understanding of the divide that separates the mainstream from the crypto world, the Divi team is able to create solutions to the industry's biggest problem: adoption by non-technical users. Divi's user-friendly, one-click solutions aim to bring blockchain-based payments into modernity with great UX. In this podcast, we will cover all aspects of cryptocurrency, hot topics, and technology as worldwide adoption grows.

Today we’re talking to Li Jun, founder of Ontology and SAGA. Starting out in the financial industry, Jun was tasked with researching blockchain. Once Jun saw how much blockchain could really do, he quit his job at the financial institution and started working on Ontology. Ontology is a protocol that operates as a decentralized identity framework that helps users manage their own data and enables blockchain-based authentication by global verifiers. Once they had the infrastructure and the protocol, they needed a project. SAGA became that project. SAGA is a decentralized data marketplace meant to allow individuals and organizations to monetize and acquire data in a trusted, standardized, and cost-effective way.

Data is said to be the oil of this century, and it’s as important as ever to own your own data. With data trading, you can confirm your own data and exchange it peer to peer. For example, you could share your e-commerce history by linking different data sources to your wallet, it would then be verified on blockchain and then after usage, the data would not be stored. This is a technology that a car insurance company could utilize. Your car has all sorts of data on your driving that you could choose to share with an insurance company to get a more custom product. This is why the decentralized protocol is a good solution to protect privacy and data.

Another example of usage would be a job search platform wanting to verify information found on a user's resume. They could use decentralized data protocol to verify work experience and blockchain would confirm if the history is true or not. Jun believes the next phase of this technology will allow every resume to be verified automatically. When an organization wants information you would get a notification on your data wallet and the data will be sent to them peer to peer. The bank will use this data to verify all information and output a result; everything would be recorded by blockchain.

Jun is most excited to see other use scenarios, with new products and protocols. He says crypto is still an asset industry, and he looks forward to it moving beyond that. If you’re interested to learn more about Ontology or SAGA, visit ont.io, saga.io or download the data wallet at onto.app where you can start managing your decentralized identity and digital assets.

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Divi is creating the world's first closed-loop, vertically-integrated cryptocurrency ecosystem. Much like Apple's ecosystem is anchored by iCloud, the Divi Project blockchain serves as the core of the Divi network of technologies. Thanks to a keen understanding of the divide that separates the mainstream from the crypto world, the Divi team is able to create solutions to the industry's biggest problem: adoption by non-technical users. Divi's user-friendly, one-click solutions aim to bring blockchain-based payments into modernity with great UX. In this podcast, we will cover all aspects of cryptocurrency, hot topics, and technology as worldwide adoption grows.