I have been a freelancer since before it was cool and have been asked many times when I would go and get a “real job” working a 9–5 like everyone else. What those asking me that question don’t know is that my time is my own, I choose what projects I want to work on, and I have a level of peace in my life that most people spend a lifetime trying to achieve.

Charging More Narrows Down the List of Potential Clients

I was absolutely terrified the first time I sat down with a corporate executive and pitched him my proposal to improve his offering because sales of their new product line had stalled and then fizzled out. They were having trouble relating to a younger clientele.

I had been in business for about 6 years at this point but this was the first time pitching to a mature CEO that had been doing business about 3x as long as I had been alive.

I prepared for that first meeting for at least a week. I refined the pitch deck at least a hundred times and questioned if I was even good enough to get the job done. (Gotta love imposter syndrome, right?)

This One Common Phenomenon Is Holding You Back From Success

To add some context, when this man asked me if I wanted some scotch during the meeting? I had to turn him down because I wasn’t legally allowed to drink yet.

The meeting was an absolute success and he hired me on immediately at 5x the rate that I had been charging previously. We worked together for months and I had a ton of new content to add to my portfolio to show to new potential clients. He and I are still friends today, even though he has long since retired to sunnier shores.

That one meeting completely changed the game for me. Going forward, I confidently charged the new rate without hesitation and loved the clients that showed up ready and eager to work together. At the lower rates, I had been chasing clients and it was an absolute headache.

Become an Expert at ONE THING

In the corporate world, those employees that can do literally anything are the ones that advance quickly up the ladder. They are willing to learn anything to get the job done and they will work twice as hard as anyone else in their circle of influence at the job site.

The exact opposite is true in the freelance space. Offering every service under the sun deters clients from wanting to hire you because they aren’t confident that you have that one skill that they are looking for.

Experts have said that it takes 10,000 hours of training or consistent efforts to become an expert at something. Putting effort into one thing rather than multiple allows for growth and improvement in that area.

When working as a freelancer, companies want to hire experts (most of the time) and are willing to pay for that experience.

Work With Your Ideal Clients

I learned very early on that I like clients that are willing to be guided through my process and learn from my experience. I have been very blessed to have most clients work with me through their business challenges and the process is a seamless transition to turn the reins back over to them and have them run the processes that we have implemented or improved upon.

Many of my clients have become repeat customers because we have worked so well together and I already understand their business so I know what they are trying to accomplish.

I love the world changers, those that have amazing and game changing ideas but just need some help bringing the idea to life. So, those are the clients that I choose to work with because it’s on my heart to do so and leaves me feeling fulfilled at the end of the day.

Every Month is Different

Freelance work is not like working a 9–5 job. Some months, you might have so much work coming your way that you have to refuse clients. But, other months? *Crickets*

One major way to combat this is to have a financial pad in your bank account to cover expenses if you come up short one month. My slowest time of year has always been January because many of my clients focus on having the perfect end of year and amazing holiday sales but kind of burn themselves out or spend January planning the upcoming year.

Because I know that January is my slowest month of the year, I can prepare for it. I go out and prospect for new clients or improve my own marketing strategies so that when clients are done with their planning, they are able to find me. And the financial cushion allows for me to weather the down time until I get more work to do.

Time Management is a Necessary Skill

There are plenty of time management and customer relations management tools available to help track your time but, at the end of the day, you are the only person that can manage your schedule and get the work completed.

Clients are not going to check on you every day to make sure the job is being worked on but they will expect deliverables to be given to them on time and completed.

It can be really easy to fall behind because you are just not feeling like working that day or you want to take some time to yourself. I am all for taking time off but I schedule it in advance.

Managing your time and maintaining motivation to get the work done will be instrumental to your success. I get up every day and shower and get dressed before starting work. I don’t have to get dressed. I could sit in PJs on my couch.

But, I am more productive and produce better work when I get dressed and act like I am going to the office. It’s a mindset for me. And it should be for you, too.

What have you learned as a freelancer that you would add to this list? Have you been thinking about getting started yourself? Was this helpful? What other questions do you have about getting started? I want to hear your thoughts!

Have a wonderful day and thanks for reading!

**Disclaimer: As always, my advice is meant for entertainment purposes only and all opinions are my own. This is not meant to be financial advice and I am not a financial advisor. Please consult with a financial professional before choosing to make financial or investment decisions.**

The past two years have been HARD and families have had to make some tough choices. Employees lost jobs, worked in new conditions, or worked for reduced hours and wages. On the flip side, jobs that had been considered “non-essential” prior to the pandemic were now offering bonuses and seemingly unlimited overtime to keep up with the demand for services.

Burned out employees are now working on finding other solutions and forging ahead with new roads for themselves and their families that could lead to financial independence rather than relying on wages from an employer.

What advice should new business owners know to avoid making some of the common mistakes that seasoned business owners made when we started out?

Don’t Expect to Be Perfect

The biggest mistake that I made when launching my first business was refusing to launch until I had everything perfect and knew everything about starting a successful business.

Guess what?

You are going to make mistakes and you are going to fail at least once on something.

Maybe you won’t have perfected who your target audience is. Or maybe your pricing model won’t be well-received. Maybe, maybe, maybe…

Start anyway!

Because, you won’t know what’s going to happen if you don’t at least try.

Five Bootstrapping Hacks Every Founder Should Know | HackerNoon

(Business info from 2019 that is still relevant!)

Start With Bootstrapping Part Time

If you still have a job and it’s stable income with little risk of losing that income anytime soon? Keep the job and start the business part time.

Why?

This reduces the amount of financial pressure on the family while you get everything up and running. Many big name hustlers will tell you that they worked on their businesses when kids went to bed or on their weekends off and didn’t quit their jobs until the business was stable.

Bootstrapping a business means to start the business with the bare minimum tools and resources to reduce initial overhead costs of starting the business.

Another major mistake most business owners make straight out of the gate with little or no business experience is paying to rent the perfect shop before testing their idea to make sure it’s viable or setting up an expensive website before developing the target audience.

You don’t have to spend a ton of money to start your business. Test out your idea on family and friends. Create the product on a small scale first and do some test sales to see if it’s worth scaling into a larger operation.

Bootstrapping the business allows you to fail or make mistakes and you don’t have your family’s entire financial future riding on the business right now. You still have alternate sources of income and have the freedom to pursue the business and allow it to grow organically without trying to figure out how to put food on the table or keep the lights on.

Consistent Effort is Key

Tell yourself every day that you will be successful, no matter the cost. Make some sacrifices now and put in the work CONSISTENTLY.

There will be days where you’re tired or stressed or frustrated. That’s normal.

Maybe you haven’t had any sales for a few days. That’s normal, too.

Put in effort every single day. Be consistent in your efforts to grow your business and to define your product offering.

Consistent effort pays off but it takes time. Allowing the negative thoughts to take over and giving up should not be an option.

And don’t just do the busy work of business building like tweaking your website daily. Get out there and make sales. If you don’t know how to sell or where to sell, find a mentor or do some online research.

Get to Know Your Target Audience

This is where many of the big box stores outpace the small businesses because they have a huge amount of data available to them on what type of customers are buying products at each different price point and what needs each product is fulfilling for the customer.

Small businesses that want to scale can leverage their current audience and ask questions to gather data that is actually much more targeted than what big box stores are getting and can receive feedback that is real time rather than using analytical tools.

If you own a beauty salon, talk to your customers and figure out what products they like and what ones they don’t. Find what prices work for their budget on different services. What are upcoming trends in cuts and styles based on what celebrities are doing? Are there needs that your salon is not currently offering but easily could?

Knowing Your Competition and Analyzing Their Business

Find other businesses in your niche and look at what they offer in comparison to what you offer. How do you measure up against them?

What are they doing right in their business and can you possibly emulate that without ripping them off?

What are they doing wrong in their business that you can learn from?

What makes them stand out from their competitors?

How do their prices compare to yours?

Are they offering products or services that you aren’t that you might want to add to your offering?

Do you have too many products or services compared to competitors and might be confusing your customers or not specializing in what you offer?

Analyzing the competition can help you determine if what you are presenting to customers is what they need or if you are missing the mark.

Never Stop Improving

This is what I focus on in my own businesses and daily life. Every day, I look at what I can do to improve what I am offering to my customers and to my family.

Am I at my best? How can I be better?

Am I offering the best products and services to my customers? How can I be better?

Never stop learning about your niche. Niches change. Trends change. Likes and dislikes of your customers change.

Keep improving and your customers will reward you for your efforts because you are bringing the best “you”. People buy people.

Loyal customers buy from businesses that strive to be the best.

What other advice would you give to new businesses owners that are just starting out in 2022? What questions do you have as a new business owner that veteran entrepreneurs can answer for you?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

As always, my writing is for entertainment purposes only and all opinions are my own. Please do your own research before investing or consult a financial professional before making major decisions. I am not a licensed financial professional and am not offering financial advice.

Recent statistics released by Freddie Mac show that housing prices went up 11.3% in 2020 and 16.9% in 2021 due in part to rising inflation, low interest rates, and limited housing availability in many highly sought after areas of the country.

It’s still a seller’s market!

In fact, Fannie Mae estimates another 7.9% rise in housing prices between December 2021 and December 2022.

Will the Housing Market Finally Crash in 2022?

Is This Like the 2008–2009 Crash?

As a real estate investor that works with clients from all over the country and many different income levels, I get asked a lot if the market is headed for another crash.

Simple answer?

No one knows for sure.

Why?

Markets aren’t based solely on historic trends, inflation, interest rates, and supply/demand.

Markets can change based purely on human emotion.

Don’t believe me?

Look at the crytocurrency market every time a major player makes a controversial Tweet. (Elon Musk, anyone?)

Elon Musk on Twitter: "I will eat a happy meal on tv if @McDonalds accepts Dogecoin / Twitter"

I will eat a happy meal on tv if @McDonalds accepts Dogecoin

The housing market doesn’t move based solely on the opinions of famous players but the media does a great job of getting consumers amped up through the use of snappy headlines and “the world is ending” FOMO.

Experts in the Finance industry have pointed out that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lending practices tightened up considerably following the 2008–2009 crash because banks had been lending money to just about anyone to buy a house without adequately verifying the applicant’s income and assets.

They’ve stated that they foresee demand remaining high and supply remaining low, so they think prices will continue to rise and then stablize.

But will this actually happen?

Will the U.S. Housing Market Crash in 2022?

Factors to Consider

The eviction moratorium has ended and many renters are facing losing their residence due to non payment during the height of the pandemic. This could result in many landlords choosing to put their rentals up for sale and flooding the market with a mass of inventory.

My understanding is that banks have started the foreclosure process on homeowners that are unable to catch up on back payments and this could add to the available inventory, as well.

Landlords have been filing motions with courts across the country to evict tenants for non-payment. The stress of finding new homes has many families turning to resources like GoFundMe for help, with little success in most cases.

Will landlords loosen restrictions on their rentals to new applicants that might have had a history of non-payment during the COVID pandemic due to factors beyond their control, like job loss or illness?

How will the government respond to so many families needing housing after facing eviction or foreclosure?

What Some Consumers Are Doing

Not everyone listens to the amped up media outlets. Some choose to make their own educated decisions by consistently checking the pulse of the market and turn off the news.

Consider looking at markets that aren’t on everyone’s radar. I have recently purchased property in a small town within a 15 minute drive of a park of Distribution Centers that employ a good many of the local population.

My research indicated that the Distribution Centers provide base salaries of $25+/hour and average rent on a single family home is $1,000/month. Many single family residences are listed for $100,000-$150,000 and have been on the market for a fair amount of time because many area residents aren’t able to acquire mortgage financing due to poor credit history.

The culture here is to pay bills first, no matter how much overtime you have to work at your job, and then play with the rest of the money because you work hard so you deserve it. Even during the height of the pandemic, most tenants were paying rent on time and had food on the table for their families. Because, if they lost a job, they went and found another one fairly quickly (within about a month).

Understated investments that not everyone is jumping into can be scary because you can question yourself on whether or not you’re making a good decision if no one else is joining in on the fun.

But, these types of investments have been the most lucrative for me over the years so I continue to swim against the current and find my own ways of investing that bring me joy and add to my overall net worth.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the current real estate market in the US and where you think we are heading! And, if you have any ideas for understated investment ideas? I would love to hear about them!

As always, everything that I post is for entertainment purposes only. All opinions are my own. Please do your own research before making any financial decisions and/or consult a financial professional for advice.

Trade.io is the latest gem to hit the cryptocurrency market place that is bringing a modern twist to financial services for clients looking for an edge to their investing via a customizable interface.

This isn’t available to the public quite yet but you are able to get onto a waiting list so that you can be added as soon as this is available.

Users can join the waiting list and see their position in queue!

I’m not the only one that has faith in this team and what this platform will be able to do. Trade.io ICO raised $31 million in two months and have already expanded their operations into Europe, America, and Hong Kong since those areas are all major crypto hubs.

Features of the Exchange

Advertised features of this exchange have been carefully critiqued and planned by an experienced team that has conducted extensive market research for over a year and they have listened to frustrations from customers of crypto exchanges across the world.

The features will include:

· More advanced user interface

· Maximum uptime to reduce customer frustration

· Great tech support available 24/7 in multiple languages

· Feedback driven innovation

· Copy trading

· Technical analysis

· Indicators

· Chart pop outs

· Instant verification

· Scalable infrastructure

· Same day onboarding of new customers

· Lower fees

· No deposit charges

Crypto exchanges that are currently available are clunky and crash, oftentimes when we need them to be available the most! Traders spend a good part of their lives staring at screens and need reliability that the industry is currently lacking.

You can try out the interface for yourself right on the homepage to see how things will look when everything is up and running.

Available coins

On their website, we can see tickers for:

· Bitcoin

· Ethereum

· Bitcoin Cash

· Trade.io token (TIO)

Update: New coins added to the exchange!

trade.io on Twitter

In addition to #DAI, you'll be pleased to learn that three new tokens #MITH, #LINK, #SNT are now available on https://t.co/khRotqa8a7 Exchange! Deposits, withdrawals, and trading are now active. Visit https://t.co/a6eEJp3UxX to start trading now.

The plan of this company is to work to add diversity for customers by adding FX, Global equities, and CFDs as well as increasing the options of tokens that are available.

More than an exchange

Poke around their website a little bit and you will find that this company is looking to offer so much more than just a crypto exchange!

ICO Service: Have you been wanting to get an ICO funded to start your company but don’t know how to do it?

This service would allow you to learn from experience and raise the funds that you need to launch your innovative idea, from whitepaper to roadmap to launch and everything in between. And then you have the opportunity to be listed on the Trade.io exchange!

Liquidity Pool: This allows everyone in the pool, including Trade.io to make a daily percentage of profit based upon how many TIOs you have loaned to the pool. According to their website, you can pull your tokens any day you choose. Personally, this sounds like a novel idea but I’m not entirely sold on the validity of this concept because I feel like its been done before way too many times by other companies and people have lost money.

Angel Investors: The Trade.io team has already secured $300 million in investment capital that is earmarked for ICO investment upon release of the Trade.io platform. ICOs will be put through a rigorous vetting process to ensure that only the highest quality ICOs are allowed onto the platform so investors can breathe a little easier. And it looks like the minimum investment is set at $1,000 based on their website so this is fairly low entry and not offered by many investment companies.

Partners and Affiliates: Trade.io wants to make friends and increase their visibility so if you bring them new friends by referring customers to the exchange, bring referrals for ICO clients, introduce people to online training courses on Trade.io, or sell event tickets for them they will give you some decent referral fees for it!

So will Trade.io succeed in building the crypto exchange of the future?

Personally, I believe they stand a chance to build a great exchange based upon what I have seen from them so far. And what I didn’t know until digging more into their website is that they are planning to offer so much more than an exchange, they plan to be a fairly full service financial suite of services for clients to create a one-stop shop.

We do need change and innovation in the crypto space and a team is needed that is willing to go the distance to get the job done!

And the offering to the public needs to be the best viable option compared to what is already available to the public. This team has a huge undertaking ahead of them but seem to be more than up to the task at hand!

I would love to hear your thoughts and have you check out the company for yourself and let me know what you think! Do they have what it takes to change the world of crypto?

DISCLAIMER: I am not a financial advisor or financial professional. All opinions within this post are my own opinion and are for educational purposes only. This is not meant as financial advice and should not be taken as such. Please do your own research and make your own financial decisions based upon your own judgment.

· Visit the website!

· Join the Telegram channel to stay up to date!

Follow the company on social media to stay current on new developments:

· YouTube

· Medium

· Facebook

· Twitter

· Reddit

· Instagram

· LinkedIn

Thanks for reading!

Ivy

Originally posted on Steemit.

Will Trade.io Succeed in Building the Crypto Exchange of the Future? was originally published in The-Informer.io on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The University of Nicosia will host their second annual “Decentralized” event November 14–16 in Divani Caravel, Athens, Greece with a list of powerhouse speakers to include Jameson Lopp, Roger Ver, & Spiros Margaris!

This will be the premier event for the European blockchain community and is highly anticipated!

The University of Nicosia is located in Athens, Greece and is well known for having a Masters Degree program in Digital Currency, offered for 3 semesters & via distance learning!

How amazing is it that there are now courses in higher learning aimed at digital currencies? The fact that digital currencies lectures are being added to educational institutions may mean that we are one step closer to mainstream adoption for digital currencies and blockchains!

Highlights of the Event

The 1,000+ anticipated attendees can expect to interact with fellow blockchain & crypto enthusiasts from over 50 countries while hearing from more than 70 respected speakers in the space. PLUS, our very own Matt Starkey, CEO, and Dylan Leighton, CTO of Oracle-D & avid supporters of the Steemit community will be in attendance and speaking at this event!

Following Matt and Dylan’s journey through Indonesia has been so much fun! So we are as excited to see how their trip to Athens goes!

Major sponsors for this event include: Microsoft, PumaPay, Bitshares, Shipchain, and Harneys so attendees of the event can check them out for more information.

The fact that Microsoft is sponsoring a blockchain event has been surprising for some in the space because Microsoft has not been particularly forthcoming with their thoughts on digital currencies since the announcement in August about partnering with Starbucks for a new payment system involving Bitcoin.

Could this be another step in the right direction for mass adoption of cryptocurrency?

Featured Speakers

This blockchain event has some notable speakers of the crypto and blockchain space including:

· Jameson Lopp - outspoken (semi-paranoid) Twitter influencer, founder of Mensa’s Bitcoin Special Interest Group, infrastructure engineer at Casa, creator of statoshi.com, founder of bitcoinsig.com, Bitcoin investor, writer on Coindesk & Medium, he has been interested in crypto since 2012 but became a public voice in 2015. Lopp has become a voice of reason for many in the crypto space that look to him for credible resources and news.

· Roger Ver aka “Bitcoin Jesus” is a controversial crypto influencer that is now a huge supporter of Bitcoin Cash. He founded MemoryDealers.com and worked on that project until 2012, he’s known as an early adopter of cryptocurrency because he created a way to accept Bitcoin payments on the website which allowed him to amass at least 400,000 Bitcoins when they were worth a fraction of what they are worth now. Ver has been a financial backer for many crypto startups like BitInstant, Kraken, and Ripple. He earned the nickname “Bitcoin Jesus” because of his avid advocating of crypto related projects. Ver now advocates for Bitcoin Cash, a fork of Bitcoin, because he feels that “The fact of the matter is, the utility of Bitcoin has been damaged.” He has suggested that Bitcoin should increase to the blocksize limit to allow for the payments of goods or services using Bitcoin while reducing transaction fees.

· Spiros Margaris: a globally recognized name in Insurtech, Fintech, Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain. Recently, he joined the board of Wefox Group since he is such a well known influencer in the space and is so experienced. He has invested time and money into a host of companies through his venture capitalist firm Margaris Ventures .

Registration is Still Open for Decentralized 2018!

We are all so excited for this event and can’t wait to hear all about it from Matt and Dylan when they get back! Oracle-d is making so many strides forward in business development and all of us are so excited to have been part of it so far!

For more information about the event:

· Website: https://www.decentralized.com/

· Speakers: https://www.decentralized.com/speakers-2018/

· Promotional Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiVm2RO51bE

· University Of Niscosia: https://www.unic.ac.cy/

· Sponsors: https://www.decentralized.com/sponsors2018/

· Press Releases: https://www.decentralized.com/blog/category/press/

· Buy Tickets: https://www.decentralized.com/conference/register/

Thanks for reading,

Ivy

Digitex Futures Exchange is causing quite a stir in the crypto community because of the unique business model they have chosen to take on and the confidence of the team in succeeding in their mission after extensive research into the needs of crypto investors.

By using blockchain technology, transaction fees will be gone, account balances decentralized, and the blockchain will govern itself without needing anyone to watch it.

Digitex token, DGTX, will be created each year and sold instead of the need for charging fees on crypto trades. This process should create sustainability for the exchange that other exchanges have yet to achieve thus far.

Crypto traders have always speculated on the price of Bitcoin against fiat currency but now trading profits or losses can be paid out in DGTX tokens. Traders on the Digitex exchange will need DGTX tokens in order to execute trades so there becomes a natural demand for them. For more information, check out the whitepaper here.

A Unique CEO

This company has a unique perspective of the marketplace because their CEO, Adam Todd, is a former pit-trader for the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE). His greatest desire during his time there was to cut commission costs for investors.

How many professional traders do you know that want something like that? Doubtful that there are too many that think this way.

“The futures trader’s Utopian dream of a commission-free exchange is now a reality.”- Adam Todd

Learn more about his vision from this video:

After leaving the world of pit trading, Todd founded BetTrader 14 years ago, a ladder trading interface connected to Betfair.com, the world’s biggest betting exchange. He has been credited with being one of Betfair’s most successful sports traders in the history of the company, one time going 8 whole months without a losing day! So, he has very unique experience that he is bringing to the table.

Where to get Digitex Tokens

This exchange has not yet been launched but is expected to be live by the end of 2018. Until then, the Digitex Token (DGTX) is available on Mercatox using Ethereum or Bitcoin and will be on HitBTC soon with trading be available via Bitcoin, Ethereum, or USDT.

Join the airdrop here and get your own link to share with your friends in order to skip ahead in line and win extra tokens!

6,000,000 DGTX tokens will be given away during the launch! And these are free just for signing up to the exchange before its launched.

Here are the official contest rules for the airdrop (straight from the airdrop website):

Airdrop Contest Rules & FAQ:

1. You must click the verification email sent to you for your referrals to count.

2. Entries must be unique referrals/ip’s & not duplicate entries.

3. The contest will run until we launch our exchange at the end of Q4 2018.

4. The top 10 users will get 100,000 DGTX Tokens each

5. The top 11–5000 users will get 1,000 DGTX Tokens each

6. This page can be accessed by checking the confirmation email sent to you.

7. We reserve the right to disqualify and remove anyone who tries to cheat the contest at anytime.

Is DGTX Token Considered to be a Security?

One major question on the minds of most crypto investors is always whether or not a coin or token is considered to be a security or not because this changes the taxes that are or are not paid on cryptocurrency. (I am not a financial or tax advisor so I will not offer advice on either in this post, please do your own research and make educated decisions.)

According to the airdrop website, DGTX token is a utility token and not a security. A utility token is one that is used as a native currency on the exchange and not as an investment like a security would be.

About DGTX

Digitex token is already listed on CoinMarketCap and holds steady at Rank 72 at the time of this writing. That is a pretty good standing for a token that is not necessarily active at the moment! It is possible that this presents a unique buying opportunity for anyone looking to get into it before the impending launch of the exchange.

Currently, there are 2,053 different coins/tokens listed on CoinMarketCap with a total market cap of over $209,970,000,000. Digitex token holds $86,263,000 market cap with over $660,000 24 hour trading volume. The current price of one token in USD is $0.12. These are all aspects that should be carefully considered by potential investors looking at a new cryptocurrency for the first time.

How is this exchange different from the countless others available to crypto traders?

There are plenty of crypto exchanges available and it can be difficult to choose one that will meet your needs. Yes, Digitex offers zero commissions but what else makes it stand out?

Check out the video here:

The interface seems easy to use and you are given probably the most accurate price of Bitcoin available by using the average of the top 50 exchanges in the world in real time. Accurate data is paramount to avid traders!

Buy and sell positions are easily laid out and easy to read in small tick sizes that make it manageable to follow what the market is doing. The ladder trading makes it one-click easy to make trades quickly as the volatility of the coin rapids cycles.

It take a lot to impress me because I have used many different exchanges and have my favorites but the ease-of-use for this one looks very tempting and I am looking forward to trying this out for myself!

Check out Digitex and let me know your thoughts! Can you see yourself using this one or do you have an exchange that you prefer to use for futures trading?

Keep up-to-date with what is going on by following on social media!

- Website: http://www.digitexfutures.com

- Twitter: @digitexfutures

- Facebook: @digitexfutures

-Telegram https://t.me/digitexfutureschat

- Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/DigitexFutures/

Thanks for reading!

Ivy

The vision of the Wanchain team is to unify the entirety of digital assets under “the world’s first and only interoperable blockchain with secure multi-party computing.” This is quite the undertaking for a single company and requires a great vision as well as a management team that can get the job done!

Blockchain technology is changing the way financial transactions are being conducted around the world. Transaction times are now quicker, cheaper, and easier than ever before while providing security to both parties in the transaction without the need for a middleman.

The vision of the company

Each company starts with a societal problem that the founders believe they can provide a solution for. Wanchain found that digital currencies are isolated on their individual blockchains and these visionaries have created a goal to connect the blockchain assets via banking applications that can remove the possible risks associated with centralized counterparty usage.

A business that intimately learns what customers or end users need before establishing a product or business model is statistically much more successful than companies that throw something together before market analysis has been conducted. This means that it takes a business longer to bring in sales in the beginning but builds a solid foundation on which to operate from while conveying to customers that they care about their needs.

Has Wanchain succeeded in determining what customers need or will they fall short of the overall goal? That is the question that will be answered as this company grows and continues on their journey.

Customer Offerings

Decentralized Exchange

· Wanchain offers a multi-asset wallet for secure transactions

· This exchange allows for the exchange of many of the world’s digital currencies on the blockchain

· Decentralized exchange applications will allow for protocol tokens like Ether Delta

ICO Platform

· Launch an ICO using a streamlined process found to be proven effective

· Get access to Wanchain’s community to help with the ICO journey

· Collect your funds from many assets

Asset Management Services

· Secure & private trade and position transactions

· A focus on minimizing counterparty risks on the exchange

· A master address gives a simplified and trusted audit to users

How Wanchain works

The whitepaper for Wanchain goes into great detail of exactly how the Wanchain protocol works and is written in such a way that almost everyone should be able to understand the ideas that are being conveyed.

Traditional banks have been used by consumers in order to house and keep track of an individual’s ledger of their personal accounts but a main problem has always been that each bank has their own ledger so it is easy for users to overspend before the ledgers can be updated. The individual’s bank account (or ledger) will be overdrawn but they have already had the opportunity (whether intentional or otherwise) to spend money that belonged to the bank and not to the individual.

The bank adds overdraft fees that must be paid by the individual but that is their only option to try to get the money back that has been overdrawn. Some individuals rack up multiple overdraft charges at a time and end up in a difficult financial position as a result of it.

So how can this be prevented?

BLOCKCHAIN!!

The blockchain consists of ledgers too, but they are decentralized ledgers (not maintained by one single entity) that solve the problem of overspending because every ledger is exactly the same but maintained by each cryptocurrency miner so there is no viable way to add transactions to the ledger without all ledger holders agreeing to add the transaction.

The benefit of this is that overspending is not possible and neither is counterfeiting transactions. These are the two main problems that have plagued global financial systems up until now.

One major problem that exists for blockchain, however, is that if you want to transfer assets to a friend or family member but they don’t hold the same currency you do, you have to exchange your currency for their currency thus incurring fees and the process takes time to complete.

This creates security issues for your currency because exchanges are not well known for being secure (look at how many hacks have happened on crypto exchanges) and this whole process is hindering the mass adoption of cryptocurrency! If you are a supporter of cryptocurrency at all then you understand how the entire community is looking towards mass adoption happening, and the sooner this happens the better.

Introducing Wanchain 2.0!

Wanchain has (so far) connected to the Ethereum blockchain and uses Smart Contracts to securely transmit data from one blockchain to another to record the transaction without needing to jump through extra hoops. This is powerful and completely revolutionary for the world of finance and digital transactions!

The possibilities of this system are virtually endless! This could easily replace the banking system as we know it by offering digital asset management, secure & private transactions from the comfort of your own home or mobile device, and loans or credit card services utilizing blockchain technology!

In the future, Wanchain will connect more than just Etheruem but Etheruem seemed the most logical resource to start with because of the ease of use for smart contracts.

The beauty of the Wanchain business model and team is that they are very communicative with their stakeholders about where the company is currently in their growth and where they are going in the future. The vision has been made very clear to anyone interested in the company.

It is easy to believe in companies that are transparent in their business practices while admitting any delays or changes to the company because a startup that can pivot quickly is often one that is successful in the long term because they have built up a solid foundation.

Have you used Wanchain or looked into this project before? What do you think of what they are working towards and do you think it is possible to connect the blockchains in order to process seamless transactions?

For more information about the company, check out these links:

· Project Website: https://wanchain.org/

· Products & Services: https://wanchain.org/product

· Documents: http://www.wanchaindocs.org/en/latest/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wanchainfoundation/

· Medium: https://medium.com/wanchain-foundation

· Telegram: https://t.me/WanchainANN

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading!

Ivy

November 3–4, 2018 will be a huge milestone for the blockchain technology sector, especially in Indonesia, because over 1,000 blockchain enthusiasts will gather together in Jakarta to explore as a collective unit how best to use emerging technologies to connect with the world face-to-face rather than from behind a computer screen!

According to the summit’s website, this will mark the largest conference EVER to be held in Indonesia so that is monumental to the blockchain and crypto communities.

And what’s even more exciting is that Oracle-D’s very own CEO, Matt Starkey, and CTO, Dylan Leighton, will be featured speakers for the event engaging the audience in a keynote on “Multi Proof of Brain & the Reward Distribution Economy for Volunteers,” the premise that Oracle-D has been built upon.

This summit is slotted to be 18 hours long and jam packed with great content from esteemed individuals in the blockchain technology community like Bobby Lee of Bitcoin Foundation and Mark Tan of Wanchain!

Other Speakers Scheduled for this Summit

· Alex Liu, Max Digital Asset Exchange

· Daniel Chang, Cobinhood

· Danny Baskara, Vexanium

· John Yeh, TESA

· Oscar Darmawan, Indodax

· Seth Melamed, Quoine

· Regi Wahyu, Hara Token

· Dylan Sharkey, Blockchain Open Fund

Topics to be Discussed at this Event

· How startups can be successful

· Challenges faced by startups in the security token sector

· Regulation and economics of the token community

· How to use blockchain frameworks within your company or organization

· Current and future potential for blockchain technology in the Southeast Asian Blockchain community

· What the future of Tokenomy looks like as well as the economics of the space

If you have the opportunity to attend this event, you should definitely take advantage of that blessing because the lessons that will be taught by innovators of blockchain technology will likely be life changing!

Actual decision makers for large tech companies and foundations, tech innovators, and startup investors are all scheduled to take part in this conference from the following industries:

· Retail

· Financial Services

· Manufacturing

· Healthcare

· Legal

· Energy

· Insurance

· Music

· Real Estate &

· Government

These are the industries already being changed by blockchain technology and that is incredibly exciting!

How Blockchain is Already Changing the World

1. Increasing Privacy- We live in a world where almost daily mainstream media outlets are talking about a data or security breach where at least thousands of users personal information was exposed to hackers. Blockchain technology will allow for increased privacy and less security breaches which may decrease the amount of identity theft worldwide.

2. Reduced need for middlemen in transactions- Smart contracts have allowed, and will continue to allow, businesses to securely conduct transactions directly with consumers and purchasers instead of needing banks or lawyers to secure the transaction. This allows companies to be more self-sufficient and reduces overhead costs/transactional costs while reducing the time needed to complete them.

3. Fair and quick pay for employees- The world is getting smaller thanks to the Internet and emerging technologies so many companies are employing help from the global job market. One major problem has been the costly fees associated with paying these employees as well as the time it takes to conduct these transactions. Blockchain technology will allow faster, cheaper transactions which will allow more businesses to expand internationally.

4. Reduce corruption- Global governments will benefit from using blockchain technology in voting processes because even the best governments can be exposed to voting fraud or corruption. This could change the political environment of major governments on the world’s stage.

The Southeast Asia Blockchain Summit 2018 promises to be one of the best conferences held in the region in quite some time with some real powerhouse speakers as well as inspiring panels aimed at provoking thoughtful conversations among industry leaders.

Are you planning on attending the summit? Would love to hear your thoughts on this event and others being held around the world!

How else is blockchain technology changing the way business is conducted and people interact with each other?

To learn more about this event, check out the following:

Project Website: http://southeastasiablockchain.com/#aboutsea

Speakers: http://southeastasiablockchain.com/#speakersea

Promotional Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiVm2RO51bE

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/330829530808430/

Medium: https://medium.com/@jacktsai_80497/jakarta-to-host-the-2018-southeast-asia-blockchain-summit-2561623f2fbd

Thanks for reading!

Ivy

No matter how long you have been involved with cryptocurrency or financial markets, you have likely asked yourself at some point this year (2018) what the hell is going on with crypto and when things will change. Am I right?

But, how will crypto change and will we like the outcome of it?

The bouncing up and down of the market has kept things interesting and has allowed speculators to claim crypto is dead or going to make a huge run (depending on what side of the argument you choose to take).

Crypto does still run on hype and that is why we see so much volatility in the price. Someone influential releases bad news and the market drops, someone else releases great news and the market rushes back up. But, there’s so much going on behind the scenes that not everyone is aware of.

Dawning of a New Age

Entrepreneurship in and of itself is a fairly recently acceptable thing. The dotcom era had turned people off from business in many ways and left many with a bad taste in their mouths. Some saw entrepreneurs as “get rich quick” schemers or scammers that were only out for themselves.

But, for others that truly believed in the power of changing the world, they saw an opportunity to build a solid foundation that would take a decade or more to build but would start a revolution and led to the innovative technologies that we have today.

What Does This Have to Do With Crypto?

The computer and network infrastructures that were built in order to make companies like Google and Facebook or the giant of Microsoft have given millennials and Gen Xers the ability to build blockchains and cryptocurrency platforms today.

The empires of today have been built upon the technology of yesterday to create something revolutionary that is changing the way that money changes hands the world over while giving power back to the people instead of leaving it in large powers like banks.

We are seeing history being made and shifts away from paper pushing to working on exciting projects virtually with teams from all over the world. Daily, I work with a crypto team that hails from USA, England, India, and China. This never would have been possible without the technology that we now have at our fingertips.

Weeding Out the Bad

Right now, we are still in the infancy of the market, part of why price manipulation is still so rampant. This is a great time to be a part of things because we are now starting to see the bad get weeded out. Unfortunately, many people have lost money on ICOs that have failed or were scams so many hard lessons have been learned.

But, the point is that we are learning what makes a solid investment and what doesn’t. There are coins that will equate to an Amazon when the dust clears.

Early adopters have made (and possibly lost) millions of dollars off of modest investments that have led to some of the smartest technical minds of our times creating not only technical products but new monetary systems.

Crypto is no longer a hobby for teenagers that are tech obsessed. The game has changed.

Crypto has raised a need for tech businesses and entrepreneurs now that want to change the world and set the old way of doing things on fire.

Someone told me recently that the “nerds have been weaponized” and that really resonated with me. I mean, how cool is that?!

We haven’t found the Jeff Bezos of crypto yet or the Amazon company but we will soon. I completely believe that. We still have many changes to go but its been amazing to watch so far!

What do you think about the current state of crypto and where it’s going from here? I want to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading,

Ivy

Many crypto businesses are starting to take an interest in getting more women involved in the crypto space and with good reason!

Women are avid consumers, educated communicators, and excellent at influencing trends. Plus, those that have already gotten involved in the tech space have set the world on fire!

So, why aren’t more women involved in crypto and what benefit could we see if we were able to get more women to participate?

And how do we go about getting more women interested in crypto or in the technology behind it?

Looking at the Crypto Space

“The blockchain industry is a combination of two very traditionally-male industries — finance and tech,” Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO & Founder of BitPesa said.

She made an excellent point in saying that! I have an MBA in Finance and get some strange looks when I show up for meetings that are finance related.

Many women see this as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for women going forward by being early adopters of crypto and in the tech/ finance industries.

In January 2018, the North American Bitcoin Conference was held in Miami and got hemmed up because of the lack of women at the conference. Moe Levin was the organizer of the event that had 84 male speakers and only 3 female.

Nathaniel Popper on Twitter

on first thought, having the networking event for a bitcoin conference at a strip club was a good idea. on second though, it wasn't, Moe Levin tells @LilyKatz https://t.co/2d1pT8OtT9

I guess it’s kind of them to not hold the event in a strip club like they originally intended.

On the flip side of that same coin, influencers like Sir Richard Branson are encouraging female involvement. His most recent blockchain, financial summit held in Morocco actually had more women then men in attendance.

Bill Tai, guest speaker and venture capitalist, spoke about his choice to fund women-run ventures, “I’m on this panel because I happen to have funded a lot of women and my success rate with them happens to be higher than with men.”

Women in the Crypto Space

Women do deserve a seat at the table but it may be up to us to take that seat at the table instead of expecting it to be handed to us. Many women that I know are hungry and ambitious but not because they need to prove themselves to others. They legitimately enjoy the work and the challenge that is presented by the tech and the industry.

If we end up with enough women that are qualified to speak on finance and tech there will be no reason to not include women more in the education of the space.

“Women comprise 51% of the world population and drive 80% of household spending in the US,” Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares.

So, why did venture capitalists invest only $1.46 billion in female-run companies when male-run companies garnered $58.2 billion in investment capital in 2016?!

Surprisingly, this is an increase to 4.94% of venture capital funded deals for women-led companies versus 2.95% a decade ago.

Business and entrepreneurship is still a mostly male dominated game but women are rapidly advancing through the ranks and making a name for themselves.

The crypto space is big enough for everyone to get in on the action and get a piece of the pie. We can all work together to develop the space and to improve on technology for the betterment of society. Women can definitely add their knowledge and experience to the cause!

What do you think? Do you think the crypto arena could use more women or do you think we are ok where we are at? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading,

Ivy