Crypto Token Talk

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 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

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 illi

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 developer

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 C

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 cry

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 veri

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

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

Sir John Hargrave, author of the book Blockchain for Everyone, is here on today’s episode. He is also the CEO of Media Shower, a blockchain media company that publishes Bitcoin Market Journal for about 100,000 readers each month. Media Shower is all about explaining cryptocurrency in simple terms and having fun with it. Because of John’s focus on helping new users get started with crypto, he is able to provide insight on the best way to join the community and begin investing. John explains how the industry is creating “the internet of money” and speaks more to why this is a critical period in human history. With so many cryptocurrencies out there, John recommends that newbies start by buying a little bit of bitcoin; by having skin in the game, they will be inspired to learn more and expand their portfolios from there. These days, everyone is required to reinvent themselves and their careers to keep up with the pace of technological change. John’s book tells the story of his personal journey of reinvention and

Today’s guest is Colin Fausnaught, the founder of Zuck Bucks. He is a recent graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology and worked on JP Morgan’s Quorum blockchain for his senior project.  Colin begins by giving an overview of issues that Facebook has come under fire for this year. He believes that political advertising practices on the social network are being taken advantage of by malicious parties. This brings up Facebook’s announcement of their own cryptocurrency, Libra. Colin gives his thoughts on what this cryptocurrency can do for Facebook and why so many large companies are involved. Facebook will have all private keys to Libra wallets, and Colin describes why he finds this so scary. Colin created Zuck Bucks originally as a joke targeting the new Facebook cryptocurrency but now says that it has a great community movement behind it. He does think that a few positive outcomes may happen because of Libra, but affirms that the crypto space will probably be worse off because of the announcement. Som

Rebecca Rettig and Marc Boiron, both partners at FisherBroyles, join us for this episode. The two work together on a daily basis, with Rebecca having more litigation expertise and Marc having more technical expertise. Rebecca discusses how the origins of crypto were based in anarchist/cypherpunk ideas but that crypto is now becoming much more mainstream. She says crypto functions like cash but is better than gold. Marc adds that he thinks one of the best aspects of crypto is that it brings people together from different fields and that this type of collaborative learning advances the industry. Marc goes on to explain how the United States is a leader on the STOs front because of the nation’s focus on regulations, while any entity involving utility tokens is moving off-shore. Rebecca believes that coordinated lobbying efforts, as well as education for judges, should be priorities for the crypto community. Marc talks about the challenges that come with applying murky regulations to technology with thousands of

Today Rena Shah, Head of Operations at Ember Fund, joins the podcast. Ember Fund, a mobile investment app where you essentially can invest like a crypto hedge fund, aims to provide outsized returns for everyone with little money and a few steps. Ember Fund is the only mobile, non-custodial, managed cryptocurrency portfolio on the market.  Rena believes she got into crypto in the weirdest possible way, so she takes us through how that happened, which started with evaluating a deal for a peer-to-peer energy trading platform. Though bitcoin mining is often reported to require a lot of energy, Rena asserts that this is over-exaggerated and explains why. This leads into a discussion on cryptocurrency’s link with developing cleaner energy sources. We then hear about Ember Fund and how it’s completely non-custodial, meaning no one at Ember Fund controls any user private keys, keeping in the true spirit of decentralization and user empowerment. Despite the cryptocurrency market having been in a long-term bear market,

Shea Newkirk, also known as “The Stache” in the cryptocurrency world, is today’s guest. He is a crypto educator and enthusiast, and the founder of The CryptoStache, which began in 2017 about four years after Shea first invested in bitcoin.   Shea brings us through his beginnings in cryptocurrency, starting with when he first heard about bitcoin but did not invest. He was later inspired to begin blogging because his friends didn’t want to listen to his thoughts about this emerging currency and technology. We hear about the bitcoin classes that Shea began teaching in 2017 because of all the emails he was receiving asking for advice. Shea compares his excitement for bitcoin to his excitement for the internet in its early days and talks about potential use cases. With cryptocurrency currently in an extended bear market, Shea remarks that this is a great time to buy. He shares his thoughts on investing in bitcoin versus other cryptocurrencies and parses out common misunderstandings. Shea has arranged a bus to take

In this special joint episode recorded with Crypto Token Talk host Kelley Weaver and guest-host Nikki Brown with The Coin Boys hosts Andy Steig and Daniel Gutierrez, the podcast hosts come together for a lively discussion of all things blockchain and crypto. Each host tells the story of how he/she got into crypto in the first place and shares thoughts on how blockchain can achieve mass adoption. As a first course of action, crypto enthusiasts need to use decentralized applications. Equally essential are developments pertaining to making dapps and crypto payments easier. Finally, we need more education as to the value of being empowered with increased control over one’s own value, data, and governance. The hosts also talk about layers of trust in blockchain applications as well as the reality that not everything needs to be decentralized. Everyone agreed that it’s essential for the community to maintain open arms when it comes to welcoming those who are new to crypto into this space. One day we won’t necessari

Episode 202: Make Bitcoin Fun Again with David Bailey Sitting down with us today is David Bailey, Co-founder and CEO of BTC Inc. Kelley describes him as one of the original lovers of bitcoin and one of the first people that got her interested in the currency.  David starts by telling us how he discovered bitcoin and his transition from skeptic to proponent. His company began as a publication under a different name but became BTC Inc after multiple acquisitions and now becoming the blockchain media entity it is today. BTC Inc has been involved in many different projects, which David cites as the reason the company has gained so much traction in the blockchain industry. In this episode, we learn about the different position that bitcoin takes compared to other cryptocurrencies and David’s belief that bitcoin will form a foundational layer for the entire crypto economy. David describes bitcoin as digital gold and believes that, because of the economic principles backing the currency, the price of bitcoin has the

Kicking off season two, this episode was recorded at the Crypto Invest Summit 2019 in Los Angeles. Joining Kelley Weaver are Tijana Damjanovic Gertner (Chief Marketing Officer of Anchor), Nash Foster (CEO of Pyrofex), and Ken Brooke (CEO of MetaX). The panel gives an explanation of their projects before getting into the focus of the discussion: mass adoption of blockchain technology. The three guests are first asked about what their favorite use cases of blockchain are and how they are applying it to their own projects. Nash talks about what needs to happen to get cryptocurrency used in day-to-day transactions, including the social aspect implemented by some applications. With Ken’s project focusing on digital advertising, he explains why blockchain is so disruptive to the ad tech ecosystem. Next, Tijana discusses stablecoins, which aim to resolve the issue of volatility currently plaguing the crypto ecosystem. Tijana introduces Anchor as a non-flationary stablecoin indexed to global GDP. Ken offers his thoug

This week we feature Bryce Bladon, Founding Team Member of CryptoKitties and Director of Communications at Dapper Labs. For the past decade, he has been a communications consultant specializing in finding use cases for emerging technology. Bryce tells us about the launch of CryptoKitties in 2017, explains the game and its significance. He discusses the possibility of CryptoKitties being interoperable with other blockchain-based games in the future and how CryptoKitties may improve adoption generally. He then discusses what he hopes the long-term impact of this technology will be and informs us of how to get involved with CryptoKitties.   Topics covered: - Bryce’s role at CryptoKitties and an explanation of what it is. - How the idea of CryptoKitties came to be. - The need for blockchain when it comes to CryptoKitties and their limited supply. - The trillions of visual combinations possible with CryptoKitties. - The latest innovations in CryptoKitties. - The challenges of achieving mass adoption of blockchain

Our guest today is Ian Balina, a full-time cryptocurrency investor who has travelled to 20 countries this year alone to research blockchain projects. He first became interested in blockchain while working at IBM. After making a humble investment into Bitcoin and Ethereum, Ian conducted additional research into blockchain, before finally quitting his job to invest full-time. He began by creating a spreadsheet of investment requirements to help him choose projects, a skill he had garnered in tech. The spreadsheet was a success and allowed Ian to make his first $1,000,000 within his first year as a full-time investor. Ian shares with us some key insights that he gained in the process and which current projects he is excited about. Looking forward, he describes how we will know when cryptocurrency has entered mainstream use.   Topics covered: - Ian’s work history. - IBM’s involvement with blockchain while Ian worked there. - Ian’s growth as a cryptocurrency influencer. - Finding patterns in ICO data. - Investing

This week we are joined by Arthur Gervais, the CEO at Liquidity Network. Liquidity Network uses off-chain payments enabling high volume of fast trading and purchasing. Arthur explains that blockchain’s impact on the banking and finance industries can lead to revolutionary changes in the way that business is conducted, especially shifting who will be given access to participate in trade. He dives in to the use cases for these types of payments and explains how this off-chain system is different from current exchanges. Arthur concludes by asking our listeners to reach out with questions, advice and comments.   Topics covered: - Arthur’s early days of cryptocurrency involvement. - Financial uses of blockchain. - The hourglass model. - What Liquidity Network does. - The transaction potential of Liquidity Network. - Off-chain payments vs. on-chain payments. - Use cases for micropayments. - The volatility of transaction fees. - The audience of Liquidity Network. - Liquidity Network’s upcoming decentralized exchange