Cryptocurrencies have gone from geek heaven to serious business By April 2020 Share The old billingsgate building by the Thames is both an incongruous and yet appropriate venue for a cryptocurrency conference. Incongruous because cryptocurrencies, running on computer chips that make trillions of calculations per second, couldn’t be further removed from those squamous quickly-expiring assets that the Billingsgate fishwives used to sell there. Appropriate because many cryptos are quickly-expiring assets that are often sold and debated with the proverbial vigour and profanity of the Billingsgate fishwives. In fitting homage to its piscine heritage, one halibut was actually sold, blockchain-style, on stage at the CoinGeek conference in February. Shilling and trolling, and good old-fashioned face-to-face abuse, are very much alive and well in crypto. Crypto is in fine form, despite regularly receiving its obituary from financial grandees and government officials. One of the luminaries of crypto who attracts much of the clamour is Dr Craig S. Wright, an Australian who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous author of the white paper that 11 years ago launched the first and to date mightiest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Many people in the crypto life, who should know what they’re talking about, view Craig Wright as a fraud, and refer to him as “Faketoshi”. And it’s true that Wright isn’t good on real-world detail when he makes pronouncements. But perhaps you could put that down to traditional mad professor absent-mindedness. But here in Old Billingsgate, the crowd that has gathered are his disciples. CoinGeek, one of the companies behind Wright, has merchandise, T-shirts and mugs on sale. The event is closer to a rock concert or religious ceremony than an academic consideration of the merits of Cassandra databases versus blockchain, or investment advice. Powerful, shoulder-jiving music blares out as Jimmy Nguyen, an American lawyer with a sharp suit and tie who looks as if he works out, bounces up onto the stage in front of one the largest screens I’ve ever seen, projecting text and images of him. His elated energy could sell you a used car or salvation. Nguyen is the MC of the event and the spin doctor of BitcoinSV, the coin and the blockchain that Craig Wright is now pushing. Nguyen starts by hailing Wright as Satoshi Nakamoto and explains that Wright was inspired by a Pokemon character, Satoshi, and Tominaga Nakamoto. Nakamoto, Nguyen informs us, was a Japanese philosopher and the Japanese “version” of Adam Smith. From his work Writings of an Old Man we get a quotation: Makoto no michi — the way of truthfulness. Nyguyen points out how often the word “honest” appears in the Bitcoin white paper, because honesty is a quality greatly valued by Wright. Nakamoto (1715-1746) was certainly a Japanese philosopher, but he ruminated on the shortcomings of Shintoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. Like Wright, he infuriated many of his contemporaries. I admit I’ve only been able to research him in English, but I haven’t found a single reference to him being an economist. Makoto no michi is also a slogan you’ll find on the walls or doors of many dojos, since the martial arts are at pains to emphasise they’re not only about breaking bones. Somehow this is typical of the rhetoric that swirls around crypto and Wrightworld — not quite right. Nguyen is followed by a couple of developers who praise the power of the BitcoinSV blockchain. The SV stands for Satoshi Vision, Wright’s insistence that he is returning to the original principles of the white paper. It’s interesting that throughout the conference there is much greater emphasis on the blockchain (a distributed public ledger maintained by a peer-to-peer system of computers) rather than the cryptocurrency that runs on it. The prominence of the blockchain rather than the currency is probably to do with Wright losing the so-called “hashwar”. The original Bitcoin, now often referred to as Bitcoin Core, was getting slow and expensive years ago, and Wright and others wanted bigger blocks to boost the system. There was a “hardfork”, a split, which resulted in the creation of Bitcoin Cash in 2017. Bitcoin Cash, with bigger block sizes, seemed to be gaining ground, and performing the function of cash, but then Wright and one of his principal backers, Calvin Ayre, a billionaire who had made money in the online gambling industry, wanted even bigger blocks and engineered another “hardfork” to create BitcoinSV in 2018. The miners and the crypto exchanges mostly stuck with Bitcoin Cash and cold-shouldered Wright. It looked as if Wright had lost. But he hadn’t lost a war, just one major battle. The irony is that if all the Bitcoin jihadis had stuck together, Bitcoin would now probably be a household feature. But the schisms and confusion put off merchants and investors. However, BitcoinSV has now climbed into the top ten of cryptocurrencies, often as high as number five, usually just behind Bitcoin Cash; both, however, a long way behind the supreme ruler, Bitcoin Core. All the big football clubs started off as ventures founded and played by local enthusiasts, before they became the vast corporations draining billionaires from around the world. The original Bitcoin came out of the largely Anglo-Saxon cypherpunk movement: coders on the left and right of politics who were distrustful of, or hostile to, banks, the government and the state. Peer-to-peer electronic cash at the beginning meant individuals mining bitcoin (or epigoni like Ethereum or Monero) on a desktop or laptop, with a Rage Against The Machine poster on the bedroom wall, pulling on a joint, and getting a sense of satisfaction from “sticking it to the man”. A fervent utopian message of justice was promulgated. This wasn’t just another currency; it would uplift the unbanked, succour the poor, topple corrupt government. You ran a crypto node (one of the links that makes up a blockchain) on your computer because it made you a cornerstone in the brave new world that was being built. A “full” node also allowed you to “mine” bitcoin (a reward for being part of the blockchain, a cryptographic lottery in which greater computing power gives you a greater chance of winning) and charge fees for processing transactions. Peer-to-peer in the crypto now means billionaire-to-billionaire. The amateur, volunteer, do-it-yourself, homebrew, cottage, band of brothers, guerrilla phase is well over, although there are diehards indulging in that dream with cryptos well shy of the top ten. Now, just as in football, if your team doesn’t have a Mr Moneybags or two, you’re nowhere. There’s a lot of misleading talk in crypto. Decentralised might mean there’s no formal CEO (although Dash does own up to having one) and no headquarters with a fancy atrium and a fishtank, but each crypto has a central committee of miners and developers, although they might be hard to identify and spread around the globe. BitcoinSV has obviously got big money behind it and the ethos has changed. Steve Shadders, the chief technical officer of Wright’s company nChain, commented that if you’re not making money with your node, you shouldn’t be running one. You would have been stoned to death as a heretic for an utterance like that in the early days. The two-day conference was mostly zeal being thrown back and forth, from the zealots on stage to the zealots in the audience, and back again, a regular crossfire of zeal. However, some optimism is not entirely unwarranted. Using blockchain as a basis for a new internet is a promising idea. The data storage aspect of the SV blockchain was pushed hard — and why not? But the trouble with good tech is that consumers may simply not give a shit. Remember Betamax, MiniDisc, Super Audio CD? The question of micro-payments came up a lot since the cost of transactions with BitcoinSV is very low at the moment. And it’s fast. It could function as cash and be used to buy the much-discussed cup of coffee or a pizza. It could. But it isn’t, because almost no one is using it. At the moment. There were two sober presentations without the obligatory hallelujahs for BitcoinSV. One came from Thomas Lee, an analyst at Fundstrat Global Advisors. He made a very telling point. The good news, according to him, is that as part of global liquid assets, crypto currently only makes up 0.1 per cent. So if the big financial institutions wake up one morning and decide that it’s time to get into crypto, there will be what they like to call in those circles “parabolic” growth. Lamborghinis all round for current bag-holders. The bad news is, it’s hard to guess which cryptos will get the love. Lee listed the top ten cryptos three years ago: only four of them are still there. The City types I’ve quizzed about crypto fall into two main categories: those who view crypto as a tulip mania, or simply dangerously radioactive and untouchable (generally people in their sixties or seventies); and those (younger) who find it intriguing, but are biding their time, yet like to work the word “blockchain” into their reports to show they’re hip. Bitcoin’s extreme volatility, and that it has been pronounced dead so many times after crashes, makes it less attractive to investors, though exciting to traders. The association with the dark net, the Silk Road, drug-dealing and criminality is also off-putting, but as crypto fans delight in responding, the dollar bill was a favourite of Pablo Escobar and there isn’t a major bank in the world that hasn’t been caught up in money-laundering, mis-selling or other malfeasance. The other speaker who resisted the euphoria was Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. In a rather stiff debate with Craig Wright, Wales outlined his reservations about the utility of blockchain (sceptics often sneer at it as a “slow database”). Like others not intoxicated by the promised panacea of crypto, he realises that crypto is still missing the killer app or the bridge that will deliver crypto to the masses. If someone like Amazon adopts crypto, he said, then things would be very different. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether Craig Wright is Satoshi or not. The debate is finally an academic one, like which was the first rock ’n’ roll record. Crypto is on the loose. Its death-defying resilience over 11 years has been remarkable. Bitcoin looks set to be a digital gold, which still leaves room for a proper cryptocash. BitcoinSV? Litecoin? Dash? Monero? Beam? Zcash? There are many options on the table and, in the next few years, consumers will choose whether they want crypto and which brand. Or whether they’ll just stick to their old credit card. Share Try three issues of Britain’s newest magazine for £5 As their birth rate plunges, EU countries are failing to confront reality When white American author Jeanine Cummins wrote a novel about Mexican refugees a critical firestorm erupted The leaked “Afghanistan Papers” tell a story of cover-ups at every level of America’s longest war. But can we really expect anything different? 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AFP Share on Twitter (opens new window) Share on Facebook (opens new window) Share on LinkedIn (opens new window) Share on Whatsapp (opens new window) Save to myFT Save to myFT Jonathan Derbyshire November 8, 2017 Print this page Experimental feature Listen to this article Play audio for this article Pause 00:00 00:00 Experimental feature Report a mispronounced word What was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time Submit Thank you for your help! or Give us your feedback Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? Ill use it in the future I dont think Ill use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback This article is from todays FT Opinion email. Sign up to receive a daily digest of the big issues straight to your inbox.The heady days of breathless enthusiasm about the Brics, the worlds major emerging economies, seem like a distant memory at least where Brazil is concerned. An increasingly confident and assertive China is, of course, another matter.Martin Wolf argues in his column that Brazil teeters on the edge of economic, political and moral crisis. A series of political scandals that have engulfed a third of the members of the current cabinet, as well as the president and leaders of the other main political parties, form the backdrop to a worryingly anaemic economic performance.The bald numbers tell an alarming story: income inequality in Brazil remains among the highest in the world; growth is sluggish, lagging behind less vaunted economies in the region such as Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Chile; and total factor productivity a measure of the rate of innovation has been falling since the turn of the century.But, as the saying goes, you should never let a crisis go to waste. Brazil, Martin insists, should seize the opportunity to enact lasting change. This is easier said than done, however. The reforms required are political as well as fiscal (although the weight of the structural deficit shouldnt be downplayed) and its not clear that either of the politicians currently leading the polls former president Luiz Incio Lula da Silva and rightwing populist Jair Bolsonaro is capable of delivering them. Where, one wonders, is Brazils Emmanuel Macron?Energy costs of the bitcoin bubble: As the price of bitcoin rises above $7,000 and a major derivatives exchange plans to launch bitcoin futures, Izabella Kaminska examines the environmental costs of using the cryptocurrency. As bitcoin mutates from a medium of exchange into a price-defying asset class, the more expensive and energy-intensive it becomes to maintain. Is it worth the candle?Britains post-Brexit bind on trade: Alan Beattie runs the rule over a new report from the Legatum Institute, the governments favourite think-tank, on Britains pathway to prosperity. The UK may want to remake global trade regulations in its own image, but the reality is that it will likely find itself squeezed between regulatory behemoths on either side of the Atlantic.High stakes in Saudi Arabia: The reforming ambitions of Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the Saudi throne, are vast, writes Roula Khalaf. But its hard to see how the young pretender will be able to achieve his domestic goals at the same time as running a more aggressive foreign policy.Best of the restNever mind fake news, this is fake government Alex Massie in the Spectator despairs of the chaos in Theresa Mays cabinetThe Paradise Papers Hacking and the Consequences of Privacy Jake Bernstein in the New York Times says the revelations about the murky world of offshore finance draw attention to the fuzzy boundary between privacy and secrecyBrowns greatest hits are eclipsed by his endless grudge against Blair Polly Toynbee in the Guardian argues that Gordon Browns new memoir shows the best and worst of the man who claimed to have saved the world at the height of the global financial crisisDont let the flame of Kurdistan go out writing in Le Monde, Anne Hidalgo, Bernard-Henri Levy and others denounce the indifference of the west to the predicament of the KurdsBrits dont appreciate being damned by a Yankee Alice Thomson in the Times takes issue with a recent op-ed in the New York Times describing Britain as a country in the throes of a controlled suicideWhat youve been sayingMembership of the EEA is clearly the inferior option letter from Hugo Dixon in LondonIt might still be sensible to take Mr Mnchaus advice if the chance of staying in the EEA was much greater than staying in the EU. But its not. Both would require a massive change in government policy, triggered by a change in public opinion. If the voters do change their mind, and there are some signs that they are starting to, much better to go the whole hog and reverse Brexit.Comment from Scouse 1 on Janan Ganeshs article, Britain is overexposed to its ruling classIn 1485 upstarts seized control from a despot and the remnants of the Normans. They immediately imitated the former rulers, their caste succumbed too the upstarts of Cromwell and his gang. Later we saw a nascent English elite take control of the German George. Thus we saw a return to imitation of the Normans. We saw the rise of the Heath-Thatcher middle class elite. We have now we have seen the Blair-Mandelson-Prescott elite change to Boris-Diane Abbott upstarts. All imitating the former Establishment. God help the United Kingdom in the years post 2020.A way to solve the Catalan crisis and strengthen the EU at the same time letter from Prof Wolfgang Danspeckgruber in New JerseyMost importantly, Spain has to begin a meaningful dialogue initiative on all levels of society, taking care to include the next generation, opinion leaders, business and finance, academia, the church and the crown. Only by erasing misconceptions, misunderstandings and ignorance on all sides will it be possible to seriously address the grievances at hand and to turn the current negative dynamics into a positive and forward-looking development for all Spaniards, the region and the EU.Todays opinionWhy Brazils crisis creates an opportunityThe country needs a programme of comprehensive economic and fiscal reformSaudi crown princes purge extends into LebanonMbSs intervention could pave the way to war against HizbollahFree Lunch: Why the Paradise Papers matterOffshore finance makes it easier to hide wealth in plain sightInstant Insight: Italys centre right draws hope from elections in SicilyBut a rightwing alliance would need a coalition for national rule, writes Tony BarberBritains post-Brexit bind on tradeThe UK is likely to find itself squeezed by both the EU and US on regulationFT Alphaville: Greeces membership of the euro is still tenuousInstant Insight: Rupert Murdoch entertains a retreat to the news businessSelling film and TV assets of 21st Century Fox could disrupt family succession, writes John GapperSaudi Arabias crown prince plays for high stakesThe reform ambitions are so vast that they are colliding with each otherThe environmental costs of bitcoin are not worth the candleTo make the cryptocurrency more sustainable, vested interests would have to be confrontedFT ViewFT View: Brexit Britains slapdash approach to foreign policyTheresa May is struggling to bring her undisciplined cabinet into lineFT View: Why debt and equity should be taxed the same wayThe Republican tax plan takes a tentative step more is neededThe Big ReadThe Big Read: Sri Lanka counts high cost of war and peace President Sirisena is accused of backsliding on pledge to heal countrys damaged reputation Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2018. All rights reserved. Show Comments Follow the topics in this article Jonathan Derbyshire Add to myFT Opinion Add to myFT Promoted Content

AFP Share on Twitter (opens new window) Share on Facebook (opens new window) Share on LinkedIn (opens new window) Share on Whatsapp (opens new window) Save to myFT Save to myFT Jonathan Derbyshire November 8, 2017 Print this page Experimental feature Listen to this article Play audio for this article Pause 00:00 00:00 Experimental feature Report a mispronounced word What was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time Submit Thank you for your help! or Give us your feedback Thank you for your feedback. What do you think? Ill use it in the future I dont think Ill use it Please tell us why (optional) Send Feedback This article is from todays FT Opinion email. Sign up to receive a daily digest of the big issues straight to your inbox.The heady days of breathless enthusiasm about the Brics, the worlds major emerging economies, seem like a distant memory at least where Brazil is concerned. An increasingly confident and assertive China is, of course, another matter.Martin Wolf argues in his column that Brazil teeters on the edge of economic, political and moral crisis. A series of political scandals that have engulfed a third of the members of the current cabinet, as well as the president and leaders of the other main political parties, form the backdrop to a worryingly anaemic economic performance.The bald numbers tell an alarming story: income inequality in Brazil remains among the highest in the world; growth is sluggish, lagging behind less vaunted economies in the region such as Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Chile; and total factor productivity a measure of the rate of innovation has been falling since the turn of the century.But, as the saying goes, you should never let a crisis go to waste. Brazil, Martin insists, should seize the opportunity to enact lasting change. This is easier said than done, however. The reforms required are political as well as fiscal (although the weight of the structural deficit shouldnt be downplayed) and its not clear that either of the politicians currently leading the polls former president Luiz Incio Lula da Silva and rightwing populist Jair Bolsonaro is capable of delivering them. Where, one wonders, is Brazils Emmanuel Macron?Energy costs of the bitcoin bubble: As the price of bitcoin rises above $7,000 and a major derivatives exchange plans to launch bitcoin futures, Izabella Kaminska examines the environmental costs of using the cryptocurrency. As bitcoin mutates from a medium of exchange into a price-defying asset class, the more expensive and energy-intensive it becomes to maintain. Is it worth the candle?Britains post-Brexit bind on trade: Alan Beattie runs the rule over a new report from the Legatum Institute, the governments favourite think-tank, on Britains pathway to prosperity. The UK may want to remake global trade regulations in its own image, but the reality is that it will likely find itself squeezed between regulatory behemoths on either side of the Atlantic.High stakes in Saudi Arabia: The reforming ambitions of Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the Saudi throne, are vast, writes Roula Khalaf. But its hard to see how the young pretender will be able to achieve his domestic goals at the same time as running a more aggressive foreign policy.Best of the restNever mind fake news, this is fake government Alex Massie in the Spectator despairs of the chaos in Theresa Mays cabinetThe Paradise Papers Hacking and the Consequences of Privacy Jake Bernstein in the New York Times says the revelations about the murky world of offshore finance draw attention to the fuzzy boundary between privacy and secrecyBrowns greatest hits are eclipsed by his endless grudge against Blair Polly Toynbee in the Guardian argues that Gordon Browns new memoir shows the best and worst of the man who claimed to have saved the world at the height of the global financial crisisDont let the flame of Kurdistan go out writing in Le Monde, Anne Hidalgo, Bernard-Henri Levy and others denounce the indifference of the west to the predicament of the KurdsBrits dont appreciate being damned by a Yankee Alice Thomson in the Times takes issue with a recent op-ed in the New York Times describing Britain as a country in the throes of a controlled suicideWhat youve been sayingMembership of the EEA is clearly the inferior option letter from Hugo Dixon in LondonIt might still be sensible to take Mr Mnchaus advice if the chance of staying in the EEA was much greater than staying in the EU. But its not. Both would require a massive change in government policy, triggered by a change in public opinion. If the voters do change their mind, and there are some signs that they are starting to, much better to go the whole hog and reverse Brexit.Comment from Scouse 1 on Janan Ganeshs article, Britain is overexposed to its ruling classIn 1485 upstarts seized control from a despot and the remnants of the Normans. They immediately imitated the former rulers, their caste succumbed too the upstarts of Cromwell and his gang. Later we saw a nascent English elite take control of the German George. Thus we saw a return to imitation of the Normans. We saw the rise of the Heath-Thatcher middle class elite. We have now we have seen the Blair-Mandelson-Prescott elite change to Boris-Diane Abbott upstarts. All imitating the former Establishment. God help the United Kingdom in the years post 2020.A way to solve the Catalan crisis and strengthen the EU at the same time letter from Prof Wolfgang Danspeckgruber in New JerseyMost importantly, Spain has to begin a meaningful dialogue initiative on all levels of society, taking care to include the next generation, opinion leaders, business and finance, academia, the church and the crown. Only by erasing misconceptions, misunderstandings and ignorance on all sides will it be possible to seriously address the grievances at hand and to turn the current negative dynamics into a positive and forward-looking development for all Spaniards, the region and the EU.Todays opinionWhy Brazils crisis creates an opportunityThe country needs a programme of comprehensive economic and fiscal reformSaudi crown princes purge extends into LebanonMbSs intervention could pave the way to war against HizbollahFree Lunch: Why the Paradise Papers matterOffshore finance makes it easier to hide wealth in plain sightInstant Insight: Italys centre right draws hope from elections in SicilyBut a rightwing alliance would need a coalition for national rule, writes Tony BarberBritains post-Brexit bind on tradeThe UK is likely to find itself squeezed by both the EU and US on regulationFT Alphaville: Greeces membership of the euro is still tenuousInstant Insight: Rupert Murdoch entertains a retreat to the news businessSelling film and TV assets of 21st Century Fox could disrupt family succession, writes John GapperSaudi Arabias crown prince plays for high stakesThe reform ambitions are so vast that they are colliding with each otherThe environmental costs of bitcoin are not worth the candleTo make the cryptocurrency more sustainable, vested interests would have to be confrontedFT ViewFT View: Brexit Britains slapdash approach to foreign policyTheresa May is struggling to bring her undisciplined cabinet into lineFT View: Why debt and equity should be taxed the same wayThe Republican tax plan takes a tentative step more is neededThe Big ReadThe Big Read: Sri Lanka counts high cost of war and peace President Sirisena is accused of backsliding on pledge to heal countrys damaged reputation Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2018. All rights reserved. Show Comments Follow the topics in this article Jonathan Derbyshire Add to myFT Opinion Add to myFT Promoted Content

There comes a time in every person’s life when they reach an impasse. When I say, “impasse,” I’m speaking about one of life’s many obstacles that present itself to us at incredibly inopportune moments. For you cinephiles in the audience, you’ve witnessed the man/woman standing on a street corner, who just lost their job and screams at the top of their lungs, “how could this get any worse,” only to be drenched in sewer runoff following a taxicab who drives right through a puddle. For those of us less entrenched with stereotypical vehicles of slapstick in film, everyone, more or less, has a bad day. Well, suffice to say that the US stock market has had a series of rough days over the course of the last several weeks, and several analysts believe that our nation may be headed for a recession a la 2008. Over ten years have gone by since our country underwent an industry-collapsing recession, and, although activity measures like retail sales, industrial production, and employment are at an all-time high, a growing number of economists and financial experts believe we are due for another recession in the next twenty-four months. Market growth has shown significant signs of slowing down over the last few months, with the Dow and several other indices dropping hundreds of points every week or so. “Traditional signals of a U.S. recession from the shape of a yield curve to a fall in housing investment to corporate bond spreads are suggesting in late 2019, early 2020.”According to several media outlets, all eleven sectors of the S&P 500 have received a decrease in expected earnings growth in the last few months, “led by utilities, materials, and industrials.” Before he even took office, President Trump made it clear that he wanted every product, service, and commodity to be manufactured in America and only America. As it relates to the oil industry, this has translated to a rush to pump oil out of shale fields around the country, most notably in West Texas, miraculously leading to record-high levels of production for black gold. Though domestic oil production couldn’t be higher, concerns about oversupply have sent oil prices every which way but loose. As of Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped below 22,000 following a statement issued by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that was intended to calm nervous investors in the space. In his ill-timed statement, Mnuchin said that:“We continue to see strong economic growth in the U.S. economy with robust activity from consumers and businesses. With the government shutdown, Treasury will have critical employees to maintain its core operations at Fiscal Services, IRS, and other crucial functions within the department.”Following Mnuchin’s statement, several major US indexes dropped due to the fact that his words were viewed as off-base and arguably unnecessary in the grand scheme of it all. One analyst told CNN that “this type of announcement raises the question of whether Treasury sees a problem that the rest of the market is missing.” Why else would Mnuchin call executives from every major US banking institution on Christmas Eve? In addition to Mnuchin’s bizarre statement, I can’t imagine it being helpful that President Trump shutdown parts of the federal government until further notice. Though many understand that the shutdown will have no major effects on the US economy, investors and executives across all sectors are concerned with the inability of lawmakers and the current administration to set aside their differences and approve the federal budget. When describing Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla (TSLA) , SpaceX, and The Boring Company, many would use terms like “eccentric” or “a little out there.” While I recognize Musk’s eccentricity, Musk so much more than simply “out there.” He is an innovative revolutionary with the creativity to manifest tenable change and the bank account to make his ideas a reality. When Musk founded The Boring Company in 2016, his primary goal was to mitigate traffic in major cities by creating a network of underground tunnels, allowing for cars to travel both above and below the surface. The Initial Test Tunnel, as its called, is located in Hawthorne, California, and is currently being used for the research and development of The Boring Company’s public transportation projects, “Loop” and “Hyperloop.” As the company broke first ground on their tunnel in California, Musk thought of no better time to market the Boring brand. He decided to sell a line of very interesting products emblazoned with the Boring Company logo, the most notable product being the “Not-A-Flamethrower.” Originally retailing for $600, the price has now dropped to $500 per flamethrower with an added twist:The Boring Company is now accepting Bitcoin (BTCUSD), Ethereum(ETHUSD), Litecoin (LTCUSD), and Bitcoin (BTCUSD) Cash as forms of payment.Historically, Musk has never openly supported cryptocurrency, though he has had several “flirtations” with the blockchain payment system this year. In February, Musk discovered that several false “Musk” twitter accounts were scamming users into giving away their cryptocurrency. He said that he “literally owned zero cryptocurrencies,” and for crypto owners to be on alert for scammers. After delivering this warning, Musk admitted that he owns .25 Bitcoin (BTCUSD) that a friend sent him a while back. So what does The Boring Company’s accepting of cryptocurrency mean for the crypto market? Analysts are suggesting Musk’s move is one of many that will take place as cryptocurrencies are potentially on the verge of a comeback.The price of Bitcoin (BTCUSD) was unremarkable on Thursday, furthering a relatively consistent downward trend for the world’s largest digital currency. The value decrease of cryptocurrency has been the new normal over the last few months, but many believe bitcoin’s lull may be finding its end. Madi Greenspan, a senior market analyst at eToro believes that the market is on the precipice of watching bitcoin breakout once more. “It’s only a matter of time now. Of course, the flat-line pattern could easily remain for another few months, and that wouldn’t be a bad thing; however, there are signs of excitement boiling underneath the cool price action exterior.”As for the evidence backing up Greenspan’s curious claims, let’s turn our attention to the rising number of transactions per second. For those of us not familiar with how cryptocurrency works, join me for this brief, but informative, aside. All cryptocurrencies use “blockchain” technology, a framework purposed with decentralizing currency and reframing how transactions occur. Blockchain is a digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record infinite exchanges, while also keeping a record of every person a currency changes hands with. Imagine a spreadsheet that is shared between a thousand computers. Once you’ve done that, imagine that spreadsheet updating regularly to account for all interactions with the file. Attaching this technology to cryptocurrency removes the need for traditional banking systems to monitor transactions and a dramatic increase in fiscal transparency, given that all parties can view transaction history for each BitCoin purchased. Reverting our attention back to the wise words of Mati Greenspan, transactions per second, between various cryptocurrencies, are increasing, and this serves as a vital barometer for the “scalability of blockchain technology.” Industry experts have been concerned with the ability of blockchain to scale and meet the demands of consumers and creators of new coins alike. At the time of the dot-com bubble, Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, observed that investors were slaves to “irrational exuberance” surrounding the industry, and many believe this is the case with cryptocurrencies today. The price of bitcoin has been more erratic than a first-grader full of birthday cake, trading at $20,000 at its height and now selling for less than $7000. Many startups have looked into the viability of initial coin offerings (ICO) as a means for tapping into a liquid market without the need for intermediaries and funding their companies. Unlike IPOs, investors do not receive company stock. Rather contributors receive tokens that can be traded on crypto exchanges, according to the Brookings Institution. The future of cryptocurrency is dependent on the scalability of blockchain technology to meet the demands of consumers, as well as the commitment of long-term investors to see their investments in coins to the end. If the industry reveres Elon Musk as much as they do, perhaps his adoption of the coin as payment for The Boring Company is an indication that the crypto market is about to trend upwards. INT. Oval Office, President Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo enter the room, wearing matching “MAGA” hatsMnuchin: (delivering the punchline of a joke) And the bartender goes, “cookie, my favorite!”Trump: That joke was excellent. The best joke in the world. China doesn’t tell jokes. Pompeo: Good one, Mr. President. Now, Steven, joking aside, we wanted to tell you something.Mnuchin: Sure, I’m listening. Hold on, let me take these out of my ears (Mnuchin comically removes two coins from his ears)Pompeo: Not now, Steven, this is important. Now, I’m sure you’ve heard the news about Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist from Saudi Arabia?Mnuchin: Yes, I’m headed to an investor conference in Riyadh tomorrow.Sources can’t confirm that the above took place as described, but Treasury Secretary Mnuchin did announce Thursday that he was rescinding his participation in a “high-profile investor conference” in Saudi Arabia, likely because of the growing controversy over journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. An administration official told CNN that no other government officials will attend next week’s summit in Mnuchin’s place. In response to the Treasury Secretary’s refraining from the conference, the recently jittery stock market took a turn down south. CNN reports that the Dow lost as many as 392 points, or 1.5%, on Thursday, as investors reacted to Mnuchin’s decision. Tech stocks followed suit, with Facebook (FB) and Alphabet () losing about 2% each, the Nasdaq falling 1.5%, and Netflix (NFLX) tumbling about 3%. Market volatility is in the air and residents of Wall Street are ready to cut their losses. Increasing fears of rising bond yields coupled with President Trump’s trade war with China sparked an onslaught of buyer’s remorse last week, the worst for all three major indexes since March, according to market analysts. Many believe Mnuchin’s announcement was based on rising tensions between the United States and Saudi Arabia over the situation surrounding missing Washington Post Journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul several weeks ago to file paperwork in order to marry his Turkish fiancee. The journalist, who in recent months began critiquing the Saudi government, never returned to his Turkish wife-to-be. An audio clip, released by the Turkish government confirms that Khashoggi was drugged, killed, and dismembered while in the Consulate. Sources reportedly told CNN that a group of Saudi men, whom Turkish officials believe are in cahoots with those who planned Khashoggi’s killing, were led by a high-ranking intelligence officer, with one source saying “he was close to the inner circle of the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”Treasury Secretary Mnuchin was not the only government official in the geopolitical space to withdraw from participating in the event held in Saudi Arabia. UK Trade Minister Liam Fox elected not to attend as well.“The Secretary of State for International Trade has decided the time is not right for him to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on October 23…The UK remains very concerned about Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance. We encourage Turkish-Saudi collaboration and look forward to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conducting a thorough, credible, transparent, and prompt investigation. ” –Unnamed UK government spokesman on behalf of Dr. FoxSeveral other government officials canceled their plans, including French finance minister Bruno Le Maire and Dutch Finance Minister Woke Hoekstra. In addition to the various nations’ “no-thank-you” RSVPs, the boycott of the country has spread to entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshai and other industry executives including C-level friends from Ford (F), Google (GOOG), and several others have decided against making appearances at Saudi Arabia’s annual “Davos in the Desert” event this month. Only time will tell as to whether the effects of the Saudi governments alleged involvement with Khashoggi will result in the pulling back of investments from Silicon Valley, as well as from the many nations who declined to send officials. Recent reports indicate that Richard Branson, founder, and chairman of Virgin Galactic, has temporarily suspended his $1 billion partnership with Saudi Arabia. “A shoe must be three things,” Nike (NKE) co-founder Bill Bowerman proclaimed. “It must be light, comfortable and it’s got to go the distance.” In the late 1950s, Bowerman was displeased with the current track shoe market. Shoes were made of heavy leather, metal, and were anything but soft and comfortable. As a track coach for the University of Oregon, revered both then and now as an elite running school, Bowerman was obsessed with helping his runners slash seconds of their times. He first began dismembering running shoes in the 50’s, when he wrote to several shoe companies with suggestions for improving their footwear to improve quality for runners and walkers alike. He received no responses, but Bowerman never slowed. One of the first student-athletes to try a Bowerman original was Phil Knight, the eventual founder of Nike (NKE). As to why Bowerman chose him, Knight admitted that “he wasn’t one of the best runners on the team. Bowerman knew he could use me as a guinea pig without much risk.” Bowerman made every shoe to the exact dimensions of a runner’s foot, measuring widths and noting individualities, such as extended heel or slim ankle. As for raw materials, nothing was out of the question. Bowerman used kangaroo leather, velvet, deer hide, snakeskin, and even fish skin, in pursuit of the perfect track sneaker. “Most American shoemakers are not interested in what we track coaches think about track shoes. The best shoes…at this time are made by the Germans. Their sole material is not too good and I can either replace their sole or I can make my own shoe. I don’t think there is any question, certainly, in my own mind there is not, that I now have the best shoe in the world — if I could just find some good American shoemaker to make it.”Bowerman would eventually find a good American shoemaker, or better yet, he would become the shoemaker he sought out. Partnering up with his former student-athlete, Phil Knight, the two running enthusiasts would eventually start Blue Ribbon Sports and years down the line, Nike. Fast forward fifty-four years and Nike (NKE) one of the most well-known brands in the history of retail. It’s legacy as a brand is built on decades of gold-medal athletes, unparalleled innovation for high-performance shoes, and a keen eye for the next big thing. “In our view, Nike (NKE) represents an already dominant, legacy global brand that is now aggressively embracing the power of digital to enhance most facets of its business,” analyst Brian Nagel said on Thursday. Nagel, an analyst for global investment firm Oppenheimer, upgraded Nike (NKE) to “Outperform” from “Perform” based on the firm’s rubric for investment success. Nike’s shares have been red-hot this year, soaring 23% in 2018. The brand’s stock is outperforming the S&P 500, which climbed a measly 6% in the same timespan. Bullish growth forecasts for the global sportswear brand are not without competition, as rival Adidas AG (ADDYY) reports that its last quarter sales in North America, a region where the brand is beating  Nike to the punch somewhat consistently, shot up 7% to nearly $1.3 billion.In an effort to stay fresh and keep moving forward, Nike commemorated the 30th anniversary of its legendary ‘Just Do It’ campaign by selecting Colin Kaepernick, a former NFL quarterback whose decision to kneel during the national anthem spurned nation-wide outcry. Kaepernick refused to stand in support of a nation wrought with police brutality and social injustice, and the very notion of challenging the norm is in Nike’s lifeblood.Despite various criticisms from the media and President Donald Trump, the 30th-anniversary campaign has generated an increase of 31% more online sales in the days following the ad, as well as 170,000 new followers on Nike’s official Instagram. Since the launch of the campaign, Nike’s shares have risen 6.5%, adding roughly $6 billion to the company’s market value. Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman had a vision for their company. It was never about becoming a global icon, no, it was much simpler than that. Knight and Bowerman believed in investing in the future of athleticism. At the very end of Nike’s commercial featuring Kaepernick, the former Superbowl-winning quarterback leaves consumers with a line:“Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.” Get stock alerts, news & trending stock alerts straight to your inbox!We keep all user information pricate & promise to never spam.* //

When going to war, first build an invincible defence. And I am strongest at my home. Home is a studio apartment a few minutes away from the Farrer Park MRT station. Unlike most single Singaporeans my age, I live alone, well away from my parents. It’s for their safety. They’re normies, and given my lifestyle, the last thing I need is for demons to show up at the doorstep of my family home. To the naked eye, it’s an open concept one-room flat. In my mind’s eye, I see multiple reinforced layers of shields, shimmering white and blue and gold, ready to repel intruders. Crystals stationed near the door and windows anchor the shields in place. The wards are intact, and there are no signs of forced entry. Setting my backpack down, I don a pair of Flare Audio titanium earplugs and pick up the crystal singing bowl in the corner. It’s less a bowl and more like a cylinder, half the size of my torso. I cradle it to my hip and strike the rim with a wooden dowel. A pure note fills the room with white sound. Rubbing the dowel against the outer rim, I circle my home, carrying the sound to every corner. The walls are thick enough that I don’t disturb the neighbours. The high-pitched tone sweeps through me, clearing any stray negativity I might have picked up. I put the bowl aside and sit on the floor. Draw my Benchmade Griptilian from my waistband and pop it open. Closing my eyes, I open my mind’s eye and hunt for negative attachments. There. A cluster of black cords extending from my crown. I swipe my knife through them, severing the connections. Vanessa would have left those attachments, of course. She couldn’t help it; where intention goes, energy flows. She desires intimacy and seeks it in mere flesh. I can’t help her with her issues. Not today. All I can do is help myself. Passing the knife over my body, I clear all other unhealthy attachments in my aura. It’s a staple practice in Western occult practices, but it’s not something I do for people who aren’t read into them. Singapore doesn’t have a knife culture, and the first time I brought out the knife the client freaked out there and then. Since then, I resorted to sage. I didn’t make this world. I just have to live in it. When I was done, I hit the shower. Cold running water with plenty of sea salt. Can’t ever be too careful. I change into a green shirt and comfortable pants, and dump the laundry just in time to hear the doorbell. I check the peephole. See a woman. Open the door. Eleanor Wang stands at the doorstep. Dressed in a bright yellow dress, she carries a sling bag over her left shoulder, another bag on her right, and a smaller carrier in her left hand. I let her in. Dumping her bags next to the door, she plops herself on the sofa and hugs a cushion to her chest. Her spirit guide, a small tabby cat named Blazer, shows himself, sprawling all over her crown. Blazer climbs down. Lupin and Leonhard reveal themselves, and the trio hold a conference in a corner of the room. As I sit next to her, she says, “How was your client today?” For the next ten minutes, I recount the events at Bedok. Eleanor listens intently, chiming in with questions where appropriate. “It sounds like a powerful neg,” she says. “We’ve dealt with worse before,” I reply. There are a handful of people in the world who know who I am and what I do. Eleanor is one of them. The first among them. We met in secondary school, and she was the only friend I retained from those days. When I stumbled upon the hidden world of gods and demons, she was the first person I confided in, and the first person who followed me down the rabbit hole. It helped that she had no small amount of talent herself. “It feels like a spirit of lust,” she says. “It is attracted to carnal desires, but it feeds directly on life energy. But it’s also powerful and dangerous enough to protect itself.” “Michael says he’s gunning for me now.” She sigh, shaking her head. “As expected.” “I need to prepare for round two,” I say. “Can you help?” We reinforce my home. More shields, more wards, more blessings, concluding with a prayer for help. “Archangel Michael, General of the Armies of Light, watch over and protect us from the forces of evil. Safeguard this place and ensure it remains a sanctuary from darkness. Thank you.” Short and simple, as the best workings usually were. Eleanor favoured other divinities, but it’s usually best to concentrate your energies on a single celestial being than to spread them out over multiple ones. More so if they don’t get along. A quarter of an hour later, we’re done. Eleanor chugs down a glass of water and declares, “Time for dinner!” We have dinner twice or thrice a week. Sometimes she visits me, sometimes I go to her workplace in Toa Payoh, other times we meet somewhere in between. Her way of keeping track of me, I suppose. I’d left two packets of salmon fillets and another of potatoes out to thaw. I don’t normally prepare those, but with Eleanor around I made the exception. We rummage around the fridge and produce a bunch of French beans, cherry tomatoes and peas. Together, we prepare dinner. There was so little room in the tiny kitchen we had to work hip-to-hip. The kitchenette has a tiny cooking hob. Just about adequate for what the real estate agent had called ‘light cooking’. Today, that meant pan-seared salmon with helpings of assorted vegetables. Laying out the food on the dining table, we lower our heads, clasp our hands and bless the meal. I draw down divine energy into the real world, into this tiny spot in space-time, and infuse it into the food, willing the energy to bring health, wealth, and good fortune. In my second sight, the edibles glow softly. We make small talk over dinner. She does most of the talking, complaining about the latest round of office politicking, venting about the people she had to deal with, commiserating about the stresses of the job. Her voice, a sweet, melodious mix of green and yellow and indigo, makes listening to the litany barely tolerable. In the grand tradition of countless Singaporeans before her, she’d joined the civil service after graduating from university. It paid much better than what I did, as she liked to remind me, but I wasn’t sure if the job was worth my soul. I suppose we who are called to serve the Divine have different priorities. “How are you doing these days?” she asks. “Can you still cope?” “Sure. I’m making enough to get by.” She chuckles. Much of her income went to servicing her education loans. Most of mine went to paying the bills. We all have our crosses to bear. “Is your magic business working out?” she asks. I offer a multitude services. Tarot, palm reading and graphology are my most successful offerings, and those I’m obliged to charge for. I have to, to keep myself afloat. Healing, only if the client can afford it. Exorcism is a donations-only endeavour. It’s not a money-making business; in a good month I can cover my expenses, in a bad month there’s nothing to do but dip into my savings. But this job isn’t about the money – and if I needed cash, there were other ways. “I made fifteen hundred dollars off trading Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash and Litecoin this month.” Okay, I exaggerate. A little. Most of those were paper gains. I’d jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon early in the game, early enough that when I finally remembered I had a Bitcoin wallet I realized I was sitting on a small fortune. I wasn’t a millionaire. Not by a long shot. But I could afford to stay here for ten years, if I made my trades carefully and if the crypto market continued to remain favourable. Of course, the main problem was ensuring my bank account had real money in it. Singapore still ran on fiat, and most of my savings were locked up in crypto. I supplement my income with freelancing and other mundane work—but talking about that would bore the both of us. We keep conversation light over the rest of dinner. It’d been a long day and I didn’t have much energy for anything else. We put away the dishes and she stays a little longer, sitting next to me on my sofabed. We’re so close our shoulders touch. She is soft and warm and it only took me a full year—the entirety of my last year in secondary school—to acclimatize myself to this much contact. A pleasant hour passes in conversation, tarot reading, and meditation. At least, she tries to meditate. “I can’t really meditate as long as you do,” she complains. I nudge her side. Lightly. The sensory recoil sends shockwaves through my body. “I read somewhere that people do that to keep their minds and bodies still…” But she giggles. And she keeps her tone light. And again she laughs, lightly shoving me away. We turn to less sensitive topics for a few more minutes. Then she breaks out a tube of cream and squirts out a small amount on her palm, as large as a twenty-cent coin. Rubbing her hands together, she runs them down her face, her neck, her arms, her legs. Her skin is a battered wasteland of dry flakes and dull red patches. Full-body eczema, co-morbid with lichen amyloidosis. With a careful diet and rigorous skincare regime, she’s kept it under control for the past decade and a half. Despite my best efforts I haven’t found a way to help her. But I’m not giving up. As she speaks, she gushes about her latest skin care products and skin-friendly makeup. Most of it flies over my head—all I comprehend is a daily infusion of aloe vera—but I smile and nod anyway. It’s the best I can do for her. At least, for now. She stays for another half hour, and then it’s time to go. Donning my knife and flashlight, I escort her to the MRT station. She’d long ago given up any hope of persuading me to disarm myself, but she lives in a different world. Cold iron and white light are the most effective tools against spirits, second only to blessed and enchanted holy objects. I have also been reliably informed that knives and flashlights tend to useful against human threats. Not that I plan to use mine on humans, of course. After all, as every law-abiding citizen can tell you, weapons are illegal in Singapore, and self-defence is no excuse to carry one. I return home and stifle a yawn. All the socialising had sapped my energy reserves. No point doing any more work tonight. I wash the dishes and brush my teeth. Fire up my laptop, check my Exodus wallet and my accounts on various cryptocurrency exchanges, record my income, and spend the next half hour relaxing with videos and some light reading. When I can’t keep my eyes open any longer, I unfold my sofa into a bed, stash my flashlight and knife under my pillow, turn off the lights and dive under the covers. It is warm and soft and clean and comfortable and soothing. After so many hours of sensory contact with other humans it was just the thing to recover. It's a weekend too; I could sleep in if I wanted to, not that it was going to happen, I had work to do and work never ended. I close my eyes and turn on my side and sink into the mattress. There is a new pressure next to me. Soft and warm and human. I sit up and Eleanor is lying next to me, smiling an invitation, peeling off the blanket to reveal an expanse of smooth fresh skin and in her right hand is a coil of rope and the rope unfurls into a hangman’s noose and she is smiling like a tigress and she crawls over with noose in hand and that is not Eleanor’s skin that is not Eleanor wake up wake up WAKE UP! My physical body is frozen. My soul is not. I visualize a pentragram. Five blazing white lines burn into existence, forming a barrier between me and not-her. She hisses and her face warps into a malformed spotted thing. “I banish you! By the most holy names of God—Yahweh, Agla, Adonai, Ehyeh Asher Ahyeh—I banish you and command you never to return!” The pentagram burns white, drowning out the world. I shoot up into a standing position. Hot electricity crackles through every fiber of my being. To my right, just past the bed, I see a large brown blob the shape and size of a man. It scowls at me, growing massive fangs and a pair of clawed arms. Reaching under my pillow, I grab the first thing I can find. Heavy, plastic, textured. Knife. I snap the knife open and pounce on the entity. Angel lights flash into existence. The knife punches clean through astral matter. A demonic howl fills my head. The lights frame and illuminate the neg, holding it in place, burning off the darkness. I slash and thrust and cut and stab and the spirit is gone. My heart pounds in my chest. Sweat spills down my skin. My steel is steady in my hand. And there are no more threats. It is just after three in the morning. There are great, gaping holes over the windows and door. I’d have to repair them later. I put my Benchmade away. Wipe the sweat from my face. Sit. Breathe. Lupin and Leonhard materialize before me. Their bodies are covered in scratches. The angel lights flit over them, concentrating at their wounds. Lupin growls. ‘Reshazak brought many friends. They tore down your shields and created an opening for him. Sorry we couldn’t hold them off.’ ‘We won. That’s all that matters. Michael?’ ‘Here I am,’ the archangel says, his voice emanating from the lights. As he speaks, the guides’ wounds close over. I’d rather not fight at all, but winning was second-best. ‘You’re most welcome. Reshazak read your mind and exploited your weaknesses. You did well to detect his presence and drive him off, but he will come back. His pride demands it. And if he can’t reach you, he’ll target Eleanor.’ I exhale sharply. I’d expect nothing less of a demon. There’s only one thing we could do. For more long-form fiction by yours truly, check out NO GODS, ONLY DAIMONS on Amazon. That was the effect I was going for. Thanks!

Harmony creates an open market for the decentralised economy. The project aims at providing a consensus protocol over the open Internet at 10 million transactions per second with 100-milliseconds latency and not more than 0.1% fee.- Currency: USD paid in ETH at the moment of sale;- Total tokens: 21,000,000,000;- Available for token sale: ТВА;- Token price: ТВА;- ICO plans to raise funds: as of today it is known that it is planned to raise USD 2,000,000 at seed round;- Sales t&c: 40% bonus for seed round, 20% bonus for private sale, 0% bonus for public sale;Token allocation20% for sale, 40% for developers and community, 28% for foundation and research, 12% for founder and team.Token freeze Sales — «40% no lockup, 10% monthly over 6 months; for bonus, 100% release after 1-year lockup»; Developers and community — «1-year 28% lockup, 1.5% monthly over 4 years»; Foundation and research — «28% no lockup, 1.0% monthly over 6 years»; Founder and team — «1-year 28% lockup, 2% monthly over 3 years».As you can see the token freeze system is rather sustainable and fundamental.Token release: immediately, as soon as listed on crypto exchanges.Investors | Partners |Roadmap | Token economy | Token saleNo information is available about those things as of this stage.As the developers noted, the main competitors for this project are:EOS, Zilliqa, Hashgraph, Thunder, Dfinity, Solana, Kadena, Algorand.In GitHub of the project there is 1 repository with the project description, as well as brief description of a new language for smart contracts. GitHub of the project is not empty, but it is clear that the project is an a very early stage of implementation, and it is not improbable (it is most probable) that the main activity is done in closed repositories.The project presents a system for information transfer and storage, based on the newest and the most perspective developments in the area of distributed systems and telecommunications.1. Network transport level — the use of Google UDP instead of TCP/IP will enable to reduce the time to establish connection between the network nodes.2. Adaptability for the latest 5G mobile communication network (http://www.huawei.com/minisite/5g/en/defining-5g.html)3. Scalability via sharding (OmniLedger)4. 10М tps throughput5. Shards interaction on the basis of DAG principle6. Blocks parallelising7. Oracles support8. Development of DApps with the use of formal verification method (a mathematic proof of application functions) to enable the development of highly protected applications.9. Issues associated with consensus mechanism and virtual machine will be clarified in future versions of WP.Stephen has been obsessed with protocols and compilers since high school. He re-engineered ICQ and X11 protocols coded in OCaml for 15 years. In 2002 he graduated from Simon Fraser University (Australia) with a degree in Commutative Algebraic Geometry. In 2007 he got a Ph.D. of Cryptographic Protocols in the University of Pennsylvania. He was a Researcher at Microsoft Research, a Senior Infrastructure Engineer at Google and a Principal Engineer on Search Ranking at Apple. He founded the mobile search Spotsetter where he worked for 3 years, then Apple acquired the startup and Stephen worked there for one more year.Then he worked with EE-sales assistant until he founded HARMONY in 2017.He obtained his M.S. in AI Language Technologies at the Carnegie Mellon University​.He taught Apple Siri to understand natural language (deep learning). He did research on ambiguity of words meaning and machine translation. His research paper won the best database award at ICWSM 2013. Alok spoke at the top conferences including SIGIR, ICWSM and EMNLP. He also published a best seller book Game Changers, telling about successful graduates from his alma mater IIT Kharagpur (India).He founded a VR startup Orah in 2012 that raised US$ 10m​. Orah served the needs of thousands of professional content creators in 70 countries by selling GPU-driven live stitching software and 360° cameras. Nicolas has a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science.Michael Slinn — most likely CPO. 500+ followers in LinkedInHe focused on developing and positioning products. He delivered a presentation on the integration of smart contracts at the World Crypto Economic Forum. Michael created one of the biggest technical communities Scala at San-Fransisco Bay.He obtained a Ph.D. of Computer Science at College Park of Maryland University and his B.S. in the University of Science and Technology (Beijing).He worked at Google as Search Infrastructure Engineer for Play Market, published 10+ academic papers on spatio-temporal querying​ and map-based visualization. Rongjian has been doing an in-deptyh research on decentralized protocols since early 2017. He is a Co-Chairman of ABC Blockchain Foundation with 100+ Engineers from Google, Facebook, Linkedin as members.Trausti Kristjansson — Part-time, 500+ followers in LinkedInTrausti received his Ph.D. of Machine Learning​ from the University of Waterloo.He worked in the industry’s most respected research labs (Microsoft Research, IBM Research, Google Research, Amazon), founded full-stack startups and led Ph.D. Engineers as an Engineering Director. in 2004 his research paper Interactive Information Extraction with Constrained Conditional Random Fields won the award at AAAI, the top academic conference in artificial intelligence.Georgios Fainekos is a Professor at Arizona State University. He specializes in formal methods of cyber-physical systems, swarm robotics​, and machine learning for real-time planning. Georgios did his doctoral studies at the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception Labs (GRASP Labs) of the University of Pennsylvania.Bruce Huang 黄海旻 (part-time) — 500+ followers in LinkedInHe obtained his M.S. in Computer Science at the Simon Fraser University. He was a Senior Programming Engineer in Microsoft China for 7 years, then a Director at Alibaba Cloud and Credit Lase. Later, he was a CEO of Madailicai, a top-peer lending company in China. Bruce is a certified Snowboarding Instructor (feel free to contact).There is no profile in LinkedIn, in FB he is registered under the surname Hueschen. https://www.facebook.com/huesch — 953 friendsSince May 2018 — works in IOHK (there is a link to the company web-site, but it is absolutely empty).Hourann Bosci — Software Developer854 followers in LinkedInShe studied Biochemistry, Mathematics, Polithology at University of Western Australia in 2002–2006.Work record: From 2004 till 2006 worked as Technical Assistant at her University, then as a Developer in a number of companies, including Google (6 months).In period from 2013 till August 2016 she was a Co-Founder and a General Director of Datagami (API, interfaces and visualization devices for data processing and machine learning) (the company’s closed).Since March 2017 she is a Co-Founder and a General Director of Upright Media (Upright Media platform uses a computer vision and AI to automatically produce impressive video commercials with the use of the customized approach).Shamir Allibhai — Film-Maker, Blockchain Video Authenticator, Founder of Speech Recognition Startup. 2834 followers in LinkedInHe studied in Harvard in 2007–2009, before it he graduated from the American University in Beirut.Work record: Since 2003 he was a Producer and a Commercial Director at many London-based TV channels, in 2006–2011 he has his own TV channel, where he told good stories about islam. Then he worked as a Producer in an American studio (also tending to the Middle East culture) for a year, in Qatar for 3 years and a year in San-Fransisco in a blockchain company.In a period from May 2016 through June 2017 he created content in VR-company for Oculus VR, in September 2017 — December 2017 he was a Project Advisor for Rokoko (San-Fransisco, VR), then he established Simon Says (speech recognition, AI and machine learning) and founded Unveiled Labs (provides stakeholders with absolute assurance on the authenticity of video and audio content).Education: University of Computer Studies (Birma).Work record: Web and Graphic Designer in many companies.Yair is a creative and motivated designer with 10+ with more than a decade of experience in making many products useful and beautiful across all major platforms. Try a bot he created overnight to learn more about him: https://www.facebook.com/hypertimestudio/ He has an experience of designing his own products as he is the only designer of a small startup acquired by Apple.Achievements:Once he was in top-ten of 40,000+ designers on a design-crown sourcing market, he won an award from Singapore Government for application designed for Amazon Music, Kindle and Audible across Amazon.com and other platforms. Yair has a degree in Computer Technology and Computer Arts, and he is also a certified Agile Scrum Master.Brea Salim — Community Liaison Officer779 followers in LinkedInEducation: Barnard College (Columbia) Economics and English and Phillips Exeter Academy.Work record: Since June 2011 she worked in Jakarta, the in American companies as a Writer and Marketing Consultant, since March 2018 she is a Senior Marketing Specialist in Yahoo! Small BusinessShe has her own web-site: https://www.breasalim.comShe has a Google Adwords certificate in advertising.Zi Wang — worked at Google from 2006–2015 on Chrome, Google [X], Android and Nexus. He was the first Global Creative Director​ for the Google Hardware Division and co-founded a Google Research Lab with a US$20M budget. 500+ followers.Zi founded Quantum Bakery, a startup partnering with Google, Corning and Toyota, to develop consumer products with the use of artificial intelligence. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.S. in Economics.There are 2632 results when searching for Zi Wang, but only one matches Zi Want working with Google and Toyota:All afore-mentioned is taken from the project paper and matches LinkedIn information. We may add that Zi studied in Stanford as well.Since 2015 he founded Quantum Bakery an on his page he indicates: our staff worked in Google, Apple, Facebook and Samsung. We led technological projects for Google, Tencent, Facebook, Amazon & Toyota.Aaron Li — started programming since the age of 7 and started mining Bitcoin since 2011. He won the prestigious ACM SIGKDD best paper​ award on language topic modeling, having completed his master’s degree at the Carnegie Mellon University. 880 followers in LinkedIn.Aaron was a Researcher at the Google Machine Learning team and a Founding Engineer at Scaled Inference, an AI startup head advised by Prof. Michael Jordan. A New Zealand citizen, Aaron was granted the Extraordinary Ability Visa in the US to create fundamental and disruptive technologies for humans.All afore-mentioned is taken from the project paper and matches LinkedIn information. He has 7 publications, 3 awards in the area of Computer Science and Innovations. He worked as a Software Engineer in Google for 4 months.Navneet Singh — led the Mobile Engineering at Google for 6 years. He also was a Senior Vice President at the largest payment processor​ WorldPay and a Head of Data Science at the mobile payment provider Ezetap. 2007 followers in LinkedIn.Navneet graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science. He speaks 6 languages, has an extensive experience with distributed machine learning, and a deep passion for transforming businesses with data-driven innovation.All afore-mentioned is taken from the project paper and matches LinkedIn information. He has three patents and one publication.Michael Young — co-founded and led 3 venture-backed companies to acquisitions, including one to a key supplier of Apple. Bringing expertise in computer vision (projected sensor screen), he has closed deals with Fortune 500 companies, the US Department of Defense, and strategic partners across China and Japan. 500+ followers in LinkedIn.An inventor of 20 patents, Michael raised US$35M+ and was selected as one of America’s Best Entrepreneurs​ by Bloomberg. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in Physics and left Stanford with a Ph.D.There are 4,712 results for Michael Young-physicist from Pennsylvania and Stanford Universities, and only one matches the description (no photo):All afore-mentioned is taken from the project paper and matches LinkedIn information. We may add that he worked in different companies only in managerial positions.Kushagra Shrivastava — runs the Xoogler investment syndicate. He worked at Google in 2006–2014, leading marketing and strategy for Google Play and Android Apps. Graduated from the INSEAD Executive Program for Marketing, Kushagra was the Chief Executive for Products at an advertising startup acquired by Pinterest. 4,057 followers in LinkedIn.Kushagra is the Senior Director for Yahoo Small Business. He is also a Fellow at Stanford Center for Legal Informatics​, he founded his Blockchain Group and actively contributes to the Computable Contracts project. All afore-mentioned is taken from the project paper and matches LinkedIn information.The project has a TOP-team and TOP-level advisors. Looking from the technical side, all looks very cool as well: both the idea and the implementation. We like the token freezing system for all project participants: as we’ve already mentioned above, everything is thought through!Minuses: at the moment there is only one potential minus, which is the lack of project partners and investors (we are sure that they will appear very soon), as well as the absence of metrics (the project is at the very early stage of implementation).Interest level: despite the lack of partners, investors and metrics at the current stage of the project implementation, but, taking into consideration all other positive aspects, the project may be obviously rated as HIGH!There are a lot of tools you can find on the website: a calendar with all upcoming ICO events adjusted to your time zone, social statistics on projects, open whitelists and etc. Simply scroll down on the main page. Till next time!Thank you for choosing ICO DropsWebsite | Twitter | Telegram News | Telegram EN ChatFrom a quick cheer to a standing ovation, clap to show how much you enjoyed this story.Simple and beautiful ICO Calendar. With us it’s impossible to miss the next great #ICO. 🚀

With continued uncertainty around the globe, today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, warned money in banks will be incinerated and also discussed the trade of the century. Money In Banks Will Be Incinerated November 27 (King World News) – Egon von Greyerz: “Unfortunately the world has reached the point where the future will be a global bust and collapse. During the 2006-2009 financial crisis, a collapse of the global financial system was avoided by massive money printing, central bank guarantees, allowing banks to value assets at cost, rather than market, and a panic lowering of interest rates from as high as 6% in the US to zero or even negative in some cases.  Whatever central banks and politicians say, nothing has been solved. On the contrary, risk has grown exponentially since 2006. As an example, global debt has now doubled to roughly $230 trillion. If global unfunded liabilities of $250 trillion and derivatives of $1.5 quadrillion are included, the world is now staring at total liabilities and risk of a staggering $2 quadrillion. When the next crisis starts, which is very likely to be in 2018, what central banks will have to focus on is not just the global debt, but also the derivative bubble. Banks will argue that the net derivative figure is much smaller, but in a crisis, gross will remain gross as counterparties fail to settle their obligations. With this as the backdrop, central bankers must be living on a different planet if they believe they can  reduce their balance sheets. Debt in coming years, whether it is government or private, will go up faster than any time in history… In Volatile Markets, Is Wealth Preservation King? In a King World News interview I spoke with the man who predicted the Swiss National Bank would experience staggering losses and that the Fed would also experience massive losses that will destabilize the global financial system! His company is the only one in the world offering a precious metals investment service outside the banking system, with direct ownership and full control by the investor. He has also become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, and major global events. To find out what he and his company can do to help answer that age old question for you CLICK HERE. Egon von Greyerz continues:  “Just look at the US. It is no accident that Jerome Powell will take over from Yellen as Chairman of the Fed. He is a safe pair of hands and has been a Fed governor for 5 years. He is the perfect choice for expanding the Fed’s balance sheet infinitely. US Federal debt is guaranteed to continue to double every 8 years, as it has since 1981. That means the US debt will go from $20 trillion to $40 trillion by the end of 2024. Even the Central Budget Office’s forecast is not far from $40 trillion. But we must remember that this figure doesn’t include what will happen to the US and global economy in the next few years. And in Europe, Draghi has now made it clear that the Protection Deposit Scheme is no longer necessary. Thus, the ECB is no longer guaranteeing customer deposits up to 100,000 euros. This should come as no surprise. When the crisis starts, no depositor will get real money back form any bank. When the crisis, that temporarily paused in 2009, resumes in earnest, there will be money printing on a scale that the world has never experienced before. That will be the time when the world will learn that the word ‘quadrillion’ actually exists, although no one can imagine the magnitude of that word. To put it in perspective, one quadrillion dollars is 15 years’ global GDP. So if global debt goes to one quadrillion dollars, including most derivatives, we would have to spend the next 15 years using the total gross production of the world just to repay the debt. That would mean 100% tax for 15 years. But is doesn’t stop there. When debt defaults start on a larger scale, central banks will lose control of interest rates. The manipulation of rates defies all laws of nature and supply and demand. It is not possible to have maximum credit and minimum interest rates. In a free market, if demand for credit is high, the cost of credit will also be very high. When the $230 trillion world debt starts to implode, central banks will no longer be able to hold rates down as global bond markets panic. It will start with the longer rates going up, and eventually higher long rates will pull the short rates up. In the 1970s and early 1980s, rates reached the high teens. This time they are likely to go higher as default and credit risks rise substantially. If interest rates rise to ‘only’ 14.4% annually, debt will double every 5 years. This means that the one quadrillion dollar debt will have grown to two quadrillion dollars five years later. As money printing escalates hand-in-hand with defaults, the world will experience hyperinflation on a level that no one can imagine today. At that point debt will probably have grown to  tens of quadrillions of dollars. Most people will say that it would be impossible for debt to grow to these levels. Anyone who has studied historical debt defaults, money printing and hyperinflation, will realize that during these periods, debt grows to many multiples of the original debt. Money printing and hyperinflation become a vicious cycle that feeds on itself. Powerless central bankers lose control completely and always panic into the next level of money creation. In the end it all fails, since printed money can never create wealth. At that point the hyperinflationary depression turns to a deflationary depression. All credit disappears into a black hole, and so does a major part of the financial system. The assets backed by the printed money collapse in value by 90% or more. So can we avoid hyperinflation? Yes. That is possible if central banks are too slow to react as defaults start. We would then go straight to a deflationary collapse with a total failure of the financial system, and a very severe and lengthy depression. Thus, either we will see a total destruction of paper money in a hyperinflationary scenario, or a collapse of the financial system in a deflationary implosion of assets and debts. The most likely, in my view, is that we will have both — first hyperinflation and then deflation. But even during the hyperinflationary period, debt and bubble assets will deflate as commodities, including food, hyperinflate. Protect Yourself From Both Scenarios In both scenarios, physical gold and silver will be the only real money that will function. In the hyperinflationary case, gold will go to levels that are unimaginable, which could be $100s of trillions per ounce. The number of zeros will be unimportant. But of vital importance is the fact that gold will more than maintain its purchasing power. As the gold paper market collapses and the whole world wants physical gold, the price of gold in today’s money is likely to go up much more than 10-fold. In fact, we are likely to see a major bubble in the price of gold, and perhaps it will rise as much as 50- to100-fold during the next crisis. That would mean a price of $65,000 to $120,000 in today’s money. That might sound like a totally unrealistic target, but we must remember that the catastrophic scenario the world will experience  in the coming crisis is also totally unrealistic for most people to fathom today. In a deflationary scenario, gold will not go to those high levels. First, gold will at least maintain its purchasing power. But since the financial system is unlikely to survive in a deflationary implosion, gold, and probably even silver, will be the only real money available. Thus, even in the deflationary case, gold is likely to go up substantially in real terms. With the troubles the world is facing, gold is clearly not going to be the sole solution to the massive problems we will all experience. There will be a lot of poor people and a lot of hungry people. Owning some gold will be extremely important, but the magnitude of the problems that the world will experience will likely negatively affect us all. In the meantime, stock markets and cryptocurrencies are ignoring the risks in the world. And we are not just looking at financial risks. Political risks are increasing in many areas. In Europe, Merkel has problems forming a government, the Irish government is about to collapse, and the Brexit negotiations are a total farce. Theresa May and Britain are being held ransom by the unelected, unaccountable and totally irresponsible Brussels elite. They are more interested in maintaining their political power than doing what is best for the European people. The situation in the Middle East is becoming more serious by the day. Will Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman succeed with his coup? He will have created many enemies who are likely to cause him problems in the future. In addition, Saudi Arabia has problems all around it, including Yemen, Iran, and Syria. We could see major difficulties in the Middle East starting in 2018. No wonder Saudi Arabia is turning away from the weakening US to China as a strategic partner. For the US, Saudi Arabia only has a strategic value as long as the petrodollar rules. But as the life of the petrodollar is coming to an end in the next few years, the balance of power will change dramatically towards the petro-yuan. So, are cryptocurrencies the best alternative to fiat money, which is issued and controlled by governments? That is clearly what the issuers and investors in cryptos currently believe. There is a real bonanza in the ICOs  (Initial Coin Offerings) of cryptos. Currently there are 1,320 cryptos and they are increasing by the day. Many of them have no value, but there are 726 that are worth $1 million or more. The biggest is Bitcoin, which is approaching $10,000 and currently valued at $158 billion. Ethereum has gone up 50% in the last ten days and is second at $44 billion. Ethereum was launched just two years ago. The Biggest Ponzi Scheme In Modern History? Total value of cryptos are $300 billion, up from $14 billion one year ago. Cryptos are the biggest Ponzi scheme in modern history. It is very similar to chain letters or pyramid schemes. The issuers make tons of money as well as many of the speculators who get in early. In the end the whole thing will collapse and late entrants will lose everything. Like all manias, cryptos can climb a lot higher but it is the kind of bubble which is created at the end of an economic era. Most of the participants believe that cryptos will replace fiat money and even gold. In my view there is little chance of that but I am not going to go into detail about that for now. Anyone interested will find unlimited articles on Bitcoin vs gold. Cryptos are no different than tulip bulbs. You cannot create real money out of thin air and then see it double every few weeks. The problems are numerous such as security, regulation, taxation, speed of transactions, false markets, etc. Prices go up on very little volume. Also, from what I understand, the crypto market will not withstand any selling pressure at all. A small volume of persistent selling will take the price to zero. Time will tell. Like all manias, cryptos can go a lot higher. But when the music stops, the crypto market will go back to where it started, which is zero. The blockchain technology, which is not new, is likely to find numerous applications in many areas such as commerce, science, etc. But cryptos must not be confused with gold. They have virtually nothing in common with gold. One is an electronic entry and the other is a scarce element which is the only real money that has survived for 5,000 years. It is extremely unlikely that Bitcoin will replace gold as money for the next 5,000 years or more. I know a lot of gold investors are tempted to buy cryptos instead of gold. Greed drives people to  make rash decisions by chasing instruments that appreciate rapidly in value. The Nasdaq during 1998-1999 is a good parallel. That market kept on doubling until every amateur investor was up to his eyeballs in what turned out to be many worthless tech stocks. Then the Nasdaq collapsed 80%. The difference with most cryptos is that they will decline by 100%. For anyone who wants to preserve wealth, now is a good time to sell cryptos and buy gold. It could turn out to be the trade of the century. But even if it isn’t, there is no better form of insurance against the coming global problems than physical gold and silver.” ***KWN has now released the powerful audio interview with London whistleblower and metals trader Andrew Maguire and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW. ***ALSO JUST RELEASED: Email To KWN About The Price Of Gold From CEO Of Widely Followed Company In The Mining Sector CLICK HERE. © 2017 by King World News®. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.  However, linking directly to the articles is permitted and encouraged. © 2018 Copyright King World News &reg

A pop star releasing music or photos is usually a cause for eternal happiness. But after five consecutive days of impromptu drops meant to promote her new single, “5 in the Morning,” Charli XCX is apologizing to fans. “Me and my friends really hustled to get all this stuff together in a week,” she tweeted after offering a free download to six remixes of the new song. “I’m sorry if it’s not what you were hoping for but I’m trying my best here.”It is approaching four years since Charli last released an official studio album. During one of the many fruitless build-ups to a new LP, Charli once told Zane Lowe “the albums out in May (of 2017). I’m sure I’ll just get bored and leak the whole thing before then anyway.” So when clean-cut studio singles began mysteriously appearing online last summer, with still no album release in sight, the train to Charli’s career left the station and long since found its way off the tracks with Charli, her label and an alleged group of hackers all claiming to be in the driver’s seat.While touring her last album Sucker in 2014, Charli took on a BBC documentary project that chronicled her perspective as a feminist in the music industry. She conducted her own interviews, backstage at festivals and in between sets, employing herself as a full-time filmmaker while fulfilling the role of a full-time pop star. Halfway through the tour, Charli had enough of the pop circuit. She stepped down from her headline spot, citing a need to create in order to return to a place of happiness. The “Boom Clap” and “Fancy” era of her career that saw her break onto pop’s main stage ended abruptly, if not uncharacteristically by the genre’s lofty standards.But Charli didn’t waste time getting back on the horse. She had met SOPHIE, the then-illusive internet producer, at a writing camp in early 2015 and only two weeks after what would have been her final date on tour the duo released their first collaboration. Charli traded in school uniforms and guitar licks for black latex and synth hits. Fellow UK producer A.G. Cook and his PC Music associates (described as a sonic “critique of late capitalism” by Pitchfork around the time) were also enlisted in what appeared to be a makeover, but was more of a callback to the earlier stages of Charli’s career when her music was made for Myspace and London raves. “Vroom Vroom” sutured whiplash to sugar pop, throbbing drums blasted from a lavender Lamborghini, doppler effect and all.SOPHIE and PC Music helped Charli craft her next full-length album, XCX3–the shorthand placeholder name for the project, her third studio record. As 2016 came into focus, Charli revealed the album had already been finished. “I’m just gonna put it out and the music can do all the press for me,” she mused at the NME Awards in February. Less than a week later, an EP extension of “Vroom Vroom” was announced as the imminent release.The project debuted on a newly established record label owned by Charli called Vroom Vroom Recordings. The decision laid the groundwork for her aspirations beyond the role of singer/songwriter but with a barebones website, minimal releases from its signees (RIVRS and Cuckoolander) and almost no social media posts since the summer of 2016, Vroom Vroom Recordings falls somewhere between a neglected pet project and a music shell company needed to free Charli’s new sound.On the first episode of her Beats 1 radio show “The Candy Shop,” Charli described a segment dubbed the “Marmite moment” where she would play a song that she loved, but her friends thought she was crazy for liking. “This is a song that’s gonna split people’s opinion, you’re either going to think I’m an idiot or you’re going to think I’m a genius–obviously the right answer is genius.”Vroom Vroom, a hard-hitting four track EP, would be the Marmite moment of Charli’s career and there’s little to suggest her (proper) label, Atlantic Records, did much else but spit it out. “Vroom was not us trying to appease anyone,” she explained to The FADER months later. “I think my label got afraid and I think a lot of people were confused. But I just felt that I wanted to–I just wanted to do that.”The project’s biggest impact was on Charli’s fanbase. Listeners who began following after the film The Fault in Our Stars were likely tuned out. Devotees saw the change as exciting growth that was simultaneously grounded in her early career while PC Music fans praised the collaboration as deserved mainstream attention for their underdog sound. This new era of her career melded fans who not only enjoyed the Marmite, but wanted to injected it into their veins.Live performances in 2016 teased what sounded like the full length cut to Charli and Sophie’s collaboration (heavyweight producers Stargate and BloodPop were later confirmed to be involved as well). Unreleased songs like “No Angel,” “Taxi” and “Round and Round” had those in-tune with the new sound paralyzed in euphoria, awaiting an elctro-pop coup de grace that never came. Instead, they got treated to a track with Lil Yachty on Halloween.Ending the year with “After the Afterparty” was a reminder of Charli’s mainstream commitments. After eight months of unsupervised fun, the party was put on hold. Charli promised a May release date for her album while on the record with Zane Lowe and hummed about leaking it before then anyway.The next leg of the “After the Afterparty” press tour, about a month later, delivered a more concise stump speech. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly she revealed the Sophie-led album was still in the cards, but the live teasers like “Taxi” were now simply demos with no place on the project. Again, Charli slipped in the idea of a leak. “I don’t know how many (songs we recorded), but we did a lot. It’s cool because we can pitch them or leak all of them or whatever.”A month later, at the start of 2017, the goal posts to the album were still moving. Charli told Rolling Stone that half of the project would resemble the “After the Afterparty” sound, in what felt like a compromise with the label for a more feasible follow-up to Sucker.Charli didn’t pull any punches looking back on her previous LP soon after. “I made some rash decisions with Sucker,” she told Q Magazine the same month. “Like the song ‘Break The Rules.’ That song was so bad. I hate it… I was like, ‘Whoever sings this song is an idiot’… Cut to: four months later, it’s on my album and it’s my new single. I fucked myself.”The “half and half” directive would soon make a high-stakes debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! where Charli performed “After the Afterparty” and a new track simply dubbed “Bounce.” With A.G. Cook—now her creative director—laid passed out on stage, Charli delivered a cheery but mellow performance of the former before letting loose on what felt like the main event. “Bounce” fired DJ hype lyrics and a radiant chorus through Cook and SOPHIE’s strobe light, rubber wrecking production, predictably unmarketable to the average late night talk show viewer while her fans watched on in awe.The TV spot was likely the first nail in the shelf to the SOPHIE version of XCX3 as both performances have been largely scrubbed from the web. A week later, back at the NME Awards, a familiar tale unfolded as Charli brushed off talk of a new single or any album-related info. Instead, she revealed a forthcoming mixtape produced by Cook. Between her rampant recording schedule and not wanting to let fans down, the project would parlay while the label weighed another delay to whatever was becoming of the album, post-late night market test. Frustrated by apparent pushback on the idea, Charli would tweet a week later, “You have no idea how fucking hard it is to just release a free fucking mixtape in 2017.”Number 1 Angel would see the light of day in March (for fucking free, no Number 1 Angel Recordings needed) with little external promotion. The sound combined Cook’s PC Music expertise with Charli’s pop affection. Tracks like “3AM,” “Roll With Me” and “Lipgloss” were a continuation of the sticky “Taxi” sound from the previous year, coupled with moodier romantic takes as a centerpiece. At times, Number 1 Angel sounded like a project put together in only a few weeks, but more importantly, it was Charli doubling down on the PC Music sound and honing in on a more fluid music identity.The prospect of a May album being released only two months after the mixtape hadn’t been officially ruled out, though it did seem unlikely. I reached out to Atlantic Records in April about any forthcoming press opportunities, hoping to gauge if an album was still in the cards, but was quickly spun onto more timely clients, mostly David Guetta.Charli’s next label-backed move was, however, already inked at the time. She mused on Twitter about a perfect world where she could tour with her friends and collaborators, including Cupcakke, Brooke Candy, Dua Lipa, MØ, Abra and Tinashe. A few days later, she was announced as the opener for Halsey’s upcoming fall tour, third on the ticket below PartyNextDoor.Shortly after the release of Number 1 Angel, a member of the team responsible for her go-to fan “update” account reached out to congratulate the pop star on the mixtape forray. The account, @Fckyeahcharli, had been in contact with the pop star herself on previous occasions, mostly since her career turn in Vroom Vroom, though they began posting updates during the Sucker era. The encouragement was met with what one of the posters thought was another scoop for fans.Charli revealed she had a WeTransfer file–the same service she used to release official music as recently as last month–that she planned to drop soon as well. @FckyeahCharli relayed the message to fans, who expected studio quality versions of “Bounce,” “Taxi,” “No Angel” and other XCX3 songs to be on the way. But with info of the WeTransfer now public, Charli went silent on the idea. Before the end of March, the first of hundreds of unreleased Charli XCX songs would begin appearing online.The infrastructure for sharing leaked pop music in the digital age has evolved in recent years. Lanaboards, a Lana Del Rey fansite, operated as ground zero for the singer-songwriter’s own infamous leak saga which resulted from a hacked hard drive in 2011. After Charli’s mixtape, talk of leaks escalated from the occasional murmur—typical of any major artist’s sporadic leakage—to fans suddenly showing off playlists with dozens of unreleased tracks, spanning multiple eras of Charli’s career.The expected album release month of May came and went as the leaks quietly bubbled beneath the surface. Charli presented a picture of label unity in a short interview with The FADER in mid-July, declaring she had no intentions to go independent–not that anyone had really speculated at that point, outside of of recap of label drama by The Guardian in March. Shortly after, she would return to unsupervised fun out in Tokyo with Cook and playing a DJ set for NYLON Japan, still showing off her SOPHIE collaborations before circling back for a proper single release in “Boys” to end the month. The song was a rare, non-PC-influenced track that Charli didn’t write herself (despite being crowned as songwriter of the year for the SESAC Pop Awards a few months prior). To compensate she was allowed the director’s seat for the video where she called back on her previous experience to help give the song a viral push (by way of GIFs) and praise from Laura Mulvey.With the Halsey tour looming, Charli acknowledged the leaked music for the first time in an interview with Gogirl!. She quietly revealed in the final sentence of the interview that her album wouldn’t be out until next year, “because people keep leaking it and I have to rewrite everything all over again”. When asked about the album delay on Twitter, Charli had responded in a since-deleted tweet, “Album not delayed. It’s just being released at the right time for me. Label fucking love me”. Hysteria reached a fever pitch while clean-cut, studio singles with SOPHIE’s imprint popped up left and right online (“I Wanna Be With You,” “Queen Lizzy,” “Down Like Woah,” “Can You Hear Me” and more).The leaked songs would be traded, sold and boasted about by fans on social media and pop forums in an electrifying and often toxic underground community, but the most valuable songs (“Taxi” and “No Angel”) had yet to surface. While seemingly anyone with a download of “Bounce” (the Kimmel-performed song and one of the earliest and easiest leaks to find) would anonymously claim to be a hacker with access to Charli’s Google Drive, the freshest leaks were often originally posted on Twitter via burner accounts, deleted once the audio files found their way into the fanbase nervous system.One of the more visible accounts, @1nt0th3d4rkn3ss (read “into the darkness”) appeared with leaks on August 20. The following day, Charli tweeted “i like the darkness,” an inconsequential message to those following the solar eclipse in the United States, but a firebomb of conspiratorial fuel for those whose only eclipse experience would be staring into a bright computer screen all hours of the night, refreshing forum pages— for what it’s worth, Charli is documented as not being in the continental U.S. during the day of the eclipse.Fans who shared songs via Google Drive that day claimed Atlantic Records was hot on the trail seizing their accounts. More outlandish claims and narratives about Charli, the label and the hackers were churned out as fast as fans could post their thoughts, minimal evidence rarely included, but ultimately (and surreally) any fan with an internet connection could get there hands on some of the very real fragments of XCX3 as well as troves of songs from the early stages of Charli’s recording career.@1nt0th3d4rkn3ss would upload songs to SermonCloud (an audio sharing website for clerical and religious material) a few days later before riding off into the digital sunset. With their hard drives full of unreleased songs, many fans felt they had won a battle, though not quite sure who they were fighting with or against.During the tour with Halsey a few leaks continued to spring up, mostly either snippets of unheard tracks or hard-to-find early career music. In November, Charli briefly addressed the leaks again in an interview with Noisey. “My email got hacked and people leaked most of (the album),” she explained. “So I think I’m just going to start again.”Fans perceived the rewrite as losing a project they deserved to have. Many would vow to boycott any new leaks in solidarity, while collective anger quickly turned toward the mysterious hackers and Fckyeahcharli, pointing to the WeTransfer incident as either an opening for hackers to attack or a botched opportunity for Charli to cleanly offload the songs herself (Fckyeahcharli denies Charli ever intended to share a WeTransfer file but confirmed that she communicated its existence).After finishing tour in November, Charli raced to release another mixtape before the end of the year. A week after the final tour date, she announced Pop 2, another A.G. Cook collaboration with an even more expansive list of guest features. Where Number 1 Angel seemed to pull in different directions, Pop 2 offered a tracklist of emotional helium molecules pinging off one another while still gracefully pushing the black latex balloon of a project into the sky. Charli had mastered the ability to cook with Marmite and while questions stirred on the outside, it was clear her studio time with Cook had an incredibly precise direction.In an interview with Vulture, Charli explained that she didn’t know when, or even if, she’d be putting out an album after Pop 2. A demo of the mixtape’s closing song had leaked during the Halsey tour and the final version (“Track 10”) exchanged an optimistic, dancehall vibe for a darker, sharp dismantling of the project’s sound. Her patented “It’s Charli baby”, usually a call for energy on tracks throughout her career, were the final words of the project, whispered above the buzzing hum of a neon light on its last legs, ready to shut off for good.As 2018 began, the leaks surprisingly continued. Those subscribed to the belief that Charli was spilling the goods herself had a harder time explaining why the continued drip would be beneficial to her own interests. Others pleaded into the abyss for the hackers to relinquish influence over her career. Songs that Charli teased from the studio as recently as January found their way online in the form of snippets a few months later, but still no sight of the most popular songs “Taxi” or “No Angel.”Leaked music emerged the same day Charli led the charge against former Recording Academy president Neil Portnow for telling women in music to “step it up” after the GRAMMYs. New songs would appear on sale for Bitcoin on the infamous Music Mafia website before Charli revealed she still had plans for the now distantly recorded tracks. “I see u guys tweeting about girls night out / no angel / bounce / etc and to answer ur questions – those songs are still very much alive and well and v important 2 me!!”In the meantime, Charli would score a spot on one of the industry’s hottest tickets, a Taylor Swift tour, while her innovative Pop 2 sound was praised everywhere from Pitchfork to the New York Times. “I like going to really weird clubs,” she told the Times in March. “So I guess I’m not going to do nice radio songs. Maybe that’s selfish. But it’s difficult to be convinced into something.”Unfortunately, her tour setlist included little more than radio songs from what felt like a past lifetime (“Boom Clap,” “Fancy” and “Break the Rules”). To compensate and renew affection for her previous XCX3 tracks, Charli planned a handful of side-hustle mixtape showcases which featured guest appearances from her diverse crew of collaborators. The shows were capped off with the previously leaked SOPHIE-produced song “Girls Night Out” and recent shows even included performances of “Taxi” and “No Angel” (which fans still believed were being held hostage by the hackers, only increasing demand for Charli to free them herself).When it came time to promote another label-approved single last month, Charli whipped up her five days of 5:00 am content promo. After including “exclusive music” alongside “remixes/fun stuff” in the announcement, fans let their expectations off the leash in the hopes of original XCX3 material. On the final day, Charli tweeted out a WeTransfer that included a set of remixes for “5 in the Morning,” not “Taxi,” “No Angel” or “Girls Night Out.”“I’m dropping new songs each month. Not each day,” she responded to sporadic fan outrage. “Brb going to scream into a pillow now.” Two days later, she announced an upcoming Spotify meet and greet in London, asking fans to DM her their favorite unreleased tracks for a chance to attend (“I know you’ve all heard them cause someone fucking hacked me, shout out to that person,” she reiterated while explaining the giveaway). The morning after the session, “No Angel” leaked online.The infamous track, in all its glory, did not pop up on Twitter, or behind a sketchy download link deep in the belly of a pop music forum. It appeared on the music website Fizy (a Turkish streaming platform) alongside another song called “Focus” that she recently performed live for the first time. Of the dozens upon dozens of leaks over the past year, the most iconic one was a classic industry gaff–an advanced copy of soon-to-release music quietly distributed and prematurely slipping free.A few days later, after a midweek release of her “5 in the Morning” music video, Charli hinted at an official release of “No Angel,” having finally been granted permission to fulfill her stans’ wildest dream. But the followers who had long demanded it the most could only feign surprise. Scrolling back through the eclectic timelines of fans celebrating the coveted song, still hoping for a copy of “Taxi” to appear and lamenting over WeTransfer files, it’s hard to picture anything but a career wedged between the the rock of a uniquely involved fan base and hard place of a clumsy record label slowly reissuing trust.At a recent Pop 2 show in London, Charli introduced her “Girls Night Out” finale by advocating everyone to “‘at’ my record label, they should fucking release this song”. The recognizable SOPHIE synths drummed the crowd and Charli drifted into the fog while friends and collaborators flooded the stage. She seemed to enjoy ending her Pop 2 shows this way, melding the performance into a single, chaotic rave. Out with her girls, on top of the world while gripping the microphone, her fans screamed out all the words to a song that has never been released.“Louder!” she demanded through the chorus, blending into the bobbing, neon silhouettes, the line between stage and crowd almost fully dissolved. “Sing it to me!” she shouted again, not ready to let go, her microphone still firmly in-hand. Receive the best in sneakers, fashion and street culture straight to your inbox! Receive the best in sneakers, fashion and street culture straight to your inbox! 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in decision making and inspire action, she earns a seat at the table wherever she serves.  She has over 18 years of experience in banking & financial services industry, manufacturing, IT, insurance and public accounting firms. Prior to joining DMM Group, she spent about 8 years in the investment banking industry where she rose through the ranks of Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co., Ltd. responsible for Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis, leading business plan development, financial forecasting, financial analysis, and capital commitment planning, as well as competitive analysis. Esther drives on-going focus and efficiencies on cost optimization and expense management across the Asia Pacific segment of their Corporate Workplace Division. Born in Malaysia and migrated alone to Singapore at the age of 15. Esther receives her B.Sc. (Hons) with First Class Honors in Finance and Accounting from University of Salford in UK. She is also a Chartered Certified Accountant and now a fellow member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants ACCA. Teemu Suna is one of the founders, CEO and chairman of Nightingale Health, a blood testing company aiming to solve the global burden of chronic disease. A passionate advocate for disruptive health solutions, Suna has steered Nightingale into an established growth company with over 60 team members and customers in over 20 countries. Since late 2015, Suna has raised over €40 million to bring Nightingale’s technology to global healthcare. Prior to Nightingale, Suna spearheaded pioneering business ventures in healthcare IT, serving as Chief Technology Officer at Fujitsu Finland. Immersed in the field of computational medicine, Suna has authored scientific articles on applying artificial neural networks in medical applications. Determined to make preventive medicine a concrete reality for all, at Nightingale, Suna has united expertise from a diverse range of different backgrounds to further push the boundaries of the health industry. Slush Tokyo and Recruit are bringing together big names from the Blockchain scene for an exclusive night by the Tokyo Bay. The speakers will cover diverse topics within blockchain with the panoramic Tokyo Bay skyline behind them. Get ready for compelling discussions as well as food, drinks and quality networking. Think beyond borders: why digital entrepreneurs from all over the world become e-residents of Estonia. Estonia is creating a borderless digital society for global citizens as the first country to offer e-Residency. In 4 years, the programme has attracted + 50,000 citizens from +160 countries and they have created +6,500 companies in Estonia that they can run fully online from anywhere in the world. If you’re already an e-resident and/or wish to know more about Estonia’s digital society, join this casual networking event with representatives of the programme and Japanese e-residents. Location : Jinnan Cafe (1 Chome-17-5 Jinnan Shibuya-ku Tokyo) Registration -56486857712 Executive Breakfast is a casual networking event with key thought leaders and decision makers across various industry sectors from all around the world. Free Entrance for all Slush Tokyo 2019 Executive Pass holders. Join us for good food, coffee, music and talks! Click me for more information. Art Session: Relax with the Art within You Art has the power to represent your life - come and have a fresh look at yourself. This session will allow attendees to experience art in a new way. It’s not about what other people think, it’s about what you feel about yourself and what you're doing. It’s about that moment of trying something -- if it looks good or sounds good, that is what art is all about. Let’s find out what the art world gives you in this one hour. Target: Those who are interested in art, those who want to enhance your creativity and self-consciousness, you! Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor. MSc, in Artificial Intelligence, from Tokyo University. Engaged in research on Recommendation Engine, Complex Network, Clustering. Won the Innovative Software Creation Program (Super Creator Award) under Information-technology Promotion Agency Japan (IPA) in 2005 and 2006. Started her first business to create the middleware which enables to develop iOS / Android / Feature Phone simultaneously, and sold the company to mixi.inc. Chairman & Co-Founder, Animoca Brands and Founder & CEO, Outblaze A technology entrepreneur and investor based in Hong Kong, Yat Siu is the chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, a company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: AB1) that leverages gamification, blockchain, and artificial intelligence technologies to develop and publish a broad portfolio of mobile products. Yat began his career at Atari Germany in 1990. In 1995 he moved to Hong Kong to establish Hong Kong Cybercity/Freenation, the first Asian free web page and email provider. In 1998 he set up Outblaze, an award-winning pioneer of multilingual white label web services. In 2009, he sold Outblaze’s services business to IBM, and pivoted Outblaze to digital entertainment services and products. Outblaze is now a conglomerate of companies focused on cloud, AI, blockchain, and smartphone software. Yat is the CEO of Outblaze, and he is a director for TurnOut Ventures, a partnership between Outblaze and Turner Entertainment that brought to prominence the hugely popular emoticon character Tuzki. In 2017 Yat set up the Dalton Learning Lab, an afterschool lab environment that supplements Hong Kong students with skills not emphasized by the local education system, including divergent thinking and design thinking. He is also the founder of ThinkBlaze, the research arm of Outblaze investigating socially meaningful issues in technology. Yat has earned numerous accolades including Global Leader of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, and Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the DHL/SCMP Awards. A classically trained musician, Yat is a member of the advisory board of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and a director of the Asian Youth Orchestra. Panasonic: Game Changer Catapult Business Creation Open Dialogue Session An interactive session focused on people interested in the startup scene as a whole. Masa Fukata, the director of Game Changer Catapult will welcome Masahiro Kotosaka, Associate Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University, and Yuka Tanimoto, Senior Editor and Chief Producer of Event Production Group, Forbes Japan, to discuss innovation. We will also introduce the entrepreneur projects in collaboration with Avex and Keio SFC. Finally, we will demonstrate “cleaning as training” in order to share the new concept of housework. Target: startup company, involved health tech, electronic industry, you! Masa co-founded an internal innovation accelerator “Game Changer Catapult” in 2016, an initiative to transform ideas into reality to make the people’s wish through open innovation for a better life, a better world at the home tech division, Appliances Company in Panasonic Corporation. Also, he was appointed as Director in BeeEdge Co., Ltd. a joint-venture business incubation company with Panasonic, Scrum Ventures LLC, a US-based venture capital firm, and INCJ, Ltd.  He started his career in Panasonic, executed marketing communications for audio/video and digital imaging products, including launching of Lumix digital camera and DVD recorder with Hollywood film and music scene, after the participation of the international management program in Canada and the United States. Managed sports sponsorship contract including IOC and Organizing Committees of Olympic Games from 2004, technology operations and executing marketing strategy and communications, followed by a career as Director, Panasonic Canada Inc.  MBA, Kobe University, Japan. Associate Professor at Keio University, consultant and adviser to several start-up/multinational companies Masahiro Kotosaka is Associate Professor at Keio University. He is also a consultant and adviser to several start-up/multinational companies and was working for McKinsey & Company based in Frankfurt and Tokyo. He is an expert of strategic management of startups and international business of born global firms and spent four years running three profitable IT/Retail business before joining McKinsey. His recent publication includes The Element of Strategic Management (Toyo Keizai, 2018) and The Japanese Business in Evolution (Co-author, Routledge, 2017). Yuka Tanimoto earned an MBA in the U.S. in 2004 after gaining experience at a brokerage firm and serving as a financial and economic anchor for Bloomberg TV. She next worked as a newscaster for Nikkei CNBC and became the company's first-ever female commentator. After 2011, she became active as a freelance journalist. Through her career, Ms. Tanimoto has interviewed over 3000 VIPs from every corner of the globe including former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and Co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, Lynda Gratton, and founder of Starbucks, Howard Schultz. She has also appeared on numerous television programs including“Vivit”（TBS TV）, "Sunday! Scramble" (TV Asahi), "Your Time" (Fuji TV), “Morning Cross” (Tokyo MX TV), and commentator work on "AbemaPrime" (Abema TV). She currently serves as a column contributor to the media, as moderator of the economic symposium, as a corporate advisor. In February 2016, she became Deputy Editor and Web Editor for Forbes Japan. In April of that same year, she also became a part-time lecturer at Atomi University. Yuka Tanimoto's literary works include “Active Listening The Art of Listening for Success”（Diamond, Ine.）,”Time Mastery of 1000 Top World Leaders”（Kadokawa/Chukei Publishing）, and “The Habits of Leaders Who Create Followers without Trying”（SB Creative）, “Why World Top Leader Get Partiality”(Discover 21) Aya originally became fascinated in the blockchain space for its potential to impact financial inclusion in emerging markets. In early 2013, she joined Kraken as Managing Director and has since worked to educate the public, VCs, and regulators on cryptocurrencies and blockchain innovation globally. As the Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, Aya leads the Foundation’s teams and supports the Ethereum ecosystem through core development and research activities, and educational efforts aimed at further expanding the world’s largest blockchain ecosystem. In 2019, she was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s Blockchain Global Council. Jun is the CEO & Founder of Omise, an online payment platform that provides online operations with a full-featured payment gateway, security & fraud protection models and cash management services —the complete infrastructure required to enable and streamline online commerce. He is a deep thinker and is no stranger to the startup world. Prior to founding Omise, he was involved in founding a series of tech companies in Japan. He brings over 16 years of professional experience in the technological field and has previously held several managerial positions. Jun has led his payment company through dramatic growth to become one of SEA’s leading online payment platform. He is passionate about delivering online payments for everyone and works to influence his team to do the same. After receiving his M.S. in Planetary Science from both Kyushu University and the University of Tokyo on a full scholarship, Takahiro joined Accenture, where he spent 5 years as a management consultant, specializing in retail and high-tech industries. Joining Recruit Next (Japan’s largest information company) Takahiro launched 4 businesses – leading two of them – including SUMO, a moving service and business for elderly people. Takahiro joined ispace in 2011 after an initial volunteer role and is now the acting COO. With one startup exit already under his belt, Ishigame cofounded Infostellar, a satellite-antenna sharing platform for small, low-orbit satellites -- what he calls "an Airbnb for satellites." Infostellars' cloud-based service StellarStation helps ground stations to make money during their downtime. For satellite operators, it allows them to contact their satellites more frequently, without building more costly stations. In September 2017, investors led by Airbus Ventures put $7.3 million in Series A Funding into the company, which was established with two other cofounders, including aerospace engineer and CEO Naomi Kurahara. Ishigame was selected as one of the honourees of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018. Future experience with LEXUS: The Concept of Value Changes In a world full of AI and big data which has dramatically evolved our lives with efficient services, we want to hear your ideas. In this session, we will talk about value creation in this new era by providing experimental value with the guidance of industry experts. So come and share your ideas! Rika lives in Silicon Valley and recently transitioned from the role Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships at Atheer into a role as Atheer's Advisory Board Member, and joined the founding team of a new Silicon Valley startup delving into AI (Artificial Intelligence) on the Edge (edge-computing).  She also is the founder of a not-for-profit helping women advance on corporate boards.  Born in Japan to a German mother and Japanese father, and trilingual in Japanese, German and English, Rika graduated from International School of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo and went to the US to attend Princeton University, and has worked internationally over the past two decades. She is a technology industry veteran and serves on the Advisory Boards to ventures in the Extended Reality (VR/AR/MR) ecosystem as well as AI startups, and is an active advocate for advancing women's leadership in technology and business across industry verticals and global lines. At Atheer she forged go-to-market programs with technology, OEM, and Solution Integration partners that built and delivered best-of-class Augmented Reality (AR) solutions for the Enterprise.  Having held leadership positions in strategy and business development disciplines at hardware/software and services enterprises and startup ventures globally - from NVIDIA, Sony, Accenture, American Express, china.com among others - Rika embraces the opportunity we have to shape the next 50 years of computing, and her work focuses on driving innovative experiences where human, digital, and physical intersect. Global Head of Brand Management and Marketing of LEXUS As the Global Head of Brand Management and Marketing, Spiros leads the development and deployment of Lexus’ brand strategy, metrics and research, global marketing communications, partnerships and activities throughout the brands worldwide network covering over 90 countries. He is also responsible for defining the future vision of the luxury brand in a time of rapid industry change. Prior to his current role, Spiros was the Head of Brand, Marketing, Consumer Experience and the Lexus Academy for Lexus in Europe overseeing 40 markets. He helped guide the brand to record levels of awareness and consideration. In addition, he has served as Director of Marketing for Toyota & Lexus operations in Spain as well as Head of Brand & Communication Strategy for Toyota Europe. Spiros has a track record of marketing and digital innovation having received several awards such as the Marketing Rising Star by the industry’s leading publication. He also serves as a mentor and coach for the MIT Enterprise Forum which supports promising start-ups. In addition, he is a board advisor to two start-ups in the Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare areas. He also acts a mentor for the US Marketing Academy and was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the world’s most influential CMOs in 2018. In his free time, Spiros plays ice hockey, DJs, rides his motorcycle and cooks. Spiros has worked and lived in North America, Europe and Asia. He is currently based in Tokyo. Chief Business Development Officer of Axelspace Corporation Experienced Marketing, Branding and Corporate Access professional with extensive global financial sector exposure. At Daiwa Capital Markets, originated fundraising road shows, organised and hosted various corporate access initiatives. Prior to that, at Lehman Brothers, developed marketing solutions and worked as a strategic advisor to the business heads to increase revenue. Nurtured marketing and branding experiences at McCann-Erickon, Saatchi&Saatchi and Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Contributed in planning and executing integrated marketing communications to build Brand Equity for iconic brands, including P&G, Adidas, Levi’s, Unilever and Virgin Atlantic. Participated in Axelspace in August 2017 and serves as a Brand Manager. Tsune focuses on investment in mid/late stage venture investments in rapidly growing software companies. Tsune led WiL's investments in Auth0, Asana, and TransferWise and actively worked on investments in Automation Anywhere and BirdEye. Prior to joining WiL, Tsune was VP of Business Operations and Strategy at Evernote. Tsune spearheaded analytics and was instrumental in improving the company’s revenue growth and financial stability through a series of monetization efforts. He has also worked for Blue Ridge Capital, analyzing publicly traded internet companies. Tsune holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in Economics from the University of Tokyo. Hajime is an AI technologist leading 65+ deep learning researchers to help corporates in Bank/Insurance/Manufacturer/Internet Services/Medical/Pharmacy sectors with AI solutions at Cinnamon. Active investor and community contributor in Asia: Organized Vietnam FrontierTech Summit with 1500+ delegates. Also Partner at Zeroth.ai (AI Investment Firm), Founder Institute KL Local Director. Fred is the founder and chief architect of Ascent Robotics, one of Japan's leading AI startups. Ascent develops autonomous robots and vehicles by leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms inspired by theoretical neuroscience. The company raised $18M in Series A in 2018 and employs engineers and scientists from over 20 countries around the world. In addition to founding Ascent, Fred has also founded two other AI firms and chairs Decoded, a Tokyo collective of AI and machine learning experts. Zac’s experience includes leadership roles at multiple successful tech companies. He started initially in AdTech, where he was a part of two successful acquisitions, Admeld (Acquired by Google) and Sociomantic (acquired by DunnHumby). Prior to starting BlockFi, he led business development teams at Orchard Platform, a broker-dealer and RIA in the online lending sector, and Zibby, an online consumer lender. BlockFi provides crypto savings accounts and USD loans and the company has the most coverage of the US market, currently operating in 48 states and also the only lender to raise institutional capital – with a 50M credit facility from Galaxy Digital and investors including Fidelity, Galaxy Digital, Susquehanna, Akuna Capital, and ConsenSys Ventures. This stage is for everyone! If you have a cool idea or if you want to share some thoughts or a current project you're working on, this is your time to shine. Let’s take small actions here - an action that will give you a chance to explore infinite possibilities. A futurist with an artist's eye and an inventor’s mind, Monika Bielskyte prototypes culturally diverse, socially and environmentally engaged future world designs for the entertainment industry, technology companies, and cities/countries.  A large part of her time is devoted to research and strategy in the immersive media technology space (Augmented, Mixed, Virtual Reality and AI). Monika's work consists in connecting bleeding edge technological innovation with some of the world's most original creative visions. Mobile platforms such as Google Play and Android have reached global scale and are bringing billions of people online. They facilitate innumerable connections between users, developers and nonprofits that together create social impact around the world in areas such as health, education, financial inclusion and personal safety. Learn about the social impact needs and interests of global smartphone users to better understand this massive opportunity from a developer’s perspective. We will share best practices and real life examples that will help you build better social impact focussed apps and games. Let’s get creative! Social Impact and Accessibility Partnerships at Google Play Maxim Mai leads Social Impact and Accessibility Partnerships at Google Play. His mission is to amplify the positive impact created by apps and games in communities around the world and to empower their developers to find success on Android and Google Play. He also helps NGOs tap into Google Play to raise awareness and funds for their causes. Part of the Google Play team, Maxim is an expert on app strategy, distribution and revenue models. He has consulted top developers and startups in Europe and North America on how to build and grow sustainable mobile businesses. Maxim has been with Google for six years. Prior to joining Google Play, he worked with strategic online publishers to grow their advertising businesses. Pre-Google, Maxim worked in strategy consulting. He is based in New York City and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with First Class Honours from The University of Sydney. Co-Founder of Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA) Co-Founder of Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA) / Marketing Expert at Life is Tech, Inc Global division Alissa Miky is the Co-founder of the Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA). JIWA is a volunteer group that supports young people who wish to devote their energy to both work and home. The birth-rate in Israel is 3.11, and records #1 on the OECD. Furthermore, women’s social advancement ranking reached 9th place in OECD, and Israel’s percentage of women in high-tech industries is 35.5%, which is 1.4 times that of America's. Moreover, Israel excels at developing start-ups around the world and acquired 2.3 times as many funds as Japan in 2018. She believes that Israel’s philosophy, as well as their business strategy, will be the motivation for young Japanese people. She became interested in Israel when she worked at an Israeli trading company and met many Israeli people. There, she worked for the marketing, sales, and PR department as a new business development manager of EdTech, Health Tech, Connected Cars, etc. While she was at the Israeli trading company, she surpassed the sales record by twelve times the previous. Alissa Miky has received awards; Forbes JAPAN "100 women shining on earth" youngest recipient. Businesses Insider JAPAN "Game Changer" One of 46 people. Jason Smith is the Vice President of Business Development at Fundbox. In this leadership role, Jason is responsible for identifying and creating global partnerships to help Fundbox achieve its vision of building the world’s first AI-enabled B2B business capital platform.  As a growth leader, Jason brings a strong background and experience e-commerce, fintech, and technology into Fundbox.  Prior to joining Fundbox, Jason spent 13 years at payments and credit giant PayPal in various leadership roles. Most recently Jason was the head of PayPal’s Global Channel Sales business group which, under his leadership, scaled the business globally and grew revenue over 4X.  In addition, Jason was also a founding member of PayPal’s omnichannel business and a key member of the corporate development team where he was responsible for numerous investments, acquisitions, business development and sales initiatives across the eBay Inc. and PayPal portfolio.  Jason is a graduate of Washington State University. Firat Isbecer is an entrepreneur and an angel investor. Isbecer co-founded Pozitron, one of Europe’s fastest growing mobile banking, mobile commerce and closing another $6M round from tier one global VCs with billion dollar clients on most continents. Before building Markable’s world class team, Joy won a Gold Medal in Math Olympics in China at age 16 and was the TV anchor of a Chinese television program for ten years. Joy then attended MIT on a full scholarship, with majors in math and economics. Joy sold her first start up, a social media platform for international students built together with Berkeley students to a Chinese company in her last year of college. After college, she worked as a lead machine learning quantitative scientist for seven years that built financial high frequency AI trading programs generating a daily six-figure profit while causing traditional wall street to crash in 2008. Joy left high frequency trading to create Markable.ai, upon noticing a huge gap in the market between e-commerce and digital content. This gap inspired her to develop the AI technology to make all forms of visual digital content such as photos, videos and livestream content immediately shoppable. Markable.ai has a goal to deliver the ultimate shopping therapy for consumers; the future of AI driven fast e-commerce; and the future of AI driven green, user-engaged advertising. Mikko Ikola (Ambronite): Future of Food — Transforming Humans and Our Planet From Surviving to Thriving Mikko Ikola is CEO & Co-founder at Ambronite. Ambronite’s mission is to transform humans and our planet from surviving to thriving, through sustainable plant-based foods. In this keynote presentation, Mikko will take you on a journey through our broken food system, and presents a vision how we can turn it into a system that will make humans and our planet to thrive in the future Mikko Ikola is CEO & Co-founder at Ambronite. Ambronite’s mission is to transform humans and our planet from surviving to thriving, through sustainable plant-based foods. Ambronite’s first product, Complete Meal Shake, contains 100% of everything the human body needs and quenches hunger for 4 hours using only real foods. Ambronite is used worldwide by top performers and has customers in over 30 countries. Ambronite has been featured in publications such as TIME Magazine, Wired, and Wallpaper. Ambronite has raised USD$1.5m in funding from investors such as Jawed Karim (Co-founder at YouTube) and Lifeline Ventures. Besides nutrition and healthy lifestyle, Mikko has a tech-background in computer science and is inspired by topics such as leadership (Scaling Up Methodology) and minimalism. Teemu Suna (Nightingale Health): Founder Story of Nightingale Health Teemu Suna is CEO, chairman and one of the founders of Nightingale Health, a blood testing company aiming to solve the global burden of chronic disease. Suna has steered Nightingale into an established growing company with over 60 team members and customers in over 20 countries. In this session, Suna will share his story about how it all began. Teemu Suna is one of the founders, CEO and chairman of Nightingale Health, a blood testing company aiming to solve the global burden of chronic disease. A passionate advocate for disruptive health solutions, Suna has steered Nightingale into an established growth company with over 60 team members and customers in over 20 countries. Since late 2015, Suna has raised over €40 million to bring Nightingale’s technology to global healthcare. Prior to Nightingale, Suna spearheaded pioneering business ventures in healthcare IT, serving as Chief Technology Officer at Fujitsu Finland. Immersed in the field of computational medicine, Suna has authored scientific articles on applying artificial neural networks in medical applications. Determined to make preventive medicine a concrete reality for all, at Nightingale, Suna has united expertise from a diverse range of different backgrounds to further push the boundaries of the health industry. Fireside Chat with Danny Brown Wolf (Orbs) and Noah Sakamaki (COINPOST) Danny Brown Wolf is the Head of Strategy at Orbs, and on the founding team of Orbs Group USA. She was formerly the decentralization Director for Cool Cousin, a travel-tech start- crowned by the New York Times, L.A Times, The Guardian and National Geographic as a “must app for travelers”. Danny will be interviewed about his journey from Fintech to Blockchain by Noah Sakamaki. Click for more information about Danny brown Wolf and Noah Sakamaki. Noah is a News Manager and content writer for CoinPost, the leading Cryptocurrency media platform in Japan. Focusing on keeping Japanese viewers informed about what is going abroad with everything crypto-related, Noah frequently reports about the SEC and their decisions regarding Bitcoin ETFs and securities. Noah has also interviewed many key players in the industry such as Jed McCaleb, Max Kordek and Stefan Thomas. Born and raised in Tokyo as a Japanese American, Noah graduated from Abiline Christian University in 2017 while retaining his ability to read, speak and write in English & Japanese. Danny Brown Wolf is the Head of Strategy at Orbs, and on the founding team of Orbs Group USA. She was formerly the decentralisation Director for Cool Cousin, a travel-tech start- crowned by the New York Times, L.A Times, The Guardian and National Geographic as a “must app for travelers”. Her background is in Policy and International Affairs, having worked at the United Nations, the Israeli Parliament, as the Director of Policy at the IDC's Abba Eban Institute, and on projects dedicated to capacity-building of the Palestinian hi-tech industry and peace-building between Israelis and Palestinians through hi-tech initiatives. Building a Startup Community: Amarit Charoenphan (HUBBA), Tim Romero (Disrupting Japan), Paula Pärnaste (Lift99) Learn the secret of building a community from eco-system builders around the globe. Leading the discussion by Amarit Charoenphan co-founder of Techsauce media and Hubba, Thailand largest co-working space. Paula Pärnaste is on a mission of building a founders ecosystem across the Central and Eastern Europe at Lift99. Tim Romero is deeply involved in Japan's startup community as an investor, founder, mentor and host of the Disrupting Japan podcast. Click for more info about Amarit Charoenphan, Tim Romero, Paula Pärnaste CEO and Cofounder, HUBBA / Cofounder and Chief Connection Officer, Techsauce Amarit's passion and life's work is to create a better world where people work with passion, meaning, and purpose while actively supported by an inspiring community and ecosystem. He is the Group CEO & Cofounder of HUBBA, the Hub of Global Creators. HUBBA is Thailand’s 1st and largest coworking space and community. He is also the Co-founder of Techsauce Media, Thailand's leading tech media, which is best known for Techsauce Global Summit, Southeast Asia's 1st Global Scale conference. Tim Romero is a Tokyo-based entrepreneur, podcaster and author who has started four companies and led Japan market entry for others since coming to Japan more than 25 years ago. Tim hosts the Disrupting Japan podcast, teaches corporate innovation and entrepreneurship at the NYU Shinagawa campus and is CTO of TEPCO Ventures. Tim is deeply involved in Japan's startup community as an investor, founder and mentor. Entrepreneur herself, Paula is part of LIFT99 team building a founders ecosystem across the Central and Eastern Europe, and the world. LIFT99 is creating opportunities for the most ambitious founders in CEE, providing them with the supportive community, global network, know-how, funding etc. The community comes alive in the LIFT99 Founders2Founders app, and in the startup hubs – one in Tallinn, known as the home of Estonian startup culture, and the second one opening soon in Ukraine. Paula’s current responsibility is leading the launch of the LIFT99 Kyiv Hub. It will become another key location in the company’s mission to bring more startup success stories into the area. Miku Hirano (Cinnamon): Update your dream Recently closed Series B funding at 13.5M USD, Cinnamon is the rising star of AI startups in Japan. In this session, Miku will share her entrepreneurial journey and the founding story of Cinnamon. Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor. MSc, in Artificial Intelligence, from Tokyo University. Engaged in research on Recommendation Engine, Complex Network, Clustering. Won the Innovative Software Creation Program (Super Creator Award) under Information-technology Promotion Agency Japan (IPA) in 2005 and 2006. Started her first business to create the middleware which enables to develop iOS / Android / Feature Phone simultaneously, and sold the company to mixi.inc. Fireside Chat with Yat Siu (Outblaze) and Slush Team Yat Siu is deeply involved in Internet startup scene, he founded several internet and tech companies including Outblaze (acquired by IBM) and Animoca. In addition, he also launched Hong Kong's first internet provider. Yat will share his founding episodes on stage Chairman & Co-Founder, Animoca Brands and Founder & CEO, Outblaze A technology entrepreneur and investor based in Hong Kong, Yat Siu is the chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, a company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: AB1) that leverages gamification, blockchain, and artificial intelligence technologies to develop and publish a broad portfolio of mobile products. Yat began his career at Atari Germany in 1990. In 1995 he moved to Hong Kong to establish Hong Kong Cybercity/Freenation, the first Asian free web page and email provider. In 1998 he set up Outblaze, an award-winning pioneer of multilingual white label web services. In 2009, he sold Outblaze’s services business to IBM, and pivoted Outblaze to digital entertainment services and products. Outblaze is now a conglomerate of companies focused on cloud, AI, blockchain, and smartphone software. Yat is the CEO of Outblaze, and he is a director for TurnOut Ventures, a partnership between Outblaze and Turner Entertainment that brought to prominence the hugely popular emoticon character Tuzki. In 2017 Yat set up the Dalton Learning Lab, an afterschool lab environment that supplements Hong Kong students with skills not emphasized by the local education system, including divergent thinking and design thinking. He is also the founder of ThinkBlaze, the research arm of Outblaze investigating socially meaningful issues in technology. Yat has earned numerous accolades including Global Leader of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, and Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the DHL/SCMP Awards. A classically trained musician, Yat is a member of the advisory board of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and a director of the Asian Youth Orchestra. Fireside Chat with Aya Miyaguchi (ETH) and Jun Hasegawa (Omise) The blockchain is now in action. Joining a conversation with Aya Miyaguchi, who leads educational and development efforts of Ethereum foundation and Jun Hasegawa, the CEO & Founder of Omise, an online payment platform. Click to find out more about Aya Miyaguchi and Jun Hasegawa. Aya originally became fascinated in the blockchain space for its potential to impact financial inclusion in emerging markets. In early 2013, she joined Kraken as Managing Director and has since worked to educate the public, VCs, and regulators on cryptocurrencies and blockchain innovation globally. As the Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, Aya leads the Foundation’s teams and supports the Ethereum ecosystem through core development and research activities, and educational efforts aimed at further expanding the world’s largest blockchain ecosystem. In 2019, she was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s Blockchain Global Council. Jun is the CEO & Founder of Omise, an online payment platform that provides online operations with a full-featured payment gateway, security & fraud protection models and cash management services —the complete infrastructure required to enable and streamline online commerce. He is a deep thinker and is no stranger to the startup world. Prior to founding Omise, he was involved in founding a series of tech companies in Japan. He brings over 16 years of professional experience in the technological field and has previously held several managerial positions. Jun has led his payment company through dramatic growth to become one of SEA’s leading online payment platform. He is passionate about delivering online payments for everyone and works to influence his team to do the same. Operations in Space Business: Helen Tung (NewSpace2060), Takahiro Nakamura (ispace) , Kazuo Ishigame (Infostellar) How does space business work? What are the stories behind rockets and satellites? Listen to the episodes from people behind groundbreaking startups. Takahiro runs i-space, a micro lunar robotic satellite company. Kazuo is a Co-founder of Infostellar, an Airbnb for satellites. Moderating this session is Helen Tung, a space legal futurist. Click for more info about Helen Tung, Takahiro Nakamura, and Kazuo Ishigame. Emergent Tech advisor and MINERVA fellow at the EU - Japan Centre Helen is an Emergent Tech advisor and MINERVA fellow at the EU – Japan Centre. Helen works with NewSpace and emerging tech startups and trains and mentors entrepreneurs. Helen’s mission is to empower individuals to make better decisions and find their voices. She has spoken widely on topics including AI, Robotics, decision making, autonomous systems, law and ethics. Her areas of interest include space applications, blockchain, data protection, cyber security, smallsat constellations, space law and policy and mindfulness. Helen is currently the Founder & Convenor of EU-Japan NewSpace2060 International Poetry Manga Poster competition 2019 and Writer and Editor of EU- Japan NewSpace2060 blog (Summer 2019 coffee table mag TBC) as part of MINERVA Fellowship. After receiving his M.S. in Planetary Science from both Kyushu University and the University of Tokyo on a full scholarship, Takahiro joined Accenture, where he spent 5 years as a management consultant, specializing in retail and high-tech industries. Joining Recruit Next (Japan’s largest information company) Takahiro launched 4 businesses – leading two of them – including SUMO, a moving service and business for elderly people. Takahiro joined ispace in 2011 after an initial volunteer role and is now the acting COO. With one startup exit already under his belt, Ishigame cofounded Infostellar, a satellite-antenna sharing platform for small, low-orbit satellites -- what he calls "an Airbnb for satellites." Infostellars' cloud-based service StellarStation helps ground stations to make money during their downtime. For satellite operators, it allows them to contact their satellites more frequently, without building more costly stations. In September 2017, investors led by Airbus Ventures put $7.3 million in Series A Funding into the company, which was established with two other cofounders, including aerospace engineer and CEO Naomi Kurahara. Ishigame was selected as one of the honourees of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018. Future of AI and Automation: Tsune Shirota (WiL), Hajime Hotta (Cinnamon, Zeroth.ai), Fred Almeida (Ascent Robotics) A conversation with investors and founders from AI and Automation. Tsune led WiL's investment in Auth0, Asana, and TransferWise. Hajime is a partner at Zeroth.ai and CTO at Cinnamon. Fred Almeida is the founder and chief architect of Ascent Robotics, a company that develops autonomous robots and vehicles. Click for more info about Tsune Shirota, Hajime Hotta, and Fred Almeida. Tsune focuses on investment in mid/late stage venture investments in rapidly growing software companies. Tsune led WiL's investments in Auth0, Asana, and TransferWise and actively worked on investments in Automation Anywhere and BirdEye. Prior to joining WiL, Tsune was VP of Business Operations and Strategy at Evernote. Tsune spearheaded analytics and was instrumental in improving the company’s revenue growth and financial stability through a series of monetization efforts. He has also worked for Blue Ridge Capital, analyzing publicly traded internet companies. Tsune holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in Economics from the University of Tokyo. Hajime is an AI technologist leading 65+ deep learning researchers to help corporates in Bank/Insurance/Manufacturer/Internet Services/Medical/Pharmacy sectors with AI solutions at Cinnamon. Active investor and community contributor in Asia: Organized Vietnam FrontierTech Summit with 1500+ delegates. Also Partner at Zeroth.ai (AI Investment Firm), Founder Institute KL Local Director. Fred is the founder and chief architect of Ascent Robotics, one of Japan's leading AI startups. Ascent develops autonomous robots and vehicles by leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms inspired by theoretical neuroscience. The company raised $18M in Series A in 2018 and employs engineers and scientists from over 20 countries around the world. In addition to founding Ascent, Fred has also founded two other AI firms and chairs Decoded, a Tokyo collective of AI and machine learning experts. Zac Prince (BlockFi): Bringing Banking to Crypto Founder of BlockFi, a company that with the most coverage in US market for providing crypto savings accounts and USD loans, Zac has led companies which have been previously acquired by Google and DunnHumby. He has also led business development teams at Orchard Platform, a broker-dealer and RIA in the online lending sector, and Zibby, an online consumer lender. Zac’s experience includes leadership roles at multiple successful tech companies. He started initially in AdTech, where he was a part of two successful acquisitions, Admeld (Acquired by Google) and Sociomantic (acquired by DunnHumby). Prior to starting BlockFi, he led business development teams at Orchard Platform, a broker-dealer and RIA in the online lending sector, and Zibby, an online consumer lender. BlockFi provides crypto savings accounts and USD loans and the company has the most coverage of the US market, currently operating in 48 states and also the only lender to raise institutional capital – with a 50M credit facility from Galaxy Digital and investors including Fidelity, Galaxy Digital, Susquehanna, Akuna Capital, and ConsenSys Ventures. Let's talk about the future: Monika Bielskyte (ALLFUTUREEVERYTHING), Suzana Ilic (MLT), and Alissa Miky (JIWA) A futurist with an artist’s eye and an inventor’s mind, Monika Bielskyte will discuss how we see the future with Suzana Ilić, Founder of Machine Learning Tokyo who is leading efforts in creating a community for studying, teaching and building Artificial Intelligence projects with Deep Learning. Alissa Miky is the Co-founder of the Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA). JIWA is a volunteer group that supports young people who wish to devote their energy to both work and home. Click for more info about Monika Bielskyte, Suzana Ilic and Alissa Miky. A futurist with an artist's eye and an inventor’s mind, Monika Bielskyte prototypes culturally diverse, socially and environmentally engaged future world designs for the entertainment industry, technology companies, and cities/countries.  A large part of her time is devoted to research and strategy in the immersive media technology space (Augmented, Mixed, Virtual Reality and AI). Monika's work consists in connecting bleeding edge technological innovation with some of the world's most original creative visions. As the Head of MLT, a non-profit group of Machine Learning Engineers and Researchers and a community of 2000 people in Tokyo, Suzana has been leading efforts in creating an open and collaborative engineering space for studying, teaching and building Artificial Intelligence projects with Deep Learning at its core. Co-Founder of Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA) Co-Founder of Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA) / Marketing Expert at Life is Tech, Inc Global division Alissa Miky is the Co-founder of the Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA). JIWA is a volunteer group that supports young people who wish to devote their energy to both work and home. The birth-rate in Israel is 3.11, and records #1 on the OECD. Furthermore, women’s social advancement ranking reached 9th place in OECD, and Israel’s percentage of women in high-tech industries is 35.5%, which is 1.4 times that of America's. Moreover, Israel excels at developing start-ups around the world and acquired 2.3 times as many funds as Japan in 2018. She believes that Israel’s philosophy, as well as their business strategy, will be the motivation for young Japanese people. She became interested in Israel when she worked at an Israeli trading company and met many Israeli people. There, she worked for the marketing, sales, and PR department as a new business development manager of EdTech, Health Tech, Connected Cars, etc. While she was at the Israeli trading company, she surpassed the sales record by twelve times the previous. Alissa Miky has received awards; Forbes JAPAN "100 women shining on earth" youngest recipient. Businesses Insider JAPAN "Game Changer" One of 46 people. Fintech Fireside Chat with Firat Isbecer (Commencis) and Jason Smith (FundBox) A conversation about Fintech from two industry veterans. Firat is an entrepreneur and an angel investor from Turkey. After exiting his previous company, Positron is now a CEO of Commencis. Prior to joining Fundbox as VP of Business Development, Jason spent 13 years at PayPal and helped the company to grow globally. Click for more info about Firat Isbecer and Jason Smith. Firat Isbecer is an entrepreneur and an angel investor. Isbecer co-founded Pozitron, one of Europe’s fastest growing mobile banking, mobile commerce and payments software companies which was acquired by London-based fintech star Monitise plc in 2014. After joining Monitise, Isbecer oversaw the company’s Eastern Europe, Middle East, Central Asia and Africa operations as the Managing Director of Monitise MEA. In 2017, Monitise plc was acquired by US-based a Fortune 500 financial services tech giant Fiserv Inc. After the Monitise-Fiserv acquisition, he left the company and founded Commencis. Commencis helps leading brands to grow and scale in digital by building purposeful products, powered by its Big Data, Analytics and Cloud solutions. Isbecer is also an active seed investor, he is a member of Galata Business Angels, Turkey’s first angel investor group. He has made over 40 seed investments in 11 different countries to date making him one of the most active investors in Turkey. After studying at Robert College in İstanbul, Firat received his Bachelor’s Degree from Galatasaray University, and his Master’s Degree in Geopolitical Studies from a joint programme by the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Isbecer briefly worked at a Paris based independent Euro-Mediterranean Think Tank as a research associate. He has been recognised in Fortune Turkey’s 40 under 40 list numerous times. Jason Smith is the Vice President of Business Development at Fundbox. In this leadership role, Jason is responsible for identifying and creating global partnerships to help Fundbox achieve its vision of building the world’s first AI-enabled B2B business capital platform.  As a growth leader, Jason brings a strong background and experience e-commerce, fintech, and technology into Fundbox.  Prior to joining Fundbox, Jason spent 13 years at payments and credit giant PayPal in various leadership roles. Most recently Jason was the head of PayPal’s Global Channel Sales business group which, under his leadership, scaled the business globally and grew revenue over 4X.  In addition, Jason was also a founding member of PayPal’s omnichannel business and a key member of the corporate development team where he was responsible for numerous investments, acquisitions, business development and sales initiatives across the eBay Inc. and PayPal portfolio.  Jason is a graduate of Washington State University. Marvin Liao (500 Startups): The Future of Work: A Venture Capitalist's View Marvin is a Partner at 500 Startups, a global Seed Venture Capital Firm & Startup Accelerator based in Silicon Valley. He runs the Flagship Accelerator program & invests in Digital Media, Enterprise SAAS, Marketplace, Fintech, Adtech, Digital Health, Internet of Things & Mobile startups across the globe. Marvin is a Partner at 500 Startups, a global Seed Venture Capital Firm & Startup Accelerator based in Silicon Valley. He runs the Flagship Accelerator program & invests in Digital Media, Enterprise SAAS, Marketplace, Fintech, Adtech, Digital Health, Internet of Things & Mobile startups across the globe. Formerly of Yahoo! Inc. (10.5 years), Marvin Liao has held roles in the various departments of Sales, Business Development, Ad Operations and Marketing & ran online marketing at a venture capital funded ecommerce start-up prior to that. He also serves on the boards/advisory boards of several internet advertising and ad technology companies. Investment in Southeast Asia: Kay-Mok Ku (Gobi), Soo Boon Koh (i-Globe), Kaspar Hadiyat (Koru Partners), and Slush Team As one of the rising region in startup scene, learn more about investment landscape in Southeast Asia with top investors like Soo Boon Koh from iglobe, Kay Mok Ku from Gobi Southeast Asia and Kaspar Hidayat from Koru Partners. Click for more info about Kay-Mok Ku, Soo Boon Koh and Kaspar Hidayat. Kay-Mok Ku is Managing Partner for Gobi Southeast Asia. He joined Gobi in 2010 and has invested in over 30 companies, including Carsome, Deliveree, Eko, Hermo and Salestock. He is a board member of the Singapore Venture Capital Association (SVCA). Prior to his career with Gobi Partners, Mok held the Vice President position in both Xinya Media and MediaCorp (Singapore). He was also part of the team that managed a $500 million fund at the Media Development Authority in Singapore, and is co-founder of Private Express, a crypto startup based in Silicon Valley. He started his career with the Infocomm Development Authority, and has a Computer Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from San Jose State University. Soo Boon founded iGlobe in December 1999 when venture capital (VC) first began experiencing the onset of globalization. As a veteran in the global VC industry with a specialization in technology investing, she has achieved consistent top-quartile fund return for her investments. Working alongside prominent VCs such as Sequoia Capital, IVP, RRE, Tencent and Qualcomm Ventures, she has since established herself as a prominent leader in the investing community. Soo Boon led some of the notable exits, including u-blox AG (SWX: UBXN), Telenav Inc. (NASDAQ:TNAV), Celestry Inc. (sold to Cadence), Aicent Inc. (acquired by TA Associates) and Anacle Systems Ltd (HKGEM: 8353). Currently, Soo Boon serves as board observer of several VC-backed companies based in San Francisco. This includes Nerdwallet Inc and Matterport Inc. Soo Boon is also a board member of The Great Room (Singapore) and Reach Robotics (UK). In late 2018, she oversaw two portfolios which targeted public listing, despite volatile stock market conditions: Twist Bioscience was listed on the Nasdaq (TWST) on Oct 31, 2018, and ACSL was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mother’s Board (TSE:6232) on Dec 21, 2018. Kaspar Hidayat is a Principal at Koru Partners, an early stage venture capital firm in Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Koru, he was part of the teams at 500 Startups and Venturra Capital that made Seed and Series A investments in many of Southeast Asia's leading companies in their respective verticals, including Grab, Bukalapak, Zilingo, Carro, Shopback and Carousell. Kaspar has also spent time as an operator as Country Manager and VP of Marketing at Pomelo, Southeast Asia's leading digitally native vertical fashion and apparel brand. Kaspar earned his B.A. in philosophy and economics at Amherst College. Going beyind the Pitch Contest: Tim Miskche (Artisense), Rumi Djalil (UltraCelsius), Wilson Chan (Buyandship) and Slush Team Three founders who were pitching last year will share advice for startups who wish to go overseas, challenges, and opportunity running early stage startups. Tim Miksche runs Artisense Japan, a 3D mapping startup. Wilson Chan is CEO of buyandship, providing an affordable international shipping service. Rumi Djalil is the CEO of Ultracelsius, a company developing sustainable freezing technology. More about Tim Miksche, Wilson Chan, and Rumi Djalil. More about Tim  Miksche, Wilson Chan, and Rumi Djalil. Tim is Representative Director and CEO of Artisense Japan K.K. and Winner of the SLUSH Tokyo 2018 pitch contest. Artisense is a deep-tech computer vision and AI startup specializing in dynamic 3D mapping and localization for autonomous vehicles and robots. The research-based company was founded in Palo Alto, USA and is using its proprietary know-how to build a new mapping standard that will enhance human life. Holding off competition in three consecutive pitching rounds, Tim took home the main prize of ¥ 5.000.000 to kick-start the foundation of Artisense in Tokyo. Having lived, studied and worked on three continents, Tim is an open- minded and self-motivated entrepreneur. With 20+ years of professional experience in automotive, digitalization and innovation management, he likes to build bridges and to foster creative exchange on the multinational level. Before joining Artisense, Tim was leading digital innovation and AR/VR within Audi Design at the carmaker’s headquarters in Germany. In 2017, he founded transferNET, a business consultancy supporting startups in market entry and business growth. Tim is co-ambassador and active startup mentor at World Innovation Forum Japan. Most recently, he was also nominated as representative for Japan of the German Startup Association. Rumi Djalil is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ultracelsius, a company focusing on creating cold chain technology in Indonesia. The company has developed a freezing technology that can keep food content cold even after 4 days without any power which saves energy and is perfect for remote areas. He was one of the finalists of Slush 2018. He has aspirations that Ultracelsius technology could one day solve important energy problems. He holds a law degree from the University of Indonesia and a Master of International Business from The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He started his career as an Investment banker at Citi during the verge of the 2008 sub-prime crisis. After that, he spent time as a Consultant at McKinsey where he got exposure to various industries. He was also heavily involved in corporate restructuring during the transformation of Indonesian Railways. Co-founder and CEO of buyandship, an integrated marketing and logistics platform for cross-border e-commerce connecting the world to Asia. Previously worked in private equity and management consulting in Hong Kong and Japan. W&W ✕ Kizuna AI ✕ TheWaveVR -XR Music Video Special Premier- Supported by Avex Future of Music TheWaveVR is unveiling their first digital concert for Japan, created in collaboration with Avex. Watch the world premier of Wave's XR video for W&W's new song - “The Light” featuring Kizuna AI - as a preview for live W&W concert in TheWaveVR in April. Wave is an an online music festival that never sleeps, allowing fans to view, host, and socialize in interactive concerts at anytime, from anywhere. TheWaveVR is based in Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX; available on Steam, Oculus and PC desktop. Slush Tokyo Pitch Contest Winner Announcement and Closing Out of the hundred applicants and 40 companies who made the cut - here we will officially announce who will bring home the title of Slush Tokyo 2019 Pitch Contest Winner! Slush Tokyo 2019 Official Afterparty Annual Slush Tokyo Afterparty where you can loosen up, dance to some live music and meet other attendees!

Distributed Content Delivery and Cloud Storage Various blockchain projects are trying to solve one challenge in decentralizing the internet: distributing content itself. Blockchains are distributed databases storing an immutable history of cryptographic signature transactions, representing transfers of value on the network.  This has brought trust and honesty to entirely decentralized currency, though the detractions to versatility are nearly twofold: blockchains grow rapidly as transaction blocks are added over time, resulting in the current size of the bitcoin blockchain which, at time of writing, is roughly 95 gigabytes.  Because of this scalability issue, many regular users cannot run full and independent network nodes because they cannot accommodate the space required to store the entire blockchain, despite it being composed of blocks no bigger than a single MB.  This means that though blockchains are very useful for solving certain problems, storing any more complicated data on a blockchain would be enormously inefficient. Despite blockchains being plagued by this size issue, and having use only for storing tiny cryptographic signatures of transactions and transfers of value, distributed ledgers still have much to offer to the fields of cloud storage and data delivery.  Blockchains have proven useful for establishing trust and authenticity for a framework below decentralized applications.  Users around the world collectively carry enormous amounts of unused space on many devices.  By using blockchain as a decentralized management system on which to build decentralized apps, it is possible to harness this collective storage power to create a field of blockchain based peer-to-peer cloud storage and data delivery networks.  On these platforms, users can rent out storage or bandwidth to other users on the network and be compensated for their service offered to the network with crypto assets. Following is a table comparing several blockchain based peer-to-peer cloud storage and content delivery platforms: The Internet has become one of the most significant sources for consuming media content in the modern world.  To help satiate the voracious demand for web content, Content Distribution Networks are used.  These networks of dedicated servers distributed around the globe employ techniques such as edge caching and route optimization to participate solely in uploading and sharing media at lightning speeds, optimizing access to digital content for worldwide internet users.  Generally, large companies such as Netflix own specialized content distribution networks composed of many dedicated servers, while smaller businesses can rent content distribution network space from companies such as Akamai. Another significant service in today’s digital landscape is cloud storage, which will be used by an estimated 1.8 billion users worldwide in 2017.  Put simply, cloud storage refers to rentable storage space accessed over the internet.  Most online applications already engage cloud storage.  For example, documents, images, and emails accessed through web applications like Dropbox or Gmail aren’t stored on your physical machine, they are stored in the cloud.  Though cloud storage refers simply to storage offered over the internet, and content distribution networks are servers located geographically to deliver content quickly, combining CDN and cloud storage infrastructure is also common. Though large companies with datacenters and servers generally lead the cloud storage and CDN space, there has also been an emergence in entirely decentralized distribution networks and storage alternatives used by millions of users around the globe. For example, Bittorrent, an internet peer-to-peer content distribution protocol, accounted for more than a quarter of all upstream traffic in North America last year, according to a study by Sandvine, a Canadian broadband company.  The Bittorrent protocol enables the propagation of “torrent files[1]” using “swarms,” or networks of computers simultaneously downloading and uploading .torrent files without a central coordinating server. Because Bittorrent downloads are distributed amongst an enormous number of participating peers, controlling this peer-to-peer traffic is far more difficult than blocking traffic coming from official distribution servers.  This is the reason Wikileaks releases sensitive content over Bittorrent, and pirating media content proliferates upon the peer-to-peer protocol – the reason Bittorrent has become nearly synonymous with pirating.[2] Decentralized content distribution, such as that provided by Bittorrent, has very legitimate benefits as well. For example, the Bittorrent protocol is used by organizations to provide alternative downloading methods to their users.  Linux distributions are often released over Bittorrent, and the Blizzard gaming company offers a Bittorrent alternative for software updates.  Releasing content on peer-to-peer distribution networks is a cheap solution for individuals and businesses, and by distributing bandwidth occasionally offers faster download speeds than centralized servers. Decentralized datasets and ledgers, also referred to as Blockchains, present additional examples of the great benefits of peer-to-peer technology.  Blockchain has revolutionized the way we look at Fintech, realized the concept of decentralized and autonomous organizations, and provided solutions for decentralized supercomputing, to name a few of the many recent innovations.  Because data storage, and content and media delivery is becoming ever more distributed, blockchain solutions could revolutionize content delivery, data storage and media platforms as well – which is exactly what the following projects are seeking to deliver to the blockchain space. DECENT is a decentralized content distribution network designed upon an independent blockchain, targeted towards content creators and authors.  Instead of content creators trusting distribution to publishers who often exert influence over artists creative and financial freedoms, the DECENT blockchain assumes this role. The DECENT blockchain is essentially a blockchain publishing intermediary, handling everything from the secure distribution of media, to the payment of authors and distribution nodes, and maintenance of content creator’s reputations.  Content creators release cryptographically secured digital media – ebooks, videos, audio – onto the global DECENT distribution network.  Publishing nodes receive and store, distribute and facilitate the unlocking of these files to consumers who’ve purchased them with DECENT tokens, fulfilling the roles of miners on the PoS network. Publishers handle the creation of transactions on the blockchain to authorize the consumption of content transmitted over the network.  When generating blocks, publishers ensure payment is delivered to the author, keeping a portion of the tokens generated as fees for the storage and CPU cycles they contributed to the DECENT network.  The first DECENT version uses Bittorrent for file distribution, though future versions may support new technology.  The DECENT core team is comprised of 8 members based primarily in Slovakia and China, and more info about the team can be found here. MaidSafe is a private company located in Scotland that has been developing the SAFE Network since 2006. The SAFE Network is a peer-to-peer network which, using the spare disk space and bandwidth of users in the network, provides distributed and decentralized computing resources and file storage to other users for rent.  When uploading files onto the network, private files are fractured into pieces and distributed redundantly across the network. The redundancy provides safety incase nodes leave the network, and security, so that only the owner of the file can recover the pieces scattered throughout the network and decrypt their files. Safecoins, the digital currency of the network, are generated and distributed to users who allocate storage space and lend it to the network.  Safecoins are not stored on any blockchain, and the double-spend problem is instead solved through uniquely generated IDs attached to coins, supervised by Transaction Managers, entities participating in the close group consensus mechanism which replaces the blockchain on the SAFE Network. Safecoins are used to purchase resources on the network. Though a basic goal for the network is storage, the network may collectively use resources for essential internet functions, giving it the ability to support “every existing service [on] the internet.”  For example, using the distributed storage provided by the network, it will be possible to host websites as well.  Current web browsers may, after configuration to direct “.safenet” domain requests through the SAFE launcher application, request HTML and other web related resources over the SAFE network to view SAFE hosted websites. A SAFE browser is in development, and the network also supports a specialized decentralized naming system (decentralized Domain Name System) for locating websites hosted on SAFE.  It is essentially an augmented, decentralized and anonymous interpretation of the current internet. The cost of storage will be based upon the resources available and the relevant demand to consume this storage. , it is “anticipated that storage will be significantly cheaper than using any current solutions… as SAFE does not have many of the overheads and costs of existing services, like Dropbox.”  On the SafeNet, you only pay for the resources you use. Storj is a decentralized cloud storage platform headed by Storj Labs, the company which develops and innovates for the Storj platform.  Storj allows users, also known as farmers, to allocate spare space from their hard drive to rent out to other participants in the network, and be compensated for their disk space with the digital coin Storjcoin X.  Storjcoin X are counterparty tokens, the protocol which extends the Bitcoin blockchain to accommodate advanced features.  Storjcoin X token transactions are therefore stored on the Bitcoin blockchain. Per the whitepaper, although it uses counterparty assets now, it could accommodate any other token or form of payment in the future. Users distribute their data to the network in encrypted shards.  The shards are stored with redundancy, so that multiple nodes have copies of the same shards so that even if some nodes go offline, users should be able to retrieve their shards and piece together their files.  Because the network is distributed and uses storage redundancy, it has higher uptime than centralized and dedicated alternatives.  The vast distribution of the peer-to-peer network also leads to faster download and upload times than centralized servers, where data streams may face throttling.  Per Storj.io, the cost of storage on Storj is “half the price of the competition,” with rates of $0.015/GB for data storage per month, and $0.05/GB for bandwidth.  You only pay for the resources you consume.  More info on the Storj team may be found here. Siacoin is another decentralized cloud storage platform which utilizes the spare hard drive space of network participants for storage.  The project is developed by Nebulous Labs, the company behind SiaCoin.  SiaCoin employs erasure coding (distributing encrypted fragments of data redundantly across the network) and an independent blockchain with tokens known as SiaCoins, to support the network. Hosts and renters engage in file contracts, an agreement between the storage provider and the consumer, before providing storage. The consumer pays the SiaCoins upfront to the blockchain, which acts as an escrow service, with the previous contract being the rules for arbitration.  If the contract is met and the storage provider submits a proof of storage, the storage provider is compensated.  Otherwise, the coins are returned to the renter. Anyone with spare storage may participate and earn SiaCoins after downloading the Sia client.  Hosts set and advertise a price shown to renters seeking storage, after which they may collect file contracts from users who are comfortable with storage and said price.  This competitive nature helps keep prices low, close to the raw price of storage, vs. the higher prices offered by centralized cloud storage companies.  SiaCoin only charges for the actual storage you use. Because the price of storage is determined by the free market, price tends to fluctuate, as the value of SiaCoin is also subject to market forces and speculation. The SiaCoin site reads that “as of January 2016, storage is about $2.25/TB/month with 6x redundancy,” though actual prices are somewhat different.  Siapulse.com seems to track market rates and price conversions (not an endorsement, no guarantees of accuracy).  The SiaExplorer from the official Sia domain also allows blockchain exploration, where some basic metadata regarding contracts and transactions may be viewed.   The Sia whitepaper may be found here. BlockCDN is a blockchain based content delivery platform, planning to put to use idle network resources to provide cheap CDN services.  In the BlockCDN peer-to-peer economy, users may rent out their spare bandwidth and storage to act as cache servers in the network, participating in uploading content at high speeds from optimal geographical locations to internet users who consume content from BlockCDN customers.  Cache servers store, or ‘cache’ content such as web pages, files, etc, and participate in uploading those files to internet consumers. Per the BlockCDN whitepaper, BlockCDN makes use of Squid, the open source “caching and forwarding web proxy” software.  The company leading the BlockCDN development also plans to develop cloud computing and storage in the future.  BlockCDN allows users to purchase CDN bandwidth using BCDN tokens, the digital asset stored on the BlockCDN blockchain which fuels the peer-to-peer economy.  The network software intelligently pairs consumers with users renting bandwidth, to help provide fast global content delivery at competitive rates. According to BlockCDN.org, CDN bandwidth purchased over BlockCDN rates are only 10% of those offered by large competitors, going for as low as $0.0072/GB.  The BlockCDN blockchain is based upon the Ethereum Network.  The company appears to be based mainly in China and the U.S, some info on the team may be found here. IPFS, or the InterPlanetary File System, is a next generation peer-to-peer, content-addressable distributed file system, combining successful aspects of related projects from open source and academia over the years.  Note that according to the whitepaper, “aside from BitSwap…  the main contribution of IPFS is” the successful amalgamation of past projects which include “DHTs, BitTorrent, Git, and SFS.”  In other words, nodes participating within the IPFS network form an enormous and resilient distributed file sharing system employing distributed hash tables as employed by Kademlia, version control as in Git, block exchange as in Bittorrent, with Self-certifying File System capabilities.  With the above properties, IPFS enables a sophisticated, resilient, global file sharing and versioning environment which curates and removes duplicates for efficiency, while simultaneously supporting rapid lookups and low latency access to data.  The network “has no single point of failure” and is trustless – peers needn’t trust each other to ensure their files integrity – whilst ensuring old and important files aren’t lost in the sea of data.  The software stack is designed without a reliance on the IP protocol, and can function over other network protocols, using a versatile and tailor-made decentralized naming protocol called IPNS. The IPFS network uses the Bitswap protocol to incentivize participation and not a virtual currency, though a virtual currency implementing a “bitswap strategy… will be explored in a future paper”.  Bitswap drives the distributed file sharing economy with a unique “barter system” where nodes are required to share data blocks with or seek blocks for other nodes if they wish to download from said node. This system ensures mutual, reciprocated downloading, eliminating the idea of free loading “leeches” like on Bittorrent, keeping nodes incentivized to cache and distribute data “even if they are not interested in them [the data blocks the node shares as barter tender] directly”. Via the whitepaper, IPFS is at least “a global, mounted, versioned filesystem and namespace”, a “next generation file sharing system.”  However, its design is ambitious, and it has the potential to disrupt old and established file sharing protocols such as HTTP.  For example, by allowing those interested with online content to accommodate the content hosting and distribution required by participating on the IPFS network, IPFS could support entire websites and distribution networks, “push[ing] the web to new horizons.”  Read the whitepaper here. (This article is not an endorsement of any products, but simply a summation of content found researching the internet) [1] A Bittorrent protocol file which contains metadata regarding files and folders to share, among other controls for the protocol, including important networking addresses and relevant data. [2] Downloading materials illegally reproduced online for free, without paying the respective creators of the content. Contents Distributed Content Delivery and Cloud Storage FrameworkDECENTMaidSafeStorjSiaCoinBlockCDNIPFSRelated PostsToken Rights: Key considerations in crypto-economic design2017 Token Sales / ICOs in Review: Part IIIWelcome to Smith + CrownVenezuela’s Petro: An emerging era of state-backed cryptocurrencies? The world’s best research across Bitcoin, blockchain technology, digital currency and cryptofinance. JOIN THE SMITH + CROWN MAILING LIST FOR LEADING RESEARCH, INSIGHTS AND DATA

Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. Token Black and Token Crip. The Token Minority is a character designed to get more minority groups into the plot. This serves several purposes: Allows the producers of the show to broaden the appeal of the show by giving more viewers protagonists they can identify with. Is useful for bringing in discussions of racial issues, gender issues or homophobia into the plot. Helps the producers feel a little better about using a Scary Minority Suspect in every other case. Allows the producers to make race jokes related to minority without any shame. Allows the producers to avoid criticism from minority groups. Fulfills the executives' desire for the show to be more ethnically respectful. Depending on the setting, it can merely be an accurate representation of demographics in that region or industry. In some casts of animal, alien, or monster characters, World of Funny Animals or not, there is a majority species and one or more minority species. Often the majority of the animal cast is made up of mammals and there is a token non-mammal. Usually, the token non-mammal is a bird, but reptiles, amphibians, and even invertebrates are certainly not unheard of. Sometimes, there are token Petting Zoo People in a group of Funny Animal /Civilized Animal tier animals. Sometimes, there are token animals, aliens, or monsters representing ethnic minorities in a group made of supposedly "white" ones. You might see this term used derisively in most contexts. This isn't out of contempt for minorities; this trope simply causes problems with representation, where, for example, the single black guy is forced to be exemplary of his entire race. This is very likely to lead to Positive Discrimination and make him The Scrappy . If there are instead four minorities (assuming a sizable cast), they can all have different strengths and flaws which round them out and make them generally equal to the rest of the cast. Taking this approach, Unfortunate Implications are unlikely to happen unless you somehow subject them all to the same stereotypes. You can even have one be explicitly antagonistic. However, this can be Truth in Television in cases where the prevalence of the minority, combined with the size of the cast and the demographics of the setting make it genuinely unlikely that there will be more than one member of the minority present (not that this would justify stereotypes, but it would justify having only one minority). For instance, a show set in rural Maine would strain credulity if its cast of five main characters included multiple racial minorities (simply because rural Maine is overwhelmingly white), and a show set in the American Bible Belt would have a hard time convincingly justifying multiple self-professed atheists in a cast of ten (unless a major theme of the show is nonconformity or religious/atheist tensions). Compare Captain Ethnic , Token Nonhuman , Token Human , Token Enemy Minority , Token Minority Couple , Token White , Twofer Token Minority , Five-Token Band , Informed Judaism , Black Vikings , Black Best Friend , and The Smurfette Principle . Examples: open/close all folders Advertising TV Ads in Australia sometimes have this (especially in "hip" young thing products like Coke). May have 1 Asian Woman, 1 African Woman, 1 White Girl, 2 White Guys and 1 Aboriginal or Middle Eastern Male. Target ads are particularly well-known for this. There will always be one blonde white girl, one brunette white girl, one Asian girl and one black girl. Always. University brochures also do this. You'll always see at least one black person and Asian person for every two white people. In brochures for traditionally black schools, there's a token white on every page. Further proof that Covers Always Lie. A controversy erupted after it was revealed that a photograph used to adorn the front of a University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduate application booklet for the 2001-02 school year was altered to add the image of a black student among a sea of white faces. A Veet ad has this. When they state that eight out of ten women were happy with the product, they showed a lineup of eight women with one of them being black. Curiously, they are all dubbed over with the same voice. Anime & Manga Poor Hans, in The Daughter of Twenty Faces, is seemingly the only non-Japanese member of a group of burglars led by Gentleman Thief "Twenty-Faces" that is ostensibly a globe-trotting organization. He often uses Gratuitous German, to boot. Super Dimension Fortress Macross/Robotech had Claudia Grant/Claudia LaSalle, apparently the only black woman on the entire ship. Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross had Bowie Emerson, seemingly the only black man on the entire planet Glorie. In Robotech, he was re-written to be Claudia's nephew (and given a new surname of "Grant"). Rakshata and Viletta of Code Geass, as they're the only Non-white/Chinese/Japanese characters of any plot importance, and of the two, Rakshata is the one who gets played in a more positive light. Of the others, we have a supposedly elite pilot who dies mere seconds after she first appears on screen, and King. And Nunnally fits in to the paraplegic category. Mobile Suit Gundam 00: In the first season of Gundam 00, Daryl Dodge has the honor of being the only black person at all. He's also killed off in episode 23. Season 2 does introduce another black man as president of the Earth Sphere Federation, although that might be more to reflect the real world than tokenism. However, he has little impact on the plot. A minor example with Setsuna F Seiei-whilst he does appear to fit this trope both within Celestial Being and in the wider Gundam metaverse in regards to protagonists, his middle eastern homeland forms a two episode story arc in the first season and plays a large role in his interactions with the princess of a neighbouring country. However, the middle eastern aspects of the story only serve to represent the region and 21st century problems to Japanese audiences, and beyond that, has no real importance to the story as the series progresses. Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket has Professor Lunland as the sole black character, and Gabriel as the sole Latino. Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ has the black Shinta and Ambiguously Brown Qum, but that's about it. Later in the show, Judau ended up befriending a young pilot from Africa, but his time on the show was very brief. Simon is the only black character in Durarara!!, though a black gangster is also seen in the episode "Heaven's Vengeance". It's also implied that minor character Tom Tanaka might be part black, though it's never clarified either way. Sailor Moon: Elza Gray was the only black character in Sailor Moon. There was also the Ambiguously Brown Sailor Pluto, depicted as noticeably dark-skinned in comparison to other Senshi, and moreso in the manga. Some say she's of Romani descent. Indian student Akira is the only non-Japanese member of the main cast of Tsuritama. Kate, the grandmother of one of the other protagonists, is French, while several black and Arabic members appear in the show's villainous Cosmopolitan Council. Bob from Tenjho Tenge would count as this. He's the sole black member of the otherwise Japanese cast. Similarly, Central High's Vice President is the only black character in Daily Lives of High School Boys. Understandable since the series is set in a small Japanese town, and usually it tends to be large cities that take part in student exchange programs with other countries. Yasutora "Chad" Sado in Bleach is half-Japanese, half-Latino in an otherwise manga-typical all-Japanese cast. Jun Hono, the half-black, half-Japanese pilot from Great Mazinger and Mazinkaiser. Jose Rodriguez, the nerdy Afro-Latino doctor from Kyo Kara Maoh! Mikasa from Attack on Titan is one of the very few Asians alive, if not the last one, at the time of the story. She serves as a deconstruction; she's a token minority because her mother's people have been nearly wiped out. The fandom sometimes jokingly speculates that she's the beneficiary of Conservation of Ninjutsu because of this, resulting in Positive Discrimination. It's ultimately subverted when we find out that Levi's surname is Ackerman, indicating that Mikasa's badass qualities are inherited from her European father's lineage, not her Asian mother's. Choe Gu-Sung from Psycho-Pass is the only Korean character in a series that takes place in Japan. In Saki, an inversion happens for Rinkai, whose mahjong team is otherwise composed of transfer students. Satoha, the vanguard player, is the only Japanese member of the team, partly because of the rules requiring a Japanese player as vanguard, and partly because she is the ace. Played straight with Aislinn of Miyamori's team, who is from New Zealand and is on an otherwise entirely Japanese team. Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa takes place in early 20th century Germany. Of the main characters Noah is the only non-white character, being Romani. Audio Play Lampshaded in The Firesign Theatre's "High School Madness" sketch, from the album Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, where Mexican-American students come out of nowhere just to ask the white protagonist for advice (then promptly disappear). Comic Books Adam Brashear, the Blue Marvel who featured in the eponymous mini series of 2009, represents a rather awkward representation of this trope. He is for all intents and purposes (in the context of the story) a Black Superman from a time when the adjective was quite emphatically capitalized. And applied as a noun. It doesn't help that even without his powers, Brashear is a super-man - an athlete, military hero and scientific genius who gained ultra-super-powers when the experimental anti-matter reactor he was creating exploded. For about a year, he was the primary hero of the Marvel Universe (perhaps coincidentally around the same time the Sentry was supposedly very successful), but then it was discovered he was black, which immediately led to outrage and uproar among both black and white communities, until the President (JFK) gave the Blue Marvel the Congressional Medal of Honor and told him to quit being a superhero. Which he did until the present day. He is now a member if the Mighty Avengers. Under the "women as minorities" category (which, in superhero comics, they definitely were until much later and in many books still are) every superhero team used to have exactly one female member. The Avengers had The Wasp (later replaced by the Scarlet Witch), the Fantastic Four had the Invisible Girl (later Invisible Woman), the Justice League had Wonder Woman (or the Black Canary, depending on when you asked), the Teen Titans had Wonder Girl, the original X-Men had Marvel Girl, and the second team of X-Men had Storm (who was also, for quite a while, the only black X-Man. She joined the team along with Sunfire, a Japanese man who left almost immediately, and Thunderbird, a Native American man who died almost immediately, making her also the only active non-white X-Man for a good while). All those teams except the FF tend to have more female members these days (though the JLA goes through periods of focusing on D.C.'s "Big 7" wherein Wonder Woman is the only female member) and some have gone through stretches where the women outnumbered the men. Blindside in the comic series Relative Heroes. Notable in that the series was about a family of superheroes, and Blindside was explained as having been adopted in order to justify having a black kid as part of the main cast. The Justice League goes back in forth on this, with some eras (such as the Meltzer and McDuffie years) having very diverse casts, while others, like the James Robinson run, were criticized for having no minority members whatsoever. During the New 52 relaunch, Cyborg was retconned into being the sole non-white founding member of the original team, presumably to make up for the extended periods of whiteness. Lampshaded in Grant Morrison's JLA run. Plastic Man jokingly states that Steel can't quit the Justice League because then the team would lose its only minority member. Archie Comics: In order to keep up with changing American trends, the comic added some ethnic characters in the 70's: African-Americans Coach Clayton, his son Chuck (who, like many Africans of the day, sported a righteous 'fro) and Chuck's girlfriend Nancy, as well as the Hispanic Frankie Valdez & his girlfriend Maria. As of 2010, the former three continue to appear quite regularly (and Chuck has naturally lost the 'fro). The latter two, not so much. The company later introduced Kevin Keller, the first gay character in the series. Kevin was met with backlash by some conservative Christian groups but his debut issues sold very well and he was even given his own mini-series. Later Archie comics have also introduced some other minority characters, including Ginger Lopez (who works for a teen fashion magazine) and Raj Patel (an Indian student interested in film). Ginger shows up fairly regularly (moreso than Maria). In Archie Comics (2015) Jughead is asexual. He's the only known ace character. Debuting in 52, Batwoman managed to provoke a Broken Base even before this due to press releases touting her as DC's first lesbian hero, who would be receiving DC's full support. Then DC promptly didn't do anything with her outside the series for over a year (and even in the series, she received little attention, as she was more supporting cast for her girlfriend, Renee Montoya). In all that time, she had very little storyline, so her characterization was mostly as a closeted lesbian and a Jew. When she came back in her own series, she was retconned into having a much more butch look and having come out several years before her first appearance. The Falcon was this in-universe. He was added to The Avengers because Gyrich insisted that the team should have more black members; he didn't actually want to join. According to Christopher Priest, Falcon's nickname in the Marvel offices throughout the 70s and early 80s was "Fal-coon". No, Priest wasn't alright with it, though being a lowly intern at the time, he didn't raise a big stink. In his blog, he refuses to name the co-workers who used it for fear of burning his bridges. Years later, Triathlon served the exact same role (again, in-universe) during Kurt Busiek's run. Later iterations of the team were thankfully more diverse. Rage also had bits of this in his debut story. He was given a spot on the Avengers line-up after picking a fight with Captain America over the lack of minority heroes on the team. Empress was the sole minority member of the original Young Justice team, and was added relatively late into the run after some complaints about the Monochromatic makeup of the cast. Lampshaded in Peter Milligan's X-Force run with Anarchist, a black superhero who opposes the decision to add another black member to the team. His reasoning? Since most superhero teams rarely have more than one minority member, another black guy on the team means that one of them will inevitably die. Averted in the X-Statix series that followed, which has an additional black member (Venus), plus a Latino member (El Guapo), and two gay members (Vivisector and Phat). In the 2005 Marvel comic Wha...Huh?, one of the stories reimagines Black Panther as a white man from South America, who is upset when he learns that The Avengers just want a token black superhero in their team and thought he was misrepresenting his race (also, Black Widow is just there to fill the "woman quota".) Though Runaways had a more diverse cast than most other mainstream comics, the team has only ever had two black members, neither of whom stayed until the end of the series, and one of whom was actually a Skrull. Superman comics Ron Troupe started as the only black recurring staff member working at The Daily Planet. Jem and the Holograms: Jetta, the token British character. She was the only non-American until The Stingers showed up. Jetta's also the only non-white member of her band, but this is downplayed as the series has a diverse cast. Blaze is the only confirmed transgender character thus far. Fan Works The "black guy in the corner" from Sherlock Season 4. The author even explicitly states that he added him so his story wouldn't be racist. In the early days of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom, Twilight was often portrayed the only POC in Ponyville when the cast was "humanized" in fan works, usually as black or Indian. Nowadays, more diverse interpretations are becoming more popular in the fandom, such as Middle Eastern Fluttershy and Rarity, Black or biracial Pinke Pie, Applejack and/or Rarity being trans mares, varying sexualities amongst the Mane Six, and Rainbow Dash being a black or latino lesbian showing up sometimes. Film Parodied by Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle with posters advertising the first movie as starring "That Asian guy from American Pie" and "That Indian guy from Van Wilder". In terms of film, equally well parodied/referenced by the "Token Black Guy" in Not Another Teen Movie. Named Malik Token, the Genre Savvy token helpfully explains the joke to the audience by introducing himself as the person that stays out of conversations and says "Damn!", "Shit!", and "That is whack!" At a party later in the film, he sees another black guy, played by Sean Patrick Thomas, Token Minority from Cruel Intentions, and tells him that he was at the party first and the other man apologizes and leaves the party. Malik's Crowning Moment of Awesome was when he got to say, "Damn, that shit is whack!" There's also the musical number: "I'm only in this song because I'm a black guy" Star Wars After Episode IV became a blockbuster, numerous people noticed that an entire galaxy of humans were all white. (Which was not entirely true; it was just that the main characters were all white.) Episode V introduced Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, the Token Minority Black. Samuel L. Jackson in the prequels may also be a example of this, as his character serves as little more than a background character until Revenge of the Sith (excluding his excellent use in the Clone Wars shorts). Casting Temuera Morrison, who is a Mori, as Jango Fett and by retroactive consequence, his clone Boba Fett and every single clonetrooper reduces all other characters in the series (black, white or green) to token minorities by sheer weight of numbers. The initial casting announcement for the first episode of the third trilogy included another black actor, but not Billy Dee Williams. Meaning, as of this writing there are now three black guys in the Galaxy Far, Far Away, but in accordance with this trope, only one is allowed to be alive at any one time. Since then, they've also added Lupita Nyong'o to the cast of Episode VII (but she voices an orange-skinned alien, so the actress's race is not visible). While the 2006 historical film Flyboys was already heavily criticized for its historical inaccuracies relating to its World War I setting, one of the more amusing ones came from the film's fictional Token Minority, Eugene Skinner, a black boxer who joined the squadron to 'pay back' his adopted homeland. Mainly because the end of the movie showed a picture of the real-life squadron which was composed of exactly zero minorities. A rare moment where a film actually seems proud to reveal when it didn't do its research. The Other Wiki's entry on the film points out that the film confuses the Lafayette Escadrille with the Lafayette Flying Corps with whom Eugene Bullard (the real person Skinner was based on) actually flew. Harvey Weinstein loved using this trope for his productions back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Starting with Scream 2, nearly all of his teen-aimed productions had at least one token black character (often played by a rapper) solely to bump up the box office. He seemed to stop this after Shall We Dance?, which had an Advertised Extra in the form of Ja Rule (who appeared in one concert scene and had no purpose to the plot). Mercutio is a black Drag Queen in the Baz Luhrmann film of Romeo & Juliet. Also a case of Black Dude Dies First. Rochelle in The Craft, the only black girl of the four member witches' Coven, not that it make her more sympathetic than the rest at the end though. Both versions of Stephen King's It, the Made-for-TV Movie It (1990) and the theatrical It (2017) have the character of Mike, the only African-American kid of the Losers' Club, who is also in the novel. Literature The Animorphs series was actually pretty groundbreaking in its handling of minorities. In the '90's, it was extremely unusual for a middle-grade novel to have a minority protagonist at all, let alone four of them. (Rachel and Jake were Jewish, Cassie was black, and Marco was hispanic). It also got away with discussing prejudice a few times, a biracial relationship (and it was even acknowledged a couple times), and a little racism portrayed when the ultimate message wasn't about the evils or racism (specifically, the society at the beginning of the third Megamorphs, and the racist guy Cassie meets when she travels through time). They even acknowledged the existence of gay people, which was almost never done. Oh, and there were two female protagonists, and they weren't treated any differently than the males in terms of their ability to kick ass, making the series one of the first middle-grade series to have a cross-gender appeal. All in all, it was one of the most inclusive series of its day. And in later books, K. A. Applegate proved even more that she was dedicated to diversity without stereotypes. One of those later books was the Remnants series, which had several black, Hispanic, and Asian characters, a character who had a messed up face because it was burned in a fire (2Face), and Noyze, who grew up deaf. They even tried to put a lesbian in this kids series from 2001, but sadly, it didn't quite work as planned. Invoked in a short story "Papanin's Mauser" by Michael Veller. It depicts a drift-ice research unit of four people. Three of them are Russians and Communists and the last one is a nonpartisan German. According to the Soviet laws three Communists is enough to constitute a Party cell, so every day they have to conduct a Party meeting, for members only. During these meetings the German has to leave the "meeting room", that is the tent where they all live and spend time tramping around it in the bone-chilling cold. Eventually he applies for membership in the Party to end this nightmare but is rejected on the following ground: as he is he symbolizes the international nature of the Soviet people and the unbreakable ties between partisans and nonpartisans. Jessi (black), Claudia (Asian), and Abby (Jewish) in The Baby-Sitters Club. Lheorvine is the only black man in Black Legion, and one of precious few in Warhammer 40,000. Before Matt Ward retconned their dark skin into a "mutation" the Salamanders space marines, and the people of their homeworld, Nocturne, were an entire planet of token blacks. Post-Ward, it's assumed that the denizens of Nocturne are white, but "turn black" when they become Salamanders. In How to Build a Skydeck, fish-out-of-water protagonist Stan realizes that all his co-workers avoid him for being a Token Minority. Specifically, being the only white guy on the construction crew. Lord Wulfston in The Savage Empire books by Jean Lorrah is the only black person we see in the first five books or so. On the other hand, nobody makes a big deal about it; he just has a hard time being anonymous. Harry Potter's school Hogwarts has a few, including the very Irish Seamus Finnegan (although there may be others who are less obvious), the Indian Patil twins, the Jewish Anthony Goldstein, the Chinese Cho Chang, and the black Dean Thomas, Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson, and Blaise Zabini. To Mrs. Rowling's credit, no ado is made of any