Amazon posted its bi-annual report 

Thursday detailing the number of government data demands it receives. The numbers themselves are unremarkable, neither spiking nor falling in the second-half of last year compared to the first-half. The number of subpoenas, search warrants and other court orders totaled 1,736 for the duration, down slightly on the previous report. Amazon still doesn’t break out demands for Echo data, but does with its Amazon Web Services content — a total of 175 requests down from 253 requests.

But noticeably absent compared to earlier reports was how many requests the company received to remove data from its service. In its first-half report, the retail and cloud giant said in among the other demands it gets that it may receive court orders that might demand Amazon “remove user content or accounts.” Amazon used to report the requests “separately” in its report. Now it’s gone. Yet where freedom of speech and expression is more important than ever, it’s just not there any more — not even a zero. We reached out to Amazon to ask why it took out removal requests, but not a peep back on why.

Amazon has long had a love-hate relationship with transparency reports. Known for its notorious secrecy — once telling a reporter, “off the record, no comment” — the company doesn’t like to talk when it doesn’t have to. In the wake of the Edward Snowden disclosures, most companies that weren’t disclosing their government data demands quickly started. Even though Amazon wasn’t directly affected by the surveillance scandal, it held out — because it could — but later buckled, becoming the last of the major tech giants to come out with a transparency report.

Even then, the effort Amazon put in was lackluster.

Unlike most other transparency reports, Amazon’s is limited to just two pages — most of which are dedicated to explaining what it does in response to each kind of demand, from subpoenas to search warrants and court orders. No graphics, no international breakdown and no announcement. It’s almost as if Amazon doesn’t want anyone to notice. That hasn’t changed in years. Where most other companies have expanded their reports — Apple records account deletions, so does Facebook, and Microsoft, Twitter, Google and a bunch more — Amazon’s report has stayed the same. And for no good reason except that Amazon just can. Now it’s getting even slimmer.

Article Produced By
Zack Whittaker

Security editor at TechCrunch.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/31/amazon-government-data-demands/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

How to Create Client Testimonials to Promote Your Business

   

I often tell my clients that people buy from people
they like and trust and they are very often inspired to buy by people they identify with.

In B2B circles, it stands to reason that a businessperson is more likely to listen to a recommendation from a similarly placed businessperson about a product or service than the pitch of a sales professional?—?no matter how well positioned.

Solve Problems

When we buy products or services, we do so in the hope that they will solve a particular problem. Only someone who has walked a mile in your shoes is ever really likely to understand the difficulties you face and how a particular product or service can solve them.

Note: There’s no difference in B2C marketing. The problems might be a little different?—?but at the end of the day, people look to people they admire or aspire to be like when making their buying decisions. This goes some way to explaining the importance of today’s social media influencers and why so many brands desperately seek their approval.

Testimonials and Case Studies

With this in mind, testimonials and case studies featuring happy customers explaining how your business solved a particular problem for them, should be front and center of your email, content, social media strategy. However, many businesses struggle to create and publish compelling testimonials on a regular basis. This could be for many reasons, however, in my experience the number one reason is due to the following two reasons:

1. They don’t ask for them and if you don’t ask you don’t get.
2. They do ask for them but expect their clients to produce them for them. While many of your clients would love to help you, they are busy people and just don’t have the time to doing your job for you.

It’s Your Job

Note: As a marketer, it is your job to write any copy that your business wishes to utilize as part of a marketing campaign. I’m constantly amazed at how many “marketers,” in what should be a creative industry, tell me they haven’t got the skills or basic desire to do this. So how do I go about creating testimonials and case studies? Here’s a simple 10 step process.

The 10 Step Process to Writing and Publishing Awesome Testimonials and Case Studies

1. Identify Clients:
   I work with account managers and salespeople to identify the hottest prospects for a testimonial or case study. They tell me how the client has used a particular product or service and how it has delivered them success.
2. Email Introductions:
   The account manager or salesperson than contacts them with an email telling them that I would love to speak with them about their success for a possible case study.
3. Email Questions:
   I then send an email introducing myself and invite them to join a call at a specific time (asking for alternative times if the initial time isn’t suitable). I explain why I want to speak to them (to write about their experience) and send them over a few sample questions.
4. Meeting Software:
   I then send them a link for them to join an online meeting?—?I use a software service called Zoom.us. This allows me to record the conversation, so I don’t have to rely on hastily scribbled notes.
5. Get Them Talking:
   I prefer to just chat with the client rather than interrogate them. This sets them at ease and gets them talking about their business. Don’t worry if the conversation goes a little off-piste occasionally?—?sometimes this will reveal some real gold. Just be sure you have a bank of questions at hand to get you back on track.#
6. Transcribe Your Notes:
   After you have completed the call, listen back to your recording and transcribe your notes into text format. I prefer to do this myself?—?as it enables me to listen back on the conversation?—?but if time is short, you could find a freelancer on a service like Fiverr to do it for you quite cheaply.
7. Write the First Draft:
   Once you have the transcript, the copy will almost write itself. Don’t worry about moving things around and tidying up quotes. Your clients will expect you to do this (people want to look and sound knowledgeable and eloquent) and you should have set expectations during the call.
8. Send for Approval:
   Email the draft text to the client and ask if they would like you to make any changes. In my experience, edits rarely exceed one or two sentences.
9. Design, Proof, Publish and Promote:
   It really couldn’t be any simpler. The whole process shouldn’t take more than a few days to complete (on average, it takes me around 8 hours) and the end results can be used across multiple marketing channels?—?think email, your corporate blog, social media, any printed materials, etc. etc.
10. Bonus Points:
    If the audio recording of your meeting with your client is suitable, why not edit it into a podcast? You may even be able to use the video if you connected via webcams.

Article Produced By

John W Hayes

Marketing Strategist, Author of #BecomingTHEExpert, Content Marketing Trainer, and Cyclist.

https://medium.com/@john_w_hayes/how-to-create-client-testimonials-to-promote-your-business-169f7edac3a9

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

YouGov Crypto Survey shows 50% of millennials interested in Cryptocurrency

The recently published YouGov survey found

under 50% of millennials were interested in using cryptocurrencies as a primary form of payment as opposed to using the U.S. dollar.  Bitcoin adoption has been growing year on year and here is commentary from a number of spokespeople on the topic of mainstream awareness and acceptance of the crypto and blockchain industry.

The commentary comes from those who have already launched blockchain education initiatives or are directly involved in the academic space, including Lisk; Orvium; the Social Alpha Foundation; Brave New Coin and the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX).

Nick Cowan, CEO of the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX), which aims to position itself as a world-leading institutional-grade token sale platform and digital asset exchange that is a subsidiary of the Gibraltar Stock Exchange, a European Union (EU) regulated stock exchange says:

Overall, the results from the YouGov poll provide a positive indicator for the future of cryptocurrency. The fact that 48% of millennials would be interested in using a digital currency is a sign of things to come. This is important because, ultimately, the future of the global economy lies with the millennials, not the baby-boomers.

The fact that over three-quarters of Americans would be interested in using cryptocurrency as a primary means of exchange is a positive for the industry. It speaks to the future prospect of cryptocurrency going mainstream. What is required is private sector actors offering real-world services to unlock institutional investment opportunities so that the market can become truly viable.”

Manuel Martin, Co-founder and CEO of Orvium, an open source platform for managing scholarly publications’ lifecycles, says:

This survey clearly indicates cryptocurrencies are the future! Mass adoption of cryptocurrency is the next logical step for modern societies, they exemplify the next step for the payment layer of the internet. As a peer-to-peer way of transferring value, the functionality of cryptocurrency is attractive to a person who grew up in a digital age with a tablet to hand at all times, this goes some way to explaining why 48% of millennials would be interested in using it.

A striking advantage of cryptocurrencies is that they negate the need for the involvement of third-party actors or central authorities in the transaction process. This reduces barriers to entry, transaction times, security concerns and even privacy issues – all factors which will invariably lead to increasingly widespread adoption.

The survey found that  79% of Americans are familiar with the cryptocurrency concept, this is a striking finding. However, upon delving deeper this makes sense as the cryptocurrency space is a massive marketplace that evolves at a very fast pace and is disrupting every single industry we know. It is important to note that cryptocurrencies represent more than meets the eye, they are flourishing ecosystems which have matured massively since Bitcoin’s inception in early 2009.”

Thomas Schouten, Head of Marketing at Lisk, the blockchain applications platform which allows users to code and build in JavaScript, says:

The stand out feature of this YouGov survey is the heightened awareness and openness to cryptocurrencies by millennials – acceptance by this core demographic is key to ensuring global adoption in the future. The survey shows us that the global leaders of tomorrow are aware and open to cryptocurrency but, saying that, there may still be some way to go in improving understanding of the real future utility of the underlying technology.

Generally, most people seem unaware of the massive potential in this space and don’t realise that Bitcoin and Ethereum are only the tip of the iceberg. It is safe to assume that these cryptocurrencies are noted in the survey more for their price spikes than their assumed future potential. Alongside investment in research and development, the blockchain industry needs to continue investing in education, as this will help move the discussion on from profitability, to the more important talking points around the potential of the technology.”

Rafael Delfin, Head of Research at Brave New Coin, a leading data and research company focused on the Blockchain and Cryptographic Assets industry, says:

YouGov’s survey findings are a reflection of a number of trends among 20-40 year old adults. Mainly of the high barriers to entry to both capital markets that produce returns and the public institutions controlling their legal tender. Together with the lack of trust in traditional financial institutions, the importance of an apolitical, borderless, and censorship resistance form of cash is becoming increasingly clear to a mostly global generation. This applies not only to urban dwellers but also to rural-based millennials who traditionally have lacked access to competitive banking services.

The main takeaway of this survey is that as baby boomers captured the gains of the stock market during the past 30+ years and now will start to cash out for retirement, young adults are turning to a new paradigm, that both resonates with their values and  has a significant upside potential, for performance gains.”

Nydia Zhang, Co-founder and Chairman of Social Alpha Foundation, a not-for-profit grant making platform supporting blockchain technology for social good, says:

The survey findings from YouGov are reflective of current trends among millennials within the blockchain and crypto space. The report touches on the issue of mainstream awareness, with 79% of Americans saying they are familiar with at least one kind of cryptocurrency. Broader reputational issues in the industry are also raised in the survey, with a quarter of respondents stating that they think cryptocurrencies are used more for illegal purchases rather than legal ones. This statistic is not surprising, and while cryptocurrencies continue to defy the odds, blockchain adoption remains a challenge. For this to change in the future, we must demonstrate the functions of the technology to the public through major application or adoption.

Almost half (48%) of millennials say they would be interested in using cryptocurrency primarily. This is interesting and reinforces how the crypto community and culture has a bigger impact on the younger generation. Despite this, there is still a misperception surrounding cryptocurrencies and bitcoin, and this is evident by the 34% of people who think crypto will not become widely accepted in the near future.”

 What is Bitcoin

This e-book on Amazon explains what Bitcoin is, it explains that Bitcoin (BTC) is a virtual currency, digital, not physical, and independent of banks. Useful links and resources for the newbie and advanced Bitcoiner or cryptocurrency enthusiast.

Article Produced By
Admin

https://bit-media.org/cryptocurrency/yougov-crypto-survey-shows-50-of-millennials-interested-in-cryptocurrency/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

More Than 15% of Crypto Projects Have Serious Red Flags: Wall Street Journal

   

According to new research from the Wall Street Journal,

more than 15% of crypto projects raising funds through initial coin offerings (ICOs) have serious red flags that should give investors pause. The investigation, which analyzed the whitepapers of 3,300 cryptocurrency offerings and ICOs launched in 2017 and 2018, found that 513 of them likely committed plagiarism, misrepresented the identities of project founders, or promised unrealistic returns.

Significant Number of Crypto Projects are Highly Questionable

The Wall Street Journal examined the white papers of all 3,300 projects which it found listed on ICOBench.com, Tokendata.io, and ICORating.com. To identify plagiarism, the reporters compared sentences in all the reports to find duplication, with reporters identifying over 10,000 sentences that appeared more than once. The papers were also searched to identify offerings where no team members were provided, and the publication reverse image searched photos to identify fake team listings. Lacking or fraudulent team, founder, or sponsor details have long been a red flag for illicit crypto projects and should be one of the first details an investor scrutinizes for accuracy.

To find “improbable” promises of returns the whitepapers were keyword searched for critical marketing terms like “high return” and then analyzed manually before reporters decided they were an unrealistic “can’t miss” opportunity. Of the 513, over 30 are already under scrutiny by regulators, and over half of the project websites are unavailable. Each of the over 250 unavailable websites was pinged electronically and also checked manually. Reporters reached out to all 513 flagged offerings for comment on the findings. Very few could be reached or chose to respond.

Unsurprising Results?

Tron (TRX), the 10th-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, received a red flag for possibly plagiarizing portions of its whitepaper, as CCN previously reported. | Source: Wall Street Journal The Wall Street Journal results are hardly surprising given other recent reports on the ICO market and the intense regulatory scrutiny, and increasing measures, against offerings. It’s true that many ICOs have failed, many companies took advantage of a new funding model to launch less than credible projects and, many other projects have been judged scams.

Forrester Research recently found that most ICOs have struggled to produce viable projects or adequately prepare for a cryptocurrency bear market. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been conducting an ever-increasing program of clampdowns on ICOs. In May, US and Canadian regulators launched “Operation Crypto Sweep” after concluding that fraud was widespread.

More recently the SEC has called for international support in continuing its enforcement as many ICO sponsors are located outside of the US but offer investment opportunities within the country. The global nature of cryptocurrencies is causing a similar problem in other regions. For the SEC, other recent measures including hitting celebrities who promoted ICO scams with fines and other enforcement actions.

Change Ahead for 2019?

That said, there are many very real projects to have been funded through an ICO mechanism, take the SIRIN Labs Finney and Brave Browser — both of which have produced working products — as examples. On the flip side, fraudsters take advantage of all trendy investment classes, not just cryptocurrency.

SEC chairman Jay Clayton has received criticism in recent weeks that his harsh approach is restricting innovation. There is hope that balance can be found in 2019, that credible projects will continue to innovate, and that the growing scrutiny on fraudulent offerings will begin to deter them. With increased attention from regulators, crypto startups are already moving away from ICOs, seeking funding instead via more traditional routes of private and venture capital funding. Others are looking to a new model, the security token offering (STO), seeking to bring themselves into compliance rather than eschew it.

Article Produced By
CCN-ICO News

https://www.ccn.com/more-than-15-of-crypto-projects-have-serious-red-flags-wsj/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

A deep dive into the factors that matter and factors that don’t for a startup to succeed

While running a startup,

a question that constantly hovers around the entire founding team is what will make the company successful. While one can sit, think and speculate all sorts of reasons like motivation, perseverance, emotional intelligence, intellectual property and what not. The challenge is to find the one that works for the company. Data talks, so here based on an analysis published last year by a venture capital firm First Round Capital, we have listed some of the factors that weigh out most of the speculated ones.

Believe it or not, the importance of having a female co-founder is far more than you might have imagined. The research suggests that companies with at least one female co founder performed 63% better than those having an all male co founding team. Re-emphasizing the importance of female entrepreneurship again, its high time startups bring some gender diversity to the teams.

A young founding team has its own perks. While you might get shooed away by a lot of investors on the basis of your inexperience and the so called immaturity which the investors swear upon, gets filled with age, the research suggests otherwise. Founding teams with an average age of under 25 performed nearly 30% above average. Although the average age of a founder raising capital was 31.5. This suggests that a founding team should have age diversity as well. This balances your chances of getting funded and succeed as a company.

In the startup world, we frequently talk about outliers like Facebook, Apple and Uber who made it big, defying all odds. One thing common in all of them is not only that the founders are college dropouts, it is also the kind of colleges they once went to. The research supports this fact as well. Teams with at least one founder who went to a top school (Ivy League, Stanford, MIT and Caltech) tend to perform the best by a whopping margin of 220%. So even if you decide to drop out and start your own thing, pay attention to the place you are dropping out from.

Having a former employee of a top notch company like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft or Twitter (the ones included in the research) as a cofounder increases the success rate by as much as 160%. Interestingly founders with past experiences at any of these companies also landed pre money valuations nearly 50% lager than their peers. The kind of foundational skills these jobs provide clearly makes a difference.

Investors pay more for repeat founders. The pre money valuations of the repeat founders tends to be higher than the first timers. This is because of the fact that repeat founders are priced higher in the market. So having a cofounder with a past startup experience gives you the scope for better valuations.

Being a solo founder is the worst thing you can do to your startup. Teams with more than one founder outperformed solo founders by a humongous 163%. Also solo founders led Startups’ seed valuations were 25% lesser than teams with more than one founder. The data suggests the optimal number of cofounders to be two.

Article Produced By

https://chandigarhangelsnetwork.com/startup-success-decoded/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

     
The Verge reported that ConsenSys

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Markethive Prepares to launch an Entrepreneurial Universal Income Market Network

SHELL, Wyo. – July 22, 2018 – PRLog — It is now clearly evident, in today's economic culture, long term employment is a thing of the past.  Bureau of Labor Statistics reports in 2016 many workers now work for 4 years or less. Reid Hoffman founder of LinkedIn is quoted saying, "All human beings are entrepreneurs."Universal Income has become the new focus of the elites, like Elon Musk told the crowd at the World Government Summit in Dubai, "I think we'll end up doing universal basic income" and "Universal Income's going to be necessary."

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Investment Firm Predicts Cryptocurrency to Grow Up in 2019

Technology advisory and investment firm GP Bullhound has published

its “Technology Predictions 2019,” in what might be music to the ears of disgruntled investors right now, it says we have “yet to see the best” of cryptocurrencies. Should another prediction be trusted? GP Bullhound says only one of its 2018 predictions, the decline of email in the workplace, was incorrect. Its prediction of a “boom and bust” of ICOs in 2018, sadly, seems to have rung true. ICOs are indeed at crisis point.

Institutional Money Will Flow

GP Bullhound is bullish for 2019 believing that long-awaited institutional money will flow into cryptocurrency led by blockchain’s “full speed” activity. “Given the pace of innovation,” the firm said in the report, “There is a thin line between being first and being last. Since many market participants on the financial and strategic side are aware they largely missed benefiting from the digital revolution, we expect they’ll ensure they do not miss out on the blockchain and cryptocurrency revolution.” Institutional investors will first look to funds and equity investment into blockchain as well as cryptocurrency-based financial instruments and derivatives. This will not all be financially motivated, it says,

but:

“Backed by increasing demand we see on the corporate and family office side and their desire to build positions.”

The regulation of bitcoin and ether as “non-securities,” bitcoin considered a “replacement” for fiat currency, and Ethereum’s ether seen as a commodity offers security to the two coins. This will allow capital to flow into the sector both directly and increasingly through derivatives.

STOs Will be a New Focus

The “massive wave” of compliant security token offerings (STOs) ready for market will become a new activity focus for the sector.  And, GP Bullhound believes, “promising” cryptocurrency custody services will comfort professional investors. At the

beginning of the recovery:

“Offerings structured as tokenized financial products are expected to initially absorb substantial volumes and allow avoidance of direct handling of cryptocurrencies.”

Liquidity is improving in the sector as large banks enter, regulated exchanges emerge, and stablecoins provide a “haven” for investors. The hype in 2019, say the advisors, will be more technology and

product focused and that:

“Overall, the correction is ongoing and healthy for the sector to allow the technology to catch up.”

Dubbed the “crypto queen” of Switzerland’s crypto-valley Zug, Smart Valor CEO, Olga Feldmeier,

adds her view to the report:

“The crypto market is still in its early stage and so high volatility is to be expected. Over the mid-to-long term, cryptocurrency is a new alternative class of digital financial products that offers many benefits.”

Today, the market correction still appears to be in play, bitcoin could drop below $3,000 yet, but despite the decline, a recent report from the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance says 54 million new cryptocurrency users joined the cryptocurrency sector in 2018.

Article Produced By
CCN
Bitcoin & Blockchain Investments

https://www.ccn.com/investment-firm-predicts-cryptocurrency-to-grow-up-in-2019/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden