Blockchain in Energy Sector: IOTA to Offer Decentralization, Scalability, No Transaction Fees

  

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange: Blockchain is Most Innovative Technology For Digital Transactions

   

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

What is Bitcoin?

   CryptoCoins

Bitcoin is a virtual or digital currency also known as a cryptocurrency

created by the mysterious (and unknown) Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is like other currencies: it can be used to purchase items locally and electronically. However, bitcoin differs from conventional money in that it is decentralized and fully independent. No institution controls the Bitcoin Network and it is not tied to a country like the US Dollar. The entire network is maintained by individuals and organizations referred to as Bitcoin Miners. Bitcoin miners process and verify bitcoin transactions through a mathematical algorithm based on the cryptographic (hence the name cryptocurrency) hash algorithm SHA256.

Bitcoin is Decentralized

No central authority controls Bitcoin or its network of transactions. A community of Bitcoin miners make up the network, processing the transactions. If any changes are made to Bitcoin by a developer or developers using GitHub, a 51% majority of the miners hashing power must agree upon it. This insures that, in theory, no individual can steal your bitcoins or print (create) more.

How Can One Change Bitcoin and Bitcoin’s code?

Everyone can contribute to and edit the Bitcoin source code since the Bitcoin protocol is open source. The Bitcoin protocol is viewable for all making it easier to spot weaknesses and provide suggestions for improvement. However, if a developer edit the Bitcoin code, that edit has to be accepted by more than 51% or more of the Bitcoin miners that runs the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin can be seen as a democratic currency where the majority always decide what will happen next with the Bitcoin source code.

Bitcoin Wallet and Transactions

                                                                Is Bitcoin Anonymous?

Though each Bitcoin transaction is recorded in a public log called the block chain, names of buyers and sellers are never revealed — only their Bitcoin wallet addresses. Each wallet address is unique and can’t be linked to anyone unless the creator of that specific bitcoin address reveals himself.

1Lst6Ro8r5C7QrxAuoZg1LJAuQtP3W9uV2 is an example of a unique bitcoin address used for receiving and sending bitcoins. To send, receive and create Bitcoin addresses you must have a  Bitcoin wallet . A Bitcoin wallet is a software that’s essentially your bank account for bitcoins. Your wallet can hold as many bitcoins and Bitcoin addresses you’d like, and you can own as many wallets you want. While bitcoin can be anonymous, that doesn’t mean it is. If you purchase your bitcoins on a Bitcoin trading platform or exchange that has your information, the bitcoins you buy can be tied back to you.

Bitcoin is Transparent

Every Bitcoin transaction that has ever happened is stored in detail in the public ledger known as the block chain. By using the block chain, anyone can see how many bitcoins are stored on a particular address, and they can see the deposits and withdrawals to that address, but they will be unable to know who owns the address.

Bitcoin Transactions Can not be Reversed

When you send bitcoins to a Bitcoin address, you can not reverse the transaction. Unlike credit cards where transaction can be disputed or reversed, bitcoins are nonrefundable. Bitcoin can not be replaced either. If your wallet is stored on your hard drive and not in a  “cloud”, you could lose your bitcoins if you are hacked, get a virus or if your computer dies. These lost bitcoins can never be retrieved. That’s why it is so important to take regular backups and implement measures for Bitcoin wallet security. Furthermore, merchants cannot initiate charges on you as they can and do with credit cards. Each transaction must be initiated by the wallet holder, further underlining the advantages of the Bitcoin system.

   Bitcoin is Secure

Proponents of Bitcoin tout its formidable security, and with good reason. In theory, unless 51% of the system is controlled by one party, Bitcoin is virtually unhackable. For instance, in order for someone to change a transaction or double spend a Bitcoin, they would have to obtain majority control of the system and modify every miner in this majority. When there is a disagreement in the block chain, the system overrides the minority with the data agreed upon by the majority.

However, there have been concerns that different mining companies and mining pools should be able to reach 51% of the Bitcoin hashing power and perform a so called 51% attack on the Bitcoin network.

How are Bitcoins Created?

Bitcoins are created through a process known as mining. Mining is the term used by those who contribute to processing transactions. Miners process and secure the network using specialized hardware that “mine” for new bitcoins. As “payment” for their contribution, they are awarded new bitcoins. This is how new bitcoins are generated. New coins are created at a fixed and decreasing rate that is predictable. The number of coins created each year is halved over time until 21 million bitcoins are in circulation. At this point, bitcoin miners will be rewarded by transaction fees.

When a miner has successfully created a new hash, the block is sealed off and added to the block chain. 25 bitcoins are awarded to the miner who discovered the new hash. The number of bitcoins rewarded per block is cut in half every four years. Blocks are solved an approximate rate of 6 per hour.

Why use Bitcoins?

Bitcoins are attractive to a large number of people of an equally large number of reasons. Bitcoins can be anonymous, near instantaneous and offer a level of control over your money like no other traditional currency. There are no banks that can take away your money, and Bitcoins are deflationary in nature, while e.g. USD is inflationary where your money depreciate over time. Bitcoins are also speculative in nature drawing the attention of investors.

Merchants are drawn to Bitcoin because of the low fees. Merchants typically pay 2-3% fees from credit card processors, whereas many types of transactions are free with Bitcoin. Transactions are free if several conditions are met. Any transactions that don’t meet thee requirements are charged 0.1mBTC (0.0001 BTC) per 1,000 bytes. Typical transactions are 500 bytes but do not meet the priority requirement and thus are charged a 0.1mBTC fee regardless how many coins are transferred. You can view the live Bitcoin price here.

How to Obtain Bitcoins

There are several ways to obtain bitcoins. The most common way is to purchase them on a Bitcoin exchange. You can also purchase bitcoins on Ebay locally through e.g. LocalBitcoins.com. Bitcoins can also be obtained by becoming a part of the Bitcoin network and start mining for bitcoins. Before the days of ASIC miners, individuals could set up their computers to mine and earn bitcoins easily. Those days are long gone due to the difficulty to mine Bitcoin, the difficulty level of Bitcoin, has risen enormous making it harder and harder to earn bitcoins with the same equipment. Becoming a miner and seeing positive ROI would mean a substantial investment and is now left to the big companies and wealthy investors. For most individuals, purchasing your Bitcoin through a Bitcoin Exchange is the best option. You can also find ways to earn free bitcoins.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Blockchain Secures Your Data Like No Other Technology Ever Did

  

Blockchain Secures Your Data Like No Other Technology Ever Did

When it comes to most technologies, we know about the basic function that they perform. But, a sizeable portion of the users never express any interest in understanding the technology in depth. For example, when we talk about sending an email, we all know that the data we send is received by the recipient unless the transfer fails, which leaves us with the obvious option of clicking the “Retry” button. But how many of us know about the various protocols and the technicalities involved?

Similar is the case with Blockchain. We all know that the data is immutable, transparent and the entire system is very tough to hack. But how many of us know the reason why Blockchain is so secure? In today’s world, as the number of cyber attacks is constantly on the rise, security is paramount as most of our data is digitally stored. Now let’s try and understand some of the features that make Blockchain an extremely secure option of storing your data.

A completely trustless system that you can trust

The most noteworthy feature that makes Blockchain secure is that it is based on a completely trustless system. The permissions to read and write the data on the Blockchain are equally distributed among all the users connected to the network. No user is given any special privileges when it comes to making any decision. Before Blockchain, the sharing of information in real-time without the requirement of trust was not possible.

The advent of Blockchain successfully solved the ‘Byzantine General’s problem’, a name given to a problem concerning the major drawbacks of a distributed consensus system. In the Byzantine General’s problem, it is assumed that the General commanding multiple units (five, in our case) is about to launch an attack on a city. If all the General’s units launch an attack at the same time, they will win. If any unit defects or retreats, the attack fails.

The messenger sent by the General needs to deliver the message to the five units under his command. Now a traitorous Commander, third to receive the message, that we’d call ‘X’ might change the command sent by the General without the knowledge of the messenger. The two Commanders receiving the message after ‘X’ believe that the message is in the words of the General. But in fact, it is the edited message sent by ‘X’. This would lead to a failed attack due to poor co-ordination between the various units.

Blockchain successfully solved this problem by introducing a concept called the ‘Proof of Work’, which made it essential for each message sender to attach a history of all previous messages and ‘spend some time’ on the same, which is fixed at 10 minutes. The purpose of ‘spending some time’ is to ensure that the sender has put in some effort in writing the message and to make it easy to identify malicious or incorrect data.

Blockchain makes it easy to identify malicious or incorrect data

A very basic example in the case of the Byzantine General’s problem would be where each Commander is required to write the numbers 1-500 before confirming and sending the message to the next Commander. It would certainly take some time to write the numbers but the verification of the same would be quick and easy.

Now, since the time each Commander can spend on the message is fixed at ten minutes, ‘X’ would have to change his message and the messages the two Commanders who attested to the message before him because the ‘Proof of Work’ concept requires a history of all previous messages to be uploaded too. Now, to successfully change the message, ‘X’ would have to do twenty minutes of work plus his own ten minutes, amounting to a total of thirty minutes’ worth of work in the ten minutes allotted to him. This way, altering the attested data is practically impossible as even if ‘X’ does upload an incorrect message, the rest of the Commanders can ignore the incorrect message and follow the one attested by most Commanders.

The benefits of decentralization

The decentralized structure of Blockchain also adds to the security it offers. No single user or organization is given supreme control of the database. Having a decentralized design, it does not have a single point of failure. Even the loss of power or the total failure of a few devices connected to the Blockchain network won’t have any effect on the data stored in the entire Blockchain database or some parts of it are stored across all the devices connected to the Blockchain network.

Since Blockchain is decentralized, it cannot be controlled by the government. Government intervention usually results in some domains and websites being shut down as the government believes such websites are not working in accordance with the established rules and regulations. The most famous example in recent times being the search engine Torrentz.eu. At present, torrent sites are the closest thing to a decentralized system on this scale.

Ensuring privacy through Blockchain

Also, the data stored on the Blockchain is cryptographically secure and the public-private key cryptography used ensures that the data is received only by those it is intended for. The cryptographic techniques also help the users maintain privacy by allowing them to remain pseudo-anonymous while sending and receiving data across the network. Due to its decentralized architecture and the cryptographic coding used in its design, the Blockchain network is mathematically very tough to hack into as the cost of hacking such a system skyrockets where the data stored on each node is properly synchronized with the entire database.

Permanent data storage on a Blockchain

All the above features make Blockchain a practical option for a user who wishes to store his data digitally without the risk of losing it. The data stored on a Blockchain will always be there and it cannot be edited or tampered with in any manner. New or updated data can only be appended onto the Blockchain later. Realizing the plethora of advanced features of security offered by Blockchain, many companies have started investing heavily in the research and development of Blockchain-based applications. Blockchain is slowly being integrated into our daily lives as companies are exploring both fintech and non-fintech applications of this wonderful technology which might completely change the way we look at digital data storage.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Telecom Breakthrough:
Blockchain to Stop Big Brother
From Watching You

  

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Tips to Creating a Successful Content-Marketing Campaign

The phrase “content marketing” is all over the web these days.

Content has become a conglomeration of many things: webinars, blog posts, videos, social network shares and more. It sounds like a great idea. If done right, a well-executed digital campaign will yield considerable benefits for both established businesses and entrepreneurs. Such a strategy has the power to position a business as a topical authority and establish the owners and executives as experts.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Tips on Developing a Successful Inbound-Marketing Strategy

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

An entrepreneur’s responsibilities reach far and wide. 

You wear a number of hats on a day-to-day basis, none more important than marketing. To succeed, you must learn the strategies and practices that work best in 2014. A deep understanding of inbound marketing best practices is vital to the growth and success of your business. No matter how busy you are, you simply can't ignore the importance of marketing your brand effectively. Take a look at the eight most important things every entrepreneur needs to know about inbound marketing.

The traditional marketing playbook is broken. 

Almost everyone – 91 percent, to be precise — has unsubscribed from email lists. Two-out-of-three people (68 percent) who record TV content do so to skip advertisements (Motorola, December 2012) and, according to DoubleClick, the average click-through rate on display ads is only 0.2 percent. According to Brian Halligan, the CEO of Hubspot and author of the book Inbound Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online, the way modern consumers shop and make purchases has changed dramatically, and as such, businesses must adapt in order to survive.

In an interview, Halligan said, “The Internet has fundamentally changed how we live our lives, and as consumers, we now have more options than ever to tune out marketing that is annoying. Most entrepreneurs I know understand that based on their own experience, but when it comes to marketing their business, they default to the traditional marketing playbook because it's easy or because it's what everyone has always done for years. That's a huge mistake."

According to Halligan, you can no longer rent your way to consumer attention, you need to earn it. Instead of dreaming up new ways to interrupt your way into your prospects’ lives, invest in ways to engage them meaningfully with an inbound experience. “Dharmesh (Shah) and I wrote the inbound marketing book to give entrepreneurs actionable advice to attract, engage and delight their prospects, customers, and leads,” Halligan explained. "Inbound marketing focuses on the width of your brain, not the width of your wallet, and entrepreneurs have more remarkable ideas than anyone I know."

Your content must be remarkable enough to break through the clutter. 

Think about how many channels you have on your television, and how many websites and social media channels compete for your attention each day. The same is true for your customers. It’s not enough to just produce content. Your content must educate, inspire or entertain your audience. Don’t talk about your brand non-stop or try to sell people too early or often in your content. Instead, try to spark interesting dialogue and discussion with your content. Doing so will pay off with attention and engagement.

Think of your website as a hub, not a megaphone. 

Far too many businesses think about their websites as broadcast channels for addressing a large group of people. Your website functions best when its content and design are built with a human touch. Instead of writing copy to impress your competitors, create copy and experiences an individual customer will love. Don’t scream through a megaphone at your customers. Design the entire end-to-end experience with individual humans in mind. Conversation trumps a broadcast message every time. Design your web experience accordingly.

Inbound includes content and code. 

Many entrepreneurs mistake massive volumes of content for an inbound strategy, forgetting that shipping code is indispensable as well. Specifically, free tools are powerful in converting web traffic into highly engaged leads. For example, InsightSquared created Sales Funnel, a free tool that allows Salesforce users to quickly and efficiently diagnose their sales funnel. Leads that try Sales Funnel convert at a rate almost twenty times higher than leads that don’t. Free tools can transform your entire customer experience. Invest developer resources into your marketing efforts for the biggest impact possible.

Master the call to action.  

Think about how hard you work to get traffic to your site. Now think of what happens if a visitor comes to your site and doesn’t know where to go or what to do next once they visit. You’ve just wasted all of your hard efforts! Your call to action is a sign post showing your visitors where they should go next. If someone came to your blog first, you want to make it easy and seamless for them to subscribe to read similar articles. If a visitor comes from a co-marketing initiative with a partner, ensure the copy on the site is built specifically to appeal to someone who knows both your brands. Tailor the next step accordingly. It’s not enough to optimize your site for search. You have to optimize your site for action.

Get visual. 

The average attention span is just eight seconds, so even if you want to write a 10,000-word essay on your new product launch, chances are slim that your audience will get through it. Creating remarkable visual content is a great way to cut through content clutter and stand out from the pack. If you don’t have an army of designers at your disposal, use Canva or Visage to create simple and beautiful visuals, hire a young freelancer to pitch in or just put your iPhone to good use taking pictures of your space, your customers, your team and your product. When it comes to content, a photo (or video) really is worth 1,000 words.

Inbound delivers higher ROI for your business. 

In a 2013 survey, American inbound marketers spending more than $25,000 per year saved an average of 13 percent in overall cost per lead ($36 versus $41 with outbound). It’s far more expensive to continue pouring money into paid channels that don’t deliver returns than it is to invest in blogging and social media. Inbound marketing is good for your bottom line and your brand.

Hire wisely. 

If you’re hiring an in-house marketer or an agency to help with your marketing efforts, you need a skill set that matches your strategy. Invest in people who are digitally savvy, highly analytical, have significant reach on the web and have experience creating remarkable content.

Today’s marketing world requires companies to continually optimize. The team behind you must be well equipped, comfortable with the technology and have the tenacity to update your strategy and approach on a daily basis to meet your growth goals. Successful inbound marketing is a science that requires a specific expertise and plenty of experience. Even if marketing isn’t your cup of tea, it’s important that you know and understand the basics. If you keep these tips in mind, you can rest assured that your business is practicing the latest and greatest inbound marketing techniques, and maximizing its growth potential.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Ways to make your inbound marketing stand out

Experts in content creation and digital strategy discuss the best methods and channels to attract new customers.

“Another trick to improve SEO is to revive your old content,” says Tim Jernigan, marketing analyst, Badger Maps. “If your existing posts don’t receive traffic anymore, you can revamp them with infographics [or] images. You can even combine a few blogs to make a PDF guide [or white paper] and post [with a new title].”

Create a company blog and fill it with useful content

“The secret to a successful inbound marketing strategy is to consistently provide quality content that is interesting and helpful to current and prospective customers. At the heart of this strategy is the humble blog,” says Domenici.

“Company blogs drive inbound traffic to your website, and can also give your business credibility within your industry,” she says. “Customers favor companies that offer valuable knowledge rather than ones that are too self-promotional, so be sure to identify common customer pain points and provide easy-to-follow solutions. Extend the reach of your blog by sharing posts across your social networks to engage with customers where they are.”

Send fewer emails but with better content

“A big theme we’re seeing this year is sending less email better, which is something we’re really leaning into at HubSpot,” says Jon Dick, vice president of marketing, HubSpot. “As people’s inboxes become more and more crowded, many marketers have resorted to increasing their email volume to get the same number of opens. But this approach is backwards.”Sending fewer but more relevant emails “will actually get you more opens and better engagement in today’s environment,” he says. The key is to “focus on adding… value and investing in good content that shows, not tells, your message.” If you do this, “the few emails you do send will get good engagement.”

Include graphics and/or photos in messaging

“Humans are more receptive to visual content,” points out Domenici. So “incorporating visual elements [in your messaging] is a sure-fire way for your small business to increase the draw of your inbound marketing strategy. Readers will often become disengaged with ‘how-to’ blog posts that are text heavy, but adding graphics can help illustrate step-by-step instructions in a clearer way. Video tutorials are also a great way to easily provide a solution to a common problem and can easily be shared through different channels.”

Interact with consumers through podcasts and videos

“Nothing showcases the personality of a brand better than utilizing the latest digital media channels,” says Mark Nardone, executive vice president, PAN Communications. “Brainstorm podcast topics that will open up discussions around industry trends and best practices. This will garner interest from consumers and influencers and position your brand as a thought leader and resource for your target audience.” And don’t leave out video.

“With a 5x higher recall than the written word, video is the most engaging media format and most effective in assisting conversions,” says Kent Lewis, founder & president, Anvil Media. “Video production costs have decreased dramatically. And live streaming (on platforms like Facebook), 360-degree video, augmented and virtual reality… and drones [have] all make video capture and viewing more dramatic and immersive. If your brand isn't doubling down on video as a key element for inbound marketing, you will miss the bus.” 

Tap social media influencers

“It’s imperative that brands use social media to develop an influencer repertoire to share news… and establish a brand image,” says Nardone. Social media “influencers play a crucial part in inbound marketing practices by acting as brand So after you have created your buyer personas, find out which social media platforms they are using and who are the influencers in your category or industry. Follow and interact with them to establish a connection. Then reach out to them about promoting your brand.

Try Facebook Lead Ads

“If you aren't using Facebook Lead Ads, you're missing out in a big way,” says Michael Mignogna, CEO, Minyona. “Prior to Facebook Lead Ads, when advertising on Facebook, you had to create an ad that pointed to a landing page on a website outside of Facebook and then hope the user felt like taking the desired action.

“With Lead Ads, an advertiser can offer a free download of an ebook, for example, and because it all happens inside of Facebook, the information the advertiser wants to capture is auto populated so the user can simply click ‘download,’” he explains. “We use this for several clients, and… we are able to bring them dozens of new inbound leads per week that automatically get opted into an email nurturing campaign.”

Share content on LinkedIn Pulse

Post blogs and articles you’ve written on LinkedIn Pulse. “It won't hurt SEO in terms of duplicate content, and it will help you reach many more people with minimal additional effort,” says Maddy Osman, founder & SEO content strategist, The Blogsmith. “LinkedIn has some of the best reach on any social platform, and as more people engage with your LinkedIn Pulse post, it will reach their networks as well. It's a great way to use your existing network to reach more people and funnel them to your website.”

Don’t offer up all your content for free

“The majority of your content should be freely available on your company blog, but some of it should be only available for download if people enter their contact details into a lead generation form,” says Brett Langlois, SEO & content team lead, Pure SEO. “This will allow you to capture their details and enter them into your sales funnel.”

Invest in marketing automation

“The most successful inbound marketers have the right tools to amplify their efforts,” says Tommy Burns, marketing specialist, Matrix Marketing Group. “There's only so much you can do alone, and marketing automation can free up valuable time to be directed where it's needed most. Increased inbound results offset any cost.”

Be patient and persistent

“Inbound marketing is a long game,” says Julie Graff, social content liaison, Pole Position Marketing. “While you can get some quick wins (particularly with pay-per-click advertising and some SEO tactics), it's going to take some time to see real growth. Don't pull the plug because you don't see results right away. Your goal should be long-term, sustainable growth. This takes patience, time and an ongoing strategy. When you do see results, you're not done. You need to keep going. Digital growth results stop when you stop investing time in them.”

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member