Business

As reported by this outlet earlier today, the value of Ripple’s XRP has performed so poorly over the past few years that it on March 13th’s flash rash hit “almost three-year lows,” as pointed out by Brave New Coin’s Josh Olszewicz.

just now looking at the $XRP chart

didnt realize it hit almost 3 yr lows

damn pic.twitter.com/aHZVRTn05m

— Josh Olszewicz (@CarpeNoctom) March 22, 2020

In fact, with the cryptocurrency trading at $0.15 as of the time of this article’s writing, it is more than 90% below its all-time high of $3.30, established at the peak of 2017’s and 2018’s crypto-mania. Even since the year started, XRP has fallen by 20%, underperforming Bitcoin’s relatively mild -14% performance.

Despite this underperformance, a top analyst, who has been accurate in calling much of BTC’s short-term moves over the past few weeks, is expecting a retracement back to the yearly lows at $0.12. Here’s why.

Related Reading: Bitcoin Bulls Roar as U.S. Politician Proposes ‘Two $1 Trillion Coins’ Idea

Facebook’s recently unveiled Libra cryptocurrency project threatens the stability of financial systems, according to a South Korean financial regulator.

In a new Korean-language trends update published July 5 and reported by CoinDesk Korea, the nation’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) looks at what might occur “If 2.4 billion Facebook users worldwide transfer one tenth of their bank deposits to Libra.”

Should that scenario come about, banks’ solvency would diminish, as would their loan reserves, representing a threat to emerging markets from the relocation of the capital out of those countries.

The FSC also raised concerns that bank runs could occur during financial or foreign exchange crises, as people move their national fiat currency to Libra. The simplification of money exchange and remittances through Libra is also expected to limit central banks’ ability to control international capital movements. The effectiveness of monetary policy would also be limited if Libra becomes widely exchanged for central bank currency.

The agency further expressed concern that Libra could be widely used for money laundering without proper bank-like controls. It added that “a large financial institution, such as Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan,” had refused to participate in Libra.

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Building a business from the ground up is hard work, but once things are running on the right track it can be immensely satisfying. If you have had some success in getting your business off of the ground, congratulations! However, it takes hard work to keep things going well, and it is always important to ensure that new customers and new interests are heading your way on a regular basis.

This is where a lead generation strategy comes in. Having a good and consistent lead generation strategy will help you to clarify your approach towards how you run your business and provide a host of other benefits. If you want to stay competitive and ensure that your business remains relevant to the ever-growing numbers of customers, then you need to re-evaluate the importance of your lead generation strategy.

To this end, let’s look at why a consistent lead generation strategy is so important for your business.

What Is A Lead Generation Strategy?

First, we need to be precise about definitions. Lead generation strategy refers to the way or ways that you bring new interest to your business. The strategy aspect of this term is especially important because, whether you are acutely aware of it or not, your business is in competition with a number of other businesses. As a business owner, you need to decide how you will best be able to win over the limited number of potential customers and get them to engage with your business, rather than any of the others.

If you are planning to start a new career this year, or just improve your value in the jobs market, the best thing that you can do is acquire some blockchain skills. Companies around the world are looking for people with capabilities in this field and it appears that demand far outpaces the supply.

Also Read: NASA to Launch Bitcoin to the Moon? US Space Agency Seeks Big Data Scientist With Crypto Experience

Companies Need Much More Blockchain Talent

New research based on data from the employment-oriented networking platform Linkedin shows that blockchain tops the list of most in-demand hard skills for 2020. The ranking of the most needed skills was made by looking at those that are in high demand relative to their supply. Demand was measured by identifying the skills listed on the career profiles of people who are getting hired at the highest rates. It divided the skills into two groups. Hard skills include specialized knowledge and technical abilities to handle a specific task, while soft skills are more about behavior and thinking, personal traits and cognitive skills.

How do you know what to look for in a social media management firm? Here’s what you should ask any agency you consider hiring to manage your social channels.

Nearly a third of the world uses social media regularly, and 92 percent of marketers claim it’s important to their business.

However, many organizations are too busy to focus on bringing social media marketing into the fold; instead they out their social media management to outside firms.

It’s important to make an informed decision before hiring a social media agency or consultant.

These questions will give you a strong understanding of exactly what they’ll provide, what your involvement would be and how the two of you would work together.

1. Who will be managing my social media account(s)?

When you talk to an agency or firm about managing your business’ social media marketing, make sure you ask who will manage your account(s). Will they have a dedicated team member focused on your company or will they have a few people working on it? Who do you contact if you have questions or new information about your business?

[FREE GUIDE: 6 steps to crafting an internal social media plan]

2. Do you develop a social media strategy? How do you do this?

It’s really important to have a social media strategy in place before you begin your campaign. This provides a roadmap for which platforms you’ll focus on, how often you’ll update those pages, when updates will go live and what type of content you’ll be sharing.

If you’re talking to a social media expert that doesn’t create a strategy or can’t provide a brief overview of how they create one, move onto another potential partner.

Starting a clothing line is a popular startup idea because of its great branding opportunities and relatively low capital requirements. No wonder why we see a lot of clothing startups come and go in the industry. Some fail to leave a mark and eventually go bankrupt while there are many others that become successful and are thriving up to this day. Much like any other business, there is nothing sure with having a clothing line as a business venture. There will always be tough challenges ahead and it is up to the business owner to overcome these.


Most of the time, the biggest challenge for startup clothing lines is finding a start up clothing manufacturer which works perfectly for them. Someone who is willing to provide maximum services despite of the business owners’ initial minimal orders. Most clothing manufacturers prefer working with established brands and companies because of the financial security they get from them. However, the emergence of small businesses through e-commerce paved the way for manufacturers to consider small up to mid-sized businesses as clients.

In this article, we will teach you how to find clothing manufacturers in a different perspective. We already know we can find them in events such as trade and industry fairs or look them up in supplier directories online, but this time we will provide extensive tips on the other aspects of finding a clothing manufacturer.

It’s hard to get a blog started, and sometimes, even harder to organize all the content you want and need. If you use a blog hosting site like WordPress or a CMS like HubSpot, you’ll likely notice that you have options like plugins and widgets to enhance your blog.

There’s so many different kinds of tools, and they’re all used to make your blog more personalized. Think of widgets as the different spices to add special elements on your webpages. Plugins, on the other hand, are the vessel for which you obtain the widgets.

We’ve compiled a list of widgets and plugins that are essential to make a great blog excellent. They’re essentials that contribute to a good user experience for your readers, bring you new ones, and make your brand more cohesive across all fronts.

Think of these lists as a jumping off point. This is not a list of all of the plugins and widgets available, but they give you an expansive look into how many kinds there are and what they can do for you.

Blogger Widgets

1. Instagram Feed

With an Instagram feed, you can import pictures from your account directly to your blog. We have a plugin suggestion for this to make the process more streamlined.

This is an especially great idea if you want your brand to be synced across all of your webpages and socials. It’s also a good thing to look into if your brand is based on visuals.

2. Email Subscribe Form

Converting casual visitors into email subscribers builds readership and generates a community of content enthusiasts. Additionally, they’ll likely share your content with other people in their networks through email and social media, exposing your blog to brand new audiences.

There’s one defining characteristic way about the way I plan: I may not win, but I never lose. (You may have picked up this sentiment from some of my discussions of strategy.) Hence I will focus my efforts disproportionally towards avoiding bad outcomes rather than seeking good outcomes. This leads to a modest but tranquil life; perhaps suitable for a stoic.

It also annoys the optimists.

As you may have noted, I have a background in peak oil. Peak oil is currently at a stage where climate change will be in ten years. Nobody denies it anymore. When I first got interested in it, back in 2001/02, this was far from the case. The USGS and the IEA were very optimistic (they have since brought their predictions in line with more realistic numbers based on reality rather than on predicted economic demand(*) ) and peak oilers were somewhat of a fringe group. Officialdom believed in the magic of technology. It was considered a crazy idea that oil would ever exceed $100. (It later did.) We had very reasonable and rational arguments that it would—and it did. But we were unable to convince anyone else about it. We could only prepare for it on our own.

(*) The theory being that if you and I are in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean and we’re running out of water, then if I write you a big enough check, you will mange to procure/invent a glass of water for me.

What to do? I decided to “leave” the field and stop preaching to the choir—I have learned what I could and taught what I could. (Since then the choir has gotten much much bigger. Back then there were only a small handful of books about peak oil—I’m a coauthor of one of them. Now there are dozens.

Fidelity Investments is expanding its crypto services to European clients after seeing increasing potential in this market. The expansion builds upon the company’s U.S. crypto business. “We’ve seen significant interest and engagement by the institutional community, which show no signs of slowing,” the company revealed.

Also read: Regulatory Roundup – Crypto ‘Inevitable’ in India, China Rankings, NY Streamlines Policy

Entering European Crypto Market

Fidelity Investments announced on Tuesday the establishment of its new entity to serve European clients investing in crypto assets. Fidelity Digital Assets Ltd. will offer digital asset custody and trade execution services to investors such as hedge funds, family offices, and market intermediaries. The custody service consists of a cold storage vault and “multi-level physical, operational and cyber controls,” the announcement details, adding that the trade execution service will provide clients access to multiple s of liquidity.

Tom Jessop, head of Corporate Business Development for Fidelity Investments and president of the U.S. digital asset subsidiary, explained that the group is “encouraged by continued corporate and venture investment in market infrastructure companies as well as the entry of traditional exchanges into the digital assets ecosystem,” elaborating:

These and other market indicators, alongside interest expressed from U.K. and European client prospects, indicate a market with increasing potential which gives us the confidence to expand the digital assets business geographically.

Fundamentally, Ethereum has had a solid year with growth on many fronts. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for price which has now returned to crypto winter levels. All cryptocurrencies, with the possible exception of one or two, are bearish at the moment but Ethereum is likely to bounce back stronger next year.

Ethereum Fundamentals Still Solid

The Ethereum ecosystem continues to expand and 2019 has been a solid year despite price performance. A recent ConsenSys article has broken down ETH by numbers to reveal some impressive figures for the world’s second largest digital asset.

In terms of network Ethereum has seen over 4 million new active addresses and over 20 million total accounts created this year. There are currently over 8,500 live Ethereum nodes and over 4.7 million ETH has been issued as block rewards.

Over 520 new decentralized applications were created on the network which has over 2,700 in total according to the statistics. Gods Unchained has been one of the most popular dApps on Ethereum, it has created over 6.7 million items.

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) continues to grow with over 167,000 .eth names registered. Similar to how a regular domain name works, a .eth name replaces the need to use long convoluted wallet addresses on the network and streamlines the entire process. They can be purchased for as little as $5 though some fetch a lot more.