Implement Crypto Technology Tracking

Corporate success with new technologies starts with tracking new developments. You need to know what’s happening! New technologies like Crypto pass-through several levels of adoption. We have created the Flashstarts Levels of Technology Adoption model to track the progression of new technologies through a business.

Basically, corporate adoption of new technologies goes from unengaged to tracking to educational and on to experimental, tactical, and strategic. For a complete discussion of our FLOTA model please go to this link. As you are reading this post, I can assume you have moved past the ‘unengaged’ level and are aware of, and interested in, crypto technologies such as Bitcoin, Lightning, and Ethereum.

At this point, your enterprise should implement formal crypto technology information tracking. This step will keep your organization informed and current on new developments within the crypto space, which will enable you to continuously monitor for opportunities within your business for crypto pilot projects and/or tactical and strategic implementations of the various forms of crypto.

While there are numerous methods an organization could implement for crypto technology tracking, what I propose in this article is only one of several possibilities.

Step 1

Create an internal email list through which employees can distribute and share new developments within the crypto space. Any employees interested in following crypto can join this group and contribute information as they run across it. Developments can be both internal and external. External items might include news about new crypto developments in which internal items might include pilot projects focused on crypto, contributions by employees to the crypto sphere, or virtually anything crypto-related.

Step 2

If your organization uses social media tools internally such as Slack or any other discussion program, you should create a channel designated to crypto. Discussion forums can be a great place for people newly interested in crypto to ask basic questions and learn how to learn more. It’s also good for them for announcing crypto-based webinars or other educational opportunities.

Step 3

Create several Google Alerts. Create one alert for crypto generally. Create another alert for crypto within your industry. You can also create another alert for specific topics in which you or your business are particularly interested. Those alerts can then be used in multiple ways. At a minimum, they should be published in your crypto mailing list – direct the Google Alerts Daily Digest to your email list. Google alerts also allow the creation of RSS feeds from alerts and those RSS feeds can be creatively directed to a variety of destinations such as webpages. Also, slack and many other discussion forms enable the integration of RSS. The goal is to disseminate external news as broadly as possible to those within your organization who are interested in tracking crypto technology.

You may also want to create specific alerts tracking crypto and the names of your business competitors so that you can follow where they are in the adoption cycle.

Step 4

Set up internal virtual or actual meetups where employees interested in crypto can come to share and discuss recent developments in the space. Such meetups should occur at least quarterly, and if there is sufficient interest can occur every month. The organization should spring a few bucks for the costs of food and beverage to encourage participation. Rough transcripts, summaries, or simple video recordings should be posted in your discussion forum and email list for reference purposes and for those who were unable to attend.

With these four steps in place, your organization should be well situated to stay on top of any and all new developments within the crypto space. Bear in mind that you are monitoring the space to uncover new opportunities for pilot projects that may provide your enterprise with a competitive advantage, otherwise these efforts can become yet another Internet rabbit hole (YAIRH (Yet Another Acronym YAA!)).

Internet Rabbit Hole

Bitcoin For Business Webinar

High profile companies such as AT&T, Microsoft, USAA, Goldman Sachs, Expedia, and Burger King are beginning to experiment with Bitcoin. Find out why and learn how your company could benefit from launching a bitcoin pilot project this year at our free ‘Bitcoin for Business’ Webinar.

The Webinar will be presented by Charles Stack, a leading expert on emerging technologies. Throughout his career Stack has repeatedly identified, learned, leveraged, and navigated new emerging technologies to launch and grow successful businesses. From the earliest PC network to the first online retail business to web services Stack has shown the ability to identify and deploy emerging tech with low risk in highly profitable businesses and projects.  

“Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies will transform many aspects of your industry,” says Stack, “There are 2 huge risks with any emerging technology: first that your business will fall behind your competitors or get disrupted by new businesses, and second that your forays into an emerging technology will be a costly failure. We can help you minimize both those risks.”

At this Webinar you will learn:

  1. Bitcoin Basics
  2. Why the Bitcoin/Lightning Network changes the game
  3. Case Studies
  4. New Business Models Enabled by Bitcoin
  5. How to gently integrate Bitcoin into your business at low cost
  6. How to identify and minimize the key risks for your business
  7. Essential Best Practices
  8. Your next steps.

The 30 minute Webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, May 12, 2020, at 3:00 ET. Virtual doors open at 2:45 for virtual socializing.

REGISTER HERE

The Lightning Trifecta

Question: what do Twitter, Square and Lightning Labs all have in common?Answer: Jack Dorsey and the future of the Lighting Network.

Jack Dorsey is the CEO of Twitter, CEO of Square/Cash App, and a major investor in Lightning Labs.

On February 5, 2020 Lightning Labs announced a $10 million Series A investment round. Lightning Labs has three products: a lightning network server (LND), a lightning network client specification (Neutrino), and a lightning payment channel service (Loop).

The combination of consumers from Twitter, merchants from Square, and technology from Lightning Labs should be the perfect trifecta for sparking significant growth in the lightning network over the next few years.

Here are the numbers. Twitter has over 300 million users worldwide. There are several million Square merchants and the Cash App consumer application has over 15 million users.

The lightning network will be the ‘killer app’ that drives Bitcoin adoption.

Welcome

Welcome to the Flashstarts Crypto microsite. The goal for this microsite is to provide executives and managers with all the information they need to understand and deploy Bitcoin, Lightning, and Ethereum in their organizations. Effectively deploying any emerging technology within an existing organization requires that you become a “product champion”. We will provide you with the knowledge and tools to become that champion.

Bitcoin, Lightning, and Ethereum are the leading blockchain technologies that offer a vast new array of exciting business opportunities. We hope this site will educate you on the underlying technology and where it may or may not make sense for you to deploy it to the benefit of your company.

Congress considers Bill enabling tax-free Lightning Network Bitcoin transactions

The Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act of 2020 is a bipartisan (3 page!) bill that will create a de minimus exemption for crypt currency capital gains below $200. If this bi-partisan bill is passed it will be an enormous boost for the Lightning Network and indirectly for the value of bitcoin as the underlying currency. Please tell your congressperson to vote yes and you will contribute some satoshis to their next campaign.

Lightning Network Conferences

Here are some Conferences that include coverage of the lightning network. Listed chronologically with upcoming conferences first.

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