In this episode, Aaron Mangal discusses the Coinigy platform with Derek Urben, CFO of Coinigy, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Coinigy is a cross-exchange charting, portfolio management, trading, and research platform.

Using a monthly subscription model, Coinigy allows users a wide cornucopia of data sets and access to exchanges including the possibility to execute trades through a secure Application Programming Interface (API).

Derek Urben, CFO, Coinigy

Coinigy's reach stretches across more than 45 exchanges with 75+ technical indicators all under a single pane of glass interface. On the alert side of things you can trigger SMS, E-Mail and in-browser price alerts powered by low-latency data feeds.

In addition, they allow instant access to real-time APIs and historical data. There is also the ability to leverage enterprise-grade data feeds for individuals and institutions.

The API is live, real-time data powered by the Coinigy CryptoFeed™. This API stretches across 41 exchanges, 3,516 markets and 3.468 cryptocurrencies.

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• About Derek's origin story and how he got started in Cryptocurrency and Coinigy
• Who the users of Coinigy are
• Why Coinigy doesn't hold user funds
• The emergence about just about anything "as a service"
• Why the membership subscription model was chosen
• Basic security practices and architecture behind the platform and how it protects users
• Why APIs are a common practice along with cloud computing for traditional trading houses
• About the research arm of Coinigy and the types of information they aggregate
• How they position as an aggregator allows a non-biased exploration of the ecosystem
• Why the future of firms, mergers and private equities will shift dramatically

For show notes and more please visit: LAB Radio

In this episode, Aaron Mangal explores the concept of User Experience (UX) with Vitalik Demin, Software Program Manager, and Information Architect at ZenCash.

Vitalik Demin, Software Program Manager, Information Architect at ZenCash

"My passion is to fix and improve processes and technologies that are broken and not intuitive to use. I see process end-to-end and drive inefficiencies out by re-engineering the flow, building technology solutions, and ensuring the user experience is impeccable."

User Experience (UX) and design are separate (albeit greatly related) disciplines. The science of UX has not always been as obvious as it seems today and has shifted into such force that it has it's own specialization and job role in today's startups.

According to usability.gov, a website on UX maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services:

User experience (UX) focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations.  It also takes into account the business goals and objectives of the group managing the project. UX best practices promote improving the quality of the user’s interaction with and perceptions of your product and any related services.

Peter Morville, veteran UX and information architect made a User Experience Honeycomb to visually explain the concept:

User Experience Honeycomb

We greatly enjoyed learning about this super important yet often overlooked construct not only within Cryptocurrency but the digital (web) experience as a whole. 

We hope you enjoy learning more about the philosophy and principles behind User Experience (UX).

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• How Vitalik first learned UX and developed his craft
• The origin story of Vitalik discovering ZenCash and how he decided to work for them (due diligence process)
• What some great (and not so great) examples of UX are
• What ZenCash is and what they do
• The connection between ZenCash and IOHK
• The difference between designers and User Experience professionals
• Why brands should maintain control end-to-end for their marketing (see Samsung S9 phone ad example)
• Best practices and other insights around approaching User Experience (UX)

For show notes and more please visit: LAB Radio

In this episode, Aaron Mangal and Tim Francisco of CoinStructive, caught up with Paul Puey, co-founder and CEO of Edge (formerly AirBitz), a security platform and multi-coin wallet and key management system.

Paul Puey, co-founder of Edge (formerly AirBitz)

"Paul is a proud Electrical Engineering and Computer Science graduate of UC Berkeley with a wide range of technical skills from low-level 3D graphics engineering to development of custom web CMS systems, even before people knew what a CMS was. He held lead engineering positions with Nvidia and Chromatic Research, but most recently owned and operated several non-technical small businesses throughout California. There he learned the importance of the intersection of people, business, and technology.

Today, Paul aims to bring Bitcoin mainstream with software and products aimed at simplifying Bitcoin and making it insanely easy to send and secure this revolutionary currency while maintaining the highest level of privacy.

When not converting people to bitcoin you’ll likely find him climbing a rock in Joshua Tree or at a local climbing gym."

The unique selling proposition is Edge allows users to manage multiple wallets for multiple assets securely under a single sign-on (SSO) login (just like using Facebook or Google to sign up for a site).

Edge's philosophy is "security is our foundation, not a feature" as demonstrated by their client-side encryption which means data is encrypted from the device itself and before it ever touches Edge servers. 

Cryptocurrencies currently available on Edge

We had a great time learning more about Paul's origin story, the creator of Edge (formerly AirBitz) and the vision of how to bridge Cryptocurrency use into the mainstream world.

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• Paul's beginnings in Silicon Valley at Nvidia working on Graphics Processor Units (GPUs)
• How Paul got out of balance with work which was a catalyst for shifting his health in a more positive direction
• The origin story of AirBitz and how it evolved into Edge as a rebrand
• Why we should stop trying to make security perfect and instead analyze the trade-offs
• How users get the benefit of security like SSL but for everyday Cryptocurrency usage
• Why Paul believes in usability and utility as much (if not moreso) than just ideology
• About the threat of centralized custodians and how counterparty risk and cold storage reduce usability
• How the architecture of centralized entities slow down transactions due to the lack of funds available in hot wallets
• How Edge saw the opportunity to open up its security architecture to other dApps (like Augur)
• Edge and why its the first use case of the Edge platform itself which can be used in many other
• What the Edge's of the network are and how the data generated there is secured
• How the communities of various cryptocurencies helped Edge integrate their tokens 

For show notes and more please visit: LAB Radio

In this episode, we’re at the Beyond Blocks in Seoul (the "capital city"), Korea. Chris Groshong, CEO of CoinStructive, caught up with Jack Tan of Kronos Token, a platform aimed at allowed token holders to access to elite trading strategies through a built-in trading desk.

Kronos helps to bridge the gap between retail untrained investors and the elite 1% who have unfair access to the majority of global wealth, where they just get richer. Kronos disagrees with this premise.

To solve this problem, Kronos sources and nurtures elite investing and trading talent which opens up the skillsets and strategies of these teams to KRON holders.

In addition, Kronos leverages a variety of time-tested investment methodologies to battle unstable and volatile markets and pass the value to the users. This allows investors to benefit from enterprise trading strategies which help stabilize portfolios despite market conditions.

As stated on the Kronos website:

We are changing the rules once and for all. All KRON holders will have a chance to access the best strategies in quantitative trading and other investments within crypto. The mission of the KRONOS project is to:

• Attract, foster and retain the best trading talent globally
• Remove access barriers to the top investments
• Maximize resilience of the ecosystem through the intelligence of decentralized governance

Our strategies carry a range of risk and return profiles, but are generally uncorrelated from the market. This means they can profit even when asset prices are falling. We will begin with high-frequency market making and proprietary trading, but will quickly add teams to trade "smart index", statistical arbitrage, and discretionary small-cap strategies.

 

The Kronos token helps bring elite trading strategies to the average investor

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• How Jack moved to the US when he was 7 with humble beginnings
• What nagging problem Kronos solves for investors
• The limited choices and options available to the average retail investor
• How Kronos provides access to liquidity, market making and trade execution
• Why Kronos structured their coin in Taipei, Taiwan with a focus on Asian markets
• An example of the use cases and stories from users of the platform
• The future outlook and vision of Kronos in 2-3 years
• How Kronos uses quantitative algorithms to drive intelligent trading 24/7/365 regardless of bull or bear markets
• Why Jack believes in thinking long-term and creating something bigger than yourself

For show notes and more please visit: LAB Radio