Showing posts with label gemini. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gemini. Show all posts

Why The Winklevoss Twins Say Facebook Won't Exist 10 Years From Now....

Winklevoss twins facebook comment

Here in Silicon Valley, by the time Facebook began making headlines, most already knew the name 'Winklevoss'. Facebook was starting to explode, MySpace was clearly dying out, and when the topic came up somebody would often ask 'Do you think Zuckerberg stole Facebook?'.  But as far who he may have stole it from 'Some twins he went to school with, named Winklevoss or something' is about all people knew.

It was the movie "The Social Network" most learned the name, and the story - where unfortunately they were portrayed so unlikeable, the audience rooted for Zuckerberg to win when they sued him claiming they were the rightful owners of Facebook.

There was no 'winner' - Zuckerberg settled out of court, but the Winklevoss twins sure seem to be winning big today.

With the legal battle behind them, they were ready to take their place in Silicon Valley, until startups began refusing their money...

Facebook was still considered a start-up, but the hottest one at the time, and these were the guys who just finished trying to sue them.  While nobody really knew who was right, that was enough for companies to decide to keep their distance.

So, they used that Facebook settlement money to invest in Bitcoin, which at the time was selling for $8 and had a community with an 'everyone is welcome' attitude. Their first venture beyond owning BTC was helping to fund BitInstant, launched at a time when the Silk Road was probably the reason most people were making their first bitcoin purchase. By no fault of their own, they found themselves shut down when the government claimed their site was being used by drug dealers laundering money.

The CEO, Charlie Shrem spent a year in jail, since their role as investors kept them distanced from the liability that comes with running day to day operations, they managed to remain free.

That's where the motivation to launch Gemini came from - and that's why it's the most regulated and government approved exchange out there...

In 2015 they became the first crypto exchange with the same license major banks hold, granted by the New York State Department of Financial Services - which holds enough weight this allowed them to open their doors to accept funds from all 50 states.

Since then Facebook and Crypto grew bigger than anyone could have imagined - and the Winklevoss twins and Zuckerberg can accurately be referred to as 'billionaires' because of it.

But who will the future favor? The Winkelvoss twins believe Facebook won't be around for the next decade...

“The idea of a centralized social network is just not going to exist five or 10 years in the future. There’s a membrane or a chasm between the old world and this new crypto-native universe. And we’re the conduit helping people transcend the offline into the online.” Tyler Winkevoss tells Forbes.

They're also helping to fund the tech to make it possible, becoming seed investors in Protocol Labs, which is focused on creating a decentralized internet that works independent of today's centralized server structure. 

Many in the crypto world will know the company from Filecoin, and later this year one of their workshops happens to be on building a decentralized social network, like Facebook.

The big shift is coming...

Frankly, Facebook seems to become more 'uncool' every day, if it didn't already earn that title when everyone's parents and grandparents joined. Zuckerberg has his own ventures into the crypto world in motion, but Facebook needs a facelift, and I doubt throwing some blockchain based features on top of it is the key to becoming cutting-edge again.

If successful, the Winklevoss twins won't be the next Zuckerbergs, no one will. That's the appeal - and they say playing the role of 'gatekeepers' in a decentralized world was never one of the goals. 

But in one sense, decentralization is like social media 10 years ago - we know it's going to be huge, but don't yet know exactly how it will fit into everyday life.

What dApp will be first to draw in hundreds of millions of users? I have no idea, but I'd bet my wallet it'll happen - and there's something exciting about that. On the other hand, I'm not sure if traditional social media has anything exciting on the horizon. 

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Author: Ross Davis 
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco Newsroom / Breaking Crypto News

Winklevoss Twins Have Doubled Their Fortune... Since January!


Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have seen their combined net worth more than double since January on the strength of the Bitcoin rally.


The Winklevoss twins are the founders of the Gemini exchange, but better known as the twins who sued Mark Zuckerberg claiming they were the actual creators of facebook, as seen in the movie "The Social Network".

Video Courtesy of Bloomberg
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Full Video: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss @ SXSW Music Fest...


Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss believe the cryptocurrency revolution has the potential to re-architect trade, the financial system, the Internet, and the future of money as we know it. But they also know it won’t be easy and will require a thoughtful, rules-based approach.

A lot has changed since Cameron and Tyler first got involved with bitcoin in 2012: Gemini, the regulated cryptocurrency exchange and custodian they launched in 2015, recently passed its three-year operating anniversary and hit many milestones in 2018—from releasing a highly anticipated mobile app and securing digital asset insurance to helping to stand up the Virtual Commodity Association and launching a controversial ad campaign.

Video Courtesy of SXSW

Gemini's newest hire - the Chief Information Officer of the New York Stock Exchange...

Popular exchange Gemini announced a major new hire today -  New York Stock Exchange's Chief Information Officer, Robert Cornish.

“Rob is a tremendous addition to our team. He will ensure that Gemini continues to deliver the best platform experience to our customers as possible and set the standards of excellence for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Rob is globally recognized for his abilities in leading high-performing engineering teams, his expertise in exchange and matching-engine architecture, and running high-throughput platforms that are both secure and resilient” said co-founder Tyler Winklevoss.

Gemini founders the "Winklevoss Twins" best known for suing Mark Zuckerberg claiming he stole their idea (and got a settlement for it) have aggressively been pursuing the goal of running a company in the unregulated cryptocurrency space that still functions with approval from the government - even if it's not needed, yet.

It's an idea that makes a lot of sense if regulations are coming - imagine what they may be, function that way, and when it happens they won't need to change anything.

Most expect any government regulation regarding cryptocurrencies will likely sound a lot like the current rules for the stock market, which is why hiring Wall Street pro's could be a very smart long-term move.

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk


Gemini exchange adds ZCash trading - with blessings from the US Government...

Gemini has added the first new coin in quite some time to their exchange - ZCash. 

What makes this unique is the 'official approval process' they largely created themselves - by approaching NY's financial services department seeking approval to execute trades of and storage the cryptocurrency - which was successful.

Gemini has really lead the way in conducting business in the unregulated cryptocurrency market in a way in which they imagine the regulations that may be coming - and securing their business by staying complaint to these possible future regulations.  Think of it as a 'better safe than sorry' way to operate.

Eric Winer, VP of Engineering at Gemini posted to their official blog:

"When we began building Gemini over four years ago, we envisioned a platform that would allow customers to trade many virtual commodities. Zcash is a friendly fork of the Bitcoin source code, making it a member of the “Nakamoto Family Tree” of virtual commodities. The Zcash protocol’s cutting edge use of zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (“zk-SNARKS” or “zero-knowledge proofs”) makes it a truly innovative privacy coin that offers confidentiality for peer-to-peer transactions similar to those afforded to fiat currency transfers (e.g., ACH, FedWire, SWIFT, etc.).

We have been working closely with the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) to obtain approval to offer Zcash trading and custody services to our customers as a New York trust company."

ZCash is up nearly 20% today following the news.

Gemini exchange is owned the Winklevoss twins - who once sued Mark Zuckerberg claiming they were the actual creators of Facebook, as seen in the movie "The Social Network".

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk