In the News: Instagram

Last night, The New York Times reported that the co-founders of Instagram, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have both resigned, and are planning to leave Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, within a few weeks. Systrom and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the report in separate statements, both calling out “the next chapter” and hinting at future projects on the horizon.

Instagram was created in 2010 with a focus on image composition and photography, which is why filters and lenses have become so popular. The app was acquired by Facebook in 2012 and has since continued to see exponential growth, with the platform now boasting over a billion users.

The expansion of the user base may, however, be a large part of Krieger and Systrom’s decision to depart the platform. There were reports of tension between the founders of Facebook and Instagram over what the outlook and future of the app would be, one of the more in-depth reports came around the launch of “Instagram Stories” from Bloomberg, which you can read here.

Between Stories and other tensions surrounding the vision for Instagram in a Facebook world and the backlash Facebook continues to suffer from after it was found that user information was misused, it will be interesting to see what changes may come to Instagram after the departure of its founding fathers.

eCommerce and advertising may become a bigger focus for the photo-sharing app, as well as a push for live sharing in order to go head-to-head with competitor SnapChat. Regardless, marketers and users will be sure to keep their eyes on Instagram to see changes roll out.

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TED Talks for Sales Professionals

TED Talks are a great way to cultivate skills and knowledge from sources that you may have not had access to otherwise. Sales, however,  is a broad category, with sales professionals needing a range of emotional and intellectual intelligence and forethought into the future in order to really succeed. These speakers are insightful and interesting, and by implementing a few of their points, you could be on your way to improving your sales goals and strategies.

Eddie Obeng: Smart Failure for a Fast-Changing World

Ernesto Sirolli: Want to Help Someone? Shut Up and Listen!

Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation

Shonda Rhimes: My Year of Saying Yes to Everything

Lera Boroditsky: How Language Shapes the Way We Think

Kelly McGonigal: How to Make Stress Your Friend

Sheena Iyengar: How to Make Choosing Easier

John Doerr: Why The Secret to Success is Setting the Right Goals

Leticia Gasca: Don’t Fail Fast– Fail Mindfully

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Tech Radar- The Best Cryptocurrency Wallets

Cryptocurrency can’t just be stored in your pocketbook, which is why having a cryptocurrency wallet is important for those mining or buying Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and more. There are four types of crypto wallets: hardware, software, mobile, and web.

For security’s sake, hardware and software wallets are generally more secure, mostly because if a mobile or web wallet provider is hacked, your key can be stolen, allowing cybercriminals to also steal your cryptocurrency funds.

So how do you choose? There is no simple answer besides choose what works best for you and your cryptocurrency goals and needs, but these are some top-notch choices for hardware and software wallets.

HARDWARE

Trezor

Trezor has two wallets available that have robust functionality for secure cryptocurrency storage, the Trezor One and the Trezor Model T.  The Trezor One is really great for novices in the crypto world, and at $104 it’s a solid basic wallet that boasts data encryption, a personal recovery seed and highly secure storage for keys, coins, and passwords.

Ledger

Ledger offers two of the most secure wallets available, the Ledger Blue and the Ledger Nano S.

These wallets are simple, safe, and highly secured so you can access your bitcoin from anywhere safely.

KeepKey

See this video to see how KeepKey works:

BitBox

Plug BitBox into your computer to securely store, spend and receive cryptocurrency, including Ethereum, Bitcoin and Litecoin. The simple design is made with a dual chip design and crafted from the same material as bulletproof glass.

SOFTWARE

Electrum

Electrum is one of the most popular Crypto wallets, and for good reason. It’s free, reliable, simple to learn and use and very secure. Electrum encrypts your keys and stores them on your computer and then enables two-factor authentication. This software is faster and less bulky than many others, so it’s understandably a popular choice in the Crypto community

Exodus

Exodus is more than a crypto wallet, it is also a crypto exchange and portfolio service, so you can store, manage and trade all in one place. All of your data is encrypted so your funds are securely stored.

Jaxx

Jaxx was started by one of the co-founders of Ethereum with the idea that users shouldn’t be tied only to one type of cryptocurrency or crypto wallet. Essentially, Jaxx provides their users with a Masterseed that can be used to manage all the private keys for your blockchain based assets and lets you access them on any other wallet or software. Jaxx is also equipped with a Blockchain Interface so you can convert digital assets to other cryptocurrencies.

Copay

Copay is an open source, multisig wallet, which means you can create your own version of the Copay wallet as well as share your crypto funds with a group. Shared-funds wallets are one of the most secure ways to prevent fraud and send cryptocurrency because your entire group needs to approve the transaction, similar to how each transaction of a cryptocurrency on a blockchain is verified.

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