Humans of Blockchain: Jason Rockwood

Humans of Blockchain: Jason Rockwood

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Humans of Blockchain is our initiative to highlight the human side of the industry and showcase blockchain professionals around the world. The goal is to get to know the people pushing blockchain forward better and understand them at a personal level. Our previous post in the series was on Crypto_Ed_NL.


Jason Rockwood is VeChain’s Americas General Manager. He oversees VeChain’s business development and operations in the Americas and was previously Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Oasis Collections and Vice President of Mobile Strategy & Innovation of the Miami Heat; where he became the de facto CIO.

Having worked in a wide range of industries including in sports, hospitality and fashion, Jason has extensive experience in project management, strategy and digital transformation.

In this episode, he shares how he got into blockchain, how he sees the industry  evolving and how his past experiences help him understand and overcome the challenges businesses face when adopting new technology like blockchain.

Tell us about yourself and how you got into blockchain?

A little about me: I’m the General Manager of VeChain USA Inc., which means that I oversee the North and South American markets; including LatAm, the USA, and Canada.

My career started when I graduated from MIT and started working in digital advertising, specifically social media. I did some really cool stuff that I’m proud of, such as helping launch the Facebook and YouTube pages for Walmart. After working in digital strategy, I ended up pivoting into enterprise IT and led innovation for the Miami HEAT and then became CIO of a home sharing startup called Oasis. I live in Miami and California with my husband, Dev. 

I first got into blockchain via Bitcoin, waaay back in 2011. I bought my first bitcoin at only $10! Unfortunately I sold the top—$100! I missed the boat on Ethereum; was acquiring $XRP in 2013 when it was only $0.00001 but lost my password… Needless to say I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, but VeChain wasn’t one of them!

Jason with American venture capital investor Tim Draper

How and when did you learn about VeChain? What was your first meeting with Sunny and the team like?

Because of my background as a CIO, I was getting exposed to a lot of the enterprise blockchain conversations happening in 2017, just as the bull run started happening. I started to take the tech seriously and began researching good projects. I got back into the market right around November, and then found VeChain in December, right before the “rebrand”. 

I went all in on VeChain because it was the only project I had come across (and pretty much still the only project I have come across) that met my standards as a CIO. Meeting Sunny for the first time, at a speaking engagement at Harvard, I knew I had made the right decision to be involved. The vision, dedication, and professionalism of Sunny and the team are world-class. I started working for VeChain full time as GM VeChain USA about a year after meeting Sunny for the first time.

You’ve previously worked as a consultant and strategist in a wide range of industries; from apparel (Luxottica) and advertising (Havas Media Group) to sports (Miami Heat) and hospitality (Oasis Collections). How have these experiences helped you with your work at VeChain?

My role as a GM is very diverse. My experiences in digital strategy inform my work in new business development and sales; my experience as a CIO at Oasis and the HEAT helps me speak the language of business with my customers. I know their challenges because I’ve lived them. It also helps me understand and appreciate the long sales cycles; I’ve been on the other side. I think these experiences make me a very understanding and collaborative partner.

What has your first year at VeChain been like? What has surprised you the most and what has been the biggest challenge in your transition?

I started at VeChain in January 2019, so we are a few months shy of two full years. It’s hard to believe how fast time has gone. And really, I spent almost all of 2018 working for VeChain informally so for me, I consider myself three years in. That being said, working for VeChain is everything I wanted it to be. I love the team!  

The people who work for VeChain are passionate, visionary, dedicated and smart. It’s truly a group of people I respect immensely and I’m so grateful to be a part of this. One of my favorite things about working with VeChain is the sheer variety of clients I talk to in the course of a day. Anyone can use ToolChain, so in the course of a day I’m speaking (for example) to seafood companies, cannabis companies, fashion brands, consulting agencies, etc. It’s incredibly diverse! I never get bored in my job. As far as challenges go, I’d say the hardest part is the time difference. As I’m now on the West Coast, I have a lot of 6AM calls.

Jason Rockwood and Sarah Nabaa presenting at LongHash

You were Vice President and de facto CIO of the Miami Heat. Can you share anything about your responsibilities and experience? Do you have any funny/interesting anecdotes?

I’ve been lucky to have had some incredible jobs and teammates over the years, and certainly the HEAT was near the top. In that role I helped the business make decisions about enterprise technology and strategy for the business and the Arena. 

My core responsibilities included decision making around the mobile app, our e-commerce store, enterprise software, and in-arena Wi-Fi. It gave me a wide breadth and depth of experience in understanding the needs of enterprise customers. It also helped me understand VeChain CEO Sunny LU – himself a former CIO. I was attracted to VeChain because the CEO was a former CIO. I knew he would put technology as an enterprise enabler, rather than simply build technology for technology’s sake. My work at the HEAT and at Oasis makes a big difference in my ability to speak about enterprise tech to business stakeholders at all levels

What is your biggest strength?

Optimism.

In a recent photo on Twitter, you were shown at a lake in California with your dog. Can you explain the transition from living in Miami to California, and which lifestyle you prefer?

I was in Shanghai back in January of 2020, so I knew early on how big of a deal COVID-19 was going to be. In early March I went out to California to be in a remote area where I could easily get fresh and comfortably social distance.  Fishing on Sardine Lake was one of those amazing moments of being outdoors that wouldn’t have been possible in Miami. That being said, I look forward to the pandemic ending so I can go back home.

Jason with his dog in Sardine Lake

Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Sales Force have all started offering blockchain integrated solutions to their customers. How big of a role do you think large tech companies will play in the blockchain industry?

These companies are important to our industry because they bring legitimization and scale. I do believe that one day there will be blockchain behemoths, and I certainly think VeChain could be one.

What are the biggest challenges VeChain is facing in the US?

The US market for blockchain is still in its infancy. VeChain offers an amazing product that’s easy to deploy and cost-effective, but many companies in the US are still uncertain about the business value. That will change as more companies experience the success first-hand. 

Which projects would you consider to be VeChain’s biggest competitors/alternatives? What makes VeChain different?

Based on feedback from my clients, I would say IBM FoodTrust is the biggest competitor to VeChain ToolChain in the USA. We should be grateful to IBM, because their marketing budget is a rising tide that lifts our ship. IBM is almost single-handedly creating the US market demand for enterprise blockchain in supply chain. I’m grateful for that.

At the same time, our customers tell us that VeChain ToolChain is faster to deploy, easier to understand the business value, and requires less of an upfront investment to get started.

Are there any features that enterprise clients seem to be frequently requesting for ToolChain? (e.g. a specific tool that they need but is currently not available, more integrated data analytics, etc)

VeChain’s Product Roadmap is very robust, and anytime a client asks for a new functionality, I can almost always point to the roadmap and say “it’s coming”. That gives me and the client a lot of confidence in the future.

Supply chain is one of VeChain’s most important applications. How do you see current global political tensions affecting demand for VeChain solutions and VeChain-traced products (if at all)?

As the world becomes a more complex place, the need for trusted platforms and data will only increase. 

What trends have you noticed from dealing with clients since you began the role until now? Have you seen the industry shifting or changing in any way?

When I started at VeChain the clients I was speaking to were all hot off the ICO boom and the business models were always “we want to create a new business with a token”, whereas now clients are seeking a mechanism for supply chain visibility and data provenance. It’s a maturation of the marketplace for sure, and a good thing.

What superhero would you like to be? Why?

If I was a superhero, I would definitely want to be Doctor Strange! The guy understands the meaning of life and can bend time and space.

Do you have a favourite quote or meme?

The quote that gets me through crypto-life is this one from Epictetus:

“Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions. … if it concerns anything not in our control, be prepared to say that it is nothing to you.”

Favourite basketball player?

I admire Steph Curry immensely, as he’s one of the most talented players, however, if I had to pick one favorite it would be LeBron.  Watching him play live is truly indescribable. The guy is so huge and yet he moves like a dragonfly. At the HEAT I had court-side seats, and watching him play close-up unlocked a new understanding of the awesomeness of the game.

LeBron James vs Stephen Curry

Your biggest inspiration?

My partner, Dev.

If you could travel to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Hawaii. I love it there.

Any guilty pleasures?

French Fries and ice cream, but not at the same time.

How would you like to be remembered?

As someone who made a difference in improving other people’s quality of life.

Anything else you would like to add?

I’d like to say thank you to all the VeChain community members, new and old, who have believed in this project from day one and stayed the course the past three years.  You’re an incredible group of people to work for, and you keep me going!  Top Three here we gooooo!

 

Thanks to Jason Rockwood for taking part in this article. We hope you enjoyed it.

If you would like us to profile someone in particular who is helping drive blockchain forward, let us know on Twitter and we’ll do our best to make it happen.

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NSF issues COVID-19 safety protection certificates using ToolChain

NSF issues COVID-19 safety protection certificates using ToolChain

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NSF International – a leading provider of independent product testing, inspection and certification – has integrated VeChain ToolChain into its operations.

For over 75 years, the organization has facilitated standards development for the water, food and health science industries. Now, in response to the pandemic, it has designed a COVID-19 Preventive Control Practice (PCP) service to help its corporate clients to reopen and stay open in a safe and confident manner.

 

Why create a COVID-19 Preventive Control Practice (PCP) service?

With confirmed outbreaks in several food processing plants across the world – including at a Mowi owned site in Poland, a 2 Sisters factory in the UK, a Pacific Seafood facility in the US and at an American Seafoods factory trawler – having 3rd party health and sanitation professionals inspect and verify in-house infection risk procedures is of vital importance and could become a legal requirement in the “new normal”. NSF International’s solution enables businesses to protect and regain the trust of their staff and customers by:

  • Reviewing their standardized operations, working environment and team management procedures to ensure that all business activities such as production and transportation are undertaken under effective preventive infection control measures
  • Offering continuous supervision and testing – reducing operational risks by issuing warnings when production and operations
  • Providing systematic training for relevant personnel to improve awareness of prevention and control
  • Issuing NSF International authoritative certification to validate the presence of effective COVID-19 preventive control measures throughout all business operations
  • Providing QR codes that can be attached to product labels to allow customers to verify the certification and be confident that the product has been processed and packaged in a safe environment
  • Giving national certification and accreditation to demonstrate that the business meets local compliance

Verification of Conformity certificate for Tongliao JSA Food & Beverage Management Service Co., Ltd.

Landing page screenshot for those who scan the QR Code on the certificate

The certificates have been issued from as early as the 31st July 2020 and several companies have now passed the PCP assessment (including Tongliao JSA Food & Beverage Management Service Co., Ltd. and Qingdao Spring Seafoods Co., Ltd).

NSF International is a leader in inspections in the 150 countries it serves, as they help clients to validate and authenticate business processes. Currently, their “Checked by NSF™” program is a solution used by companies like McDonald’s in the UK.

Checked by NSF infographic

A “Checked by NSF” certificate being displayed at a McDonalds in the UK. Credit to Claire Goring

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Welcome to the VulcanVerse

Welcome to the VulcanVerse

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What would your life be like in a world of magic, fantasy and adventure? Welcome to VulcanVerse, an interactive 3D virtual world where you can forge your own destiny.

What is VulcanVerse?

VulcanVerse is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) where players create their own adventures, interact with others and buy land to design their own buildings, products and services. Essentially, it’s a virtual world built by the players for the players. By owning and improving their land parcels (each sized 20m x 20m and represented by non-fungible tokens, NFTs), players are able to move up the seven “Tiers to the new Olympus” levels. Reaching a higher rank gives you access to new features, building tools and Vulcanites (collectible NFT creatures that accompany you along your journey).

The game is built on the VeChainThor blockchain and enables users to integrate smart contracts to create events and provide services for others. An artist, for example, could design and upload their own assets and use a smart contract to organise competitions or or build a pay-to-enter gallery or museum displaying their artwork. Below is a video showing a concept of the land builder that users would have access to as they develop their land parcels:

Sample building blocks for the Land of Arcadia

What makes VulcanVerse special?

The concept of creating virtual worlds on the blockchain isn’t new. Projects such as Decentraland, CryptoVoxels or MegaCryptoPolis are already running on the Ethereum and Tron networks, however, VulcanVerse differentiates itself by introducing unique features (as documented in Vulcan Forged’s medium post). In this article, we analyse the significance of some of the more important ones.

1. Complete standalone application

Instead of running on a web browser, VulcanVerse is played via a downloadable standalone application. This allows the game to use better audiovisuals without lag and can potentially enable players to use some of the inbuilt tools offline. A land owner, for example, might be able to use use the scenery builder to design new assets and sync the work the next time the interface goes online.

2. Content depth, fantasy background story and lore

“At the dawn of adventure games, stories were practically non-existent, characters were heard from but rarely seen, and the measure of a game lay almost solely in the mental challenge it presented. Those days are over.” – Robert “Bob” Bates, American game designer

VulcanVerse is a fantasy universe full of lore and history. The world is split into 5 different arenas; each with its own narrative, development paths and mythical creatures; and all linked by a common topic: the Vulcan Gods.  This is important as having an overarching narrative connecting all the VulcanVerse elements helps to engage and immerse the players into the game. It gives the everything a meaning and encourages users to co-create the story and become part of the world. This is the reason why game publishers create stories for their adventure games and why VulcanVerse’s partnership with big names such as Jamie Thomson, Dave Morris and Ian Livingstone can make the game more exciting and entertaining. In their own words:

“VulcanVerse is not just a world but an immersive world of fantasy where every element, piece of land and vulcanite has its own piece of lore attached”

VulcanVerse is divided into the Land of Hades (The Underworld), the Land of Ourea (The Mountains), the Land of Arcadia (The Grasslands), the Land of Notus (The Deserts) and the Land of Vulcan (Neutral territory)


Land of Arcadia – The Grasslands

3. Choose from four different types of land

Aside from the Land of Vulcan, players can choose any plot of land they wish to own. The type of land dictates the materials, building tools and Vulcanites players are entitled to and, while users can create their own assets, “VulcanVerse universal laws” will ensure that only the designs that fit and are consistent with the land’s overall theme are uploaded onto the game. To avoid breaking immersion, for example, a player will not be able to build an Arcadia looking structure in the Land of Hades.  In a way, dividing the world into different territories creates “clans” with which players can identify themselves with. Being part of the Land of Arcadia, for example, can create a sense of belonging towards the land which consequently can encourage land owners to support and interact with others from the same quadrant. If a competition between the Land of Arcadia and Hades is released, for example, users from the same land will be incentivised to coordinate and collaborate with each other. Having different lands also makes the game replayable as once you’ve reached the seventh “Tier to the new Olympus” you could decide to buy another a plot of land in another quadrant and start from scratch.

4. Vulcan City: the neutral territory

Players will be able to visit Vulcan City in the the middle of the map, a territory that will remain neutral and be used as a gathering plaza to release new features, organise special events and festivals, and give VeChain contributors a space to build tools that benefit the community. Vexchange, for example, will have a bank where players can swap tokens and VeChain101 will likely have a radio tower to broadcast news and updates. Imagine if you could also have a coliseum where you could have vulcanite frenzies with other players, attend virtual concerts or watch a livestream of Sunny with other players. Wouldn’t that be cool?

5. Seven “Tiers to the new Olympus” and VTHO tokenomics

Land owners have a wide selection of terrains, items, building tools, animations and special effects they can choose from. However, access to them will vary depending on the rank of their land. To level up, you need to:

  • Meet specific predefined experience requirements
  • Make a ‘Sacrifice to the Vulcan Gods’ (in effect burning a specific amount of VTHO)
  • Pay fixed monthly upkeep costs (in VTHO) to maintain your land level and avoid being demoted (the higher the level the higher the upkeep cost)

Having different levels helps to keep players engaged and enables VulcanVerse to offer rewards to the more committed players. Land owners who reach the new Olympus, for example, could be awarded special NFT treasures or Vulcanites, be added to a hall of fame or other potential benefits.  One key aspect about the “Tiers to the new Olympus” is that every one can play at their own pace. According to the VulcanVerse team, they don’t want to force players to do something such as unnecessary gaming aspects that they don’t want. Landowners are free to enjoy the game by leveling up, by building on their lands, participating in vulcanite events, designing their own assets, exploring the world and many other ways.

“We don’t want to integrate gameplay that affects everyone that doesn’t want to be involved in the gameplay. Some people may want to just buy land, level up, have fun exploring, talk to people, etc.” – Jamie, founder of VulcanVerse, VeriArti and Vulcan Forged.

6. No need to deal with crypto

While games such as Decentraland use their own MANA token with ETH for gas, VulcanVerse is fully powered by VTHO. This enables players to trade assets in fiat currency thanks to fee delegation. It also makes the game more user friendly for the general public. Being able to avoid cryptocurrencies should make it easier to appeal to a broader audience. (Obviously, the cryptocurrency element will be there if people want it)

7. Vulcanites

Vulcanites are the pet creatures of Vulcanverse. Each of them is unique, has a tailored lore and set of skills (that can be powered up to a cap), and is exclusive to its land area and level. Owning higher tiered land grants access to Vulcanites with higher skill limits. While VulcanVerse is all about world building, introducing Vulcanites opens up a wide range of additional functionalities and game modes. They can be used to forage materials, compete for exclusive NFTs during treasure hunts or participate in community led mini games and side-quests. To balance world building and interactivity, they provide benefits for their owners and help them level up but cannot be used to negatively affect others (e.g. they cannot attack players unless it’s part of an event). This avoids players that only want to explore and build their lands from being forced to interact with Vulcanites. It is also important to clarify that, while Vulcanites are part of the VulcanVerse universe, they can also be stored as NFTs in a standalone Vulcanite dApp. In the separate Vulcanite portal, players can view their Vulcanites’ stats, explore which ones are available at what levels, browse other players’ Vulcanites and trade them as 2D game cards in the marketplace. In essence, their presence in VulcanVerse is a 3D representation of the Vulcanite game cards.

Arachnilix, a LVL.2 underworld vulcanite – appearance in the Vulcanite dApp


Vulcanite – appearance in VulcanVerse

 

Author’s opinion

The VulcanVerse is not the first sandbox video game on a blockchain, however, it is also not your typical “builder strategy” game. With 5 different arenas, mythical creatures and unique background story and lore, it provides players with a fully immersive fantasy role-playing experience. The 7 “Tiers to the new Olympus” give players a goal to aim for and the demand for VTHO, inbuilt marketplace and smart contracts capabilities encourages users to find innovative ways to build an in-game business. Shoe designers, for example, could recreate a virtual version of their shoes for their purchasing customers to use with their avatars. In my opinion, the decision to use VTHO is wise. Being able to use fee delegation and maintain relatively stable costs will help attract players from outside the crypto world. Why build another token when there is already a ready to use one?

VeChainThor is known for its supply-chain applications but the network is capable of doing so much more. During his interview with Catherine Coley, Sunny highlighted VeChain’s potential in the gaming and entertainment industries; VulcanVerse is an ambitious project that can prove him right.

The game is scheduled to be released (beta) in Q4 2020. However, given its large scope and the many exciting concepts the team plans to develop, it will likely be an ongoing project that will continuously evolve and have increasingly more functionalities.  The sale launch of its 10000 plots of land will be announced by end of Q3 2020 and new landowners will receive a free LVL1 vulcanite with their land. With the launch date fast approaching and following the recently released sneak peeks, I am curious and eager to see what the end product will look like. Hopefully it will be up to the high expectations.

The VulcanVerse is always looking for new ideas so if you have a cool feature you would love to see implemented, contact them at [email protected]. May the Vulcan Gods be with you.

VeChain101 is a strategic partner of the VulcanVerse.

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Humans of Blockchain: Jason Rockwood

Humans of Blockchain: Crypto_Ed_NL

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Humans of Blockchain is our initiative to highlight the human side of the industry and showcase blockchain professionals around the world. The goal is to get to know the people pushing blockchain forward better and understand them at a personal level. Our previous post in the series was on Peter Zhou and can be read here.

Crypto_Ed_NL with Sunny Lu

 

With more than 20 years of experience trading stocks, options and forex, Crypto_Ed_NL joined the crypto market in 2014. Based in the Netherlands, on September-October 2017, he was a Trading View top author and established Crypto-TA.

Crypto-TA is an officially registered training institute focused on the crypto scene. With high volatility in the markets, Crypto-TA aims to teach its members how to make decisions driven by technical analysis and trade “what you see, not what you believe”. In their own words, “we don’t give you the fish, we teach you how to fish”.

On May 2019, Crypto-TA partnered with NIIT, a world leading professional training provider used by several Fortune and Global 500 companies to develop internal talent.

In this interview we discover what it means to be a seasoned trader in the crypto market, how to avoid some common mistakes and some lessons Crypto_Ed_NL has learned since 2014.

Can you tell us about yourself?

I’m a proud father of 2 beautiful daughters in the same age as the majority on Crypto Twitter 🙂 I’m living in the Netherlands, too busy working and trading to change my status as a single.

You have more than 20 years of trading experience in asset classes including stocks, options and forex. What are the main differences and similarities you have seen between the crypto and traditional markets?

It’s mostly the differences. I prefer the dynamism in crypto. Sometimes it’s like the wild west and I’m addicted to the sentiment changes. Although it’s preferred to neutralize emotions in trading, I kind of like it very much how sentiment changes in crypto due to the high volatility. The change from an underwater position to +30% can happen in minutes (and vice versa) and that attracts me a lot.

What do you wish you had known about crypto when you first started in 2014?

The massive “back room deals” at that time. More or less everything was just P&D (Pump & Dump), all organized in secret chat rooms with VIP rooms and super VIP rooms where you always had to wonder if you were really at the highest level or if there was another level above who would dump on you.

In September 2017 you established Crypto-TA, an officially registered training institute focused on crypto trading. Can you tell us more and how you came up with the idea?

Through the years, I saw a lot of “paid groups” where the focus is on milking members for their fees every month again. I wanted to do it different, really teach the members something. When our members leave after 3 months because they learned enough to continue on their own, we did our job well. 

What does a typical day for you look like now?

Too much work, that’s for sure haha, but that’s also my own created problem. I want to control and everything has to be perfect (or close to). I often hear from members that I/we deliver a lot more/faster than needed.

Time schedule: always awake around 6am, scanning the market, reading the news, charting morning updates for the group, video updates, live streams, trading, etc. Around 6-7pm I shut down my pc and try to relax a bit, mostly keeping 1 eye on the charts. Somewhere in there has to be “going to the gym”. It happens too often that I forget about that.

Crypto-TA reached a partnership with NIIT, one of the top 3 learning outsourcing companies in the world. Can you share more details about your customers being institutions?

I think there are a lot of “hobby groups” in crypto and we’re one of the few with a really professional approach and definitely following all the laws, paying taxes etc. Proven experience and maturity of the whole team certainly helps whereas most of other groups recently discovered trading/crypto and are still very young. Many of our business clients book the training course for themselves or for their employees. We even have banks as customers.

When and how did you discover VeChain?

Someone tipped me to watch this video on YT. It was certainly not groundbreaking or proving anything but it made me interested and shorty after we started to accumulate VEN (back then only listed on Liqui)

What are you most and least excited about the crypto industry?

Most: still being early in a development that will change everyone’s lives.
Least: due to crypto being unregulated, the amount of scams and people getting away with it.

What are your thoughts about the 2017 bull run? Did you foresee it happening? What did you learn from it?

Absolute insane. Foresee? I don’t know, I remember my disbelieve when BTC cracked $1.000 again. When BTC was at 2400, I charted 6k and got loads of negative comments. I missed the exact top but was one of the first to tweet BTC targets 6-8k

Learned: take more profit on the way up.

Do you expect to see a similar bull run (as in 2017)? If so, why and by when? If not, why?

I do expect a big run for BTC. I always said “new alt season only after BTC made new ATH” but the past few weeks it has started to look more and more promising that we might see a nice run in alts first. 

What needs to happen for cryptocurrencies to be formally recognised as an asset class? When do you think this will occur?

Less volatility. BTC markets are too easy to manipulate because it’s still a rather small market. As long as this remains, Average Joe will never receive messages from his bank to invest in BTC for his pension.

Excluding Bitcoin, Ethereum and VeChain, what are your 3 blockchain projects you are most excited about? Why?

Vechain is actually an exception in my portfolio. I’m much more a trader than an investor. But recently I discovered EHrT which gives me Vechain 2017 vibes. Furthermore I don’t have any specific projects.

What are the biggest misconceptions people have about trading and cryptocurrencies?

Thinking trading is so easy, mostly fed by the misleading messages on social media. It’s also another point where we differ from so many other groups. We teach members that it is fully normal to have some losing trades and social media is very misleading.

How has the market matured since 2014? How do you think it will change in the next 5 years?

Less scams (still too many). More regulations will come.

Other than DYOR, what are some dos and don’ts you would advise someone that just started trading?

Stop following and copying others with their trades, you need to build your own system.

Based on Google Trends, the Netherlands is one of the most active regions for searches in “VeChain”, “Bitcoin” and “crypto”. Why do you think there is such big interest in the country?

I have no idea, maybe it’s in our genes…. As a tiny country we are known for our commercial spirit, already since centuries.

Google Trends results for “crypto” as of 11 Aug 2020

What do you think VeChain should do/change to become an even bigger success?

I think they know pretty well what they are doing and where they want to go. I have nothing to add.

Do you have a favourite quote or meme?

Trade what you see, not what you think. Don’t chase green candles. If you watch every tick, you’ll trade like a d*ck.

What is the one thing that you would like to have achieved in your life?

My life is characterized as “unstable”. On every aspect, personal, love, financial,… I’m getting close to the point where I would say I’m in calm waters again and that is my goal: to lean back and say “I did it”.

What are your hobbies?

Sadly enough: work. I have always been a workaholic and operating in a 24/7 market is like a Dutch saying “Binding a cat on the bacon”. When I find time, I go to the gym, skiing, … The local pubs do know me quite well and I want to pick up windsurfing again.

If blockchain did not exist, what would you be doing with your time instead?

Probably in International Sales like I did before.

Who is your biggest inspiration and why?

My mother who passed away in 2017. Back then I had quite some financial troubles after a law suit with tax authorities which lasted >7 years. In our last seconds together, I promised her that she wouldn’t have to worry about me and she would be proud when following me from “somewhere above”. Shortly after that, I started Crypto-TA and business exploded.

A fun fact about you?

I think it’s quite funny how some short sighted people in crypto call me a scammer sometimes, just for running a “paid group” even when they have no idea what we do at Crypto-TA. Whereas people who know me in private say I should write a book about my experiences in the past years and have mad respect for the way I fought back.

If your life were a movie, which one would it be?

“Into the wild” but with a better ending. I don’t know if there’s really a film that describes my life but I definitely feel attracted to this movie. Burning all your possessions and go live in the wild without caring at all about money, possessions, etc.

Anything else you would like to add?

Pump it, Sunny!

 

Thanks to Crypto_Ed_NL for taking part in this article. We hope you enjoyed it.

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Final week to enter VeChain’s Community Design Contest

Final week to enter VeChain’s Community Design Contest

by | News

Following the recent Community Video Contest, VeChain announced their second “VeChainThor Mainnet 2nd Year Anniversary Series” contest. The competition will run from July 29th (10pm UTC+8) to August 10th (10pm UTC+8) and requires participants to design a Twitter header which the Foundation will display on a monthly basis.

The Foundation appears to be excited about bringing VeChainThor to the masses. Previous events, such as the Application Development Challenge, had focused on technological development but these now appear to be more marketing centric; signalling their confidence in VeChain’s capabilities.

During his webinar, Jason Rockwood (General Manager or VeChain Americas) mentioned that the last few years had been “sort of a stealth” period for VeChain but with the numerous partnerships, products and community competitions announced in the last few months, VeChain appears to be stepping a notch their efforts to gain even more public interest and awareness.

Wonder what the designs have looked like so far looked? Here are sample the submissions from the community:

 

 

5G8Hours FoundationAccentureAlessandro PalomboAlipayAMAAmazon AWSAmazon Web ServicesAnalysisAPACArkaneArtworkAwardAWSBaasBaiduBayerBig Data ExpoBinanceBitcoin

Buy VET at OceanEx
Buy VET at OceanEx

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