“Dear Charlie, Both myself and some of my friends who are members of permission.io find your authentication procedures to be unnecessary and slow.”

I’m glad you asked about this. You are not the first to ask. You might be surprised at the number of times our executives, designers, and developers have met to discuss this issue. We would dearly love for everything to be simple and for members to have to do nothing more than provide a name, and an email address, and that would be it.

All I can say is that we have done what we can to make it as simple as it can be while at the same time being able to authenticate everyone who applies to sign up, so that we know they are genuine.

The point to note is this:

Whenever we release an exciting new feature or share some other notable news, we get a flurry of applications—thousands—from new users trying to sign up.

Scammers and Robots

We wish it wasn’t so, but among the throngs of interested users, there is always a population of scammers and bots that hope to trick us into rewarding them with ASK for fake activity. There are ways to detect who is genuine and who is not from their online behavior. Because of that, we defer the ability to distribute ASK until a member has proven that they are authentic. We try to make this as painless as possible.

The Revolution We are Leading

Permission.io is developing the ability for large numbers of individuals anywhere in the world to earn ASK in exchange for watching ads that they choose to view. We believe that the business model we are sharing here will revolutionize the digital ad market, making it far more efficient than it currently is.

1. Advertisers will get a far better return on their ad spend (for many reasons).
2. Our members will be rewarded for their time and sharing of their personal information in a currency that they can spend.
3. Our e-retailers will participate in an end-to-end sales cycle that begins with ads and ends with sales.

ASK and the web software we have built enables all of this. And within our platform, we intend to guarantee that genuine individuals are watching ads, and also purchasing goods. That bots are excluded and that we have created a win-win ad market where everyone wins.

We achieve this by ensuring that every one of our members is genuine. We apply a similar standard to the advertisers that use the platform and the retailers that sell goods. We are creating an honest and transparent market.

We hope you understand this. This is why we take pains to authenticate everyone and every organization that has access to our platform.

Cryptocurrency debit cards are the next big thing in the digital asset space.

And this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

A crypto debit card bridges the gap between traditional finance and the crypto world by allowing users to spend their digital assets directly from their wallets. From all the cryptocurrency debit cards, Crypto.com’s MCO Visa Card is one of the hottest solutions to spend your coins.

Join us as we take a thorough look at the crypto debit card in this MCO Visa Card review.

What Is the MCO Visa Card?

Crypto.com’s MCO Visa Card is a cryptocurrency debit card that allows users to spend their coins directly from their wallets.

As a result, there is no need for cardholders to exchange coins into fiat currency and withdraw those funds to their bank accounts.

One of the main reasons why the MCO Visa Card is so popular among cryptocurrency enthusiasts is the cashback rewards system, where you can redeem up to 5% of your total transaction value in the company’s native MCO tokens.

Crypto.com offers different card tiers with unique benefits for each. To unlock higher levels, you have to stake – lock up a part of your coins in a wallet for a specific time – MCO tokens (more on this later).

Higher tiers do not only offer higher cashback rewards but other benefits as well, such as free Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon Prime subscriptions, as well as premium airport lounge access.

Formerly known as the Monaco Card, the MCO Visa Card is a part of Crypto.com’s ecosystem.

In June 2017, the Hong Kong-based company successfully launched an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), collecting nearly $27 million of funds from contributors.

Since then, the organization has successfully launched the MCO Visa Card in multiple countries, including the UK, the European Union, Canada, the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand.

In addition to the digital asset debit card, users of the MCO credit card also have access to the wide variety of products in the Crypto.com ecosystem, including a(n):

1. Cryptocurrency exchange
2. Smartphone app (iOS and Android)
3. Crypto wallet
4. Interest product where you can earn a passive income on your coins
5. Credit solution where you can borrow stablecoins (e.g., USDT, PAX) on your crypto assets
6. Automated quant trading solution

How Does the MCO Visa Card Work and How Do I Get One?

The MCO Visa Card works very similarly to other cryptocurrency debit cards.

The First Steps

You register for an account at the service and submit Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money-Laundering (AML) documents to the provider to confirm your identity and residential address.

After your account is verified, you should choose the tier of your MCO Visa Card.

If you choose the basic tier (Midnight Blue), you don’t have to stake any coins for your crypto card to be shipped to you.

However, if you choose a higher tier, you have to buy the required amount of MCO tokens, send them to your Crypto.com MCO wallet, where you have to hold them for at least six months.

While you are required to stake coins to access higher tiers, you don’t have to wait six months to get your card as you will be able to order it from Crypto.com as soon as you lock up the required amount of coins in your MCO wallet.

After ordering your card, Crypto.com will ship your card to your address, which you have to activate upon receiving it.

From Top-Ups to Spending Crypto

When you are done with that, the next step is to top up your MCO Visa Card with funds (either crypto or fiat currency).

Now that you have your funds ready, you can start using your MCO Visa Card to spend your crypto and earn cashback rewards.

Despite the fact that your MCO Visa Card is a cryptocurrency debit card, it will work very similarly to a traditional payment card.

The only exception is that you are spending crypto assets instead of fiat currency (unless you have already converted your funds to the latter).

As the MCO Card uses Visa’s global network, you will be able to use it in most countries and millions of stores worldwide.

What Rewards Can I Get With the MCO Visa Card?

The rewards you get for your MCO Visa Card is determined by your card tier.

While the basic tier (Midnight Blue) is free, you have to stake a specified amount of MCO tokens for at least six months – for example, 50 MCO for the second tier (Ruby Steel) – to access higher card tiers and better rewards.

Unlike at some competitor solutions, you also get cashback rewards with the basic Midnight Blue tier (1%).

However, if you stake MCO tokens, you can get an up to 5% cashback in MCO tokens on your card transactions.

In addition to the above-mentioned cashback rate, you get the following benefits for the highest MCO Card tier (Obsidian):

1. Free Spotify subscription
2. Free Netflix subscription
3. Free Amazon Prime subscription
4. 10% Expedia cashback
5. 10% Airbnb cashback
6. The ability to earn bonus interest on your tokens
7. Exclusive merchandise welcome pack
8. Access to Crypto.com Private
9. LoungeKey Airport Lounge Access for you and a guest
10. $1,000 of free ATM withdrawals every month
11. Unlimited currency exchanges on interbank rates
12. A metal card (all MCO Card tiers include a metal card except for Midnight Blue)

For more information on MCO Visa Card rewards, we recommend visiting Crypto.com’s website.

How Do I Top Up the MCO Visa Card?

You can top up your MCO Visa Card easily within your Crypto.com wallet using the “Top Up” menu under the “Card” section inside the app.

Based on where you are located, Crypto.com offers multiple payment methods you can use to load your MCO Visa Card with funds.

For example, in the United States, you can top up your MCO Visa Card with the following cryptocurrencies:

1. Bitcoin (BTC)
2. Litecoin (LTC)
3. Ethereum (ETH)
4. Ripple (XRP)
5. PAX Standard (PAX)
6. TrueUSD (TUSD)
7. EOS
8. Stellar Lumens (XLM)

US customers can top up their MCO Card with fiat currency (USD) via a credit card or bank transfers.

On the other hand, in addition to card top-ups, EU customers have access to low-cost SEPA bank transfers to fund their MCO Visa Card.

What Are the Fees for Using the MCO Visa Card?

Compared to other crypto debit card solutions, the MCO Visa Card features competitive fees.

You don’t have to pay a dime for card issuance while account and card maintenance are also free.

Furthermore, crypto-to-crypto exchanges, internal transfers (to other Crypto.com users), as well as SEPA withdrawals and bank transfer deposits come at no cost.

Until you reach your limits – which are very generous for even the basic Midnight Blue tier ($200 for ATM withdrawals and $2,000 for interbank exchanges) – you don’t have to pay for ATM cash withdrawals and currency conversions.

However, after your monthly limits are reached, Crypto.com charges 2% for ATM withdrawals and 0.5% for interbank exchanges.

Also, there is an inactivity fee where you have to pay approximately $5 after being inactive for 12 months.

While instant fiat-to-crypto exchanges (via credit cards) will cost you 3.5% per transaction, Crypto.com will charge $50 for card re-issuances and upgrades, as well as for account closures.

For more information on the MCO Visa Card’s fees, we recommend checking the “Fees & Limits” menu inside “Settings” in the Crypto.com smartphone app.

What Are the Pros of the MCO Card?

1. Widespread availability, including the European Union, the UK, the US, Canada, and some APAC countries
2. High free ATM withdrawal and interbank exchange limits for even the basic tier
3. Premium benefits and great crypto cashback rewards at higher tiers
4. A decent ecosystem where you have access to multiple Crypto.com products and services in addition to your MCO Visa Card
5. The basic 1% cashback rate for the free Midnight Blue tier is highly competitive among cryptocurrency credit cards
6. Unlike most of its competitors, there are no foreign exchange fees at Crypto.com until you reach your monthly limits. And, even when you reach your limits, you get interbank rates for currency exchanges where Crypto.com charges only 0.5%

What Are the Cons of the MCO Visa Card?

1. While the highest tiers provide tremendous benefits and high cashback rates, they are inaccessible for most users due to the excessive staking requirements
2. Staking MCO tokens at higher levels come with increased risks of volatility, which may result in losses for MCO cardholders
3. To continue receiving most of the benefits for higher tiers, you have to keep staking MCO tokens after the initial six-months period

The MCO Visa Card: An Excellent Crypto Credit Card Solution With Widespread Availability

The MCO Visa Card is indeed one of the best crypto credit cards on the market.

In addition to the competitive fees, the Monaco Visa Card offers excellent cashback rewards and access to premium features and benefits at higher tiers.

Even at the lowest Midnight Blue tier, you get 1% cashback on all your card transactions, which is highly competitive among crypto debit cards.

With the high limits for free ATM withdrawals and interbank exchanges, as well as access to other products in Crypto.com’s ecosystem, the MCO Visa Card could be a great choice for cryptocurrency enthusiasts in the EU, UK, US, Canada, and APAC countries.

What if you could get paid while relaxing and watching movies? Settle into the couch with a bit of popcorn and come out with a few extra bucks?

Well, while you won’t make a career doing it, it turns out that dream is possible. There are services based online and in-person around the country that pay people to watch movies. Sometimes these opportunities are officially through movie theater companies, other times they are through separate services like movie trailer review sites or loyalty programs, but you have options.

As you would expect in a “get money for doing nothing” style space, there’s a lot of noise and bad faith players. You have to be careful about whom you choose to work with and why. To make this a bit easier for you, we’ve done our research and found a handful of legitimate ways you can get paid to watch movies.

These fall into two major camps: passive and active. Neither option will make you rich, but as you’d expect, you can make more by choosing “active” services. This means you have to exert some sort of effort, whether that’s proactively choosing the videos they serve up to you or by going to physical locations, etc. Passive services are usually data collection panels that simply observe what you already do.

So take a look, see which options look most interesting to you, and get watching!

1. Get Paid to Watch Movies in Theaters by Becoming a Theater Experience Reviewer

This isn’t as big as it used to be, especially in the wake of COVID-19, but you could look into becoming a “Field Associate” via CertifiedFieldAssociate.com or through the movie companies themselves.

These companies pay you to sit in on movies in local theatres to make sure ads are being run, count customers, figure out what movies are most popular and when, etc.

It’s essentially a hands-on data collection position. The main issue with this gig is that you can waste a lot of time and get paid much less than minimum wage. This is because depending on your task, you may have to wait for a movie to finish or run into issues with the local theatre management, etc.

Lots of people who have done these types of gigs for a while only recommend taking gigs with a defined scope.

How Does Being a Movie Theatre Field Associate Work?

By either signing up directly with movie companies or through third-party sites, you can get paid a lump sum for attending movies at movie theaters and answering specific questions related to your experience.

How Much Can I Make?

The pay varies from job to job, but they usually pay a project fee. This means if you’re not careful about time management, you can earn less than minimum wage.

Pros of Being a Field Associate

1. Can attend blockbuster movies for free.
2. Good track record for payment.
3. Can work near where you live.

Cons of Being a Movie Theatre Field Associate

1. Some jobs make you hop in and out of movies and never sit through an entire experience.
2. You have to explain what you’re doing to the local theater.
3. If you’re not careful, you can spend 8 hours doing a $40 job and make less than minimum wage.

Where to Get Started

1. Certified Field Associates – The website is pretty rough, but MarketForce Information is one of the most widely used field associate job sites.
2. EntertainmentCareers.net – This is an entertainment-specific job site, so you can search for “Theatre Checker” or “Field Associate” here and see if anyone is hiring.
3. Cinemark – You can also see if movie companies like Cinemark are hiring anyone directly.

2. Get Paid to Watch Movie Previews via “Online Task” Sites

There’s a whole internet culture around getting paid for surveys, small tasks, playing games, etc. Many of the large communities in this world also offer points and gift card opportunities for watching movie trailers or giving feedback on ads. This is definitely more of an “active” choice, but if you’re interested in making money online in your downtime, then the sites listed below are reliable places to start.

How Do Online Task Sites Work?

Popular “make money online” sites like Swagbucks and InboxDollars pay you in points to perform all sorts of online activities from playing games to watching movie trailers. You can then turn those points in for gift cards or cash.

How Much Can I Make?

You won’t make more than a few bucks a month, so it’s best to do this in your downtime or only when high point opportunities come around.

Pros of Watching Movie Previews on Online Task Sites

1. You can make money on your phone or computer anytime, anywhere.
2. Top online task sites are reliable and safe.
3. Opportunities to combine movie trailer watching with games, surveys, and other digital tasks to make more cash.

Cons of Watching Movie Previews on Online Task Sites

1. You won’t make more than a few bucks a month.
2. It won’t feel like relaxing because you’re watching what they want you to watch.
3. It requires consistent effort to see results.

Where to Get Started

1. Swagbucks – Swagbucks is the top of the hill as far as “get paid online” sites go, so this is the best place to start.
2. InboxDollars – InboxDollars is very similar to Swagbucks, so you could either split your time between the two or see which of the two has better movie trailer options.

3. Get Paid to Review Movies by Writing Articles or Creating Content

This is more on the active side, but if you have a passion for movies, then you could start reviewing movies you watch and submitting your writing to publications. Some of these will be paid, most won’t be. You could also start a YouTube channel and post your reviews there. There’s no sure path to becoming a paid critic, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

Your best bet is to find a different spin on what’s already being done. Look at the market and current popular movie reviewers and see how you can do something a bit different. Once you identify an opportunity, make a content plan, run a few tests, and ask your friends for their opinions before investing too much time.

How Does Reviewing Movies Work?

This is a creative pursuit that has no guarantee of success and requires passion. You will most likely start by writing your own reviews and refining your craft and eventually pursuing publications to work with. You could also create your own platform and publish there.

How Much Can I Make?

Most people don’t make anything, but successful critics can make a decent living doing a job they love. Like any creative pursuit, this will take a lot of time and effort before you reap any sort of monetary reward.

Pros of Reviewing Movies

1. A chance to pursue your passion.
2. Opportunity to think critically about movies.
3. Fun networking and social opportunities.

Cons of Reviewing Movies

1. No guarantee of payment ever.
2. Very difficult to “make it”.
3. Requires a lot of work upfront.

Where to Get Started

1. Study.com – Take the time to read up on the life and career trajectory of a movie reviewer. It’s best to make career and life decisions with as much information as possible. Take some time to read over people’s experiences before you dive in.
2. LiveAbout – Study the best movie critics of all time. If you want to be the best, then you need to know what the best did!
3. Five Stars! – This book is written by film critic Christopher Null and offers advice on how to get your start.

4. Product Test TVs or Other Entertainment Devices

This is getting at it from a different angle, but you could look into product testing for TV companies. They want to make sure their new products work and are user-friendly, so there are ways to get paid for answering questions about new products.

How Does Product Testing TVs Work?

People can apply to studies through third-party sites (a few are listed below). If you qualify for a study, you’ll either be sent a TV or a product related to a TV that you’ll have to report back on.

How Much Can I Make Product Testing?

Payment varies from study to study, but you can usually make between $10-$25 an hour when you’re participating.

Pros of Product Testing

1. Many established sites to use.
2. Payment isn’t an issue once you land a gig.
3. Variety in products and jobs.
4. Decent pay for your time.

Cons of Product Testing

1. You’ll have to search to find jobs that specifically involve watching TV.
2. High competition for good gigs.

Where to Get Started

1. Toluna – Toluna is a modern product testing site that’s easy to get set up on and is used by many major brands.
2. Product Testing USA – Product Testing USA feels pretty 90s but is well-established and can offer some interesting opportunities with some searching.

5. Work for a Company Like Netflix to Tag Movies

These opportunities are rare and have a ton of competition, but there are editorial/movie analyst positions that Netflix, Hulu, HBO, etc. have where people tag shows and improve their service’s metadata (the data that the algorithm uses to know what to display).

How Does Getting Paid to Tag Movies Work?

You have to get officially hired through a particular movie company like Netflix. This means browsing job sites, sending in resumes — the whole nine yards.

How Much Can I Make Tagging Movies?

That depends on what is involved in your position, but these can be full-time positions at large companies, meaning you could make a liveable salary.

Pros of Tagging Movies

1. Potentially a full-time gig.
2. Work at an established company.
3. There is no middle man.

Cons of Tagging Movies

1. Gigs are extremely rare.
2. You can’t just find these through a third-party service — you have to find a job at a specific company.
3. Tagging and watching movies won’t be the only thing you do at your job. There are bound to be other responsibilities.

Where to Get Started

1. Netflix – Netflix is the biggest streaming service out there, so this is your best bet for a position.
2. Hulu – Remember there’s no guarantee in how the job will be posted, so keep an eye out for anything that sounds remotely like an editorial analyst.
3. HBO – HBO has the biggest variety of U.S. offices, so if you have no interest in moving, then start here.

6. Sell Your Data and Keep Watching Movies Like Normal

This is the most passive option to make money while watching movies because you don’t have to change your habits at all. Major data collection and reporting companies like Nielsen will pay you to have access to your phone and computer. You can make an easy $50 a year and be entered into automatic sweepstakes depending on the panel, but the most popular and reputable company by far is Nielsen.

These companies turn this data into massive industry reports that businesses use to educate their strategies. Yes, you are giving up your privacy here, but you are also getting compensated for using your phone and computer like normal.

How Does Panel Data Work?

You download a piece of software, fill out an account, give the software a bunch of permissions, and voila.

How Much Can I Make Selling My Data?

If you’re selling via a single panel, not very much. Nielsen gives you around $50 a year and enters you into sweepstakes that could pay off but aren’t worth banking on.

Pros of Selling Your Data

1. It’s a set and forget it type deal — you can use your computer like normal after installation.
2. Companies like Nielsen are reputable.
3. Opportunity to contribute to useful data analysis.

Cons of Selling Your Data

1. You are letting someone have access to your device. Privacy cannot be a concern.
2. Pay isn’t that great.
3. The installation can be a bit annoying.
4. The software will use up some of your CPU and potentially slow down your computer.

Where to Get Started

1. Nielsen – Nielsen is the most reputable panel company by far, so I recommend using them. When you’re giving up this much data, it’s important to know who is getting it.

Bonus: Think Outside the “Get Paid to Watch TV” Box

Consider expanding your definition a bit and look for jobs that let you watch TV while you do them.

Babysitting comes immediately to mind. You could also consider house sitting, dog sitting, working at a parking garage, or finding some other position that is generally  “slow”. Not only will these pay you more, but you’ll probably enjoy them more because you can watch what you choose instead of being forced to watch specific content.

The Bottom Line on Getting Paid to Watch Movies, TV, and Previews

You won’t make much money simply watching TV or videos. Every option here has one thing in common: you have to provide value to the person paying you. It’s obvious, but it’s true. The less work involved, the less value you are typically providing. The more hands-on, the more you get paid. That’s how the game works.

Our advice is to use apps sites like Swagbucks alongside more lucrative product testing opportunities. In other words, mix your passive and active opportunities to keep things fresh and earn the most cash.

Good luck, and remember to make these services work for you and not the other way around. If you feel stretched and pressed for time, it’s almost certainly not worth it. You should approach these with a casual mindset and put your efforts toward other job opportunities if you are particularly strapped for cash.

Permission is working to get people just like you paid for the data you’re already giving away.  We are creating a new kind of internet that pays you for your time and data shared while engaging online as you normally do. The Permission Browser Extension suggests cool ads relevant to your internet browsing, and pays you cryptocurrency in return for watching.

See how we’re working to change the internet forever.

Fiat currency is government-issued and government-backed legal tender which is not linked to the value of anything physical like gold, silver, or even copper.

Perhaps you’d like to call it: I-can’t-believe-it’s-actually-money, money.

If you read The Bible in Latin—I bet you don’t—on the first page in the third verse of Genesis, you run across the words “fiat lux,” meaning “let there be light.”  Armed with this information you can deduce that the term “fiat currency” literally means “let there be currency.”

This widely-used term first saw the light of day in the book, “Fiat Money Inflation in France” published in 1875. It was an academic work written by Andrew Dickson White, the American historian, and co-founder of Cornell University.

At the time the book was written, there was a running debate about the nature of money. Andrew White chose the words “fiat currency” to describe money which has no intrinsic value. If you’ve never studied the subject, you’ll be surprised by how many different things that have value of themselves have been used as money at various times. Of course, it’s true of gold and silver coins, but it’s also true of beaver pelts (used as currency in New France, now part of Canada) and cigarettes (used as currency for over two years in post-WW2 Germany).

Surprisingly, cowry shells proved popular for many centuries. They were used as currency in ancient China, so much so that Classical Chinese character for “money/currency”, 貝, is believed to be a pictograph of a cowrie shell. And because cowries occur near the shores of almost all countries that border the Indian ocean, they were used as money in India and African countries that border that ocean.

The Birth of Paper Money

So, something qualifies as real money if it has “intrinsic” value—beaver pelts, cigarettes, and cowries were regarded as valuable by the peoples who accepted them as money, just as gold and silver were.

The Chinese invented paper money, some time in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), and used engraved wooden blocks to print it. They gradually became increasingly sophisticated in financial activities, developing credit mechanisms—merchants began to use promissory notes (credit notes) for long-distance trade. During the Song Dynasty (960-1276) merchants were invited to deposit their coins with the Government Treasury in exchange for “flying money” (Fey-thsian).

Curiously, the motivation for flying money wasn’t a desire to inflate the money supply. It was done because China was running out of coins. This is a money-supply problem we rarely hear of now, but it often plagued coin-based economies. Some merchants issued private drafts (banknotes in effect) that were backed by coins and salt, and later on by gold and silver. In 1024, the government took sole control of issuing these notes.

Then, during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1367), paper money was declared to be the only legal tender. The paper money experiment began to go badly wrong during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). New notes were introduced into circulation without withdrawing older notes. Monetary inflation followed, as naturally as night follows day. In 1380, one Chinese guan was worth 1000 copper coins, by 1535, its value had reduced to 0.28 copper coins.

What Is Inflation?

It is worth pointing out here that the word “inflation” in a financial context is often misunderstood by people to mean “rising prices.” That is not its meaning. It means precisely “an increase in the supply of money.” Rising prices are a possible, but not guaranteed, result of inflating the money supply.

If you increase the supply of money, but that new money ends up with people who choose never to spend it, it will not cause prices to rise. Prices will rise only if the money circulates. And prices can rise for other reasons—a poor harvest will raise the price of grain without any help from an inflated money supply.

A Tale of Two Cities

Europe lagged China by centuries in the use of paper money, which didn’t get going until the printing press had been invented. The idea was tried in Sweden in 1661 by Stockholm’s Banco, linking banknotes directly to deposits of coins. The bank then foolishly printed more notes than there were deposits. It went bankrupt after three years. At about the same time, the goldsmith-bankers in London began creating notes linked to deposits, but they were conservative in issuing them. These proved to be a prototype for a national currency.

In 1694 the English government established the Bank of England, printing notes that guaranteed access to an amount of silver. But it wasn’t until 1745 that it issued fixed denomination notes from £20 to £1,000—the first true British banknotes.

While London moved slowly, Paris moved quickly, under the influence of the Scottish economist, John Law. He was an original economic thinker and a historically influential one. He invented the scarcity theory of value—a model for the interaction between supply and demand. He wrote the Real Bills Doctrine, which considers the required relationship between bank assets and liabilities and which set the foundation for modern banking. He believed that monetary inflation would stimulate an economy—and it does in the short term. But that opinion led to his downfall.

Law was also a successful gambler with a good understanding of probability. It was his gambling skills that brought him to the attention of the French aristocracy and his economic ideas that persuaded the Duke of Orleans to appoint him as Controller General of Finances of France.

When John Law took charge, France was in a financial mess. Louis XIV’s War of the Spanish Succession had left France in economic distress. The economy was stagnant and the national debt was crippling. A shortage of precious metals caused a shortage of coins in circulation.

Law’s solution was to replace gold with paper credit and then gradually increase the supply of credit. He believed this would stimulate commerce, and thus help to reduce the national debt. He intended to replace the national debt with shares in prosperous economic ventures.

To cut a long story short, Law issued bank notes based on gold coins combined in a 1 to 3 ratio with defunct government bonds, inflating the currency by a factor of 3 from the get-go. He then provoked a speculative bubble by founding the Mississippi Company, a monopoly trading company. The company’s stock rose by 60 times its initial value and then collapsed causing French citizens to dump their paper money for coins. When that happened, he was shown the door.

Real Paper Money: The Gold Standard

By the nineteenth century, the phenomenon of paper money inflation was better understood. John Law’s disastrous French experiment proved to be an object lesson and a highly effective deterrent. The faith in coinage (gold and silver) was even enshrined in the US constitution, where Article 1, Section 10 states:

“[No State shall] make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;”

From 1837 to 1863, a period of 26 years, the US had no central banks, just heavily regulated state-chartered banks that issued banknotes against specie (precious-metal-based coinage). Then, with the National Banking Act of 1863, a system of national banks was established with the intent of creating a uniform national currency and paying for the Union’s civil war costs.

Wars are costly. The US issued “Greenback” dollars that were not backed by precious metals to pay for it. But in a series of legislative changes, which began in 1873, the US gradually moved to a gold standard with all bank notes backed by gold.

The British had been operating a gold standard since 1844, and much of the British Empire naturally fell in line. In 1873, Germany adopted the gold standard and France followed suit. Throughout the 19th-century, banknotes backed by gold gradually superseded gold and silver coinage.

A gold standard emerged. It prevented undisciplined and inflationary money-printing and it reduced the need for coins. It also enforced a fixed exchange rate between currencies, facilitating global trade. Because currency was exchangeable for gold, gold naturally migrated to the more successful economies, increasing the money supply in accordance with the national balance of trade.

What’s not to love?

Gold does not provide a perfect basis for a commodity-backed currency, but, historically, it has proved to be the best choice. Currently, the world’s above-ground gold stock grows by 1 to 2% annually. About half the gold in existence is used for jewelry, about 20% is owned by central banks, a further 20% by private investors, and the remainder is employed industrially. The neat thing about gold is that it isn’t destroyed by usage; almost all industrially used gold is recovered and recycled.

The glitches in gold-based currencies happen with discoveries of significant new deposits. But this is rare. It happened when Spain raided the Aztecs and the Incas for gold, and as a result of the California gold rush of 1849, the Australian gold rush of 1851, and the Witwatersrand gold rush of 1886. It would require a truly dramatic new gold find to increase the existing stock of gold significantly.

There are currently about 190,000 tonnes of mined gold, with an estimated 54,000 tonnes still below ground. Most of those 190,000 tonnes are more recent than you might imagine. Two-thirds of it has been mined since 1950.

The Rocky Road to Fiat Currency

The question is: why did the gold standard fail?

But it’s the wrong question. The gold standard didn’t fail; it worked. The intention with the gold standard was to prevent the debasement of paper currency by making it exchangeable with something that couldn’t be debased: gold. All the evidence suggests that it works, even allowing for the disruption imposed by the occasional major gold discovery.

Paper money that is linked directly to gold—something that cannot be inflated by fiat, is not fiat money. Paper money becomes fiat money when the link between the paper and the gold is cut.

In the first decade of the twentieth century, the major economies of the world had moved their currencies to implement a gold standard. Then came the wars – without money, you cannot fight them. And the easiest way to pay for them is in fiat money because you can print it without it becoming immediately obvious to your citizens. The economists could not object—losing the war will be far worse economically than a dose of inflation.

After World War I, only the US truly remained on the gold standard. Other countries tried to go back to it, but the Great Depression foiled that.

In 1934, the US Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act, which nationalized all gold by ordering Federal Reserve banks to turn over their physical gold to the U.S. Treasury. In return, the banks received gold certificates to be used as reserves against deposits and Federal Reserve notes. The act authorized the president to devalue the gold-linked dollar, which he quickly did. This bumped the gold value of the dollar from $20.67 to $35 per ounce, a devaluation of over 40%.

The effect was to allow the Federal Reserve to print money in the hope of combatting rampant deflation. That’s right, deflation rather than inflation!!

The Force of Deflation

The money supply can expand as well as contract. If paper money is printed and it circulates, then in general prices will rise. However, when an economy goes into recession or a depression, many people and businesses are no longer able to pay their debts. An unpaid debt is money that disappears. The usual way to combat such a contraction of the money supply is to print money and make it available to the banks so that they remain solvent.

This is the other side of the coin, as regards fiat money. Not only does fiat money make inflation possible, it also makes deflation possible. Neither of those is good for the health of an economy.

At the end of World War II, another very expensive war, which only the US survived with its economy intact, a new international standard for currencies was implemented, that went by the name of Bretton Woods.

The idea was that countries would fix their exchange rate against the US dollar and would be able to exchange their dollar holdings for gold at the official exchange rate of $35 per ounce whenever they so wished. Neither businesses nor individuals were allowed to do that, so convertibility was highly constrained. Depriving individuals of owning gold (except for jewelry) removed a great deal of liquidity from the market and thus helped to stabilize the dollar price of gold.

So the US dollar then became the world’s primary reserve currency—the currency that countries and large businesses needed to hold to conduct international trade. They held dollars for the same reason that people and companies once held gold coins: as a common currency. The dollar was suitable because of its link to gold, and all countries could swap their dollar holdings for gold whenever they wished.

This worked very well until it didn’t.

Starting in 1959 and continuing for over a decade, France decided to continuously exchange its dollar reserves for gold at the official rate. In the latter part of the 1960s, the US was spending heavily on the Vietnam War and was running a persistent balance of payments deficit. Eventually, the US was obliged to cut the deficits or cut the link to gold.

President Nixon chose the latter—on August 15, 1971, the US abandoned the convertibility of the US dollar to gold.

And Then There Was Fiat

It is a remarkable fact that for the last 50 years no currencies in the world have had any intrinsic value. They are nothing more than paper, no matter which country you live in. And few people care.

The only thing that is backing the US dollar is faith that the US government will support it and maintain the current system of currency exchange across the markets of the world. However, this system favors the US. It remains to be seen whether the dominance of the dollar will be challenged.

What Could Challenge It?

Why, cryptocurrencies, of course. Currencies that can be designed to be proof against the twin systemic threats of inflation and deflation.

Between work, families, and what little time we have to give ourselves to relax, finding ways to squeeze in some extra cash can be a challenge. Part-time gigs aren’t always feasible, and people need ways to make extra cash both on-demand and passively.

Getting paid for searching the web is a good example of passive income. You won’t make a lot of money doing this, but by opting into a collection of services that pay you for actions you’re already doing, you can build up a nice pocket of cash to pay down debt, pad your Christmas shopping stash, or use as a savings buffer.

Before we dive into our favorite search engine reward programs, we’re going to cover a few important questions and thoughts about this world:

What Does It Mean to Get Paid for Searching the Web?

Getting paid to search the web or getting paid for browsing the internet is exactly what it sounds like. You use your preferred or specific search engines, and depending on the actions you take and the keywords you search, you can earn money or points for those actions.

Where Does the Money Come From?

That depends on the platform, but typically brands pay these companies to suggest actions for you to take, observe your behavior to sell to advertisers, or both.

For example, one platform is Qwee. Let’s say you were in a shopping mood and searched for “new toaster”. If you had the Qwee extension installed, not only would you see the normal search engine results, you would also see a list of vendor links with numeric cashback values listed. If you click one of those Qwee links, let’s say one that goes to Target to check out their toaster collection, then you would receive some cash for clicking to that site, and Qwee would too.

What Makes a Good Web Search Earner?

Because the earning potential is low across the board, the best search engine reward programs are the ones you will use with the least amount of effort. In other words, you’re aiming for the platforms that either already fit into your habits or can be easily added to your routine.

Next, you’re looking for platforms that aren’t overly restrictive, and that give you meaningful progress. If the actions to qualify for points or cash back are limited, then it will be difficult to engage in these actions passively. And, if you’re looking for something you can do to make active money, then paid surveys or more professional side gigs are a better way to spend your time.

Lastly, you want to have reliable progress. If it feels more like a distraction and cash doesn’t seem to be accruing on a reliable basis, then you should change platforms.

There are also some clever ways to combine some of these passive earners to maximize your cash. We cover those below!

Our Favorite Tools for Getting Paid to Browse the Internet

Without further ado, here are our favorite programs to make money by searching Google or using search engines. Have a specific suggestion or experience with the options below? Let us know.

1. Swagbucks Browser

What Is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a powerhouse free reward system backed by Yahoo and offers a diverse set of ways to earn online, including web searching, videos, surveys, and opting into paid offers with cash kickbacks.

How Does It Work?

Swagbucks operates on a points system. Once you create an account, you have a variety of different passive and active activities you can opt into to earn points. Once you earn enough, you can “cash-out” by either choosing gift cards or a PayPal cashout.

How Much Can I Make?

Swagbucks is widely variable, from $10-$20 with a pretty hands-off approach to reports of $300-$400/month. Your best bet for maximizing income is to make the Swagbucks browser your default browser, use the paid and discovery offers when you can, base your activities around the daily and monthly bonuses, and take the daily polls.

In the end, it really depends on how much time you put in and what offers come through that month, but you shouldn’t expect to make more than a small amount per month.

Pros of Swagbucks

1. Safe and reliable.
2. Diverse earning options.
3. Good paid offers.
4. Has its own browser that works well for passive search earnings.

Cons of Swagbucks

1. The surveys are a bit of a timesuck and usually aren’t worth the effort unless you’re trying to hit a certain bonus.
2. You may not qualify for some of the surveys.
3. Unless you really invest in understanding the platform, it can feel a bit overwhelming.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up for Swagbucks here.

2. Qmee

What Is Qmee?

Qmee is a survey and browser extension company that gives cash rewards for clicking into relevant sites based on what you search for.

How Does It Work?

After you create a free account, you download their browser extension and can continue using your favorite browsers like Chrome. If you search a keyword that a Qmee brand partner has bid for, then a pop-up shows up on the left side of your browser, giving you the option to earn money by clicking into the brand’s site.

How Much Can I Make?

Qmee pays anywhere from a few cents to a dollar for clicking into certain links related to your search query, and surveys vary from a few cents to a few dollars.

Pros of Qmee

1. Easy to use and fits easily into your existing internet routine.
2. No minimum cash out.
3. Set up is super easy.
4. You can also cash out to charity, which is nice.

Cons of Qmee

1. Sometimes you will take a survey, spend time putting in questions, and then find out you’ve been declined due to demographic reasons.
2. The search engine feature only works on certain keywords, so this is firmly a passive earner. If you’re looking for a specific survey app, there are better options.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up for Qmee here.

3. Microsoft Rewards

What Is Microsoft Rewards?

Previously known as Bing Rewards, Microsoft Rewards is an all-in-one, cross-platform rewards program based around Microsoft Products. From Bing to Xbox, to shopping at their online store, it all funnels into one reward account.

How Does It Work?

After you sign up for a free account, you can register all of your Microsoft devices. Level 1 Members start by earning up to 150 points per month from searches, and Level 2 Members earn up to 20 points a day and 600 a month from searches. The more points you earn, the higher levels, and the more perks you get.

You can earn points by searching, completing quizzes, playing certain games and completing actions on Xbox, buying from their online store, and more.

Once you have enough points, you can redeem them for sweepstakes or Microsoft products.

How Much Can I Make?

This platform is best for Microsoft power users. About 1,000 points are worth a dollar, and with search only you’re restricted to 150 points per month on Level 1 and 600 for level 2, resulting in <$1/month from search alone. If you combine your rewards account with Microsoft purchases and complete the occasional quiz, then it becomes a bit more lucrative!

Pro Tip: Combine Qmee with Microsoft Rewards to double your earning potential.

Pros of Microsoft Rewards

1. Sophisticated System.
2. Rewards Microsoft power users.
3. Has points you can earn through Xbox.

Cons of Microsoft Rewards

1. Low points to rewards ratio.
2. Can only redeem for sweepstakes or Microsoft products.

Where Do I Sign Up?

You can sign up for Microsoft Rewards by clicking here.

4. Nielsen Digital Voice

What Is Nielsen Digital Voice?

Nielsen Digital Voice is a passive application that pays you to record your behavior and uses that data to educate their research and trends reports.

How Does It Work?

First, you download their program on your computer. After it installs, you’ll run through a series of steps before getting the all-clear. Once everything is set up, you don’t have to do anything else! You will automatically be entered into their sweepstakes.

How Much Can I Make?

All of Nielsen Digital Voice rewards are sweepstakes-based, so your rewards will vary. They give away $120,000 a year, and each month 400 members are winners from a pool of $10,000. Your winning amount is random but will never exceed $1,000 in a month.

Pros of Nielsen Digital Voice

1. Created by a reputable company.
2. Good sweepstake rewards are possible if you win.
3. Completely passive earning potential.

Cons of Nielsen Digital Voice

1. It can be a bit of a pain to set up.
2. They are recording your behavior, so privacy cannot be a concern.
3. No direct earnings — only sweepstakes based.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up for Nielsen Digital Voice here.

5. Wonder

What Is Wonder?

Wonder is a research-based platform where companies ask anonymous questions and Wonder researchers deliver detailed responses. Rather than being a passive search app, this offers higher pay for active research. If you’re looking for something a bit more hands-on, then this is for you.

How Does It Work?

The barrier of entry is much higher for researchers on Wonder, but if you pass, then you join the platform, choose the questions you’d like to answer, and get paid based on the values listed next to the questions.

How Much Can I Make?

Between $8-$35 an hour, but that depends on your proficiency and the questions available. Wonder is best for people adept at internet research — the ability to find legitimate sources and pull useful information from them is critical to making money on Wonder.

Pros of Wonder

1. Much higher pay than surveys and passive browsing.
2. Freedom to choose your own questions and work when you want.
3. Modern platform.

Cons of Wonder

1. The application process is much more rigorous than other platforms.
2. Wonder doesn’t accept applicants from all states.
3. Sometimes answers are removed for unknown reasons and you don’t get paid for that effort.
4. More mentally demanding.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up for Wonder here.

Is Getting Paid to Search the Web Worth the Time?

That depends on you.

To be clear: getting paid to browse the internet is not a complete way to make a living.

But, if you can build these services into your lifestyle in a way that doesn’t subtract and only adds to your earning potential and you aren’t concerned with privacy and selling your data, then yes; they can be a good way to pad your bank account. The keys to achieving that are following the guidelines we listed above: making sure you fit them into your routine, stacking them when possible, etc.

The idea is to make them work for you and not the other way around.

What’s Next for Web Earnings?

As you can tell, the best way to get paid for searching the web is by using apps and services that work with your existing routine, but what if those services and routines didn’t have to be separate at all?

What if people could take back ownership of their data and only interact with brands when they choose to, earning passive income by permissioning their data to brands and engaging with personalized content, instead of being interrupted by annoying and bad-fitting ads or having to use specific search engines?

What if instead of search engines and eCommerce giants profiting from your data, financial value for your information was transferred back to you?

That future is possible with current blockchain and digital ID technology, and we’re building it. The Permission Browser Extension offers users cryptocurrency in return for their data. When users download the extension, they’re shown relevant ads as they browse the web, which they can choose to watch in return for crypto. With technology like this, why would you ever watch ads without being paid?

See how Permission is handing data ownership back to where it rightly belongs… in the hands of individuals.

Control over our data has become increasingly important.

With multiple recent high-profile data breaches and scandals, governments are taking extra measures to prevent their citizens’ personal information from falling into the wrong hands.

Data sovereignty, which has become a hot topic nowadays, is one of the concepts governments are using to protect citizens’ data.

But what is data sovereignty, why is it important, and how does it affect businesses and consumers?

Bear with us as we explore this important topic.

What Is Data Sovereignty?

Data sovereignty refers to the concept that the data an organization collects, stores, and processes is subject to the nation’s laws and general best practices where it is physically located.

In layman’s terms, this means that a business has to store the personal information of its customers in a way that complies with all the data privacy regulations, best practices, and guidelines of the host country.

If the business fails or refuses to comply with the host’s data privacy laws, the country’s government can impose a fine or force the company in another way to fulfill its requirements.

As part of data sovereignty measures, multiple countries have regulated how businesses can handle citizens’ data, including the locations and jurisdictions where organizations are allowed to store citizen data.

When a business transfers data of a citizen outside of the country, the third nation’s government can use measures (e.g., subpoenas) to access the user’s data, even though the citizen is a foreign national.

Since governments seek to prevent other nations from acquiring the data of their citizens, they have introduced data sovereignty measures that restrict how businesses can transfer personal information outside of the country.

Furthermore, the recent data protection law of the European Union, the GDPR, has implemented strict rules on how organizations handle the personal information of their citizens, even when the company processes data outside the region.

As a side note, data sovereignty is sometimes used in the context of indigenous societies.

Indigenous data sovereignty refers to the decolonization of the personal information of indigenous people that could play a key role in achieving autonomy for these societies.

Data Sovereignty vs. Data Residency

While data sovereignty and data residency are two terms that have similar meanings, it’s very easy to confuse them.

Data Residency

Data residency is when a business or government specifies the geographical location where its data should be stored.

Data residency requirements are often the result of policy- or regulation-related reasons.

Let’s see an example to understand this.

A nation has favorable data privacy laws that help enterprises in handling data-related processes in a convenient, predictable way.

Due to the favorable regulatory environment, businesses would choose this country to store their data.

A company may also include the location where its users’ personal information is kept in its data sovereignty policy.

An excellent example of a regulation-related data residency requirement is when a business chooses to store the data in a specific country due to its favorable tax environment.

To receive the tax benefits, the business needs to ensure that it does most of its operations within the nation’s borders. Therefore, it decides to store its data in a geographical location somewhere in the country.

Data Sovereignty

On the other hand, data sovereignty refers to designating the geographical location where the data is physically stored AND being the subject of that nation’s laws.

While data residency ensures that the data stays in the specified geographical location, data sovereignty makes sure that the information is subject to the legal punishments and protections of the country where it is physically stored.

The History of Data Sovereignty

To understand our topic, it’s essential to take a look at the most important events leading to data sovereignty’s rising popularity.

Where It All Started

Many credit the popularity of data sovereignty and the rise of related discussions to Edward Snowden’s leaks that exposed the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) PRISM spying program.

As part of the program, the US agency was collecting sensitive personal information – including photos, emails, social media login credentials, video calls, and other data – from tech companies in the United States (e.g., Facebook, Apple, Google, and Twitter).

The problem with the spying program was that the NSA did not only collect the sensitive personal information of US citizens but also from foreign nationals.

In addition to the NSA’s spying program, as per the US Patriot Act, the American government has the authority to access data that is physically stored within the country, regardless of its origins.This means that, for example, German citizens’ data are exposed to the US government if the information is physically stored within the North American country.

Amid concerns that their citizens’ data could fall into the hands of a foreign government, nations all over the world have introduced data sovereignty measures.

Microsoft’s Data Privacy Case vs. the DoJ

Microsoft’s case against the US Department of Justice (DoJ) was also a high-profile event that further highlighted the importance of data sovereignty.

After the DoJ ordered the tech company to grant access to emails stored in Ireland-based servers related to a narcotics investigation in 2013, Microsoft had refused to comply with the Department of Justice’s request.

Despite that Microsoft stated that complying with the request would break the data privacy laws of the European Union, the initial ruling ordered the company to fulfill the DoJ’s request.

However, later on, after Microsoft won the appeal and the DoJ changed its data-related policies.

Why Is Data Sovereignty Important?

Protecting Your Money or Your Data: Is There Really a Difference?

Let us show an example to understand why data sovereignty is crucial.

You open a bank account in the United States, where you regularly deposit your funds.

While you were of the belief that the financial institution would store your funds in the US, you get a call from the bank’s manager that your money has been moved to a third country as the regulatory environment is more beneficial there.

Later on, that nation’s government decides to close your bank’s local branch. For a reason, it confiscates all the funds that the bank’s customers held there, including yours.

Fortunately, due to the different financial regulations in place, the above-mentioned example could not happen with your money.

However, without laws that ensure adequate data sovereignty compliance, your personal information – which is as valuable as your money – could be as easily abused as your funds in the example.

Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica Scandal

Before data sovereignty and privacy were important, businesses could (more or less) use the personal information of their users as they liked.

This means that tech companies could sell your personal data without your consent to a third party for advertisement purposes.

A great example of the above-mentioned is Facebook’s scandal with Cambridge Analytica.

With an app called This Is Your Digital Life, Cambridge Analytica collected personal data from Facebook users who agreed to participate in surveys.

However, Facebook allowed the firm to collect the data of the survey takers’ friends on the social media platform, harvesting the data of millions of Facebook users without their consent, using the information predominantly for political advertising.

After the scandal was revealed in 2018 by a former Cambridge Analytica employee, the event sparked outrage among consumers and governments alike.

Furthermore, the infamous data leak emphasized the importance of data sovereignty, and governments all over the world have been turning an increased focus on this matter to protect their citizens against information leaks.

Which Countries Have Data Sovereignty Laws?

Now let’s take a look at some nations that already have data sovereignty laws in place.

Canada

Canada has 28 data privacy laws, which include federal, provincial, and territorial statutes.

Regarding Canada’s data sovereignty, we should mainly focus on the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) regulation.

Based on Canada’s data sovereignty laws, an organization remains responsible for the protection of the data it transfers to a third-party (even though the service provider is the one processing or handling the information).

Furthermore, Canadian businesses have to reference in their privacy policies and procedures whether they transfer data to third parties outside of the nation’s borders.

The Quebec Privacy Act is more strict with local organizations as they have to ensure that personal information transferred to third parties outside the state would be used only for the intended purposes of the company.

At the same time, the state’s data sovereignty regulation prevents service providers from transferring data to third parties without consent.

If an organization cannot ensure that the third-party service provider outside of Quebec has proper data protection measures, it must refuse the transfer.

California, United States (CCPA)

It’s also important to mention the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), one of the most prominent data privacy laws in the United States.

After becoming effective on January 1, 2020, the CCPA introduced a set of privacy laws for organizations doing business in California that fit one of the following criteria:

1. Have an annual gross revenue of over $25 million
2. Buy, receive, or sell the personal data of at least 50,000 households or consumers
3. Gain over 50% of their annual revenue from selling the personal data of consumers

As per the CCPA, organizations have to disclose the personal data they collect, the purpose of the collection, as well as the third parties they share the information with.

Consumers can demand the deletion of their data from businesses, and they are also able to opt out of their personal information being sold.

In the latter case, the CCPA prohibits organizations from raising the price or changing the level of the service for consumers who don’t want companies to sell their data. However, the data privacy law does allow businesses to offer financial incentives to their customers in exchange for data collection or the ability to sell their personal information.

Furthermore, if the CCPA’s privacy guidelines are violated by an organization, consumers can sue the company.

When California authorities discover a violation of the CCPA’s guidelines, businesses have 30 days to comply with the privacy laws after the regulator’s official notice.

If an organization fails to resolve its issues within that time frame, California regulators can impose a fine of up to $7,500 per record. As there is no upper limit for the fine, a business that processes the data of millions of consumers could pay billions for violating the CCPA.

Unlike the EU’s GDPR, the CCPA does not restrict international data transfers.

European Union (GDPR)

When it comes to data privacy laws, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is what comes to most people’s minds.

After its approval in 2016 by the EU Parliament, the GDPR requires all organizations – within and outside of the European Union – to comply with strict data privacy rules if and when they collect, process, or store the personal information of EU citizens.

We will discuss data sovereignty and GDPR more thoroughly later in this article.

Germany

Germany has been amongst the leaders of data privacy and protection.

Apart from the EU’s GDPR, the European country has implemented the new German Privacy Act (BDSG-new) that restricts data transfers to third countries.

According to Germany’s data sovereignty laws, companies that process the nation’s citizens’ personal information have to fulfill the German government’s data protection requirements, even if they are located outside the country’s borders.

As per the BDSG-new, those who infringe the data protection laws of Germany – for example, illegally transferring data to third parties – could face criminal charges with up to three years in prison.

France

Like Germany, in addition to the GDPR’s rules, France has implemented its own data sovereignty laws to protect its citizens.

Based on France’s Data Protection Act 2, when an organization interacts with the personal information of its citizens – even if it processes the data outside the nation’s borders – it must comply with French regulations in addition to fulfilling the GDPR’s requirements.

Australia

In Australia, data sovereignty laws come in the form of the Federal Privacy Act of 1988 and its Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

Similar to Canada’s data sovereignty measures, the organization that transfers the data to a third party is responsible for how that service provider handles the information and whether it complies with the APPs.

Also, Australian organizations have to ensure that the third party does not breach the APPs while it processes the data.

Data Sovereignty and the GDPR

The GDPR is one of the most prominent data privacy laws that governments have implemented to protect their citizens’ personal information.

For breaching the GDPR, organizations can be fined by as high as 20 million EUR or by the equivalent of 4% of their global turnover.

After becoming active in 2018, EU authorities have imposed fines of nearly 500 million EUR on organizations that have breached the GDPR’s data protection requirements.

In addition to rules like the right to be forgotten, the GDPR also includes data sovereignty measures.

According to the GDPR, organizations that collect or process the personal information of EU citizens have to store the data within the region or in a jurisdiction that offers similar data protection levels.

Furthermore, no matter where the company stores, collects, or processes the data, it has to comply with the GDPR’s rules in case it handles the personal information of European Union citizens.

What Does Data Sovereignty Mean for Consumers?

From the consumer’s point of view, data sovereignty requirements regulate how businesses interact with their customers’ personal information while preventing third-party service providers from abusing the data.

While data sovereignty requirements are not introduced in every nation and can’t fully protect user data, proper regulations discourage organizations from abusing their users’ personal information.

What Does Data Sovereignty Mean for Businesses?

While consumers are often those who benefit from data sovereignty requirements, businesses must find ways to comply with the relevant data privacy and security laws of each nation.

Therefore, in addition to knowing local, regional, and international data privacy laws, organizations have to develop a new or use existing infrastructure for data collection, processing, and storage that aligns with all the relevant data sovereignty requirements.

Data sovereignty measures could also make things complicated for companies that store their data in the cloud.

For example, an Australian organization has two options to comply with its nations’ data sovereignty laws.

1. The business can choose a cloud service provider to store and process its data, but it has to ensure that the third party is complying with all the relevant laws and requirements; OR
2. The business can choose a cloud service that operates as well as stores and processes data exclusively within the national borders of Australia to prevent sensitive personal information from leaving the country.

It’s clear that whichever option the business chooses, it requires some extra legwork from the company’s side.

However, doing so helps ensure that the data of the nation’s citizens remain safe(r) with data sovereignty.

Data Sovereignty: A Crucial Concept That Requires Immediate Attention

It’s good to see that multiple governments are implementing data sovereignty measures to ensure that organizations treat their citizens’ personal information appropriately.

However, despite the strict laws, we are still very far from reaching true data sovereignty.

Businesses can still take advantage of our personal information and use it to increase their profits by selling our info to data vendors while we receive nothing in return.

Permission is determined to end this by creating a next-generation, blockchain-based advertising platform where users have full control over their data.

If a user gives permission to an advertiser to use his data or leverages his time to engage with the advertiser’s campaigns, he gets rewarded in Permission.io’s ASK cryptocurrency.  The user can hold, exchange, or spend the currency in the Permission.io Store.

On the other hand, by only targeting consumers with ads they’ve granted permission for, businesses earn the trust and loyalty of their users while building long-term relationships and achieving a holistic view of their customer’s needs in real-time.

Take a look at Permission’s official website to learn more about the win-win advertising model (including the innovative Permission Browser Extension) that is changing who controls and profits from our data.

There are always times when you could use some extra cash. Whether you’re chipping away at student debt or covering some of your daycare bills, knowing the best online destinations for making a few extra dollars when you need them is good to have in your back pocket.

There are many survey apps out there, so we’re not going to throw a bunch at you. Instead, we’ve hand-picked a few of the best based on pay potential, usability, and reliability. All of our research was focused on minimizing time-in and maximizing money-out.

Here’s our list of the best paid survey apps to make money with:

1. Prolific

What Is Prolific?

Prolific is an academic site where universities and Ph.D. students pay participants to complete surveys necessary to their research. It’s really fun for participants because they get to be a part of interesting research, and the pay is good too.

How Does It Work?

After you sign up for an account, you fill out a series of demographic questions and then receive email notifications for surveys you qualify for. Once you receive a notification, you go to their portal and sign-up to take the survey. These surveys are usually a bit more involved, but you’re getting paid more and the questions are more interesting than typical demographic surveys.

How Much Can I Make?

Prolific aims for a minimum of $6.50 an hour and people report $30-$40 per month, but ultimately it depends on how much time you put in, how quickly you complete surveys, and how many surveys you qualify for. Prolific generally pays higher than other survey apps, though.

How Can I Get Paid?

You can cash out on PayPal or Circle.

Pros of Prolific

1. Signing up is easy and free.
2. Payment is transparent and fast.
3. You earn cash instead of points or gift cards.
4. Surveys are quick and easy.
5. Academic surveys tend to be more fun.
6. You are guaranteed payment once you start a survey.

Cons of Prolific

1. Doesn’t always do the best job of letting you know when you qualify for a survey.
2. Doesn’t have a specific native app, but there is a way to receive survey notifications via an Android-only Chrome extension.
3. Completing surveys on your computer is easier than on your phone. There are rumors of a Prolific app coming soon.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up for Prolific here.

2. Google Opinion Rewards

What Is Google Opinion Rewards?

Google Opinion Rewards is a Google Program that pings users to fill out surveys in return for credit they can spend in the Play Store.

How Does It Work?

Everything is handled within Google’s fantastic app. You receive notifications to fill out surveys or answer questions. According to Google, questions can range from, “Which logo is best?” and “Which promotion is most compelling?” to “When do you plan on traveling next?” After you finish the prompts, your account is automatically credited with Google Rewards cash.

How Much Can I Make?

Google offers up to $1 in Google Credit per paid survey, and their surveys are usually short. I’d use this app more as a way to buy Kindle books or pay for apps and/or subscriptions you’re already in the habit of buying.

How Can I Get Paid?

Your earnings can only be spent in the Google Play store, so it’s best to use this to pay for subscriptions you’re already using or to buy books. Saving on entertainment is still saving.

Pros of Google Opinion Rewards

1. Fantastic app.
2. Reliable.
3. Short and sweet.
4. Good credit rewards for time spent.
5. Reliable notifications.

Cons of Google Opinion Rewards

1. Can only spend in the Google Store.
2. Limited survey availability — better for a reactive approach instead of proactive survey mining.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up for Google Opinion Rewards here.

3. dscout

What Is dscout?

dscout is a platform that connects brands with users to create in-depth, video-based research experiences.

How Does It Work?

It’s free to sign-up, and everything is handled through their app. After you create an account, you can start applying for “missions.” These missions are usually 30min to an hour in length and involve you taking a video of yourself either experiencing a product or answering questions about a product or experience.

How Much Can I Make?

Typically $40-$100+ per study that lasts around an hour, but spots fill up quickly and you won’t qualify for every opportunity.

How Can I Get Paid?

You can get paid through PayPal, by opting for gift cards, or sometimes getting product samples.

Pros of dscout

1. Great, modern platform with a good reputation.
2. Great pay when you qualify.
3. Fun surveys and experiences.

Cons of dscout

1. Must be comfortable on camera.
2. You need to have a decent smartphone.
3. You have to be in a quiet place without distractions.
4. Spots for the “missions” tend to fill up pretty quickly, so you have to stay on top of applying.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up for dscout here.

4. UserTesting

What Is UserTesting?

UserTesting is a “human insight” platform that enables brands to view screen-recorded experiences of their product or website by actual humans. This lets them test changes before implementing them on a larger scale.

How Does It Work?

You sign up via email either on their website or through the User Testing mobile app, and then you sign up for tests manually. You can set up notifications for new testing opportunities, and the stronger your user rating the more tests you’re accepted for, generally.

How Much Can I Make?

You get paid $10 per 20-minute test and can make even more when you’re interviewed, and some users report making hundreds of dollars a month. It just depends on how many reviews you manage to qualify for — the competition is pretty fierce.

How Can I Get Paid?

You get paid in cash via PayPal exactly a week after you complete a test or interview.

Pros of UserTesting

1. More fun than traditional surveys.
2. Better pay than surveys.
3. Great chrome extension that makes recording simple.
4. You always get paid on time and in cash.

Cons of UserTesting

1. Takes time to build up a user rating good enough to attract enough tests.
2. Tests are really competitive and are often gone within minutes.
3. The mobile app isn’t as well-designed as it could be.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up for UserTesting here.

5. Survey Junkie

What Is Survey Junkie?

Survey Junkie is a survey-only app that pays survey responders small amounts in return for filling out surveys for their brand partners.

How Does It Work?

You can sign up online or on their mobile app. It takes just a few seconds, and then you’ll have the opportunity to fill out your profile in return for points. After you get set up, you can view the available surveys and get started. It’s a straightforward platform.

How Much Can I Make?

Survey Junkie’s points translate directly into cents, so 1 point = 1 cent. Most users report around $2-$5 an hour, and surveys take from just a few minutes to up to 20 to get through them.

Sometimes you can also qualify for focus groups that pay between $50-$100.

How Can I Get Paid?

You can spend your points on gift cards or get paid out via PayPal.

Pros of Survey Junkie

1. You can earn a bunch of points off the bat by completing various tasks.
2. Can get paid out in cash.
3. You can combine your surveys with its browser for extra earnings.
4. Nice, modern app.
5. Low payout threshold ($5).

Cons of Survey Junkie

1. Payouts are much lower than the above sites.
2. Survey offerings can sometimes be limited.
3. It strictly surveys, so you can’t get extra points by product testing, etc.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up for Survey Junkie here.

6. Swagbucks

What Is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is the biggest player in the survey and free reward marketplace. It’s backed by Yahoo and offers rewards for surveys, searching the web, watching videos, opting into cashback product offers, and more.

How Does It Work?

Swagbucks is all about collecting points. There are a bunch of different activities you can complete to collect points, from watching videos to completing surveys. Your best bet is to take advantage of the daily polls, offers, and featured surveys. There are a lot of ways to waste time on Swagbucks, so taking the time to develop a strategy that minimizes your effort is ideal.

How Much Can I Make?

Swagbucks is a reliable platform but is far from lucrative. $10-$20 a month with minimal effort is fairly standard, but some power users claim to make hundreds of dollars a month. It depends on the opportunities available and how well you can play the system, but don’t expect to make a lot.

How Can I Get Paid?

You can spend your points on gift cards or get paid out via PayPal.

Pros of Swagbucks:

1. Trustworthy platform.
2. Many ways to earn besides surveys.
3. Good cashback offers.
4. Can combine with their browser to earn passively and actively.

Cons of Swagbucks:

1. Surveys take a lot of time and don’t reward you with a lot of cash.
2. You don’t always qualify for surveys.
3. It’s harder to make this platform work for you than the others, but it can be done with the right strategies.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up for Swagbucks here.

Pro Tips for Making Money on Paid Survey Apps

1. Use Them to Fill Time When You’re Bored

Many sources quote $3-4 an hour as the average earnings on big survey app sites. While this can add up over time, it’s not going to be the best use of your time. Instead, use survey apps to fill otherwise non-monetary gaps like waiting for your kids at school or sitting in the dentist’s office, etc.

2. MIX Passive Earners With Active Earners

This goes a bit beyond strictly paid survey apps, but there are many companies that also pay you for your browsing & choices around shopping. If you can have a healthy flow of more specific, higher-paying survey opportunities mixed with “always-available” apps like Swagbucks AND have an extension like Qwee rewarding you for your natural behavior on browsers, then you’ll have the best mix of paying opportunities.

3. Always Aim for Specificity

Surveys that only apply to a small group of people always pay better. Whatever app(s) you use, be as specific as possible about who you are and the experience you have. Surveys that are looking for “25-34 non-white teachers with children under 10” will pay much more than “looking for women.” Aim for surveys you are uniquely qualified for.

4. Set Up a Separate Email Address

Depending on how many apps you sign up for, you could be flooded with survey opportunities. I recommend setting up a separate email address like nathansurveys@gmail.com to have one place to collect all of those messages.

And then if you want to take it to the next level, set up a filter that notifies you when certain keywords related to your expertise are found in emails. E.g., if you have a non-profit background you could ping your other email address when “non-profit” is found — that way you know you should respond to that survey opportunity.

5. Diversify the Types of Surveys and Reviews You Do

The opportunities in survey apps can vary quite a bit. From walking through websites with sites like UserTest to getting actual products and reviewing them on video with dscout, it’s mentally refreshing to diversify your work.

Rapid-Fire FAQ About Paid Survey Apps

What is the highest paying survey app?

There is no one app that pays the most. Each app offers varying opportunities and the pay scale for those opportunities can change dramatically, although apps that require you to record video usually pay more.

In general, the more you can qualify for surveys that are uniquely fitted to your demographic the better. I.e., a survey looking for random people regardless of who they are to fill out what they think of a logo will pay much less than a survey asking ex-accountants to review a new accounting software. Use your resume to your advantage.

Are survey apps worth it?

That answer is relative to your situation. There are many great ways to make money online besides surveys, but knocking out surveys in what would otherwise be wasted downtime is absolutely worth it. Plus, if you can sign up for enough legitimate survey sites and only fill out the high-paying, high-specificity surveys, you can definitely make it worth your time.

Which paid survey sites are legitimate? Are paid surveys even safe?

There are many legitimate and safe survey sites, but there are also many predatory sites. The best way to evaluate a site is to take a look at their user reviews & user experience. If they don’t have many reviews or if the app itself seems really hacked together, stay away!

How long do paid surveys usually take?

Many last around 5-15 minutes, but surveys can range anywhere from just a few short minutes to 60min+.

Do I need to pay tax on online surveys?

You definitely have to report it. Whether or not you actually pay taxes on it will depend on your financial situation & whether or not you claim expenses around the income.

Can you make a living off of surveys?

Not really. It’s smart to look at surveys as low-intensity, low-labor work that you can tap into to pad your main source of income. We don’t recommend attempting to make a liveable wage off of surveys.

Do the best survey apps vary for Android and Apple?

Not really. Most of the big players are on both!

What if We All Got Paid for Our Data?

What if you owned your data instead of Facebook, or Google, or any other internet service that takes your data and sells it for a profit?  What if you got paid for the targeted advertising these tech giants sell at your expense?  You deserve a piece of that, don’t you?

Permission has created a cryptocurrency that enables permission-based engagement and that compensates you for your data. The Permission Browser Extension pays you for watching ads as you go about your everyday internet browsing. And that’s just the beginning.

See what else we’re up to.

Have you heard about data residency?

If you haven’t, it’s a concept that determines where different organizations store your data.

Some nations have stricter data protection laws, while others have implemented only minor measures.

As you don’t want your data to fall into the wrong hands, the location of your personal information is crucial.

In this article, we will discuss what data residency means and how it differs from data localization and data sovereignty. We’ll also explore the measures different nations use.

What Does Data Residency Mean?

Data residency is where an organization – government body, industrial body, or business – specifies the geographical location of their choice for where they store their data.

There are various reasons why an organization would do this:

1. Tax benefits. In this case, a nation’s government may offer a beneficial tax environment for a business. However, in exchange, the company would ensure that a significant part of its operations stays within the country’s borders. As data storage is an important component of business operations, it may choose to host its data in the country.
2. The business could also include data residency in its company policy to make it transparent for its customers where their data is stored.
3. The company may also choose to host its data in a specific country due to financial (e.g., it’s cheaper to set up a data center or use a local data service provider’s services) or regulatory (e.g., the government has beneficial data protection laws) reasons.

Data Residency vs. Data Localization vs. Data Sovereignty

Have you heard of data localization and data sovereignty?

These terms are often used interchangeably with data residency frequently being used in the wrong way.

While data residency, data localization, and data sovereignty are closely related, they refer to concepts with different meanings, which could create some confusion amongst both consumers and businesses.

Let’s resolve the confusion and get things clear now.

Data Residency

The first and least restrictive concept is data residency, where a government body, industrial body, or business simply specifies the geographical location where it stores its data.

As illustrated in the last section’s examples, with data residency, the organization has a choice as to where it wishes to store its data.

Data Sovereignty

On the other hand, data sovereignty is a more restrictive concept. It represents the idea that data is subject to the nation’s laws where it is collected, processed, and stored.

Therefore, businesses have to comply with local data protection laws to avoid getting fined by the government.

Data Localization

Data localization is the most restrictive concept of the three.

While data residency gives organizations a choice to specify the geographical location where its data is stored, data localization refers to keeping the data of businesses within the borders of a country.

The concept almost always refers to the storage and creation of the data, and some nations that have implemented data localization laws require organizations to keep only the copy of the data within the country.

If there’s a valid reason, such data localization laws allow the government to audit its citizens’ data without requiring the nation’s authorities to interact with other governments.

On the other hand, some nations have implemented very restrictive data localization laws, prohibiting the data from crossing the country’s borders.

For example, Russia’s On Personal Data Law (OPD-Law) requires organizations to store, retrieve, and update data exclusively in data centers within the nation’s borders.

While stating that their goal is to protect their citizens’ data, these nations often implement strict data localization measures to secure a market advantage for local data centers that align with their data protectionism-related goals.

By doing so, such laws restrict the international flow of data. Therefore, critics argue that it prevents organizations from realizing the full potential of their data while contributing to “digital factionalism” and the “splinternet.”

Data Residency and the GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is among the world’s most popular data privacy laws.

As per the GDPR, companies that interact with the personal information of European Union citizens – both within and outside the EU – have to comply with strict data privacy laws.

While EU authorities can impose fines up to 20 million EUR on businesses or acquire 4% of their total global turnover as a penalty for non-compliance, there are no data residency laws in the GDPR.

Therefore, as per the EU data residency laws, organizations are free to choose where they host the data of European Union citizens.

However, businesses still have to comply with the EU’s (mostly data sovereignty-related) laws that require companies to fulfill specific requirements when transferring data outside of the European Union.

For example, a business could only transfer data to a third country if that nation has similarly adequate data safeguards as the EU or the company has a valid legal reason.

As of today, the EU has issued 13 adequacy decisions.

This means that European Union authorities (at least partially) consider these nations to have satisfactory data safeguards, allowing companies to transfer the personal information of EU citizens to these locations.

Data Residency Requirements by Country

Australia

According to the Personally Controlled Health Records Act of 2012, all personal medical information in Australia has to be stored in local servers.

While the law ensures that foreign governments are unable to access Australian citizens’ personal health records, the Oceanic nation’s data residency law prevents medical service providers, such as IBM Watson Health, from offering solutions to the nation’s citizens and organizations.

Canada

In Canada, two provinces (British Columbia and Nova Scotia) require public bodies (e.g. schools, public agencies, hospitals) to store their personal data within the nation’s borders where the data can only be accessed from the country.

China

China has one of the strictest data residency and localization laws on the globe.

In addition to restricting access to certain websites as part of the Golden Shield Program (also referred to as “the Great Firewall of China”), organizations have to comply with a wide range of data residency measures.

For example, companies offering e-banking services in China have to locate their data servers in the Asian nation. At the same time, Chinese personal financial information can only be analyzed, stored, and processed locally.

Also, the data of internet-based mapping services, as well as medical and health records, have to be kept in China.

Certain companies also have to comply with a cybersecurity law that prohibits personal information and important business data from leaving the country.

France

In France, data produced by local and national public administrations have to be stored with cloud services that are within the country’s borders.

It is also illegal in the European country to move information that is connected to legal proceedings outside of the nation.

Germany

Germany has similar views on data residency as France, advocating the idea of national clouds where personal information can be stored locally within its borders.

While data residency laws can vary by state, all organizations within Germany have to store accounting data in the European country.

Furthermore, organizations and individuals liable for taxes in Germany have to keep their accounting records within the country’s borders (with some exceptions).

Russia

Similarly to China, Russia has implemented strict data residency and localization laws.

As per the 2015 Personal Data Law, the data operators that collect personal information from Russian citizens are required to do all their data-related operations using databases that are physically located in the nation.

In addition to requiring companies to store all telecommunications data in the country for six months, the Russian government could impose a fine or shut down the services of businesses that refuse or fail to comply with the nation’s data residency laws.

Data Residency: An Important Concept Influencing Where Your Data Is Stored

As organizations specify the geographical location to store data, data residency has a great influence on where businesses keep your personal information.

Since data residency laws vary by country – for example, there are strict requirements in China and Russia while minimal regulation in Canada and the EU (GDPR) – it’s important to know where the services you use are storing your data.

If that nation has data sovereignty laws, businesses have to comply with them, which means that the government may access your personal information for any (valid) reasons.

While proper data sovereignty rules can help consumers protect their personal information, strict data localization laws could do more harm than good (e.g., the government can monitor the data easily while restricting the international flow of information).

Achieve Full Control Over Your Data With Permission

Permission, the advertising platform of the future, uses blockchain technology to achieve true data sovereignty by enabling full control over its users’ personal information.

Consumers are free to choose whether and how advertisers can use their data.

In exchange for sharing their personal information and engaging with advertising campaigns, users are rewarded in ASK, Permission’s native cryptocurrency, which they can spend on the Permission platform, hodl, or exchange.

Sounds great, huh?

Now check out Permission’s official website to learn more about this new blockchain-based advertising model and its innovative Browser Extension! You can also join the discussion via the Permission.io Telegram channel.

There are enough arguments about “what Web 3.0 is” to make it impossible to point to a single authoritative definition. But that’s fine, it means we can propose our own definition of Web 3.0.

Here it is:

Web 3.0 is the third generation of the Internet—a global network that permits intelligent interactions between all its users and devices.

Now to explain ourselves…

Web 1.0 was the early Internet that persisted until about 2000. At first, websites were just places you could read the information posted on servers and interact with such servers in simple ways. There were search engines, and there were e-commerce sites like Amazon and eBay.

Web 2.0 arose following the turn of the century. It was far more interactive, far more collaborative, and far more capable. There were technical reasons why, not least of which was the rapidly improved bandwidth available to users, and servers. It is this generation of the web that gave us smartphones and mobile computing. Web 2.0 could support near real-time interactions and thus collaborative activity was feasible. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter were part of this, but so were graphical multiplayer games. It also included the birth of Big Data and the machine learning algorithms that sifted through it.

Web 3.0 is defined by intelligence. This intelligence is not just in interactions between people and websites, but between software and software. And, there’s more than that. The difference between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 has multiple aspects.

We will discuss them one by one.

The Underlying File System

Web 1.0 and web 2.0 are defined by the HTTP protocol and the simple file systems it provides access to. The protocol enables resources to be accessed (via a URL) and also files, particularly HTML documents.

It is a client-server protocol that currently provides the foundation of all data exchanges over the Internet. The term client-server means that there is a requesting side (a client – usually a web browser) that calls for information from a server (a computer that serves up information – usually web pages or parts of web pages).

The protocol works by virtue of Domain Name Servers (DNS) servers. There is a large network of these which includes thirteen root servers.

You can think of the DNS servers as a postal service for the request you make from your browser via the HTTP protocol. They deliver that request to the address you specify, which will be something of the form:

http://www.thewebsite.com/the-page-I-want

When thewebsite.com receives this message, it sends you a message back, the page you want, using the same postal service.

It may be more complicated than that. In reality, it may involve multiple messages, including ads that you don’t want to see. Nevertheless, it all happens through a kind of postal service.

With Web 3.0 that mechanism will change. Indeed, we might be inclined to call it Internet 3.0.

The technology that will most likely replace the current DNS system goes by the name of the InterPlanetary File System, IPFS for short.

Why wasn’t it called the InterStellar Files System or even the InterGalactic File System? Perhaps its designers lacked ambition.

The IPFS is also a postal system, but it is not centralized around a group of root servers like the HTTP protocol. The goal in the design of IPFS, which is a child of blockchain technology, was to create a peer-to-peer file system that worked after the fashion of BitTorrent, the file streaming service that is frequently used to download and share videos and music.

IPFS separates the act of seeking information from the act of retrieving it. It does so through the magic of content addressing.

Content addressing is a math trick where you apply a hashing algorithm to some content (such as a web page) and it generates a unique key that acts as its address. To cut a long story short,  you provide the network with that address, and a server that holds the information sends it to you.

IPFS has lots of advantages over HTTP. Here’s a list:

1. It is more secure (and SSL is no longer required).
2. It keeps all the versions of a file, as well as the file.
3. The data can be distributed in many places. For example, a website does not reside on a particular server and may not even have a specific origin server, but it’s there somewhere in the file system.
4. Because the address relates to the content, the address never needs to be updated when the content is moved.
5. There’s no real distinction between client and server. Remember it’s like BitTorrent where there are multiple servers both holding and requesting data, including your own device).
6. It is significantly faster than HTTP.
7. It is transport-layer agnostic, which means it can work over any transport layer (from TCP to Bluetooth)

Assuming IPFS is successful, all of these advantages become Web 3.0 advantages.

Digital Identities

Digital identities are another technology that was spawned by the blockchain, and it may become the most important feature of Web 3.0. The point is that Web 2.0 is infested with cybercrime—dark deeds of every description from identity theft to click fraud.

It happens because the connection between two computers is not properly authenticated, and currently cannot be authenticated. Let me spell it out.

With web 2.0 a server never knows for sure that the client software accessing it is what it pretends to be—a browser under the control of an identifiable human being. Neither, on the other side of the equation, does the browser know whether the server and the files it is accessing are the ones it intends to access.

However, if everything involved in such an interaction had a verifiable identity, fraud and deception would be far more difficult to perpetrate. With Digital IDs, individuals can only have one verifiable identity, since each ID has to be linked to a unique credential, like a birth certificate. Similarly, organizations can only have one verifiable identity. As regards everything else (hardware and software) involved in the interaction between a client and server, these things can be directly tied to a unique ID belonging to an individual or an organization.

What is more, because of a brilliant technology that goes by the name of zero-knowledge proof, it is possible for either side to prove they are authentic without even revealing their identity.

Digital IDs enable two important features of Web 3.0:

1. The severe reduction to the point of elimination of cybercrime.
2. Individuals will be able to manage and grant access to their personal data.

(As you have probably realized, Permission‘s business model is strongly connected to this aspect of Web 3.0)

Micropayments

The blockchain is fundamental to Web 3.0, in several ways. We have mentioned two so far: bullet-proof Digital IDs and a distributed file system. Perhaps its most important contribution is its primary use, its ability to create cryptocurrencies, and particularly the ability to use such currencies to make micropayments.

This stems from the low cost of a cryptocurrency transaction. In the non-blockchain world, the cost of a credit or debit card transaction is calculated as a percentage of the value plus a fixed amount (say, 10 cents). The seller pays. So sellers are unlikely to allow credit card payment for products with a ticket price less than about $10.

The cost of a blockchain payment is generally much lower. In practice, it varies quite a lot between different cryptocurrencies as it depends on how the blockchain is organized. Low-cost examples include an EOS transaction at $0.0105 and a TRON transaction was $0.0000901 (measured in March 2018).

With such low transaction costs, it becomes possible to sell things for a few cents. A few cents could be the fee charged for reading an article from a national or local newspaper or a magazine. Being able to charge per article that way will revolutionize web publishing. Low-cost sales of products and services will be a reality with Web 3.0.

Trust

Some might argue that the blockchain’s most important contribution is automated trust. This stretches beyond the security that the blockchain can deliver through digital IDs by building a web of trust.

Some blockchains enable the creation of “smart contracts”, programs that are attached to the blockchain and that execute when triggered by a specific blockchain event. The important point about smart contracts is that the program code is the contract.

This makes smart contracts far more certain than a legal contract. Legal contracts are enforced through the legal system, which varies in reliability from one place to another but is never perfect. The outcome of a challenge to a legal contract is never certain.

However, smart contracts can be trusted 100%. A simple example of a smart contract is given by the movement of goods through a supply chain. Goods are dispatched with an RFID tag that reports their location when read. When the goods reach specific locations the smart contract can automatically enact payment—for transport or for warehousing or import duties. Payments are thus predictable and can be trusted 100% to occur.

Naturally, smart contracts can be far more complex than that example. They can cover many situations that are currently covered by legal contracts, diminishing the possibility of fraud.

Semantic Data and Information

Another facet of Web 3.0 is the presentation of data in a semantic form. We will not dive into the technology behind that here, but you can get a sense of it from Google’s Knowledge Graph which places blocks of organized data to the right of some of your search results.

If you don’t recognize what I’m talking about, do a search on “Galileo’s trial”. Notice that Google gives you a succinct summary of your search topic, as well as the usual collection of links. That’s the work of Google’s Knowledge Graph.

But now try a search on “Who attended Galileo’s trial?”

At the moment such a question is too complex for Google to unravel. However, it could if it had a greater grasp of the meaning of the question and if the websites it surveys organized their metadata in a more semantically friendly manner.

OK, that’s academic, not economic.

But now think about searching for products. It’s here where the commercial magic of Web 3.0 steps in. Nowadays in the US, more product searches happen on Amazon than on Google. Yet neither of these Web 2.0 giants can answer detailed product questions like “what is the best deal available for a 55” HD TV for delivery within 2 days.”

From the consumer’s perspective, a practical answer to such a question would serve up a range of information, offering possible choices rather than just a set of web links.

That kind of capability will be part of Web 3.0 by virtue of semantic technology. It will save buyers and sellers a good deal of time in the sales cycle.

Software Negotiating With Software, Bots for Everyone

The paradigm we have become accustomed to is that of “browser and website”.

We have browser plugins that provide certain services for us (clipping copies of web pages, filling in passwords, ad blocking, and so on.)

On the website side of the equation, websites have been fairly unresponsive in interacting with their visitors, with the exception of the web giants with the big bucks who can afford Big Data AI and thus software that responds to the user in real-time.

The paradigm for Web 3.0 will be different. The individual user will begin to regard what we now call a browser as a kind of operating system that runs applications. What we now think of as plugins will become our applications, and while they will still be able to show us documents or videos, as before, some apps will be capable of much more.

For example, a shopping application will help its owner buy, say a car, by gathering data from him or her and then going out to find suitable links for the user to visit. Ultimately such software should be able to help the user through the whole buying process, including negotiating a reasonable price.

Just as nowadays hackers and some websites run bots, in Web 3.0 the user will be able to buy and configure bots that serve them directly. Bots are, after all, just applications.

This development may take a while as it depends on the proliferation of digital IDs and also good semantics.

AI and Big Data, for Everyone

Most web users are painfully aware of digital ads that follow them around the web or the ads that Facebook drops before their eyes or Amazon’s efforts to tempt them to buy something else “they might like” when they are about to place an order. Among the websites with big budgets, the twin weapons of Big Data (your data mainly) and AI provide commercial firepower that puts the customer at a disadvantage.

However, intelligence can cut both ways. AI could equally well serve individuals if they take control of their data and collaborate in finding effective ways to exploit it. In short, with Web 3.0 the possibilities of AI are likely to broaden, but to the disadvantage of the big guys.

3D Graphics

The advent of 3D Graphics is a natural consequence of graphical software evolution. If you are not sure what 3D graphics is, here’s an example. Such animation owes a great deal to WebGL (Web Graphics Library), which is a JavaScript API that can render interactive 2D and 3D graphics within web browsers without the need for any plug-in. It is based on the OpenGL graphics language and uses elements of HTML5. An important technical detail is that it can exploit GPUs and thus performs well.

3D Graphics will make an impact outside the obvious areas of online games and entertainment. It is likely to be used in education, health care, real estate, and other areas of e-commerce. It’s also likely that, in time, individuals will design and use their own 3D avatars.

While you can view blockchain-related technology (Distributed file systems, Digital IDs, micropayments, etc.) as related developments, 3D Graphics is simply an evolutionary development. It was inevitably going to develop in a given time; it just happens to be coming to maturity at the same time as these other Web 3.0 technologies.

Complete Connectivity (Ubiquity)

Over time, Web 3.0 will remove many of the inconveniences of Web 2.0.

We can expect the Web to be available on any device (pad, mobile phone, desktop) seamlessly. The Internet of Things will join the party, with every household device controllable from anywhere and, where appropriate, able to be used as a web access device.

Ultimately, this means that your identity, and most things you own, and all your data, as well as every software capability you have a right to use, will be linked together and able to work together.

When Will Web 3.0 Happen?

New technology generations are never born on a specific date. Even Web 1.0 didn’t happen on a particular date.

You could say it began as soon as the first browser was released in a usable condition. But at that time there weren’t many websites. You might, therefore, claim that it was born when websites began to multiply. But realistically it didn’t happen until the first search engines appeared. However, you might want to argue that it didn’t occur then, but when the first true e-commerce sites began working.

The point is that it slowly emerged. Web 2.0 with its social networks, multiplayer games, and big data algorithms also took a while to come of age.

Web 3.0 will be the same.

Perhaps you will wake up one morning and realize that your browser embodies a set of bots that do really useful things for you, that you have a Digital ID and that you can interact intelligently with the Internet. When that happens you will have a right to declare: “Oh yes, this is Web 3.0.”

Did you know there’s a way you can cut your unnecessary expenses while growing your Bitcoin holdings?

Yep, that’s right. It’s called stacking sats. And there are some cool ways to stack sats without paying a penny.

Sounds awesome, doesn’t it?

In this article, we will explore the exciting world of stacking sats while giving you tips to convert the expenses you don’t need into BTC.

What Does Stacking Sats Mean?

“Stacking Sats” refers to regularly accumulating small amounts of Bitcoin over time via either buying, earning, or mining BTC. “Sats” refers to satoshis, the smallest unit of Bitcoin.

The unit was named after BTC’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who launched the world’s first cryptocurrency in 2009 after publishing the official Bitcoin whitepaper in late 2008.

How many sats are in a Bitcoin?

1 Bitcoin = one hundred million satoshis

1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 bitcoin

At the time of writing this article, one BTC trades at $8,870, with one satoshi being $0.0000887.

How Did the Movement Start?

Before blowing up the cryptocurrency community, the term “stacking sats” started with a tweet in late December 2017.

Later on, the term was mentioned on several occasions in the crypto community.

However, what helped it become popular was Bitcoin advocate Matt Odell’s “Tales From The Crypt” podcast in February 2019. In that episode, Odell advised his listeners to stack sats by earning or purchasing Bitcoin on a regular basis.

As a result of the popular podcast episode, crypto enthusiasts have started to post screenshots on Twitter as proof for how they’ve accumulated BTC using the #stackingsats hashtag on the social media platform.

After stacking sats became a thing in the crypto space, many blockchain companies joined the movement of accumulating Bitcoin.

With the growing interest in stacking sats, crypto solutions have appeared on the market, offering cashback offers and other ways for consumers to earn BTC.

Even Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey – who has been widely known for his pro-crypto approach – joined the movement, posting a screenshot on Twitter in March 2019 as proof for stacking sats.

How to Stack Sats: Our 9 Favorite Ways to Accumulate Bitcoin

Now that you know everything about crypto’s new trending movement, it’s time for us to show you some handy tips and tricks that you can use to stack sats.

Let’s see them!

1. Invest a Fixed Amount Every Month (Dollar Cost Averaging)

The first option to stack stats is by separating a fixed amount of funds, and using them periodically to purchase Bitcoin (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly).

This method is based on the investing strategy of dollar-cost averaging (DCA).

Unlike lump-sum investing, where you use all your funds at once to purchase an asset, investors using the DCA method decide how much they are willing to spend and at which periods prior to the actual investment.

Let us illustrate this method with an example:

After receiving your salary and paying your monthly expenses, you decide to separate a fixed amount of funds to purchase $100 worth of BTC on the tenth day of the month.

You continue doing this in the upcoming months until you accumulate your desired amount of Bitcoin.

It’s important to mention that the DCA method goes against the strategy of timing your investments.

Therefore, if you choose to stack sats this way, then you should forget about looking at the charts before making your regular BTC purchases.

As a result, this method relieves some stress from investors as you don’t have to worry about checking the Bitcoin price before making your investment. Also, as there is no market timing involved, you won’t feel any regret if the BTC price falls after purchasing it.

2. Cut Your Coffee Expense

Enjoying a warm cup of your favorite coffee is one of the most comforting things to do every morning.

In fact, coffee is the most popular beverage in the world, with over 400 billion cups consumed every year on a global scale.

But what if we told you that many people are overspending on this fine beverage?

According to an Amerisleep study, people between 25 and 34 spend an average of $2,008 on coffee in a year, which breaks down to a monthly $167.

If you recognize yourself among the participants of the study and you are keen on stacking sats, we recommend cutting your coffee expense by a lot.

We are not saying that you should quit drinking coffee ASAP, as we don’t want to take away the world’s most beloved beverage from you.

Instead, you should consider brewing your favorite caffeinated drink at home and take it to work, rather than purchasing a fancy latte for $5 in a coffee shop.

Now, sticking to your new, cost-efficient, coffee-drinking habit, check how much funds you saved at the end of the month.

Oh, and don’t forget to use your coffee savings to stack sats!

3. Stop Killing Your Budget With Smoking

Everyone knows smoking is bad for one’s health.

However, many forget that this expensive habit could easily drain your monthly budget.

The average cost of cigarettes in the US today is $6.16, and the largest group of American smokers were consuming between 10 and 19 cigarettes a day in 2019.

If we calculate the average of ten cigarettes (half a pack), that person spends $3.08 a day on tobacco, which adds up to $92.4 in every month and $1,108 annually.

Calculating with the current Bitcoin price ($8,870), this person could use his annual smoking budget to purchase 0.125 BTC.

And what would be more convincing to give up on smoking than some shiny sats in a Bitcoin wallet?

4. Avoid Drinking (Too Much) Alcohol

While alcohol is a popular beverage when one is hanging out with his friends in their favorite pub, it is one of the top budget-killers out there.

According to Alcohol.org, the average New Yorker spends over $2,000 on alcoholic beverages in a year, which breaks down to a monthly $167.

So, if you feel like stacking sats and reducing your luxury expenses, then don’t forget to check how much you spend on alcohol each month.

Even if you don’t want to eliminate the beverage from your life, decreasing the amount you consume in each month could help you in your quest to accumulate BTC.

5. Consider Alternatives to Cable TV

Americans spend up to $100 in a month ($1,200 a year) for cable TV.

And many are paying for their cable subscriptions despite the fact that they turn on their TVs only a few times in a month.

Fortunately, online streaming alternatives – such as HBO Now, Netflix, and Hulu – come at much lower prices. Therefore, switching from cable to streaming could help you in cutting your expenses, especially when a single service is enough for you to stream your favorite shows and movies.

According to Bankrate, those who cut the cord could enjoy tremendous hours of video content for less than $50 per month.

Therefore, canceling your expensive cable TV service could allow you to accumulate at least $50 of BTC every month.

6. Stop Paying for Gym Memberships You Don’t Use

Going to the gym is a great way to lose some weight and stay in shape.

But what is the purpose of your membership if you don’t use it?

According to Glofox, 6.3% of Americans spent a total of $1.8 billion on gym memberships without using them in 2018.

As the average cost of a gym membership is $58 per month in the United States, failing to use it could lead to the unnecessary expense of nearly $700 a year.

Unless you want to start hitting the gym regularly, you can eliminate that expense to stack sats.

7. Earn Cashback on Your Crypto

Now that you have eliminated the expenses you don’t need, it’s time to see an exciting method that lets you stack crypto sats without spending a dime.

As stacking sats has become a popular movement in the crypto space, multiple blockchain projects have introduced apps and services where users could earn cashback on their purchases.

Lolli, for example, is one of the most popular Bitcoin cashback solutions. After installing the Lolli browser extension, the app will let you know when you have visited one of its partner stores where you can earn up to 30% cashback in BTC.

Fold is a very similar service to Lolli. Using its smartphone app (available on both iOS and Android) will allow you to stack sats when you make purchases on popular services, such as Amazon and Uber.

What’s more interesting is that Fold has recently partnered with Visa to launch a card that lets users earn Bitcoin back on their purchases.

Other popular crypto cashback services include:

1. Pei
2. SatsApp
3. CoinRebates
4. BitcoinRewards

8. Start Mining BTC

Mining Bitcoin is one of the oldest methods of stacking sats.

As Bitcoin uses the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm, miners in the BTC network are required to use their computational power to maintain the ecosystem, verify transactions, and add new blocks to the distributed ledger.

In exchange, miners earn block rewards after successfully adding a new block to the chain while getting a share of transaction fees for verifying BTC transfers.

However, as opposed to crypto cashback, mining Bitcoin requires an upfront investment from your end as you have to purchase special mining equipment – an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miner – which you have to set up to be able to mine the cryptocurrency.

In addition to the setup costs, you will have to pay for the energy your miner uses as well as for cooling your rig.

Therefore, if you want to stack sats with this method, we recommend calculating your potential income and expenses to evaluate profitability prior to starting your Bitcoin mining operation.

Another method you can use to mine Bitcoin is via cloud mining services. With these solutions, you don’t have to purchase a mining rig, and you don’t have to worry about setting it up or running it as the service provider takes care of those for you.

Therefore, cloud mining is a much more convenient option for those who want to stack sats via mining BTC but don’t have the necessary resources or technical background.

On the flip side, service providers often charge hefty fees for cloud mining contracts, which could decrease your profit margin.

Furthermore, there’s a lot of scams involved in the cloud mining space. Because of this reason, we advise you to do your own due diligence and choose a reputable service if you decide to stack sats using a cloud mining solution.

Pro tip: Some altcoins use alternative algorithms to reach consensus within their blockchain networks that don’t require block validators to physically mine (or use their computational power) to validate blocks.

For example, the validators in Proof-of-Stake blockchain networks are rewarded for locking a part of their coins for a certain time to maintain the ecosystem.

If you don’t want to spend a fortune on mining equipment, you can check out these blockchain networks to stack sats.

9. Earn ASK by Leveraging Your Data and Time

Do you hate that tech giants like Google and Facebook are selling your data to advertisers who use it to bombard you with annoying ads?

We hear you.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Meet Permission, the cutting-edge advertising platform that rewards you in ASK coins for providing your data with your permission and for taking the time to engage with ads. Download the Permission Browser Extension and have relevant ads delivered to you wherever you surf the web, with crypto payments for every one you watch.

While you have full control over your data, you can use the ASK you earned to stack sats or shop directly via Permission’s Shop With ASK store.

And the best?

You don’t have to spend a dime to stack sats with Permission.io!

It’s Time to Stack Sats and Chill

Stacking sats is one of the best things that ever happened to crypto.

If you choose to mine or buy crypto regularly via the DCA method, you invest in supporting the decentralized economy while accumulating BTC.

Stacking sats also helps you to convert those unnecessary expenses into Bitcoin. It’s a win-win scenario as you eliminate your budget-draining habits while accumulating some shiny sats.

Furthermore, crypto cashback apps allow you to shop at your favorite stores while getting rewarded in Bitcoin.

You can even get rid of those annoying ads and choose the ones you’d like to watch as well as control the data you provide to advertisers while being rewarded in ASK on the Permission.io platform.

Aren’t you stoked to be stacking sats while engaging with businesses on the advertising platform of the future?

What are you waiting for?

Head to the official Permission website now to stack some shiny sats!

After its birth in 2009, Bitcoin ruled the cryptocurrency space as the only digital asset on the market.

But not for long.

After seeing BTC’s success, altcoins have appeared on the crypto market to introduce their own digital asset solutions.

But what are altcoins, what are their purpose, and what is the major difference between an alternative cryptocurrency and Bitcoin?

We will find out in this article!

What Are Altcoins?

Before deep-diving into our topic, let’s first define “altcoin.”

Altcoin, or alternative digital asset, is a term used to describe cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin.

The reason for the name is pretty straightforward, as BTC is often viewed as the original cryptocurrency, while other digital assets provide alternative solutions to crypto users.

In addition to being the original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has been dominating the digital asset industry. The BTC dominance index – the metric that measures Bitcoin’s share from the total crypto market cap – currently stands at 63.7%.

According to CoinMarketCap, there are nearly 5,400 cryptocurrencies on the market, and none of them have managed to take over Bitcoin’s leading position since the inception of the digital asset industry.

The Brief History of Altcoins

The history of Bitcoin started in 2009 when the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto created the world’s first cryptocurrency.

But when did altcoins appear on the crypto market?

2011 marks the birth of altcoins when Namecoin (NMC) emerged as the first cryptocurrency ever created after Bitcoin.

Namecoin has an ambitious goal to replace the domain name system with a decentralized network, which allows users to register domains for a small fee, which is paid in cryptocurrency.

While Namecoin was the first digital asset after Bitcoin, its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency was soon taken by other altcoins.

One of them is Litecoin (LTC) – a cryptocurrency that is very similar to Bitcoin – that also launched in 2011.

Unlike Namecoin, LTC – which features a higher supply and transaction speed than Bitcoin – managed to stay among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization since its creation, standing at position seven at the time of writing this article.

In August 2013, Ripple (XRP) joined the ranks of cryptocurrencies, using the “OpenCoin” name at the time for its payment network.

Ripple has since partnered with numerous financial institutions and payment services – such as MoneyGram, American Express, and Santander – while featuring the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Let’s jump ahead to one of the most important events in the history of altcoins: the birth of Ethereum in July 2015.

Ethereum is a decentralized platform where users can deploy smart contracts – self-executing agreements between two or more parties in the form of computer code – and run decentralized applications (DApps).

The platform also allows crypto projects to issue their own Ethereum-based altcoins via the ERC-20 token standard. As a result, the number of altcoins skyrocketed soon after Ethereum’s birth.

Furthermore, the ERC-20 standard was commonly used by many crypto projects that had launched Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) for fundraising, allowing blockchain startups to issue their tokens and sell them to investors in exchange for major digital assets.

Since then, thousands of new altcoins have appeared on the market, providing the crypto industry with new use-cases and innovative solutions.

Altcoin vs. Bitcoin: What’s the Difference?

To see the difference between altcoins and Bitcoin, it’s important to take a deeper look at BTC first.

Bitcoin 101: The Basics

As per the original BTC whitepaper, Bitcoin operates as a peer-to-peer (P2P) electronic payment system where users can transact cryptocurrency in a decentralized way.

Since there is no central authority in the blockchain network, users can avoid censorship while taking charge of their finances.

Also, Bitcoin’s network is maintained by numerous miners from all over the world, which makes it more secure against hacker attacks than conventional systems that use central servers to operate.

Unlike the banking system, Bitcoin lacks third parties, which allows the blockchain network to feature low-cost and fast transactions.

As the maximum coin supply is capped at 21 million, investors often consider BTC as a decent store of value that has no to minimal correlation with general market assets.

Furthermore, BTC possesses one of the highest liquidity among cryptocurrencies as well as the lowest levels of volatility compared to non-stablecoin digital assets.Because of these reasons, Bitcoin is considered one of the lowest risk crypto assets for investors.

Due to the benefits mentioned above, Bitcoin has established a great reputation for itself as the world’s original cryptocurrency while featuring a decent infrastructure and a large community of active supporters.

Bitcoin’s Limitations

However, Bitcoin has some limitations, which prevent it from being used as the universal (and only) cryptocurrency in the digital asset space.

First, BTC’s use-cases are limited. Apart from sending and receiving crypto payments and holding the asset to hedge against general market risks, Bitcoin is rarely used for commercial purposes.

Also, the algorithm used to reach consensus in the Bitcoin network, Proof-of-Work (PoW), is highly energy-intensive as it requires miners to continuously operate their equipment to secure the blockchain.

While Bitcoin mining uses more energy in a year than Finland, due to the inefficiencies of the PoW consensus algorithm, the BTC network faces issues of limited scalability.

Compared to traditional payment networks like Visa and Mastercard that can process thousands of transfers per second, Bitcoin only has the capabilities to process a maximum of seven transactions per second (TPS).

As a result, there’s an increased risk of network congestion in the Bitcoin network – which often results in excessively high transaction fees and long processing times.

Altcoins to Empower Crypto With More Use-Cases

Due to Bitcoin’s limitations, altcoins have appeared on the market with the ambitious goal of empowering the crypto space with more use-cases.

To date, many successful altcoin projects have delivered value to crypto users.For example, Ethereum supercharged its blockchain platform with smart contracts and DApps to provide new functionality to cryptocurrencies.

As a result, Ethereum is one of the busiest blockchain networks, featuring nearly 900,000 transactions every day.

Due to Ethereum’s features, decentralized finance (DeFi) – a fast-growing movement in the crypto space to create decentralized alternatives to traditional finance solutions (e.g., lending, borrowing, insurance) – has become a reality.

Higher Risks but Increased Profitability

Investing in legitimate altcoins often comes with a higher potential for greater profits for investors.

However, compared to Bitcoin, altcoin investments usually bear increased risks; as such, Altcoins have much lower market capitalization than Bitcoin.

While major altcoins should be fine, the ones with lower market caps and limited liquidity could carry high risks of market manipulation (e.g., pump and dump schemes), volatility, and fraud.

Furthermore, some altcoin projects – especially a part of those that launched their token sales during the “ICO craze” of 2017-2018 – are dishonest about their goals or their products.

Unfortunately, several altcoin projects couldn’t deliver on their promises after their token sales ended. And even some of those that tried to do their best have failed to satisfy investor demands.

What Is Altcoin Mining and How Does It Differ From Bitcoin Mining?

As mentioned before, Bitcoin uses the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm, which requires miners to leverage their computational power to maintain the BTC blockchain.

For this, they purchase special mining equipment, called application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners.

However, as ASIC miners are often expensive for the ordinary Bitcoin user, some altcoins utilizing the PoW consensus model deployed alternative mining algorithms to BTC’s SHA-256 to combat the dominance of ASIC rigs.

As a result, these altcoins can be mined with lower-end mining equipment (e.g., GPUs, CPUs, smartphones) that require a smaller investment from the user’s end.

Also, many cryptocurrencies have utilized consensus algorithms alternative to Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work to solve the energy-consumption and scaling issues of BTC’s blockchain network.

While there are still validators in the network (who are miners in BTC’s case), most of these algorithms do not require users to physically use their computational power to maintain the system. Instead, they reach consensus by other means.

For example, the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm requires validators to lock a part of their tokens for a specific time to verify transactions and add new blocks to the distributed ledger.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Altcoins?

Below, you can find a table that includes the pros and cons of altcoins.

Pros

1. Higher potential for greater ROI
2. Legitimate altcoin projects add new value and functions to cryptocurrencies
3. Many altcoins utilize more efficient consensus algorithms than Bitcoin
4. Some altcoins feature highly scalable blockchains (e.g. Permission.io)

Cons

1. Increased risks of volatility
2. Some dishonest altcoin projects are run by scammers, while others have failed to deliver on their promises
3. Altcoins with small market caps and limited liquidity face increased risks of market manipulation

What Are the Different Types of Altcoins?

Now that you know the essentials about altcoins, it’s time to see their different types.

Major Altcoins

Examples: Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

This category includes those altcoins that have managed to carve out large shares of the crypto market.

Major altcoins often feature higher liquidity, lower volatility, as well as big communities of active users, and an already established infrastructure.

Due to these reasons – after Bitcoin – major altcoins are considered to pose the lowest risk to investors among cryptocurrencies.

Stablecoins

Examples: Tether (USDT), DAI, Digix Gold (DGX)

As most cryptocurrencies possess higher volatility than general market assets, many have criticized the crypto asset class for the risks digital assets pose to individuals and businesses who utilize them for everyday transactions.

To solve this issue, many crypto projects have introduced their stablecoin solutions, a cryptocurrency that has its value pegged to one or a basket of assets.

The most common stablecoins are pegged to major fiat currencies like the USD or the EUR so they can maintain low levels of volatility while taking full advantage of blockchain technology’s benefits.

Altcoins that have value pegged to other general markets (such as gold or silver) also fall in the category of stablecoins.

Utility Tokens and Coins

Examples: Status (SNT), Augur (REP), Tezos (XTZ)

Most altcoins are categorized as utility tokens.

These digital assets grant specific rights to their users. These could be anything from providing access to their platforms and services to giving discounts or special perks. The main goal of crypto projects that use tokens or coins is to incentivize users to power their ecosystems. In exchange, users can redeem the tokens or coins they gain on the crypto’s native platform or trade them on an exchange.

Utility tokens are often Ethereum-based altcoins that have been often issued with the ERC-20 standard during Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) or Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs).

Security Tokens

Examples: Blockchain Capital (BCAP), 22x Fund (22X)

Unlike utility tokens, security tokens grant altcoin holders a fraction of the project’s ownership.

Some crypto projects even provide security tokens to their investors that represent digital shares of the company and pay dividends to the holders.

In the latter case, the value of the digital asset is tied directly to the valuation of the company. Therefore, if the valuation of the firm grows, so will the security token.

As most security tokens – which are often distributed via Security Token Offerings (STOs) – have to comply with strict regulations, the risk of fraud is limited.

However, security tokens are quite rare among altcoins, and they haven’t reached widespread adoption within the crypto community.

Where Can You Buy Altcoins?

The easiest way to purchase altcoins is by utilizing a cryptocurrency exchange’s services.

On fiat-to-crypto exchanges, you can purchase BTC and a great share of major altcoins via bank transfers or credit cards.

On the other hand, if you want to buy altcoins with smaller market caps, you have to first exchange your fiat currency into a major crypto (preferably ETH or BTC).

Then you need to transfer your crypto to an altcoin exchange that supports the coin you want to purchase.

Below, you can see a simple step-by-step guide to make things easier for you.

Step 1: Register an Account at a Prominent Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange

The first step to buy altcoins is to register an account at a reputable crypto exchange where you can exchange fiat currency for digital assets.

Due to regulation, cryptocurrency exchanges – especially the ones that offer fiat-to-crypto trading – will ask for Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) documents.

After you have created your account at the exchange, submit the required documents to verify your identity and residence. Some services may also ask for further information, such as the source of your income.

After submitting your documents, the exchange will process and verify them, which usually takes a few days.

Step 2: Buy Crypto Using Fiat Currency

As soon as the exchange has verified your documents, you can start trading on the platform.

Before you purchase crypto, you have to first decide on the payment method you will use to fund your account.

The most convenient method to purchase crypto with fiat is by using a credit card as it usually takes a few seconds for your funds to appear in your exchange wallet.

On the flip side, buying crypto with a credit card is the most expensive method as exchange services charge a fee ranging from 3% to 5% for card transactions.

Furthermore, some crypto services use payment processors that place an additional charge (4-6%) on credit card transactions.

You can also choose to fund your exchange account via bank transfers. As there are no credit card companies or payment processors involved in the process, bank transfers are among the most cost-efficient methods to purchase crypto.

However, bank transfers could take several days to arrive, so this payment method is much slower than credit card payments.

The best way to speed up your transactions is to use a crypto exchange that supports local bank transfers (e.g., SEPA for EU countries or ACH for the US) as these usually take 1-2 working days to arrive at your account.

After selecting your preferred payment method and funding your account, head to the trading page on the exchange platform, choose your crypto-fiat currency pair (e.g., BTC/USD), set the number of coins you want to purchase and execute the transaction.

Step 3: Transfer Crypto to an Altcoin Exchange

After you have your crypto ready, the next step is to register an account and verify it at an altcoin exchange. The process should be identical or very similar to fiat-to-crypto exchanges.

When you are done, transfer your crypto from the first exchange to the altcoin exchange service.

Copy-pasting your wallet address or scanning the QR code of your wallet (when you are on mobile) is recommended when transferring your crypto.

Be sure to double and triple-check your wallet address before sending your coins to ensure that everything is correct.

After initiating the transaction, it usually takes a few minutes for altcoins to arrive while it could take up to 1-2 hours for your BTC to be credited to your exchange wallet.

Step 4: Trade Your Major Crypto to Altcoins

When your coins have been transferred to your wallet, it’s time to exchange them to your altcoin of choice.Head to the trading platform of the exchange and choose your preferred altcoin-major crypto pair.

After setting the number of coins you want to buy, execute the trade.

Don’t forget to withdraw your altcoins from the exchange to a secure wallet – where you own the private keys to your crypto wallet – to ensure the safety of your funds.

Summary

Bitcoin has established a reputation for itself as the world’s original cryptocurrency that could be used for decentralized payments and as a store of value.

On the other hand, altcoins fill the void that’s left by Bitcoin’s limitations, empowering the crypto industry with innovative use-cases.

Disclaimer: The content of this blog is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any investment product. It is only intended to provide education about the cryptocurrency industry. Nothing in this post constitutes investment advice or any recommendation that any cryptocurrency or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. Do your own research thoroughly before making any investments of any kind.

You probably do not know what data you own, and you probably have no idea where most of your personal data is. If you want to know, read on—although as with most questions like this the answer is not always simple.

The Possibilities of Data Ownership

Let’s begin by discussing whether you should care about your personal data.

Right now, at the time that I’m writing this, there are only a few ways for individuals to control their data and use it productively. That’s right now, but as time marches forward, that will change.

Think of it like this:

Your personal data has value.

Skilled hackers make a handsome living from stealing and selling personal data. Credit score companies run their businesses off it. eCommerce and social media sites make billions by harvesting it to sell ads.

We at Permission.io are on the side of the angels. We enable permission.io members to earn from their data. They earn ASK coins by watching promotional videos and ads, playing games, and pursuing various other activities in exchange for allowing advertisers to use their personal profile data.

Digital IDs will make a key contribution to Web 3.0, the next generation of the Internet. They will engender a global business opportunity for people and organizations everywhere.

There are two sides to this opportunity:

1. On the one hand, cybercrime will become less and less prevalent because individuals and businesses will be able to operate in a trusted way, authenticating one another whenever they interact.
2. On the other hand, the ability of individuals to control and share their data will allow businesses and consumers to interact directly, on an equal basis, eliminating middlemen and thus reducing the cost of establishing and maintaining commercial relationships.

The Personal Data World

Given that your data clearly has value, you may be wondering what the full extent of your personal data is. Here’s a way to think about it. There are four categories of personal data:

1. Credential data. This is your identity and all the documents associated with it that act as credentials: birth certificate, social security number, passport, driving license, credit and debit cards, memberships and subscriptions, and so on.
2. Title data. This refers to data that proves ownership of something, whether it be land, a property, a car, or mobile phone. When you sell something you own you transfer its title to another owner. So this is data whose ownership can change.
3. Digital Possessions. This comprises photographs and videos you have taken and saved, plus ebooks, music, and videos you have bought. You can think of these as self-defining titles, as you could sell them if you felt inclined.
4. Your historical record. The fourth kind of data is your historical record, including such things as your educational record, your health record, your employment record, the history of everything you ever bought or sold, and even the web links that record which web pages you have visited. This data is valuable. In fact, it is your historical data, which both big tech exploits, that is responsible for their advertising income.

You probably realize that this personal data of yours is not all in one place.

Some of it is on your mobile phone, your tablet, and your PC. Some of it is held by government organizations, educational and health care organizations. Some is held by banks, insurance companies, and stores like Walmart and Target. Some is held by social network sites like Facebook and Linked In, or by e-commerce sites like Amazon. Most websites that you visit are storing some of your personal data.

Many of these organizations, particularly social networks and search engine businesses will claim that you are trading the use of your data for the services they provide, although they rarely provide any detail of what they are doing with your data.

For example, if you send a specimen of your saliva to a genetic analysis company that traces your ancestry, they won’t tell you that they may sell your data to pharmaceutical companies.

Worse than that, there are data brokers who gather your personal data from publicly available sources: court cases, marriage records, property records, etc. and combine it with other personal data they buy: browsing history, social media data, and anything else they can get their hands on, including data from retail stores and even the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The Legal Situation

You might wonder then, whether the businesses that exploit your data have a legal right to do so. Ultimately, the ownership of anything is determined by the law. When it comes to physical things, like condos, computers, or cars, the law was settled long ago and the details do not vary much, country to country.

However, the idea of data ownership is fairly new, and the legislators of the world have only taken an interest in recent years. Consequently, the situation varies, country to country and it’s far too early to think of the law as settled.

The first countries to frame data ownership laws were the countries of the EU, with the enactment of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It’s likely that laws in many other countries will be based on these regulations, for two reasons:

1. The EU framed these laws to apply to businesses everywhere that have any customers who are EU citizens.
2. The fines for violating these laws can be very heavy—as high as 4% of the annual revenue of the offending business.

A consequence of this is that many large businesses outside the EU have put procedures in place for conforming with GDPR. It will thus make life easy from an implementation perspective for other countries to create similar legislation.

Because your data is fragmented and stored in many different places, at the moment, it is difficult for anyone to assemble their data all in one place. In theory, it would be possible for European citizens to do so because, by virtue of GDPR, they can demand copies of their data from organizations that hold it. However, even if someone did that there is currently no easy way for them to assemble all their personal data in a single place. This will become easier when digital IDs become more common.

Anyway, if you are wondering whether you own your personal data, if you are an EU citizen, the answer is “Yes, it’s the law”.

Elsewhere, if you live in a democratic country, the answer may be “not yet, officially”. But if EU citizens own their data, then surely you will soon enough.

Think of it this way: If you ask people to vote on whether they own their data, who would ever vote “no”?

Nevertheless, there will no doubt be some local variations in such law—and in less democratic countries, it’s impossible to predict how it will develop.

In the US, there are a variety of initiatives in favor of data ownership. It has become a political issue, but luckily both parties seem to be in favor of people owning their data. For example, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) introduced Social Media Data Privacy Legislation in 2019. At the same time, Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang included data ownership as part of his presidential campaign.

In late 2019, California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This regulates the use of Californians’ personal data and is similar to GDPR. Other states will no doubt follow suit as time marches forward.

And if you look towards the developing world, where data ownership is rarely thought about, governments of countries large and small are rapidly issuing their citizens with Digital IDs, based on biometrics. The populations of these countries may not have accumulated much personal digital data, but with a Digital ID and a mobile phone, they possess the foundation for doing so.

Data Ownership: The Bottom Line

In summary, while we do not yet inhabit a world where people have command of their personal data, the wind is blowing very strongly in that direction.

1. The exploitation of personal data by big tech has become increasingly visible. Social media is alive with negative reactions to every excess that is reported.
2. At a governmental level, data ownership has become law in the EU and other countries including the US have started to follow suit.
3. Data ownership has become a political issue in the US, as it has become clear that personal data has value.
4. Almost all developing countries are providing biometric Digital IDs for their citizens, helping to provide the foundation for Web 3.0.
5. The blockchain provides the secure technology required for Digital IDs and data ownership.

At Permission, we are developing Digital ID capability for our members and helping them to earn from their personal data.

The outbreak of COVID-19 is creating hardship and tragedy for millions of people around the globe, and my deepest condolences are with everyone navigating such shaky waters. It’s impossible to quantify the myriad personal and business tragedies transpiring around the world, and they will inevitably affect our society as a whole long after this has passed. From our daily routines, to our relationship with work, to what we choose to do in our free time, COVID-19 has undoubtedly changed our world forever.

The digitization of our lives is about to speed up dramatically, and these changes are the result of an acceleration of trends that have existed since “the world’s first popular internet browser” was released by Mosaic in 1993. You can find evidence of these trends in retail, eCommerce, education, internet infrastructure, and perhaps most importantly, the financial system that underpins our global economy. The last generation’s disruptions will be subtext under the chapters of this newfound acceleration.

References to the retail apocalypse are already commonplace. The US has more retail square footage than any other country in the world, measuring in at 23 square feet per capita, with European meccas like the UK, France, and Switzerland under a fractional 5 feet (1). What will happen when these stores reopen?

Or take the already ubiquitous world of online shopping. In two decades, eCommerce has grown approximately 17% per year, now representing $3.46 trillion in sales. That’s 16.4.% out of a global retail market of $21 trillion dollars (2). Buying habits have been forcefully changed, and it’s easy to estimate that at a minimum, eCommerce will double its previous growth rate. The market effects of a spike this steep are enormous. Shopping malls, small storefronts, and the landlords or banks that finance them will be shaken to their core. Assuming the free market is allowed to function, we will see a transition of labor, real estate, and financing as people optimize the use of those dislocated resources.

COVID-19 has upended education as well. The online education market is growing 9% per year and is currently at $187 billion globally (3). Since the closure of school facilities, I have seen my 9-year-old daughter continue to go to class each day while at home. Her school rapidly deployed Google Classroom, and her education hasn’t suffered whatsoever. It has been remarkable to watch her class of third graders participate in video calls with their teacher and deliver their homework entirely online.

Born out of 2008’s financial crisis, early Bitcoin was trading at a mere 6 cents per BTC. 10 years later and that figure is north of $9,000 (4). Hundreds of private currencies have crashed and burned in the years since due to a lack of legitimate utility, but the survivors will grow strong and combine with BTC to create a new financial system.

This acceleration of cryptocurrency adoption and the rise of distributed ledgers, decentralized applications, and digital identity technologies will result in a fundamental restructuring of our internet and will bring transparency and monetary value to previously nebulous sectors of our internet model, most tangibly in the world of user data.

Instead of an internet dominated by a few mega-companies owning and profiting from our personal data, Web 3.0 technologies will enable an opt-in, permission-based web economy that hands data ownership back to users. This will have vast implications in how data is collected and monetized and will support the growth of cryptocurrencies that enable value exchange. The undercurrents of revolt against data exploitation and profligate money printing are growing fast and with each passing year Web 2.0 and fiat government currencies become less justifiable.

And there has never been more evidence for the financial change needed than right now: the prior $2 trillion stimulus bill, and potential second $3 trillion stimulus bill coming, engulfs the $800 billion TARP bailout of 2008 in both scope and impact. With the Federal Reserve & Central Banks around the world committed to printing unlimited money, their actions continue to make the case for a private, digital, transparent, and, ultimately, trustworthy currency even stronger. A dollar isn’t worth much when the only limit of its supply is controlled by a tiny group of central banks and politicians.

Our financial system has evolved into a crony capitalist system where the biggest corporations and institutions can borrow cheap money, use it to purchase their own stocks, give a boost to their market value, and then avoid the consequences by getting bailed out when the system inevitably falters.

Retail and media were the most disrupted by the first two decades of the internet. The next wave of societal change will be driven by blockchain, cryptocurrency, and decentralized finance, which will disrupt our anachronistic financial system that relies on central banking and upgrade our internet to a more transparent, permission-based system — ultimately improving the lives of the 7 billion people who live on this planet.

—Charles Silver, CEOPermission.io

The world of marketing intelligence is changing.

The problems of data privacy and security have become such mainstream speak and such a mish-mash of concepts and proposed solutions that the facts themselves often become muddied.

It’s made worse as the technology seeking to solve these problems evolves at a breakneck pace, leaving few who truly manage to keep up with and understand the depth and implications of the growing field.

Today, we’re going to set the record straight and give you, the consumer, an in-depth look at the real issues and solutions to the “data rights” problem.

Privacy; everyone wants it.

It’s jargon in today’s technology dictionary that’s been stripped of its definition by anyone wanting to throw another buzzword into their value prop. While it’s certainly laudable that companies are concerned with protecting your data from prying eyes, the reality is that very little of your data is truly private in the Information Era of today.

Your phone apps log your location. Your ISP looks at what sites you visit. Your mortgage reveals your income and details about your financial life. Your electrical company measures how long you stay up at night. All of these factors create a data profile that companies use to track and target you, the consumer.

The first solution that many call for is further regulation. What most people don’t realize is that the government is interested in that profile of yours as well.

Certainly, the regulatory bodies will make a show of bringing Facebook and Google to answer for gathering data on you, but it isn’t going to deter what is arguably the most profitable model of their business because all of that data is actually really, really valuable to the government as well.

Look no further than reports from outlets like the New York Times, revealing how a single program associates you with every single photo you’ve ever been in across all of social media. With police using the program to scan every face on camera for suspected criminals, we’re already seeing the lines of privacy and safety blurred.

That’s right. This technology is already on the streets, powered by social media to identify and track citizens, even if they haven’t committed a crime.

And if you think the government is going to step in and regulate, realize that this AI-powered application is already used by over 600 law enforcement agencies. It’s a floodgate that’s been opened by individuals not aware of the full implications of what they offered and, sadly, your personal information becomes their bargaining chip.

Remember the saying:

If something is free, you’re the product.

It’s not just Facebook, Google, or various other applications you may use in your day-to-day activities. The growing trend of ‘unplugging’ from these services doesn’t change that DMVs, Power Companies, Map Services, ISPs, and countless others are all collecting these data points to bundle up and sell.

Fighting this, while functioning through normal everyday tasks, is almost completely futile given the sheer number of companies that are collecting information on you.

Instead, the conversation is shifting. Instead of companies profiting solely from the data you provide, consumers are calling for their fair share.

This is the core concept of data ownership.

If you are the owner of your data, then it is only right that you be compensated for the collection, sale, and/or transfer of that data.

Fighting this, while functioning through normal everyday tasks, is almost completely futile given the sheer number of companies that are collecting information on you.

Instead, the conversation is shifting. Instead of companies profiting solely from the data you provide, consumers are calling for their fair share.

Currently, it’s not so straightforward how consumers can take back ownership, or furthermore, be paid for, their data on an individual basis. But, that is changing. Blockchain technology is ushering in a new era and a new frontier for advertising that puts individuals back in control. Permission is trailblazing this new frontier with its blockchain and cryptocurrency (ASK).

Permission.io can be thought of as an “agent” for your time and data. Its platform makes it easy for you to own, control, and profit from your information by rewarding you for the revocable data you choose to share while engaging with the web as you normally do. From building your profile to being entertained to completing a successful shopping experience, the ASK cryptocurrency powers a trusted and fair transaction between you and the advertiser.

It’s through the advances of cryptocurrency and the increasing expectations of consumers to receive value in exchange for their data that the ASK ecosystem flourishes. Permission is building a future where you control who has permission to advertise to you and are compensated for the value you bring to that relationship.

Learn more about the ASK ecosystem and the platform Permission.io is building for the future by clicking here.

Permission announced today that it has signed an advisory agreement with RockTree LEX to provide strategic support as part of the company’s aggressive growth plans into Asia as they lead a new category of digital advertising called “Opt-in Value Exchange.”

301 – https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/advertising-industry-being-disrupted-by-ask-permission-first-ad-blockchain-2020-02-21

The new batch of crypto assets brings the total number of projects listed on the registry to 54. It launched with 12 projects in November 2018.

301 – https://www.coindesk.com/messari-disclosures-registry-tops-50-cryptocurrencies-with-10-new-additions