• It's all rainbows and alpacas for eToro CEO Yoni Assia at the Ethereal Summit in Tel Aviv, September 15, 2019 (photo by Molly Jane Zuckerman for Modern Consensus).
    Technology

    How blockchain will ‘eat’ finance: An interview with eToro CEO Yoni Assia

    Modern Consensus sat down with Yoni Assia, the CEO and founder of social trading network eToro, at this weekend’s Ethereal Summit in Tel Aviv

    Yoni Assia is quite confident that traditional finance will eventually fully transition over to blockchain—in his oft-repeated words, “it's going to eat their existing financial systems.” Having begun trading at just 13 years old, the eToro CEO brought the social trading platform into the crypto space in 2010, with a further step towards adoption in the launch of the eToroX crypto exchange earlier this year.

  • Wall Street
    Bitcoin,  Innovators

    How crypto could change when financial markets start trading

    Why does Wall Street clock out at 4 p.m. every day?

    John Zanni is President of Acronis, a data backup and cyber-protection company that makes broad use of blockchain technology to secure its’ customers’ data. As a business, Acronis isn’t interested in cryptocurrency but instead works closely with the technology that powers it. Acronis harnesses the blockchain’s ability to move and validate information. While he does personally hold some bitcoin, Zanni says he only cares about cryptocurrency in the context of how it’s going to change the world. “Crypto markets run 24/7 while Wall Street shuts down at 5:00,” he said. “That tells me that sometime within our lifetimes, conventional trading will also be 24/7.” Indeed, Wall Street’s buy-and-sell drama only…

  • Bitcoin
    Distributed Leisure

    Finance types discuss blockchain’s threat to intermediaries

    At Propelify, panelists talk blockchain’s transformation of supply chain management, payments and settlements, and international trade finance

    [Modern Consensus columnist Michael Hillmeyer checked out the blockchain and cryptocurrency panels at the Propelify tech and music conference in Hoboken. Below is his review of the third panel (“Is Blockchain the Answer to Big Data Problems AND Does Blockchain Create Existential Threats to Intermediaries?”). Also check out his review of the first panel ( “Diversity in the Blockchain Industry and Why It’s Important to Get It Right Now”) and the second panel (“Is Crypto the Future of Money?”)]   Fortunately for us, the third panel we attended was at the north or main stage (“Stage of Wisdom”), right next to where we were snacking. This discussion had by far…

  • Bitcoin bear
    Bitcoin,  Media,  People

    ‘Mr. Money Mustache’ comes out swinging against bitcoin

    Personal finance guru says investors should keep their whiskers away from the cryptocurrency

    Is bitcoin good, or is bitcoin bad? Operating under the nom de plume Mr. Money Mustache, Peter Adeney is the Colorado-based personal finance blogger who puts forward a gospel of financial ideas built on strategically living below one’s means for sake of cutting costs. Collectively referred to as “mustachianism,” these ideas form a financial framework that Adeney himself used to retire at age 30. Nowadays he proselytizes his brand of money wushu in blog format. Mustachianism has certainly found its audience — Adeney boasts 85,000 Twitter followers and 100,000 Facebook fans. Devotees flock to his site to read his takes on topics that run from skepticizing one’s relationships with the…