Collaborative or decentralized models of finance and investing, including equity crowdfunding, reward crowdfunding, crowd currencies, peer-to-peer lending and peer-to-peer commerce.
Kickstarter and Indiegogo have come along way since they opened their doors to artists and filmmakers back in 2009/2008. Now, nearly a decade on it is clear things are changing. With Indiegogo recently announcing the launch of their marketplace and with news of...
The benefits of a move away from relying on carbon/fossil fuels are well documented. Various forms of increasing worldwide devastation that are the evident impact of climate change and global warming - droughts, wildfires, floods, powerful tropical storms, climate...
Decentralization is our theme for 2018. The word has rebellious and transformative connotations, stemming from the sometimes turbulent devolvement of historically central-held power over property, wealth and justice to regimes of democratic government, a right to work...
![An Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to BlockChain [Infographics]](https://crowdsourcingweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/blockchain-Head.jpg)
What fascinates people about services like Bitcoin is the dissolution of boundaries of nations and geographies. Online cryptocurrency allows people to get goods and services from across the world without needing to involve cumbersome legal red tape. However, the same...
In the 10 years since the iPhone was introduced the computer and video gaming industry has been shifting from stand-alone offline platforms (consoles and PCs) to a $multi-billion online industry with a host of new benefits and possibilities. Mass direct connectivity...
The concept of crowdsourcing isn’t all that new and was born in 2002. However, the term “crowdsourcing” itself wasn’t coined until few years later when Wired used it for the first time to describe production in a marketplace that was digitally connected. Fifteen years...
In the internet of things, we’re all connected, all the time, to everything. It’s where the world is moving—your home, your car, your phone, your work. It’s like you can make a virtual copy of yourself to do things that would have required your physical presence even...
Whilst Morgan Stanley is heavily interested in blockchain technology, analysts at the investment bank are worried by how Bitcoin is extremely dependent on the governments’ acceptance and regulation for further growth. This was revealed even after the cryptocurrency...
Reward and U.S. equity crowdfunding lets entrepreneurs and company owners take orders for products or trade shares for investment funds. Who would have thought in 2000 that it would be possible for business owners to raise seven-figure sums from people they didn’t...
Georg Fankhauser has spent much of his career as a Mergers and Acquisitions Consultant, successfully overseeing more than 80 company sales and acquisition projects in Switzerland, Germany and France. Since October 2016 he has also been co-founder and manager of KOSOVA...
Artificial Intelligence is no longer the future, it’s the present and increasing at a phenomenal rate driven by explosive growth of big data, inexpensive computing power and storage, and advanced algorithms like machine learning that enable accurate predictions to be...
Bitcoin trading can be complicated and confusing for beginners. There are so many considerations, options, and dangers that lots of people give up before they even start. Luckily, it looks like the days of the bitcoin wild-west are behind us. Every year,...
A snapshot of the amount collected until 2016, with some forecasts for 2017. Having reached the end of the year, it’s time to assess once more the state of crowdfunding in Italy. In Starteed we resumed the work made in May 2016, with a first analysis of market’s...
Spread throughout the four full days of speaker sessions and panel discussions at the Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2016 conference in Brussels November 21-25 there were a number of sessions dedicated to crowdfunding. Here is a summary of them. Fredrik Barkenhammar of...
It is always best to get your offer right before launch. So hopefully you will not find yourself in the position where you have a failing campaign on your hands, but what if you need to rescue an offer after it has already launched? Truthfully, it is going to be much...
The internet is playing a bigger role in our lives, at work, buying our groceries, managing our finances, sharing social experiences and otherwise living our lives online. And more and more of us are studying online, at our own pace and at the times we choose....
"Blockchain has become the financial markets’ biggest buzzword as banks seek modern ways to resolve old problems. But the technology is overshadowed by questions about how it can be made both secure and fast enough for large financial institutions." These are the...
The energy industry is on the cusp of a revolution. Solar power prices continue to fall, monolithic power stations look financially foolhardy, and electric vehicles and better battery storage are no longer just a dream. Last year’s Paris Climate Agreement also...
In July 2016 US President Barack Obama announced plans to bring more solar energy to American homes, with a focus on a 10-times increase on the alternative energy for low- and moderate-income households. "Today we're offering even more families and communities the...
Venture capital (and angel investors and private equity) were just about the only option for early stage companies to go to when they needed cash, before equity crowdfunding came along. There is no doubt that the right venture capital firm can be a valuable partner....
There is nothing better than learning from those who have done it before. I have recently interviewed seventeen companies who have been through equity crowdfunding, and heard their insights about what they thought of the experience, and what worked best for them. They...
Bitcoin’s own website says “Bitcoin allows exciting uses that could not be covered by any previous payment system.” That’s certainly coming true, it is now often associated with cyber-criminals and drug dealers, and to be honest that association isn't entirely...
The global crowdfunding industry generated about $34.4 billion in capital last year. No reliable numbers are available for India though it is estimated it accounts for a small fraction of this. Yet local crowdfunding sites are proliferating and drawing attention from...
I wrote my first post about the DAO heist expecting it to be the end of the story. If it were a film, it would end with the successful hard fork, defeat for the attacker and our heroes triumphantly setting the blockchain back to normal. However, the story didn't end...