Most ICOs and their supporters face a range of cybercrime attempts. As an advisor at several blockchain projects, I see how hackers and scammers work day and night to steal money on the hype. Cybersecurity and investor protection have become key features of a legit ICO and a strong company behind it.

Pavel Stukolov, CEO @TokenStars, said: “Along with the rising number of initial coin offerings, we’re witnessing a massive surge in cryptocurrency cybercrime. Almost 10% of all Ethereum investments in ICOs this year (or $150M in value) were hijacked by thieves. In their attempts to establish control over ICO…

Five takeaways from the recent Apple event

Let’s admit it — Apple’s September presentation is a standard-setting event of the year. And it’s not just because of the technologies it demonstrates. Instead, it’s all about Apple’s new vision and strategy for the next year. Looking beyond the lines of the event, you can see who is going to be Apple’s friends, which competitors it strikes, and which audience is its priority.

It’s always worth learning from the best, and Apple is by all means one of the best. …

My thoughts on Gartner’s new Technology Hype Cycle Report

Every day in Silicon Valley, people try to analyze what technology is hot now and what will be hot tomorrow. Or next month. Or in the next 5 years. When something is proclaimed hot or disruptive, it is immediately mentioned in numerous startup pitches and supported by ambitious investors.

People are often caught in two common traps when they get too excited about the guessing game, even among the best minds in the industry. First, failing with critical thinking — getting too hyped over something potentially great sometimes doesn’t allow to…

For the past hundred years, car ownership has been a cornerstone of American culture. However, studies show the number of Americans interested in buying cars drops year over year. Millennials don’t even want to get a driver’s license anymore! It seems just like a matter of time when car ownership will no longer be mainstream, check out some statistics in Brad Tuttle’s article.

I moved to the US less than a year ago, but luckily managed to get a car on lease. Enjoying a car for personal use, I have never actually calculated the cost of ownership. With some simple…

If you haven’t heard of Google’s restructuring into Alphabet, the only excuse could be laying on the beach and sipping margaritas. And if you haven’t heard of “purple squirrels,” those highly efficient and talented executives every company is desperate for, and who are as rare as real purple squirrels, you might want to check urban dictionary.

This week I randomly came across discussions around both. But how random was it? The key topic the entire tech community is chatting about; what does Google’s shake-up really mean and why did the company do it? …

My Take on Five Stories on Influencer Marketing

How many world class celebrities were there 50 years ago? Maybe a few dozen actors, several dozen singers, some politicians, sportsmen, and others? Anyway, it was still a three or four digit count.

Social media disrupted the concept of celebrity, just like many other fields. Globally-recognized celebrities are being disposed of by niche online influencers. A few years ago, Wired calculated the approximate percentage of famous people living in the world: it was less than 1 percent, but that’s still over 600,000 individuals! I bet this figure grows exponentially. …

Literacy in the 21st century is far from just reading and writing skills. In fact, it’s more than typing, using email or searching online. The basic skill of the new generation, allowing people to change their lifestyles, social statuses, even geography? It’s coding.

Code is a universal language of digital world. But those who learned and mastered the usage of this language are raising the bar for the products they need. In fact, they don’t need to sit and wait for this or that product; they are able to create it themselves. …

Have you ever calculated how much a year you spend on Uber, Airbnb, and other resource-sharing services? And how much you earn with them? The romance of the sharing economy is built on three pillars: It’s affordable (compared to traditional service providers), it allows participants to earn some cash, and it gives us a sense of belonging to the new economic reality. But what if the sharing economy reveals its dark side?

Last week we watched Uber and Airbnb’s latest battles with the government; explored the lobbying expenses of Facebook, Google, and Amazon; witnessed PayPal going public for the second…