Image Source: Pexels.com

Pairing Sticks and Bricks with Convenience
Can you still pay your bills via a paper check? Of course! However, those who avoid using online banking tools such as bill pay because they fear a data breach may be mistaken. The internet has greatly reduced the security risk of transmitting money. If someone tries to get into your bank account online, the bank will likely lock your account down immediately and send you a fraud alert. If someone steals your utility payment check out of your mailbox, they have a lot of your information, including your signature, and can make a lot of mischief that you may not know about until you get a notice of non-payment from the utility.

The Rise of Credit
Many of us pay for a lot of our lives with credit cards. Simpleapps such as Square make it possible to turn your phone into a monetary collection center. Whether you’re a small business owner hoping to collect payment for your services and products quickly or are trying to fundraise at a special event, having a Square reader and account makes you part of the fintech revolution.

Expanding Slowly is Fine
There are many sources offintech news that can reduce discomfort if you’re not sure about all of this convenience. However, it’s important to remember that electronic money exchange is simply an extension of paper money exchange. It’s new and different, but it’s not necessarily revolutionary. The revolution occurred generations ago when we stopped bartering goods and started exchanging agreed-upon values on paper.

The Power of Group Funding
There was a time when banks were the only place that you could get a loan unless you knew someone with the cash to lend it to you directly. However, the bank method of lending; that is

to pool savings from many people and
lend it to others and
collect interest, which can increase the balance of the original savings accounts
has moved online. While there are ways to donate to folks working on great causes, such as Patreon, there are also terrific ways to tap into investors who are looking to lend to startups. Crowdfunding is bypassing traditional lenders with great results.

Fintech as a Method of Money Management
In addition to making payments, investments, and donations, the right fintech app can also help you save money. Budgeting apps are growing in popularity and helping people who’ve struggled to put together a pen and paper budget to better manage their expenses exactly where they are.

Previously, budgeting meant that you had to track your spending, plan your expenses, and note your successes and failures at home, either via an expense log or the envelope system. With budgeting apps that live on your phone, you can manage your spending on the go. Your account balances are easily accessed for up to the minute decision-making about your next purchase.

The Truly Revolutionary Aspect of Fintech
The world of cryptocurrency is the ultimate outgrowth of mobile financial technology. The ability to trade on exchanges including Coinbase makes it possible for those interested in cryptocurrency to learn more about this exciting method of growing your money. You don’t have to be a miner to trade cryptocurrency and benefit from the lucrative run-ups of this currency. However, it is a new method of exchange and decentralized. As you learn more, you may feel comfortable investing more dollars into the exchanges. Follow your own risk tolerance to reduce your investment stress level.

The world of money is constantly expanding, and fintech is making it easier to trade, save, spend, and invest your dollars. However, with the expanded use of credit, it’s possible to get in over your head very quickly. As with paper dollars, tracking where your money is going is critical to protecting your financial future.

Every organization across the world has a finance team that manages the entire critical payment cycle internally and externally. Although the number of FTEs in the finance team might vary depending on the size of the organization, the challenges remain the same. Major challenges finance teams and CFOs across the world are facing are related to cash flow management, invoice management, managing payment cycles, and increasing efficiency every day.

In recent years, medium and big-sized organizations have started adopting tools and technologies in order to reduce the risk of minute errors due to human intervention that might cause major challenges to the organization as a whole. According to a recent report, the Finance & Accounting outsourcing market is bound to increase to over $16.5 billion by 2025.

As major companies have operations worldwide, their finance teams are scattered across various shared service centers which makes it difficult for the employees to locate the invoices and consolidate the data across multiple locations. CFOs are now investing in technologies like a suite of (F&A) finance and accounting solutions which include robotic process automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) in order to streamline their entire finance cycle.

Organizations are automating their entire P2P cycle with different procure-to-pay solutions and business process management to accelerate contract management, vendor relationship, purchase order management, invoice process management, travel & expense management, etc., and their order-to-cash process with O2C solutions.

Below are some real-life case studies where companies have automated and streamlined their Finance & Accounting operations with automation and AI:

Blue Star’s Entire Accounts Payables Improves by 33% with Procure-to-Pay Process Re-engineering: India’s largest air conditioner manufacturer, Blue Star automated its accounts payable cycle by implementing intelligent workflow management solutions for managing payment cycles and automated the invoice processing with robotic process automation.
Automation Of Accounts Receivables Cycle For Automobile Sealant Manufacturer: One of America’s largest sealant manufacturers automated its accounts receivables cycle with RPA platforms and IDP solution.
Centralization of Order Management for a Leading Paint Manufacturer: One of India’s largest paint manufacturers automated their entire order management cycle with O2C solutions and increased overall productivity.
BPM Optimizes Accounts Payables For A Leading Airline Catering Firm: One of world’s largest airline catering firms streamline its accounts payables process by implementing business process management solutions including RPA and intelligent document processing (IDP)
Optimizing Accounts Payable process for house leasing company: A leading house leasing company in the USA optimized their accounts payables cycle by streamlining the process by implementing F&A solutions.

Here I was thinking that every six months, Roblox shutting down was the rumour going around the internet. Apparently they’re well and truly out of the shit heap, because Roblox Corp has officially hit the stock market and after one day, valued at $45 billion USD. Yowza.

Currently, Roblox has around 50 million games for users to explore, most of them user-created. It has been reported that Roblox has over 100 million active players.

With these sorts of numbers, and minimal development costs, it was only ever a matter of time until investors wanted a slice of the pie.

Anyway! In other news:

The Borderlands movie seems to get bigger and bigger. With Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, and Kevin Hart on board, this is sure to be a hit.
Despite a pretty sweet patch for Overwatch players, the Xbox Series X/S continues to live in the shadow of the PS5. Stock seems to be as available as ever, and I’m not going to even mention the ton of common Xbox Series X issues plaguing users.
I’ve been obssessed with Stardew Valley since it hit shelves, but you can only do so much. Now my attention has turned to games like Stardew Valley, and I’m having a lot of fun plundering Steam for potential gap fillers.
The legendary Cocaine Bear is getting a movie made about his short, sharp life. Poor Cocaine Bear.
In today’s best video, watch a penguin escape a killer whale. Go penguin!

Bankruptcy is a legal process that occurs as a result of an individual being unable to pay their debts. While bankruptcy certainly has negative connotations, the process is designed to release an individual from their debts, enabling them to make a fresh start.

Bankruptcy can be entered into voluntarily or by order of the court, which is also known as a sequestration order. A sequestration order will be issued if creditors take the bankrupt individual to court and demand payment.

The term bankruptcy is only used to describe individuals; businesses that fail to pay back their debts are described as being insolvent.

Before deciding to declare bankruptcy, it’s highly recommended that individuals seek bankruptcy advice from financial professionals. Being bankrupt can have serious consequences that should be well understood before a decision is made.

Bankruptcy: an overview
Here are some fast facts about bankruptcy:

Ï In exchange for giving up control over your finances and assets, you will obtain legal protection from creditors.
Ï The period of bankruptcy is typically 3 years and 1 day but will feature on your credit report at least for 5 years.
Ï A trustee will be assigned to look after all of your financial affairs.
Ï You may have to ask the trustee’s permission to do certain things, like travel overseas.
Ï At the conclusion of the bankruptcy period, you will be released from paying further debts.
Ï The process of bankruptcy is a chance to reduce financial stress and start anew, but it carries serious consequences.

How does bankruptcy work?
An individual can apply for bankruptcy if they meet two requirements:

Ï They are unable to pay their debts.
Ï They have a business or residential connection to Australia and are present in the country.

There is no minimum or maximum amount of debt that needs to be met to apply for bankruptcy.

To apply for bankruptcy in Australia, you need to complete and submit a Bankruptcy Form with the Australian Financial Services Authority (AFSA). It’s important to note that once bankruptcy has been approved, it cannot be reversed or cancelled. Before applying for bankruptcy, it is highly recommended that individuals seek out expert bankruptcy advice and consider the full consequences of their decision.

You can either nominate a Registered Trustee to administer your bankruptcy or if you do not nominate a Registered Trustee, The Official Trustee (at AFSA) will administer your bankruptcy. If you do not nominate a Trustee and the Official Trustee is appointed, the Official Trustee may transfer your estate to a Registered Trustee if it considers your estate would be better managed by a Registered Trustee. After accepting the bankruptcy application, the trustee will monitor and guide the process.

The trustee will manage all financial issues, including:

Ï Communicating with creditors and evaluating their claims
Ï Sale of assets (including vehicles or properties) to help you meet your debts
Ï Reviewing your financial documents to ensure that all information is correct

When you are discharged from bankruptcy, you will be released from your debts. However, your state of being bankrupt will feature in your credit history for at least five years. It will also be permanently recorded on the National Personal Insolvency Index, which is a public record of companies or persons who have gone bankrupt.

Tips for avoiding bankruptcy
The number one tip for navigating and avoiding bankruptcy is to seek expert assistance. Specialist financial advisors are able to dispense bankruptcy advice that can enable you to make an informed decision about your situation and options. Other general tips include:

Ï Make a budget: Identify your major expenses and avenues through which you can cut costs.
Ï Consolidate debts: Debt consolidation enables you to pay back multiple debts using the one loan. This can help manage a repayment schedule.
Ï Enter into a debt agreement: A debt agreement is a legally binding agreement between you and your creditors that enables you to pay back your debts at a rate that suits your income. A debt agreement also has consequences and should not be entered into lightly.

If you are struggling to pay back debts, bankruptcy is not necessarily your only option. Before making any drastic decisions, be sure to seek out an expert and qualified insolvency practitioner, who will be able to provide bankruptcy advice and come up with a solution that is tailored to your circumstances.

So, let’s sum this up. The origins of cryptocurrency go back as far as 1998 and a computer scientist named Nick Szabo who developed Bit gold but, the actual creation of a viable cryptocurrency was ten years later in 2008, by Satoshi Nakamoto, whose whitepaper outlined how a linear, time-stamped network could fuel a cryptocurrency called Bitcoin.

Thus, the coin/currency/token/digital asset (these terms are interchangeable) is stored on the chain — a distributed ledger. The main feature of true cryptocurrency is that there is no central control over the currency, unlike banks or governments. You do, however, get centralized cryptocurrencies where there is a measure of control exerted. Check out this list of centralized and decentralized crypto. The blockchain and cryptocurrency industry’s overall sentiment and purpose are to be a democratic alternative to traditional currency.

The crypto culture

As you dabble and delve into crypto, you will become very aware that there is a strong community backing this new industry. The community has a powerful ethos and purpose related to individual control of their financial destiny and provides financial access to users that may not qualify for traditional financial services.

Decentralized blockchain networks are chains of validation nodes. These nodes are basically stakeholders that verify transactions. There is no central authority, and the system is set up based on parameters determined by the code upon which the blockchain operates. Several blockchains exist, and they have their own currencies — for example, the Ethereum blockchain fuels the ETH cryptocurrency.

It is worth noting the players involved in the cryptocurrency culture or even subculture.

Un-jumbling crypto wallet jargon

Understanding the background, how the tech was built, and who continues to maintain, participate in, grow and invest in the blockchain and cryptosystem should give you an idea of where or how you want to fit in. So whether you aim to mine crypto with the view to becoming a venture capitalist that supports and funds exciting and innovative projects or if you want to simply trade crypto or perhaps yield farm, everyone has to start in the same place — getting the best crypto wallet. Without a crypto wallet, no transactions can be made.

And that is where this list will begin. It will have a dual purpose in that it will offer an explanation for terms and sequentially transport you along your journey for entering the crypto sphere.

1. Decide on a wallet

Ï Hardware and software wallets
Hardware wallets are physical storage devices like an advanced USB that stores your currency. A software wallet is basically like online banking. To access your crypto, which can also be called digital assets, you need to provide the private keys which open access to your currency and give you the ability to transact.

Ï Custodial and non-custodial wallets
A custodial wallet is usually run by a central or semi-centralized blockchain, just like a traditional bank. A centralized wallet stores your private key and provides backup and security for your crypto. For some starting in crypto, this can be reassuring.

Non-custodial wallets are software wallets to which you are the only one that has the keys to access the data. No one but yourself has custody of this information, so if you lose the private key information, there is no way to recover the wallet’s assets.

A non-custodial wallet can be referred to as a Decentralised Finance or DeFi wallet. This is true decentralization of financial power and responsibility.

One of the best Defi wallets on the market is the Eidoo wallet, which gives you access to a full DeFi ecosystem through their DeFi wallet app, which also integrates a DeFi Visa Crypto Card or the eidooCARD.

Ï Public and private keys
In case you hadn’t realized as yet, keys are special passwords that are cryptographic. There is a public key that is matched with a private key. Whatever is encrypted with a public key can only be decrypted by the private key. When signing up for the wallet of your choice, you will be guided through the process of securing your keys. It is essential to keep the private key somewhere safe.

Ï KYC — Know Your Customer
The blockchain and crypto community, as you know now, are driven by decentralization, protecting privacy, and, to some extent, anonymity. For the most part, the community prefers anonymity, but crypto users, when utilizing a crypto wallet, need to verify their identity when interacting with Fiat, for regulatory purposes. The process of verifying your identity is called KYC and is aimed at curbing illegal financial acts like money laundering, tax fraud and financing terrorism or illegal activities.

2. Buy and trade some crypto

Ï Transaction fees
Once you have your wallet, you will be able to buy the cryptocurrency of your choice using fiat. Fiat currency is normal traditional money — the currency of where you live. Any transactions conducted have a fee associated with them just as a normal bank but crypto fees are called gas fees. The Gas price is the amount you pay for every unit of gas just like the cost for a liter of petrol for your car.

These fees enable and power the transactions and are usually paid for in the form of a utility token depending on the blockchain — more about that below under tokens.

Different types of transactions require differing amounts of gas depending on the degree of computational difficulty. Also, the term gas limit refers to how much you are willing to spend on a specific transaction, if you don’t specify enough gas the transaction cant be completed and will fail but because work has been done on the transaction the gas you did specify won’t be re-imbursed.

Ï Exchange
Usually, you will buy or rather exchange your fiat on a crypto exchange. There are several different exchanges — they are the marketplaces where trading currencies happen almost like a stock exchange or changing your Euros into another currency on the forex exchange. It should be noted that there are centralized and decentralized exchanges, and as in the case of the wallets, the former has a central body that controls it. Simultaneously, the latter is distributed to nodes that uphold a central smart contract, which underpins all exchange operations and has been agreed upon by all stakeholders.

Ï Types of crypto
There are so many types of cryptocurrencies available. If you are part of any crypto communities on Telegram or follow crypto enthusiasts on Twitter, then knowing what they are generally referring to is very helpful. For example, Altcoin can’t, and won’t be found on any exchange. It is a collective name for all coins that are not Bitcoin.

Tokens represent a unit or portion of a cryptocurrency and may be considered securities in some jurisdictions depending on the specific rights of the token holder. Typically when a new cryptocurrency is introduced, parties who are funding the new currency are given tokens representing their participation, or investment.

Don’t be confused between security tokens and utility tokens. They are different. Utility tokens are designed to enable certain functions on a project or blockchain platform, also referred to as “gas.” Utility tokens are not necessarily backed by any assets and afford you no rights to dividends, shares of a company, or other ownership. Security tokens, however, are a store of value that are often traded, and meeting the “Howie Test,” and can appreciate (or depreciate) giving the owner asset appreciation and returns from investment. Specifically, the Howey Test determines that a transaction represents an investment contract if “a person invests his money in a common enterprise and is led to expect profits solely from the efforts of the promoter or a third party.”

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are linked to the price of another asset or group of assets. This lowers volatility in the market, and usually, the assets linked to the stablecoins are established and quite resistant to price fluctuations. Tether, Goldcoin, PAX and Binance USD are some of the most frequently used stablecoins.

3. Spend your crypto

Once you have stepped onto the crypto pitch with your DeFi wallet app accessible or with your crypto debit card in hand, there are many activities you can undertake, and it really is worth exploring the different investment avenues, opportunities, and crypto mining strategies in play. If you have opted for a wallet that exists within an expansive ecosystem like the Eidoo wallet mentioned earlier, you may have to look no further for an exchange and access to other decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions like lending and borrowing.

4. Track your crypto

At this point it is worthwhile investigating Blockchain explorers – a blockchain explorer is like the Google of the crypto world. Blockchain explorers like Etherscan lets you access the details related to your transactions on specific wallet addresses and blockchains. The details include the amount transacted, where the funds came from or went to and their ongoing status. Explorers make crypto more transparent and are very helpful as you can track payments and you investigate different investments and actions that have taken place on the chain.

It is essential to do your research and reach out to the crypto community who can guide you through these processes. Happy spending and hopefully earning too!