Interview with Vid Gradisar, CEO of Crypto Education Platform Newscrypto

What is your professional background and how/when did you get into crypto?

Vid Gradisar: I started out with 10 years of experience in forex trading, and more than 5 years of experience in crypto trading, investing, portfolio-composing. To give you an example of how long I have participated in the crypto space, I invested in Ethereum before the split, and right after in NEO as Antshares as well as in Binance’s coin since day 1.

Our standards for the projects we had invested in are high, and most of all, our project was on the table in preparation for two years before launching Newscrypto.

I’ve also had several experiences in blockchain entrepreneurship. Mostly advising and co-operating with other projects.

Tell us about why you decided to start NewsCrypto.io.

VG: We decided to start with our Newscrypto project because we were quite fed up with the lack of knowledge people have about our industry. When the bull market kicked in, all the newbies just bought something based on sentiment regardless of what the project had in the background or how bad it really was. Most people didn’t even do basic research on where they were putting their money. On top of that, no one really had a clue about exit strategies or good information about chart patterns. What they mean, or even how to make a proper order on an exchange. In forex, traders tend to be more educated and therefore the general sentiment is healthier.

Here in crypto, you can see everyone claiming various coins as ‘dead’, depending on the cycle. There is a serious lack of people who are able to properly observe and predict the price movements, cycles or are even aware of how to do a basic background check when they consider investing in an obscure altcoin. Our plan was to present a platform that would properly educate people and share some tools I even use myself to understand the market better, and perhaps give some insights, giving users of the platform an edge.

Where is your team located and why did you choose that jurisdiction?

VG: Currently, we have two offices: Lisbon, Portugal and a second one is in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Portugal is nice because its state laws are pretty kind to blockchain-related businesses. It’s also a great point of connection to the EU and USA. Our Lisbon office is typically used for meetings and to service our South American clients. Our office in Ljubljana is a bit more operational. We host our IT department here in addition to our marketing & leadership teams.

What are some of NewsCrypto.io notable achievements or milestones?

VG: Our proudest achievement thus far is that we have produced a fully functional working platform that we did on a bootstrapped budget. We were working from the beginning on the way to create the perfect product, and not putting ourselves upfront. Any profit we generated was returned back as an investment in the company. We mainly use that re-investment for marketing as well as new and better exchange listings. We created a self-sufficient ecosystem where our native token is the way users are able to purchase tools our platform offers. On the other hand, a token on an exchange needs a demand, otherwise, it has no value.

We needed to present our platform and explain our ecosystem to exchanges before listings in order for them to realize how we differentiate quite a lot from other projects with their own token. Our goal here is not to make a quick profit, rather we are here to help and to educate people who are interested in learning. In addition to the demand for our token generated with the help of the exchanges we work with, the demand on the platform for memberships has led to positive results thus far. That’s how the ecosystem of our self-sufficient business model was introduced.

What are the benefits of using NewsCrypto.io as opposed to other crypto education platforms?

VG: Newscrypto is different because we place a hard focus on our users and what is best for them, independent of any other influence. For example; While Binance Academy is very nice, they tend to force their product on their users through subliminal advertising on their website. In order to be completely objective in teaching people, there mustn’t be any hidden agenda. In the future, we plan to have some interactive learning courses where students will have to read a lesson and complete a related task to show how to apply what they’ve learned. For example, a lesson about trend lines will close with a challenge where users will need to draw a support line on a chart, and only after that (our AI will detect if it is true or false), will they be able to proceed to the next lesson. This is really only one small part of what we will offer, like several indicators, insights of the market, and tools that nobody else is even offering.

What can you tell us about NewsCrypto.io’s product roadmap? 

VG: To date, we have achieved all the things we set out for, even before the deadlines we created for ourselves. I think it is absolutely necessary to create a roadmap with realistic goals in order to succeed. As an investor in several businesses, I found myself quite annoyed when waiting for something big to happen (as promised in the roadmap), and nothing would occur or there would be a delay. Because of that we have decided from the very beginning that we will achieve everything we have planned and are planning to do exactly as written in our roadmap.

What upcoming features are you most excited about rolling out?

VG: The most excited? Our mobile app for sure! Currently, our platform is designed for desktop users (our research shows most traders do their trades on PC/laptop), but that trend is changing as the world goes mobile. Users really want to trade with their smartphones, so we are working diligently to create a mobile app platform. This is already in development, but it really takes time to perfect and most importantly, ensure security for users.

What other projects and/or blockchain developments are you most excited about?

VG: I’m super excited about so many things. But let’s focus on a few: Bitcoin for starters. Many people say BTC is old, slow, ect., but Bitcoin is truly the flagship brand of crypto. Only Bitcoin has the power to shake an entire market while all the others follow suit. Its code is so simple, yet so complex. Easy to use, you can exchange it globally to every local currency, and security is top-notch. I didn’t even mention transparency, transaction costs and other benefits.

Another project I’m really excited to watch develop is Stella. It’s is super-fast, super cheap, and provides countless options for smart contracts. That’s the reason we used the Stellar chain to build our NWC token.

Do you have any blockchain and/or crypto predictions for 2020 and beyond?

VG: We have a ‘Community Predictions’ section on Newscrypto. Everyone can visit it and see my predictions for 2020. One prediction based on our tools and indicators is that despite the Coronavirus panic, 2020 is going to be huge for crypto. In 2021 we will see BTC reaching $200k, Ethereum could be worth $5k and NWC is worth $1 USD.

What are the biggest obstacles for mainstream adoption of crypto?

VG: Knowledge! The worst thing in the world is when supporters turned into haters because they were taken advantage of by scammers. Unfortunately, lots of former supporters who lost their money due lack of knowledge are now doing anti-crypto propaganda. Good words tend to spread slowly, but bad words spread super fast. It is absolutely urgent to educate people about crypto, trading, protecting their investments, which wallets to choose and how to use them, about exchanges and operations within them. All of that is crucial for crypto. When people will start to do basic research and quit ‘fomo-ing’ on every shill coin, then this industry will become a lot more popular.

Another obstacle, of course, are governments, because they don’t really know what to do with crypto and how. They keep placing different regulations and then eventually changing or adjusting the rules. If they set some regulations once and for all, we would all know what to expect in the future, and how we should approach taxes on crypto. So instead of adopting the technology and endorsing projects like Libra, they are fighting against it. That’s a pity because in a few years, young-open minded politicians in powerful positions come in favor of crypto. This is inevitable, so why wait when we could begin adopting a way more efficient solution today?

What is your most controversial opinion relating to blockchain and/or cryptocurrency?

VG: It Is not controversial, but a fact. There are just simply too many scams in this industry. I’m really happy ICO-Mania has finally ended. I’m also glad that scam projects generally die during the bear season. There are still plenty more that should be wiped out from the scene, and there are certainly more money-grabbers coming. When we become a mainstream platform, we are going to fight for the common good and feature a section Newscrypto to point out obvious scammers.

Another thing is that there are too many exchanges competing for their piece of a pie who battle for high rankings by washing crazy amounts of volume. For example, one exchange is generating 500,000$ per day and their reported volume on Coinmarketcap is $1.2 billion. That is sick and that should stop.

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