The Reality Of Multi-Level Marketing

Over the past few days, I’ve been doing some intensive research about Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Companies and the people they seem to attract. During my research, I have found there are opposing views to the extreme on the subject which makes it a difficult topic to discuss. There are some who are passionate about it with well-known celebrities advocating, to the point of being an ambassador for a company. [If they are in it, it must be good!]  And on the other hand, if you admit you are in an MLM company people will run a mile and avoid you like the plague. 

There are some reputable MLM companies out there because they focus on the product more than the pyramid structure of recruiting. However, the problem with many multi-level marketing companies and the reason the industry has such a bad reputation is that they make it intentionally complicated, vague on important details and the overhype which gives the recruitee unrealistic expectations. 

It’s also difficult to establish whether or not the company is built around the consumption of the actual product or the premise that you need to bring in more people under you to succeed. If you scan the internet you will find dozens of negative articles such as “What’s Wrong With Multi-Level Marketing?” and very few articles in favor of them. 

Reputable Studies On Multi-Level Marketing

About one in thirteen people of 18 years plus have participated in at least one MLM company according to the AARP Foundation. But do these people really make money or even a modest living at multi-level marketing? What is the actual likelihood of success? 

The AARP Foundation did a study that explores the mindset, expectations, and experiences of MLM associates. The results can be found in this report titled “Multi-level Marketing: The Research, Risks, and Rewards.”  The study points out that while it’s possible to achieve some success with an MLM organization, it’s not common. 

The study found that 44% of associates dropped out after less than one year. Another study conducted by Jon M. Taylor, Ph.D., founder of the Consumer Awareness Insitute goes into a little more depth on dropout rates: 

• A minimum of 50% of MLM representatives drops out in the first year.
• A minimum of 90% of representatives leaves within five years.
• By year 10, only those at or near the top have not dropped out—which means at least 95% of representatives have dropped out.

Notably, around two-thirds of the associates in the AARP Foundation’s study said they would not join the same MLM company after knowing what they know now. 

How likely are you to be able to make money in MLM? 

The fees and money for products that need to be invested or outlaid by associates to be able to participate and/or keep their status within an MLM company have run into the thousands. Notably, a very high percentage of people have never recouped their expenses and in reality, only a tiny percentage of representatives actually succeed in making the high earnings promoted by some companies. Some don’t make money at all and some, unfortunately, lose money. 

The AARP Foundation study showed that only around 25% made a profit with MLM, 27% broke even and about half of them lost money. Of the 25% that made a profit: 

• 14% made less than $5,000
• 6% made between $5,000 and $9,999
• 3% made between $10,000 and $24,999
• 3% made $25,000 or more
• .05% made $100,000 or more

Interestingly, the ARRP Foundation found that 52% of MLM associates said the company’s representation of achieving financial success was “not too accurate” or “not at all accurate”. Taylor produced a staggering conclusion from his research saying that 

“On average, one in 545 is likely to have profited after subtracting expenses, and 997 out of 1,000 individuals involved with an MLM lose money (not including time invested)”

In this video, John Oliver, the comedic host of Last Week Tonight, gives a passionate and satirical presentation about certain MLM companies in light of the events regarding Herbalife and the Hispanic community that was burned by Herbalife as portrayed in the movie documentary  “Betting On Zero”. 

Who Do You Trust?

There are some well-known MLM companies that are product-centric. The recruiting component is secondary. The company gets most of its revenue from products or services, not new customers. This means they have compensation plans designed around the product sales at which you are more likely to generate a substantial income on the products alone and not be reliant on the number of recruits or their sales. Additionally, they have a large customer base that are not distributors of the company. 

Before joining an MLM company, it’s crucial to research the company and products thoroughly. Be sure the products are something you believe in and trust. It’s hard to promote something you don’t believe in. I would go so far as to say love and use the product and above all love what you do. It’s a well known saying, “If you love what you do, the money will follow.” Ok, well… It sure beats doing something you don’t like. 

When a company or its representatives display grandiose tactics and hype over the premise of making big money especially with very little effort, it’s a red flag. It seems to me that since the dawn of the internet there are many more MLM’s and money-making programs promising this, which has bred a culture of laziness and desperate people expecting big things in return for little or no work. 

Referral Companies – Loyalty Programs – A Win/Win 

Referral companies seem to have the secret sauce when it comes to market growth and sustainability, and it’s not at the risk of pyramidical saturation or loss of financial outlay. Companies that have referral programs use cost-effective marketing strategies by rewarding existing customers or associates to spread the word about the company and its products. By the same token, new customers are rewarded for joining.  This can be in the form of cash, discounts, redeemable points, subscriptions and now in the new era of blockchain, we have cryptocurrency, airdrops, and faucets.

Successful Companies That Have Championed Referral Programs

PayPal – They literally gave away free money. Referrals helped Paypal achieve up to 10% daily growth increasing their user base to over 100 million members. The company dropped the refer-a-friend bonus upon reaching a critical mass of early adopters but kept the merchant bonus until they reached their target numbers. 

Dropbox – Modelled after PayPal, Dropbox’s referral program, they added a double-sided referral program, where both referrer and friend were rewarded. They permanently increased signups by 60%. The referral rewards were extra storage space which was key to usage and enjoyment of their product.

Airbnb – In 2011, 3 years after its initial launch, Airbnb first tested the new referral program in a hugely successful closed-beta program of 2,161 existing members, which brought in 2,107 new members, nearly a 1:1 ratio. It has since seen remarkable growth especially with loyal advocates like the very enthusiastic single user in China led to thousands of signups and hundreds of bookings in a single month. 

Uber – Uber has run multiple referral programs at once, for both passengers and for drivers – and set the benchmark for future ride-hailing apps. Uber has covered more than 50 countries in 3 years. With a referrer’s Invite link and a clear call to action to refer friends makes it easy and simple. The bar at the bottom of the image is a clever piece of gamification. Let’s face it, people love games and who doesn’t want to fill up progress bars? 

Evernote – Their referral program relies on a point system and has a dual-sided referral incentive program that either gives people additional space or premium membership. Notably, the clarity of what constitutes a referral is clearly defined. Once the referral has signed up, they must also sign in. Their Cloud Notebook has been extremely popular, acquiring their first million users in 14 months and hitting 11 million users two years later.  

Markethive – Being the first Social Market Network on the blockchain with its own crypto coin (MHV) and exchange is leading the way with cryptocurrency referral incentives and loyalty programs. MHV is an open-source digital value transaction technology that can be made accessible to cryptocurrency exchanges as well as used for transactions between Markethive’s Market Network participants, and to pay for products and services, etc.

Currently, still in beta, the active user base has gone from 4,000 to 56,000 in a few short months entirely by word of mouth and growing exponentially. In less than a year Markethive has grown from obscurity to rank in the top 5 of companies in the blockchain media companies with an Alexa ranking of 11,500 as of Nov 2019. Markethive rewards active members with airdrops and faucet like payments, and members that upgrade with ILP holding options. New referrals receive 500 MHV coins upon joining. This is an evergreen referral program with loyalty rewards, gamification, and competitions built into the ecosystem making it a fun, lucrative and rewarding platform for all subscribers. 

Conclusion 

Once upon a time, before the internet, the only avenue available was MLM opportunities for the average person with no experience to give it their best shot and try to make an income or at least supplement their wage. 

For the last 25 years, we’ve had the internet where so many more opportunities popped up, good and bad. The trick is to identify and be wary of scams with buzz words like “get rich quick”, “fire your boss” and “no effort required”. There are many unscrupulous individuals and companies sadly, that prey on desperate, naive people who dream of becoming successful online and securing financial freedom. 

Coming to the fore we now have blockchain technology which allows a more level playing field providing transparency, privacy, autonomy and equality with more opportunity to reach self-sovereignty. Coupled with honorable companies and noble individuals at the helm who integrate, utilize and pass on the benefits of this decentralized technology is a real win/win in my book. I believe it’s definitely getting harder for the scam artists out there. The end is nigh, people are waking up.  

Are you one of the 97% who lost money in MLM? Can you see the magnanimity of the blockchain era and how it can affect us all very positively? 

Deb Williams 

A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

JOHN MCAFEE – A Few Pearls Of Wisdom

John McAfee, now 74 years old, a libertarian, a computer whizz and cybersecurity guru who became a household name with the McAfee Antivirus software, now living a bohemian and somewhat quiet lifestyle somewhere in this world.  He communicates from a faraday cage, where no signals from a device can get out of the foil-lined cage, therefore making him and his message to his followers and anyone else who’ll listen, untraceable. 

The last six months of John McAfee’s life have been interesting, to say the least. John McAfee, accompanied by his wife, Janice, was chased out of the Bahamas for ruffling feathers after he accused the Bahamian anti-corruption czar, Paul Rolle, of corruption. McAfee pointed out the reason for going into exile in the Bahamas is that he couldn’t be easily extradited back to the US from there because the Bahamas does not have an income tax. His argument was that “tax evasion is not a crime in the Bahamas”. Adding to that he has mentioned the possibility of a US strategy that is to “unlawfully collect” him 

Subsequently, they arrived in Cuba where the authorities of Cuba notified McAfee that the US government asked them for the fugitive’s return to the United States. Instead, the Cuban Government stipulated they would prefer if McAfee and his wife left Cuba and gave them 72 hours to leave their country. 

From there they spent a few days at sea, then ventured into the Dominican Republic where they were surrounded by soldiers as soon as they reached the Port. They did manage to elude them once more and now live in an undisclosed location.  According to McAfee, these events were caused by the CIA’s attempt to get him back to the states and answer to charges primarily for tax evasion. McAfee considers the CIA to be “the great monster at the heart of America”. He has also previously warned that there’s an attempt by the U.S. to “silence” him. 

The McAfee Dex

In spite of all this, John McAfee still manages to get his decentralized exchange up-and-running. The McAfeeDex, a completely distributed exchange means it cannot be totally shut down. It is still in beta and it already has over 30 different portals, different domains and services globally make it impossible to shut down. 

By the end of the year, there will be over 100, as more and more tokens join the exchange, the latest being Tron and Binance and EOS will follow.  McAfee’s motivation to create the DEX was to challenge the SEC. He wanted to build something the government could not interfere with.  His objective is to solve the cross-chain issue and by the Q2 of next year it will be able to execute true cross-chain transactions allowing interoperability.

Cross-chain protocols, or so-called atomic swaps, allow you to exchange one cryptocurrency for another, even between two different blockchains, without the help from a third party. It's basically a variation of smart contract technology and hash time-locked contracts.

McAfee Movie – King Of The Jungle

He continues to communicate his out-of-the-box thoughts, philosophies, knowledge, and beliefs to the world and seen as an authoritative figure in the Blockchain and crypto realm, along with his avid stance on privacy and freedom. Being an interesting and controversial character, Hollywood is making a movie based on a 3-week segment of his life while in Belize back in 2011. 

The movie centers on Wired magazine investigator Ari Furman, who accepts what he thinks is a run-of-the-mill assignment to interview McAfee. Once Furman arrives in Belize, however, he finds himself pulled into McAfee’s escalating paranoia as he becomes a person of interest in the murder of a neighbor. 

Michael Keaton was set to play the part of McAfee however, There are rumors that he has since exited, which is a shame. I thought he would’ve made a sensational John McAfee. Zac Efron will be playing the role of the journalist, Ari Furman which was originally assigned to Seth Rogan. It will be interesting to see who will play McAfee. The project has been in the works for several years now and the producers are hoping to finally start shooting in early 2020. 

A Few Pearls Of Wisdom From John McAfee

If you have been following McAfee you would know he has taken a great interest and love for what cryptocurrency and the blockchain can do on a global scale, not only for the first world but the third world countries. No matter where we are from we are all suppressed to some extent and this technology is able to free us from the tyranny and instability we all face.
 
In a recent interview by Crypto Finder, McAfee explained,

“The blockchain and cryptocurrency offer us, as citizens of the world an opportunity to free ourselves from the financial cage in which we are dependant upon the fiat currency which is controlled by the centralized entities which in turn controls us. Crypto gives us a currency free from control and observation of the governments.”   

At the heart of all this McAfee passionately maintains that privacy is the central element of freedom. We can’t be free without privacy. As he puts it, 

"You could not survive, without your right to choose your level of privacy, constantly, every hour, of every day of your life"

McAfee also says governments are not afraid of Bitcoin, simply because quite likely it won’t be the standard-bearer in terms of use. It’s slow, clunky, it has no privacy or smart contract features. It’s basically old technology now, however, people love bitcoin and it will always be our standard of value for investments, at which altcoins are aligned. 

According to McAfee, the cryptos that governments are afraid of are cryptos that we use like Monero, Ethereum and other privacy coins that have an impenetrable technology and a definite use case which can be utilized by the individual country or community thereby creating an ecosystem in which all will benefit. 

The general consensus at present regarding cryptocurrency is to amass and hodl in the hope it rises in price or capitalize on the volatile nature of crypto by buying and selling or trading to make a profit. There seems to be the idea that crypto is intended to make one rich. And although it has happened in the past to the few who invested early, the technology or currency was not originally meant for that to be the case. 

Crypto is meant to be used, in other words, transacted with. Cryptocurrency is predominantly thought of as an investment, however, all that does is create volatility and fluctuation. It is arguably presumed by everyone who enters the crypto world that is it only for exchange.

Interestingly, John McAfee does not invest in cryptocurrency. He continually implores people to use crypto for its intended use. Not just trading in the hope to get rich. 

When asked what does he think is dangerous to the crypto world, McAfee says, 

“What’s dangerous is the users who insanely invest in crypto and not using it. It’s madness! If we don’t use it, the hope of getting rich with it is shattered. Everyone thinks crypto is for exchanging. It’s for transacting, buying things with crypto.” 

McAfee’s views on the Libra coin are not surprising. In fact, any central bank digital currency that is being proposed McAfee says “is the holy grail for totalitarian governments”. Facebook is saying they want to empower the users of their coin. The fact is, Libra doesn’t empower anyone but facebook. On the contrary, everything you do now will be monitored financially. Not just what you’re buying or who your friends are and who you are talking to. 

As McAfee points out,

“Libra is an abomination. Libra is not the spirit of cryptocurrency. It’s just Facebook leaching more and more into your being.” 

 

 

John McAfee speaks at the Barcelona Blockchain Week conference and sheds light and opinions on  Blockchain, crypto and Facebook’s controversial Libra coin. 

“Blockchain is the first world-changing technology in the past 100 years that didn’t come from the bowels of a secret government development or CIA, Samsung, Apple or IBM. It came from ordinary programmers who are ordinary people and now been with us for 10 years when it was brought to light by Bitcoin.”

Prior to that, it was first conceptualized in 1991 by two engineers when they wrote many papers with the idea of creating a timestamped digital document. Essentially they set out to create an immutable ledger. Many consider this to be the first incarnation of blockchain.

Starting out and making his mark with the McAfee Antivirus software, being a mathematician and engineer in his own right, John McAfee is certainly a person people refer to with his wealth of knowledge and experiences. His forthright manner and disruptive views are all about waking people up to what’s happening in the world. His passionate nature and constant use of expletives are what make McAfee who he is as many have come to admire the vigilante. Love him or hate him he makes some good points in this video… 

The Take-Away

It doesn’t matter how many cryptocurrencies are out there. All that matters is the fact they are usable and functional. That they have a use case and have the velocity within an ecosystem. We need to understand the power of cryptocurrency not built by governments, but built by the people and offers us for the first time in human history, the real chance for absolute financial freedom, where your crypto wallet is your bank. 

While listening to this video and John McAfee’s pearls of wisdom I immediately thought of what Markethive is doing for and with its community that is very much aligned with McAfee’s reasonings. It is building an ecosystem offering privacy and autonomy with the opportunity for everyone to realize their potential, become self-sufficient with the freedom and infinite potential of financial sovereignty. 

There is a great purpose and a complete ecosystem of products and services built around the Markethive consumer coin. The Markethive Coin is not dependent upon speculative value as is the case with many other cryptocurrencies and platforms and is a fundamental difference to the other systems out there. 

The Markethive system has been developed to produce revenue in the traditional sense with the added benefits of the blockchain taking it to the next level. The revenue is a vehicle that is used to buy the Markethive Coin back in the free market so it can be redistributed into the economic vortex of the system. 

Coupled with numerous domains, a powerful social matrix, and the eventuality of quantum computer technology and mining hives, Markethive will also be impervious to central authorities and will be the ultimate ecosystem that the people need and are looking for whether they realize it or not. It champions all aspects of decentralization, privacy, autonomy, freedom of speech and self-sovereignty with the community’s best interests at heart. 

The future of the global economy will be all about cryptocurrency. It cannot be stopped and it’s not going away. With interoperability becoming more viable with evolving technology at a speedy pace, the Markethive economy with its coin (MHV) will be a resourceful entity in the blockchain and crypto world. Once all operations are integrated along with the steps to ensure long-term sustainability as the community grows, the MHV coin will inevitably increase in value securing your success and prosperity within Markethive and beyond. 

The world needs advocates with soul and heart like John McAfee. Granted, his methods are extreme and unorthodox, but he’s doing his absolute best to “wake people up”. 

God Bless John McAfee and God Bless Markethive. 

Deb Williams 

A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Blockchain – The Answer To An Inequitable Marketing Industry

More and more people are looking for online solutions and opportunities as they realize this is where it’s at when it comes to either creating an income or advertising their business. It can be overwhelming and a real challenge when getting started and the utter extent and scale of the types of marketing available ranging from SEO, search engine marketing (SEM), social media, Inbound marketing, email marketing to native advertising, otherwise known as paid ads or sponsored posts. 
It has become a real jungle out there, and the growth in online marketing over the last five years has been substantial. The statistics of what is trending say; 

• 61% of marketers believe growing SEO or organic presence is a high priority of inbound marketing. 
• Businesses earn an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Adwords. 
• Businesses that show up on the first page of search results get 92% of consumer traffic. 
• Google has a 92.78% search engine market share as of October 2019

 
Search Engine Optimization can be relatively cost-free, however, it produces lower-ranking results due to slow optimization. As more companies are vying to be in the first five of the first page in the search results, many of them are going to paid search options. With PPC (pay per click) there is an opportunity to get on the first page within a day as the strengths of paid search are its speed and expansiveness. The cost can reach into the thousands, especially if a professional firm is hired to manage it full time which arguably is the recommended way to go for optimized brand exposure.  
With more people opting for these services, there is more likely to be extreme risks involved. It’s opening the doors for more data breaches which are happening more often and with an increasing number of users’ records acquired by potentially dangerous and unscrupulous entities. Hackers are continuing to find new ways to access databases and the companies who manage these records display little confidence in their ability to protect first-party data. 

 
How Can Blockchain Help The Marketing Industry?

The online space, on the whole, is improving with the advent of Blockchain technology. Many industries are utilizing the blockchain to improve performance and align their objectives including marketing companies. Marketing strategies and entities like Google Ads, Facebook or any other ad companies for that matter are supposed to help businesses bring traffic and increase lead generation, however, a big issue is the black hat SEO practitioners have infiltrated the industry and have created ad frauds as a significant source of revenue. 

What’s The Difference Between White And Black Hat SEO?

White Hat and Black Hat SEO are both known elements of the SEO industry. These deliver services that are either the right side or the wrong side of what is considered to be ethical. White hat plays by the rules taking a slower, labor-intensive approach to boost search rankings. Black hat SEO companies often use shifty tactics to trick the search engines into providing higher rankings.

With blockchain technology comes transparency and immutability which eradicates ad fraud and the possibilities of fake click-through rates and bot-driven traffic. Synonymous with the reasons why we now have cryptocurrency, the important and vital advantage of blockchain is to bring transparency to the advertising world. The superiority of blockchain technology and the immutability or tamper-proof characteristic of the distributed ledger system will bring genuine players making an ecosystem of fairness and opportunity with the tools, counter black hat SEO techniques, and fake user eradication. Here are 4 attributes…

Market Transparency

The fact that Blockchain is an encrypted, decentralized database of distributed and interlaced nodes, it is suited and can be integrated into all forms of digital marketing. It can solve many issues that come with digital marketing, such as data privacy, security and content monetization. Companies cannot manipulate data so users can feel at ease as the Blockchain data is transparent. 
 

Consumers Regain Control Of Their Information

Marketing companies will no longer be able to extract customer’s information without their permission. It will be a case of earning their consent. There are some blockchain data companies now paying consumers for the use of their contact information and attention. Killi is one App that launched in May 2019 paying users for their data. Every transaction occurs through blockchain, which solves the compliance challenge inherent in regulation such as GDPR or California's Consumer Privacy Act with regards to securing data, the company says. Users, meanwhile, have a full record of who exactly has purchased their data. This gives the consumers full control of their information. 

Brandon Galindo, an account manager at eMarketer, says he downloaded the Killi app partly because of privacy concerns. "Right off the bat you're asked to insert your identity, phone number, allow persistent location and enable Advertising ID," he says regarding his experience in signing up. "Brands can reach out to you, but it is so much more transparent; I'm the one that is asking for this and I am the one who is allowing you to have my data."

 
Security Benefits And Data Protection

With meticulous data protection regulations like the GDPR, marketing companies can leverage blockchain technology to store huge volumes of client data securely. Furthermore, due to the regulatory agreement of the GDPR, it will require marketers to acquire consent which can also be managed on the blockchain. The integration of blockchain technology will change online marketing as it offers incomparable benefits for marketers in terms of performance, security, and transparency with enormous possibilities. End-users will have more control over what companies can send information to them and companies will more easily be held accountable for their actions and lack of transparency. 

The Marketing Intermediaries Eliminated

Without blockchain, if a company wants to offer banner advertisements on its website it has to do so through Google AdSense so that no unethical businesses will take over your ad space. This is where Google processes the transaction and charges a fee for its part in the deal. Companies won’t have the need to go through a third-party platform such as Google with the blockchain structure. That’s because blockchain users can be verified through their networks. People would know they’re getting what they’re paying for as opposed to potentially paying for clicks that aren’t genuine.

The other thing to consider is the rising percentage of zero-click searches on Google. That means Google is displaying the answers to many queries on the SERP so there is no need for a user to click on any displayed links, thereby reducing the traffic to other content or websites. Some have said, the rise in zero-click searches which was at 50.3% in June 2019, maybe another indicator of Google abusing its power as a huge portion of clicks are going to Google’s own sites. 

So basically, Google has gone from being everyone’s search engine to everyone’s competitor. If you’re a marketer that relies heavily on Google, there are still opportunities where you can pretty much bypass the search engines and grow your brand and presence outside of search.

Many marketers depend totally on SEO in their business so they need to be aware of the issues that may be causing the drops and lower-ranking, and what is now available to them, or they may well continue to lose traction. As more consumers become blockchain savvy and companies start to integrate it into their operations, it will change the digital marketing world as we know it. It will become less expensive achieving better results and the novice marketer and small business will be able to compete. 

Community Is Key

This is where a hybrid Market Network can take the reign and run with it. Markethive, with its new blockchain technology mixed with traditional Inbound Marketing, Commerce, Social Networking, and Digital Media, is not reliant on Google search engines or any other for that matter. SEO is a secondary consideration. It builds its own society and its traffic is contingent on the Markethive membership driving more traffic in, due to the nature of its platform, what it has to offer, the viral aspect and rewards system in place. Just one of the attractions is that Markethive is not dependent upon Google.

What Is Markethive? 

Markethive with its deep level linking dynamics is a multi-dimensional, social organizational integrated system. Integrating Vast Social networks reaches, internal social network connections, unlimited interconnected WordPress blogs, the vast API news sites like NBC, Wired Magazine, Bloomberg, Western journal, Mashable and 1000s of other news sites, that continue to expand due to the power of your own Markethive network and the collaboration of separate Markethive groups all working in union with each other. 

The ability to register and assign your many social networks into the Markethive matrix produces a reach literally into the billions. Markethive is an upcoming Market Media and Content Publisher offering Press Releases and Sponsored Articles at a negligible cost and with a reach well beyond existing social and market networks. After comparing 480 other news media sites with regards to their social reach and followers and Alexa ranking, Markethive sits within the top 5 with an Alexa ranking of 11,436 at the time of writing. This continues to drop daily as subscribers flock to join the Markethive network. 

Blockchain Technology and the cryptocurrency sphere have enabled businesses to align themselves with the users’ need and right to be in control of their data and how they use their time to monetize their efforts. Markethive, with their mandate being the rise of the entrepreneur and the fall of the tyrannies that plague society was created by a visionary who saw this coming and much needed to empower marketers, create equality and universal income to enrich society on every level. 

Visionary, Founder and CEO, Thomas Prendergast, says Markethive is…

 “Marketing that is so effective it’s like printing your own money.” 

Markethive has built a system on the Blockchain to empower the Entrepreneur, offering privacy, freedom of speech and importantly, autonomy.  With its valuable Inbound Marketing system, integrated within a Social media platform, loyalty and bounty programs, Banner Exchange & placement, with multiple Commerce portals, Storefronts, Blogging platform, and Digital Media Platforms offering Press Releases and Sponsored Articles. These tools and integrated platforms are either free to use or at a fraction of the cost of other companies.

All of this on a blockchain foundation, which above all the other benefits, allows Markethive to pay its members to engage on the platform. This includes free members as well as those who have upgraded to Entrepreneur 1.

Thanks to blockchain, the soon to be released Markethive wallet and cryptocurrency exchange will then allow Markethive members to either convert and withdraw their earnings or buy products and services offered by members within the Markethive ecosystem. 

 
Conclusion 

Markethive, 20 years in the making has had the forward-thinking and tenacity to integrate the latest technology to deliver a complete ecosystem for anybody aspiring to work online. With the precarious actions and monopolizing tactics we are now witnessing to what was a lucrative and fair system to gain traffic and exposure, it’s obvious we need to do things differently and bypass the monopolies. There are now genuine opportunities to make your mark online as well as reap rewards and prosper. 

What is being realized is the need for a community-driven ecosystem, with a collaborative mindset that offers a broad spectrum of services that cover all niches, and offers Universal Income for all. Anyone with a passion and looking for a presence online, and a fair and equitable opportunity to attain financial freedom and prosperity, be it commercial artists, writers, bloggers, vloggers, merchants, and entrepreneurs. In fact anyone from any background. Markethive is for the people and by the people. In essence, it gives the power back to the people.

Deb Williams 

A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

BLOCKCHAIN – Knowledge Is Power. Wisdom Is Power With A Purpose

“Quote” accredited to Solitaire Parke

Blockchain is defined as one of the most significant technological advances in modern history, potentially on a par with the internet, which has led to it being dubbed “The Internet 3.0”. Despite the incredible potential of blockchain to reshape the world as we know it, there is still little understanding of what it is, what it does and why it is so revolutionary. 

The Real Origin Of Blockchain

Blockchain was first conceptualized by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta back in 1991, although they didn’t call it blockchain. They wrote a series of papers and patents. One, in particular, was How To Timestamp a Digital Document, published in 1991, which involved a cryptographically secured chain of blocks. This is what many consider to be the first incarnation of blockchain technology. Basically, they set out to create an immutable ledger. 

Stuart Haber and W.Scott Stornetta

As Stornetta stated in an interview,
“It’s unfortunate that so few people actually read all the papers and patents, because there are a few ideas that can be mined from there that some have since reinvented because they never read the papers.” 

Nevertheless, Stornetta is humbled by the fact that his 1991 paper about Timestamping ended up inspiring the whole blockchain movement. Interestingly, even after the “blockchain” work they did, the connection between it and money was overlooked. It was not until Satoshi released the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008 that the connection became a reality and a peer to peer monetary system was created. 

There were references made to Haber and Stornetta in Satoshi’s whitepaper, 3 in fact…

Blockchain 101

Blockchain technology is not a company or an app, but an entirely new way of documenting data on the internet. The technology can be used for social networks, messengers, games, exchanges, storage platforms, voting systems, prediction markets, online shops and much more. This can be seen as a new internet, which is why some have labeled it “The Internet 3.0”

The information recorded on a blockchain can assume any form, whether it be signifying a transfer of money, ownership, a transaction, someone’s identity, an agreement between two parties, even how much electricity a lightbulb has used. However, to do so would require a confirmation from several devices namely computers on the network. 

Once an agreement also acknowledged as a consensus is reached between these devices to store any data on a blockchain, it is unquestionably there. It cannot be disputed, removed or altered without the knowledge and permission of those that made that record as well as the wider community. 

Why Is It Called A Blockchain?

Blockchain owes its name to how it works and the manner in which it stores data, namely that the information is packaged into blocks, which link to form a chain with other blocks of similar information.

It is this act of linking blocks into a chain that makes the information stored on a blockchain so trustworthy. Once the data is recorded in a block it cannot be altered without having to change every block that came after it, making it impossible to do so without it being seen by the other participants on the network.

Distributed ledgers have 4 key attributes:

1. Recorded: stored information is timestamped.
2. Immutable: Nothing that is recorded can be changed.
3. Transparent: anyone can see the ledger of transactions
4. Decentralized: the ledger exists on multiple computers, often referred to as nodes.

Essentially, each block contains the data it is recording. For example, a transaction like 1 MHV coin being sent from Tom to Jerry, as well as timestamps of when that information was recorded. It will also include a digital signature linked to the account that made the recording and a unique identifying link, in the form of a hash (think of it as a digital fingerprint), to the previous block in the chain. It is this link that makes it impossible for any of the information to be altered or for a block to be inserted between two existing blocks. In order to do so, all the following blocks would need to be edited too.

As a result, each block strengthens the previous block and the security of the entire blockchain because it means more blocks would need to be changed to tamper with any information. When combined, all of these create unquestionable storage of information, one that cannot be disputed or declared to be untrue.  It is important to note to be absolutely sure where you are sending money. On a blockchain, once a transaction is sent it is sealed and cannot be reversed.

The Three Pillars Of Blockchain Technology

Let’s go into more depth about the three main properties of blockchain technology which are;

• Decentralization
• Transparency
• Immutability

Pillar #1: Decentralization

For decades now we have been subject to and use a centralized entity that stored all our data and we would have to interact solely with this entity to transact or acquire whatever information we required. 

A perfect example of a centralized system is the banks. They store all your money, and the only way that you can pay someone is by going through the bank.

When you google search for something, you send a query to the server who then gets back at you with the relevant information. That is called a simple client-server.

We have used centralized systems for many years, thinking all is well, however, they have several vulnerabilities.

• Firstly, because they are centralized, all the data is stored in one spot. This makes them easy target spots for potential hackers.
• If the centralized system were to go through a software upgrade, it would halt the entire system.
• What if the centralized entity somehow shuts down for whatever reason? That way nobody will be able to access the information that it possesses.
• Worst case scenario, what if this entity gets corrupted and malicious? If that happens then all the data that is there will be compromised.

So, what happens if we just take this centralized entity away?

In a decentralized system, the information is not stored by one single entity. In fact, everyone in the network owns the information.

In a decentralized network, if you wanted to interact or send money to someone, then you can do so directly without going through a third party. That was the main ideology behind Bitcoin and also the ideology of Markethive Coin. You and only you alone are in charge of your money. You can send your money to anyone you want without having to go through a bank.

Pillar # 2: Transparency

One of the most interesting and misunderstood concepts in blockchain technology is “transparency.” Some people say that blockchain gives you privacy while some say that it is transparent. Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it?

The simple fact is a person’s identity is hidden via complex cryptography and represented only by their public address. So, if you were to look up a person’s transaction history, you will not see “Tom sent 1 MHV” instead you will see “1MF1bhsFLkBzzz9vpFYEmvwT2TbyCt7NZJ sent 1 MHV”. This makes the person’s real identity secure and private while still being able to see all transactions that were done via their public address – transparency. 

This image shows what the blocks and transaction details of each public address on Blockchain Explorer

This level of transparency has never existed before within a financial system. It adds that extra, and much needed, level of accountability which is required by some of these biggest institutions.

Speaking purely from the cryptocurrency perspective, if you know the public address of one of these big companies, you can simply pop it in a blockchain explorer and look at all the transactions that they have engaged in. This forces them to be honest, something that they have never had to deal with before.

That’s of course if these companies integrate the blockchain. You can see why something like this can be very helpful for the finance industry right?

Pillar # 3: Immutability

Immutability, in the context of the blockchain, means that once something has been entered into the blockchain, it cannot be tampered with. Imagine how valuable this will be for financial institutes!
Imagine how many embezzlement cases can be nipped in the bud if people know that they can’t “work the books” and fiddle around with company accounts.

The reason why the blockchain gets this property is that of the cryptographic hash function. In simple terms, hashing means taking an input string of any length and giving out an output of a fixed length. In the context of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, the transactions are taken as input and run through a hashing algorithm (Bitcoin uses SHA-256) which gives an output of a fixed length.

Let’s see how the hashing process works. We are going to put in certain inputs. For this exercise, we are going to use the SHA-256 (Secure Hashing Algorithm 256).

As you can see in the above image, in the case of SHA-256, no matter how big or small your input is, the output will always have a fixed 256-bits length. This becomes critical when you are dealing with a huge amount of data and transactions. So basically, instead of remembering the input data which could be huge, you can just remember the hash and keep track.

These hash functions make it ideal for cryptography. There are certain properties that a cryptographic hash function needs to have in order to be considered secure, however, there is just one property that we’ll focus on today. It is called the “Avalanche Effect.”

What this means is even if you make a small change in your input, the changes that will be reflected in the hash will be huge. Notice the change in the hash in the image below? Just because one letter was changed from a capital letter in the input hash, to lower case, it drastically affected the output hash. 

The blockchain is a linked list that contains data and a hash pointer that points to its previous block, hence creating the chain. What is a hash pointer? A hash pointer is similar to a pointer, but instead of just containing the address of the previous block it also contains the hash of the data inside the previous block.

This one small tweak is what makes blockchains so amazingly reliable and trailblazing.

Imagine this for a second, a hacker attacks block 3 and tries to change the data. Because of the properties of hash functions, a slight change in data will change the hash drastically. This means that any slight changes made in block 3, will change the hash which is stored in block 2, now that in turn will change the data and the hash of block 2 which will result in changes in block 1 and so on and so forth. This will completely change the chain, which is impossible. This is exactly how blockchains attain immutability.

Conclusion

With any disruptive idea, like the Internet was back in the day, not every company will benefit or embrace this new technology immediately. Banks are clearly in the path of the disruption of the blockchain, the Big Data social network systems, the online auction, and shopping centers are as well. And companies that resist blockchain will be left behind in the Internet 3.0.
 
Forward-looking companies that convert to the blockchain to improve the privacy and security of their data and create an environment that is unfettered from political and nefarious agendas, will be the winners on top. 

Just about every company that migrates to the blockchain and new companies launch built upon the blockchain, will prosper, as long as they deliver and make their prime agenda to benefit their customers.

In the next article, we’ll see what companies have already adopted blockchain technology including Social Media and Market Networks and how it proves to benefit the user. 
 

References: Lisk, Blockgeeks

David Ogden

A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden