It has been an incredible year for Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency crossed the $1,000 mark on New Year's Day 2017. It was a headline maker that was a hint of things to come. Now it is trading below $15,000, after reaching a high of $20,000 earlier this month. This episode of The Crypto Craze dives into the biggest stories of the year in cryptocurrency, and looks at how several start-ups are disrupting industry with blockchain technology.
Cryptocurrency network iCash just launched a digital billboard in Times Square. The advertising campaign just in time for an estimated 1 million people will gather to ring in the new year. iCash's Chief Economist Max Wolff explains the message he hopes these billboards send. "We'd like to be part of the future and that's what new years eve is all about," says Wolff. "We think we are part of the future for everyone's that interested in cryptocurrency."
CryptoBnB is banking on blockchain to transform the travel industry. The company's founder and CEO Tariq Alwahedi explains how this start-up can transform the travel booking industry. "We are building a new disruptive technology," says Alwahedi. He says CryptoBnB is applying blockchain for short term rental application. CryptoBnB is currently in beta stage.
Blockchain has the power to transform the healthcare industry. That's according to cyberneticist Jonny Dubowsky. He explains how this technology can impact the way we protect and distribute data. "We are just exposing the utility and value of blockchain," says Dubowsky. He compares bitcoin to the dot com bubble, and says he we might have further corrections. My Personal Therapeutics is now using blockchain technology to protect and eventually monetize personal data.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
