*By Madison Alworth*
Crypto start-up StreetCred wants everyday New Yorkers to map their city, and the company is paying them in Bitcoin to get the job done.
"You can earn points for going around the city and adding and taking photos of any place that you go that's of interest to other people," CEO Randy Meech said Monday in an interview on Cheddar.
StreetCred's app, MapNYC, isn't the first mapping product out there, of course. Google's version similarly uses crowd-sourced information to beef up its offering. But Meech sees a key downfall to that option.
"One of the problems is, it's very restrictive and very expensive for other companies to use," he said. "That's really our mission. We are trying to make this data very accessible, very open, basically, for others to do anything that they want with it."
Meech hopes to address those concerns by running his app on a more decentralized blockchain.
"What we're looking for is for communities to be able to create data and be compensated for that, or to share it with companies who need the data," said Meech.
Bitcoin is the currency of choice, since it's currently the one most visible to the general public and therefore has the potential to attract more contributors. But StreetCred does have bigger ambitions.
"We are a crypto company so we will likely be having our own token at some point," Meech said. "One of things we wanted to test, before we get to that point, is will people do this for crypto?"
Creating a game out of it may help. Every time a user posts a location, he or she gets a point, and prizes will be distributed among those who post the most. As of this week, there are eight Bitcoins up for grabs in the app's contest; the top prize equals one Bitcoin, or approximately [$6,200] (https://www.coindesk.com/price/).
StreetCred is focusing on its hometown of NYC to start, but Meech said he plans to expand beyond his test city. MapNYC launches on September 24 and will be available for both iOS and Android.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/mapping-nyc-for-bitcoin).
Edward Moya, chief market strategist with Oanda, joined Cheddar News to discuss Thursday's gains as investors were surprised by a jump in weekly job claims and as Wall Street braces for key inflation data and the Fed's latest policy announcement.
Rebecca Walser, financial planner and wealth strategist, offers some tips on how to bring everyday spending in line with budgets by avoiding certain purchases.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week rose to its highest level since October 2021, but the labor market remains one of the healthiest parts of the U.S. economy.
Stocks are drifting Thursday, continuing this week’s lull as Wall Street waits for several big events next week.
Apple's new iOS 17 has some promising upgrades in store for group chats. Previously, when a iMessage group chat contained an Android user, it would lose features such as text editing and threaded replies. Now group chats will retain those features, even when there is a "green bubble" in the mix.
Workers at the Barnes & Noble in Manhattan's Union Square, one of the retail chain's signature stores and home to its corporate offices, have voted to unionize.
U.S. and British cybersecurity officials warned Wednesday that a Russian cyber-extortion gang's hack of a file-transfer program popular with corporations could have widespread global impact. Initial data-theft victims include the BBC, British Airways and Nova Scotia's government.
Wilson Aerospace, a Colorado-based tools company with close ties to NASA, is suing Boeing for allegedly stealing trade secrets over the past two decades.
Apple recently acquired augmented reality company Mira following its launch of the Vision Pro headset. Cheddar News explains how Apple is looking to tap into the AR market long dominated by Meta.
Fiserv President and Chief Executive Frank Bisignano spoke to Cheddar News about what the transfer to the New York Stock Exchange means for his company and how Fiserve plans to use its partnership with the exchange in the fintech space. "We do believe that we could do a lot here creatively with the stock exchange," he said. "
