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Crypto Outlook 2024 by Coinbase

Exciting times ahead for crypto in 2024!

The recovery in 2023 showcased crypto’s resilience amid challenges. From regional banking crises to geopolitical conflicts, Bitcoin emerged as a safe haven. Top US financial institutions’ ETF applications signaled a recognition of crypto’s disruptive potential, paving the way for regulatory clarity.

Yet, progress isn’t linear. To fortify the market, developers must focus on real-world use cases, bridging the gap from early adopters to mainstream users. Projects in payments, gaming, social media, decentralized identity, and infrastructure networks are key. While battling established web2 giants, these ventures promise a more resilient market.

Tokenization emerges as a vital use case, drawing traditional financial players. Full implementation may take 1-2 years, but the resurgence of tokenization reflects the current economic reality. The efficiency of instantaneous settlement on various instruments becomes increasingly relevant.

Institutional crypto adoption is on the rise, with the latter stages of the 2023 rally attracting a broader set of clients. Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US are expected to accelerate this trend, paving the way for more complex derivative products and enhancing liquidity.

These themes shape the cryptocurrency landscape in 2024.

Read the detailed report below.

https://www.coinbase.com/institutional/research-insights/research/market-intelligence/2024-crypto-market-outlook

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NPNT Drone, the Next Ag-Tech Boom?

What is a Drone?

A drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle which is controlled either by remote control or automatically piloted through onboard computers. Drones were created originally for missions which were dangerous and repetitive for humans by the military. Drones have come a long way since its initial days as they are adapted for various purposes such as commercial, recreational, scientific, etc.

History of Drones in India

The first drone used by India was during the 1999 Kargil War with Pakistan. India procured IAI Heron and Searcher drones for reconnaissance from Israel. India has continued to procure and utilise drones for its various missions ever since.

Drones have come to limelight in India when in May, 2013 Francesco Pizzeria delivered a Margarita to their customer/friend in Mumbai. Drones have ever since become popular in the culture and have been used by Police personnel to monitor the security during large gatherings, photographers and videographers also have utilized drones to capture moments during weddings, festivals, etc.

Current Status of Drones

The implication of drones in India and developing countries is huge. India finally formalised its policy on drones through the Operations of Remotely Piloted Aircrafts through Digital Sky Platform in December 2018. This is a great step towards regulating the industry and providing framework and support for drone enthusiasts, amateurs and professionals.

Globally the drone market is set to grow around $21.47 billion by 2021. In India according to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the consultancy firm EY, the market for drones is set to grow $888 million by 2021.

What is a NPNT Drone?

The drones under the new policy are divided among five categories. The drones are called, “No Permission, No Takeoff”. The owner of the drone needs to access Digital Sky platform to gain permission to fly the drone. The drone pilot would not be able to operate without the permission from Digital Sky server.

The categories of NPNT drones are nano (250 grams or less), micro (250 g to 2 kg), small (2kg to 25kg), medium (25kg to 150kg) & large (150 kg or more). Piloting a nano drone doesn’t require a permission as it’s flight radius doesn’t go beyond 15 metres. The introduction of this policy is a beacon to the drone industry and the potential with which the Indian Government sees the application and usage of drones in various sectors of the economy.

Individuals and Organisations can only use the four categories of NPNT drones after obtaining the permission from the Digital Sky app. The process is automated and the permission is instantaneously given or rejected. The app processes the flight path and monitors the sky for various objects.

The Government further plans to invest in the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), Robotics, etc to accelerate the drone industry in India. This is a positive step towards enabling an industry and providing jobs to individuals across the board. The NPNT drones opens up a huge potential of jobs in manufacturing, service and ancillary industries.

NPNT drones will create a job market for teachers and professionals to teach and train individuals in operation of drones. NPNT drones will also create a demand for repairing and maintaining drones and various jobs and industries around tools and parts for the drones. NPNT drones will create a push for the “Make in India” initiative.

Drones mostly till now have been part of military, industry and specialised areas. The last two decades has seen a constant upgradation of drone technology especially in smart sensors and adapting of open source technology, increased flight time, better batteries, etc. NPNT drones through better integration of all the above features could track criminal activities in agriculture, forest sector. The NPNT drones can also access disaster-prone areas and can give accurate data.

Use Case for NPNT Drone

India currently is in a demographic boom where more than 50 percent of its current population is below the age of 25 and over 65 percent of the population below the age of 35. Over 70 percent of the population is in rural areas. Agriculture contributes to 16 percent of India’s GDP. NPNT drones can be most thoroughly utilized by the agriculture sector. NPNT drones can provide the necessary impetus in the agro sector while simultaneously providing jobs and multiple roles for the youth in those areas.

NPNT drones are especially useful for monitoring and surveillance purposes in areas where farmers have large farms. This would be helpful to farmers in getting higher farm yields. According to the Association of Unmanned Aerial Systems International there is an annual growth of 85-92% in the agriculture sector every year. This provides an huge untapped market for NPNT drone researchers and manufacturing enterprises to invest in and market their products.

Analysis of Farm:

Every year farmers of large tracts of land suffer from various loses especially through the lack of accurate data. This problem could be solved by NPNT drones through the constant monitoring of the farmland and getting the aerial data of various growth of crops and pattern of growth. NPNT drones can generate 3-D maps for soil analysis which could provide the necessary feedback for farmers when the time for seed ploughing arrives. The data generated through the NPNT drones could be used to manage the irrigation and manage the nitrogen level of the land for increased crop output.

Time Management:

Small & Medium NPNT drones are best utilised especially for reaching various corners of a large farm. A large farmholder can invest in a NPNT drone and save on labour intensive process of physically inspecting various parts of a farm. A large farmholder can collect the necessary data from his/her NPNT drone and make better decisions regarding the management of the farm. Farmers can also save time by getting regular updates through their nano and micro NPNT drones for various status of their crops yield at regular intervals.

Increased Production of Yield:

The data collected especially through NPNT drones can be a huge difference between a successful crop year and an average crop year. The NPNT drones can be used to identify the exact amount of irrigation and pesticides needed for each and every acre of the land. This could provide farmers the exact information to gain the maximum growth from their land.

Accurate Map Data:

NPNT drones designed for the agriculture sector come with the GIS mapping integration. This system provides the relevant information for farmers to manage resources and increase yield and have a higher cost management and make better management decisions. The GIS mapping integration helps farmers in drawing accurate borders for better flight patterns

Accurate Status of Crop Health:

The NPNT drones provide an accurate status of the crop’s health. Every year farmers suffer losses due to the loss of crops. NPNT drones for agriculture come with infrared, NDVI sensors and multispectral sensors which help the farmers in monitoring and understanding the health of the crops. These technologies also help the farmers in understanding the transpiration rate of the crops and also the better sunlight absorption rates to manage the crops.

NPNT drones are just in their initial stages of development for the agriculture industry. The potential for NPNT drones is tremendous when we anticipate the growth of its application and industry in manufacturing and service industry and also for providing enterprise solutions to organisations.

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Bitcoin Mining Difficulty

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency which has no single central controlling agency but its value is determined by the transactions on bitcoin network. Bitcoin (BTC) is produced as an outcome of a successful mining. Bitcoin mining is the result of successful transaction being added on bitcoin ledger or the blockchain. It is achieved after there is a Proof-of-Work and that there was a clear effort of work through computational power and energy consumption.

The difficulty with bitcoin mining arises because there are only 21 million bitcoins in existence and it is estimated that around 3-4 million bitcoins are lost forever. The foundation of Economics discipline is the scarcity principle. The scarcer the resource then its demand and value is increased. As there are 18 million bitcoins already mined, it becomes more difficult to mine each new block. On average 144 blocks of bitcoin is mined per day with each block containing 12.5 BTC per block.

The successful completion of every transaction in the bitcoin network creates a hash. The high hash rate in the bitcoin network is the indication of the overall good health of the network. The higher hash rate also indicates the miner’s confidence in bitcoin as they are the result of an effective accomplishment of resolving a mathematical puzzle.

As more and more blocks are mined then it becomes increasingly difficult to mine the existing blocks. This results in increased mining difficulty as the various factors of production which are part of bitcoin mining comes to play. Bitcoin mining is heavily depended on the latest bitcoin mining hardware and processors which comes with a heavy price tag. Another source of strain for a bitcoin miner is the difficulty getting a constant source of electricity. The cheaper the cost of electricity to use for the mining equipment the more higher are the profits.

Bitcoin mining is at an all-time as of 2020; BTC hash rate has reached 126 quintillion hashes per second. The best way to onset the difficulty of bitcoin mining is to find cheap sources of electricity and invest in newer hardware.

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Expand your Business by Hiring a Good Digital Agency

In the days gone by if you had to succeed as a small business then you needed the support of your local community, neighbors and general word of mouth. The idea of anything digital or online was scoffed at just a decade ago. Investors turned a blind eye to any company which was online or digital based; now the same investors are waiting to join in at the first sight of a new digital startup or a business. Nowadays any business which doesn’t have a digital footprint is ignored and cast away as unreliable. Today a consumer would make his decision weather to choose a business based on the fact if the business has a solid website, its online reputation; its ability to be used on mobile phones.

The future of enterprise is the small and medium businesses which cater to the particular segment of the market and certain niches. The next big thing is actually are the smaller things. It is far cheaper for a small and medium business to hire a digital marketing agency to take care of its digital internet marketing needs then they themselves investing in building a digital marketing team from scratch.

An established digital marketing agency will take care of all your digital needs from building first mobile app to its marketing campaigns. A good digital agency will provide various packages to meet your weekly, monthly and yearly business needs. The return of investment on hiring a digital agency is given. The market is crowded with similar businesses but with the help of an agency you can make your product to stand apart from the rest and beat the competition.

Online reputation management is an integral part of every up and coming businesses. All it takes is one bad tweet response and a bad PR handling which will end up in a business closing its shop. A digital marketing agency will take all this in consideration and prepare emergency plans and be ready for all sorts of business exigencies. A business owner need not worry about how to handle a tweetstorm when a group of experts from an agency are taking care of the problem and providing expert solutions.

The future is smartphone and the future is local. Many potential customers get to know about a new business through a basic search or through word of mouth or someone sharing about it on a social media platform. The majority of traffic online is driven through smartphone apps. A good digital agency will help a business monetize this space through building an efficient app and design. The agencies also provide constant support with the development and maintenance of the application. The business owner can save in thousands just with hiring a proper agency. The businesses can ask the agencies to develop the app and content in local languages also in order to gain access to more potential customers.Digital agencies are here to stay for the long haul. It’s today’s equivalent of what good old newspaper advertising was in 20^th century. Businesses small and big are scrambling to make their presence relevant through good digital internet marketing.

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Influence of work culture on Attrition

An average employee spends anywhere near 40 to 60 hours of his/her time at work per week. Work plays a pivotal role in an employee’s day to day life and impacts the overall well-being of the individual. An average person spends one third of their life at work and a balanced work culture helps in maintaining a healthy work life balance and in employee retention. It’s ten times more expensive to hire a new candidate than to retain an existing one. Most companies avoid high attrition rate by employee friendly policies such as flexible working options, employee outing, group building activities, insurance, weekend offs, etc.

Majority of companies which are popular among employees are also the companies which have great work culture. Most of the big five tech companies provide lot of perks along with great benefits and promote an environment of friendliness. A good example of how good a company is doing is by looking at it’s workforce. Retaining employees is one of the biggest hurdle a HR faces in every company. The problem of employee retention becomes worse when the top talent of the organisation start leaving abruptly.

Attrition is always a part of a company but high turnover of employees leaving causes doubt among the customers and lowers the morale of existing employees and also would be a hurdle in attracting top talent to the company. Most of the employees like to be part of something bigger than themselves and be part of a great story with mission. The big five tech companies take this seriously and are constantly focusing on them and make sure that there is an alignment between the work culture and their mission statement. Team building exercises and occasional group retreats leads to much better cohesion of team and improves the bonding among co-workers from a shared experience from outside activities.

The biggest cause of employee turnover is the conflict between management and the employees. The work culture where employees are treated as subordinates with no input but as a machine then the attrition will always be high. Employees prefer to be respected and to be valued and their opinions to be heard and their feedback accepted. Companies which foster a structure of hierarchy free structure of management and provide autonomy to it’s employees thrive better than the competition and also have a general low rate of attrition.

Any employee would prefer to be in an organisation which cares about his/her career development and progress. The organisation providing straight paths to career development through training, support of further education will boost the employee’s morale and build a highly talented team whose development is synchronised with the growth of the organisation. An employee would be much more loyal to an organisation which cares about their professional growth as much as they do.

Employee turnover is natural for every growing organisation, it is to be expected but also it could be reduced by weeding out the wrong candidates during the recruitment process and following few of the practices mentioned above to keep the attrition rate low.

How to overcome MSP Sales objections

You have done your work and given a presentation and now is the moment of judgement of whether the potential client is going to accept your proposal or is going to reject it. Managed Service Providers (MSP) is a very rapidly growing industry with 7 percent annual growth rate yet it is mostly depended on the traditional form of expanding through referrals from present customers and demonstration by the sales executives to potential customers. If there is a website based service model than make sure that the potential customer fills in the information in order for a call back of demo.

Below are some of the sales objections and ways to overcome them: –

Price objections:

One of the major objections raised when the deal almost comes to a close is the price objection. A potential client would be impressed by the demo and the presentation but would try to negotiate to get the MSP service at a lower price. This problem needs to be addressed by the sales team at the discovery itself.

The sales team at the time of discovery needs to get the current expenditure which the client is paying for and tailor that demo presentation according to those numbers. Therefore, when a client raises an objection based on high fees than the sales team should confidently showcase that without their service the company is currently paying the ‘x’ amount and with their service they are saving ‘x’ amount and without incurring extra cost of the infrastructure update on yearly basis. This also helps in weeding out clients whom one can’t service and save expenditure on the sales demo prepared for them.

Cold Feet:

Often it so happens that the client will listen to the demo and be pleasant until the presentation is over and will ask to leave the proposal list with them so they can use the info and bargain with other competitors for the same service. This happens often when the client doesn’t have to make any commitment in the demo meeting. This is a drain on resources of the sales team. As this would escalate into negotiation skirmish between two competitive organisations.

The best way to overcome this is by making sure the influencers are all in there during the demo presentation. The sales team need to assess the influencers who have the final say weather to buy the service or not. They need to identify the key issues which will come up with the influencers and bring up the solution during the demo of the MSP. Influencers could be the office manager, administrative head, operations manager apart from the CEO.

It is important to solve the problems which might arise before it is even brought up in the discussion and closing the deal within the demo meeting and getting signatures or at best getting an appointment with the influencers present on the following week.

These two above are the major objections which a sales team faces when trying to sell MSP’s. MSP’s at the end of the day are cost savers and provide an overall benefit to all the parties involved in the negotiation. Objections and conflicts are natural human tendencies which one has to overcome in a transactional relationship and it is part of the MSP’s too. The ability to handle it and close the deal is what separates a good sales team from a best sales team.

How to strengthen your MSP sales pipeline

MSP sales are mostly generated through referrals and word of mouth. When a client buys from a MSP service then they will most probably be buying it for a long duration. The client realises that after the initial adjustment to an MSP then they will either sign a long-term contract of anywhere between 12 to 36 months or more. Another option which potential clients take is that they make a decision of buying the infrastructure on licensing terms. This makes a profit for the MSP but it is better for overall sales experience to sell it on fixed term basis as it will keep the infrastructure up to date with the latest software updates.

Referrals generally happen when an organisation uses an MSP and spread the word to its complimentary businesses. Over the period of the contract the client will spread the word about the MSP and create a referral. Even if there is 1:1 ratio of client referral over the contract period then there is over 200 percent growth with over 200 clients. Referrals are a great source of revenue generation for a MSP and strengthening its sales pipeline.

The growth of MSP sales through referrals is often vagrant and disparate. Referrals are strengthened in sales pipeline by meeting a prospecting client and giving them a prepared presentation and how the MSP will add benefit to their business and save on costs over the years. Another way to boost the sales pipeline for MSP is to follow up on cold leads and keep that contact. Most often cold leads will lead to potential clients for the MSP or act as a referral to another client. Sales pipeline is often strengthened by keeping the sales cycle short and letting go of the unresponsive leads.
Often it is the case that sales team’s resources are wasted by following up on unresponsive clients who will use the delayed negotiation in order to gain lower prices.

Sales pipeline is affected by the sunk cost fallacy of the sales team of expecting to get return on time invested in an unresponsive lead. This can be solved by weeding out the clients by optimising the sales process which will ensure that the sales team will be able to differentiate between a cold lead and an unresponsive lead.

Sales pipeline at the end of the day is the sales team and its resources. The most effective way to strengthen a sales pipeline for an MSP is to ensure that the sales team resources are effectively used and optimised for generating revenue. This is only possible when there is company wide uniform process and also a customer relationship management (CRM) which will ensure that the sales team can keep a bird’s eye view on the development of existing and potential clients along with differentiating responsive clients and unresponsive clients.

Sales pipeline at the end of the day is the heart valve for an MSP. If there is no effective sales pipeline then the MSP will not grow and stall. MSP are famously depended on referrals which is its strength as it creates a strong community among Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) but also stall growth for MSP. This bottleneck can be solved by generating follow ups on referrals and focusing on high value clients and removing the unresponsive ones to create increased growth an overall strengthening the sales pipeline.

About.

For my undergraduate I have majored in three subjects which include Economics, Sociology & Industrial Relations. I am also a trained NLP practioner and currently learning web development in my free time.

I have experience writing articles for various clients which includes blockchain, academia and viral content.

Any digital marketing or article writing will be handled with utmost efficiency.