Definition drama
Every subculture develops its own jargon. In fact, often a good way to ascertain that something has gone on to become a well-established and unique subculture is to check if it has developed an argot or slang of its own. Where everyone within the subculture understands it, and those outside the will look completely nonplussed. Take the subculture of quizzing for example. Regular quizzers will not bat an eyelid at terms and phrases like ‘bounce’, ‘infinite pounce’, ‘Peter’, etc. Very often, people try their hardest to create new slang, because they instinctively understand the value it has in creating a subculture. One sees this very often on social media outlets such as Twitter, where people who want to be seen as influencers, or already are, constantly create new words and hashtags that they hope become part of the slang on the social network.
I have been talking of startups as a culture or a subculture often in these columns, without having paid too much attention to the jargon it should have developed if it were one. Doing this sort of an exercise is important because it will also tell you where the priorities of the subculture lie. In the case of startups, unsurprisingly, a lot of the jargon overwhelmingly tends to do with the process of raising money from investors. You have the ‘elevator pitch’, which is a short and persuasive sales pitch that takes as much time as an elevator ride. I am guessing that with more and more high-rises coming up, the lengths of these elevator pitches may also increase. You also have the ‘pitch deck’, which is a slightly more elaborate artefact that hopefully fills in some of the gaps that the elevator pitch could not. And then, you have jargon that deals with a whole lot of ‘metrics’ that go on those pitch decks. CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), pronounced ‘cack’. LTV (Life Time Value). ‘Churn’, not what you do to get butter from curd, but the number of customers who are dropping off your product or service. GMV, which sounds like a cool car, but is actually ‘Gross Merchandise Value’, a metric, chasing which many startups have crashed and burned. Speaking of burning, there is also the ‘burn rate’, the rate at which your startup is spending the money it has.
Then there is also some jargon that centres on making startups seem cool, especially to potential employees. This often boils down to fancy job titles. ‘Growth hacker’ being a very common one. Contrary to what the dictionary meaning may suggest, this person, who often does not code or hack in the geek sense either, is not meant to cut into the growth of the startup, but help it grow faster. ‘Hustler’ is one more. But they do not expect you to be Larry Flynt. You will see things like ‘evangelist’, ‘gardener’, ‘Sherpa’, etc. all turn up in job titles, with none of them meaning what they do in real life.
In conclusion, while startups are definitely a subculture, it is one that is obsessed with raising money and maybe creating a few fancy new job descriptions, at least going by the jargon it uses most often.
In this weekly column, we discuss the startup workplace. The writer heads product and technology for an online building materials marketplace
Blockchain technology will make or break your business in the future
With governments and corporates world over slowly realising the value in blockchain, it is indeed an exciting time in the financial world right now.
Blockchain is the new kid on the block. The term has been bandied about in financial circles and is slowly becoming a buzzword in the business world as well. Its ardent supporters laud its safety features and speak of how it will address concerns associated with security of financial transactions. So let us understand what exactly blockchain is. The shortest definition is:
Blockchain = Distributed Ledger
or list of all transactions across a peer-to-peer network. Data in a blockchain is stored in fixed structures called ‘blocks’.
Blockchain Technology
Before we dig deeper, let us first understand a few concepts :
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency, and to verify the transfer of funds operating independently of a central bank.
Distributed Ledger is a database that is consensually shared and synchronised across the network spread across multiple sites, institutions or geographies. It allows transactions to have public “witnesses”, thereby making a cyberattack more difficult.
Smart contracts are agreements that are encoded in a computer program and automatically executed upon certain criteria being met. Advantages of smart contracts include improved quality, reduced contract execution costs and increased speed. Smart contracts can be stored on the blockchain.
Hashing, in simple terms, means to take an input string of any length and give out an output string of a fixed length.
What is a blockchain?
A blockchain can be defined as an anonymous online ledger that uses the data structure to simplify the way we transact. Blockchain allows the users to manipulate the ledger in a secure way and without the help of any third party.
In case of a bank the ledger is connected to a centralised network. A blockchain is anonymous, thus protecting the identities of the users. This makes blockchain a more secure means to carry out financial transactions.
The algorithm used in blockchain reduces the dependence on the people to verify the transactions. This technology, used for recording various transactions, has the potential to disrupt the financial system.
A blockchain is a kind of transparent, independent, and permanent database coexisting in multiple locations and shared by a common community. This is also why it is referred to as a mutual distributed ledger (MDL).
Who controls blockchain?
It depends on the type of blockchain, which ranges from permissioned (where the verification blockchain is preselected by a central authority or consortium), to permission-less (where anyone can participate in the verification process). At present it is the permission-less blockchain that supports bitcoin, which has caught media’s attention.
Why are financial services companies excited about it?
Cryptocurrencies have been in existence since Bitcoin was launched in 2008. But the concept of blockchain has really taken off over the past 12 months, as it can help to:
Cryptocurrency exchanges are websites where you can buy, sell or exchange cryptocurrencies for other digital currency or traditional currency like US dollars or euros. Some of the reputed cryptocurrency exchanges are Coinbase, Kraken, Cex.io, ShapeShift, Poloniex, Bitstamp, CoinMama, Bitsquare, LocalBitcoin, Gemini, Bitsane, and Bittrex.
Applications of blockchain:
However, it is not a rosy picture all around. A significant drawback of blockchain is that their distributed nature demands constant computational power at multiple locations, and all the ongoing accumulated (electrical) power entails massive amount of usage of power.
Nevertheless, if experts are to be believed blockchain architecture can significantly bring down the costs and reduce inefficiencies in the financial sector. The next 4-6 years will be very exciting in the financial sector. Technology, if treaded carefully, will transform the way we use currencies, and usher in a new era in the financial world.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
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