If you’re reading this, I’m willing to bet you’ve already heard the buzz about “Bitcoin” this year, which has amassed investors a 15x return in 2017 alone. Pretty Amazing. If you’re already holding bitcoin, then you are likely a stoked “hodler”, awaiting to see how much gas this rocket has left in it. If you’re not holding, you’re probably thinking that the price is already too high, and the bubble is about to pop. The specifics are highly uncertain, but there is some clarity to be found, and I’d like to help bring it into focus.

My favorite way to frame Bitcoin now is to compare it to the AOL of the 90’s (I’m borrowing this idea from this great twitter thread). Nearly Everyone who bought a computer in those early days of slow, crackly modems will remember the constant ping of ‘You’ve got mail!’. AOL was the entry point to the internet. Yet, it was only a small, curated, walled-garden. At that time, using a third party browser that was wide open to the entirety of the internet was a cringe-worthy idea to most people.

Bitcoin is the gateway to the ‘new internet’, that will be plaid with cryptocurrency transactions in every aspect of your digital life. It will not only rearrange the way you bank (or don’t), it will change how you will be compensated for the work you do, and will provide incentives for you across your social networks, to name a few.

The New Internet

Many people who have just heard of Bitcoin, are not familiar with the 1500+ other cryptocurrencies listed on coinmarketcap.com. It really wasn’t until midway through this year (2017), that I took the time to understand what Ethereum was, the number two cryptocurrency behind bitcoin — and I was blown away. If Bitcoin was digital gold (a store of value, much better than savings account), Ethereum was a platform that promised to be one day capable of hosting trillions of “dollars” in business transactions through “smart contracts”. Its potential seemed to dramatically dwarf even that of Bitcoin. It was clear to me that Ethereum (and others in competition with it, ahem… NEO 👏👏👏 ) were a new layer of the internet and apps ecosystem, upon which the future apps and services would be built.

Earth’s Big Problem

It’s important to clarify the core problem that cryptocurrencies solve. We’ve had a very large problem of unchecked power on this planet, and especially in the US. What is the power to print money unendingly, unscrupulously, and free of any accountability? Do you know the people who hold this power? Should any one centralized institution hold such power? I certainly don’t have any personal relations with these people, but I’ve been hearing VERY bad things.

Perhaps the CLEAREST SIGN in the rise of Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto future, is that we are finally experiencing a check and balance of power in the most meaningful way. An answer to Earth’s most fervent prayer, no doubt.

Did I want to be a part of the solution to Earth’s biggest problem while helping design innovative service platforms for mass adoption? Why yes, it’s one of my heart’s greatest burning desires. That’s when I jumped in like FOMO was going out of style.

Discovering the Smart Economy Vision

Former, more graphically pleasing NEO website

I’m gonna fast forward for you now. After wading through the rapidly growing ‘alts’ crypto space for several months, I was starting to get a pretty good sense of who I thought were the winners. My passion for crypto reached an all time high when I discovered NEO (when it was still called “Antshares”). I caught a sneak peak at some of the rebranding designs and knew the move from the worst name in crypto to the arguably the best, was going to be BIG. I determined it was unlikely I’d ever be this confident again about the probable success of a crypto project. With Ethereum hitting $400 at the time, and Antshares at only $5, claiming better tech with the ability for developers to write smart contracts in the coding languages they know and love AND the 1 Billion strong business savvy Nation of China behind it, I placed my bet.

NEO Moon Mission, engines just warming up.

NEO has drawn several steep mountain shapes on the trading charts since then, and along the way, I was fortunate to kindle a relationship with fellow NEO hodlers (crypto speak for ‘holders’) Matt Moravec and David Chin. Matt had written an article here on Medium expressing his interest in developing on NEO. I expressed my interest in designing on NEO. A few phone conversations later, and a meet up in SF with he and David, and we were bootstrapping what we believe has the potential to be one of the most exciting Token Sales in crypto.

Why so exciting? Introducing Thor Token

David and Matt had been doing their homework, and presented a business concept that seemed to be born running with two strong legs. In synchronistic fashion, the core insight at the heart of Thor Token was that soon more than 40% of the American workforce would be contractors — an insight I had been dancing around, and attempting to build a start-up on for the past two years. David and Matt’s approach to combine this insight with the innovative powers of blockchain technology was big, bold, and insanely pragmatic. I see THOR as a project that can truly bring cryptocurrency to Main street. The goal of THOR is to empower people (contract workers) to make more money, apply instantly to jobs, and provide comprehensive health and retirement savings benefits for contractors. Imagine getting paid directly to your wallet (not a bank) every time you did a job, instead of waiting on paychecks to come every two weeks or once a month into a bank account that pays you minimal to no interest. Imagine that? Now imagine being able to instantly convert that payday value into several of the best performing assets on the planet, or spending as you wish into the losing, but still practical USD. Those are thoughts of FREEDOM folks.

Needless to say, but say I will — I am honored and thrilled to be designing communications for Thor Token. I hope you’ll drop in and check us out.

Have a VERY Merry Christmas, friends. 2018 has a lot in store, and I think it will be amazing.

-Matthew Lawler