Technology

Centralized crypto exchanges like Coinbase are easy but expensive because they introduce a middleman. Not-for-profit project 0x allows any developer to quickly build their own decentralized cryptocurrency exchange and decide their own fees. It acts like Craigslist, connecting traders without ever holding the tokens itself. And instead of having to bootstrap their way to enough users trading tokens on their app alone so that thereliquidity, 0x offers cross-platform liquidity between users on the different projects it powers.

The problem is the user experience of decentralized apps is often crappy compared to the consumer apps we&re used to across the rest of tech. From sign-in to recovering accounts to conducting transactions, ita lot more complicated than Facebook Login, PayPal, or Shopify. Bitcoin and Ethereum prices remain well below half their peaks because itdifficult to do much with cryptocurrency right now. Until the decentralized infrastructure improves, the dreams of how blockchains can improve the world remain distant.

0x is trying to fix that by ensuring developers all don&t have to reinvent the exchange wheel.

It began as a for-profit exchange before the team recognized the massive usability gap. So instead it became a decentralized exchange protocol, and raised $24 million in an ICO for its ZRX token. Thathow relayers — the apps who use it to build exchanges for ERC20 tokens atop the Ethereum blockchain — can charge fees. It also gives those who collect the most a say in the governance of the protocol.

Some of the top projects on 0x like Augur and Dydx are going strong. Last week Coinbase announced it was exploring whether it might list ZRX and several other currencies for trade on its exchange, helping perk up the price after declines since the new year.

0xZRX token price, via CoinMarketCap

Now 0x is putting some of its $24 million to work. Itjust hired former Facebook designer Chris Kalani to help it improve the usability of its APIs and the products built on top of them. His skills helped Facebook embrace mobile around its 2012 IPO. He then built Wake, raising $3.8 million for the design prototype sharing tool that let teams get instant feedback on their works-in-progress. Kalani sold Wake to design platform InVision in April, and after a few months assisting the transition, hejoined 0x.

&There are very few designers involved in the [blockchain] space& Kalani tells me. &Therenot a lot of people who had worked on anything at a large-scale or from the consumer perspective. We&re focused on making crypto more approachable.&

Sustaining a crypto not-for-profit

After talking to four leaders in different parts of the blockchain industry, the consensus was that 0x was an elegant protocol for spawning decentralized exchanges. But the question kept coming up about whether the project will be sustainable. The company doesn&t have to earn enormous amounts of revenue, but concerns about its longevity could scare away developers. One, who asked to remain anonymous, described 0x saying, &the best analogy is trying to monetize Linux.&

0x is open source, so it could be forked so developers can sidestep ZRX. 0x hopes that the shared liquidity feature will keep developers in line. It only works with the unforked version, and is now being used by 0x-powered projects, including Radar Relay, ERC dEX, Shark Relay, Bamboo Relay and LedgerDex.

While some centralized exchanges have suffered security troubles and hacks, those with stronger records like Coinbase continue to thrive while banking off high fees. That in turn lets them offer better liquidity and invest more in the user experience, widening the gap versus decentralized apps. &People trust Coinbase with large amounts of capital but they wouldn&t trust themselves,& Kalani admits.But he thinks itearly in the game, and as users become more knowledgeable and comfortable with holding their own tokens for use on decentralized exchanges, 0x and ZRX will thrive.

Therealso competition within the decentralized exchange space from Kyberliquidity network, and AirSwappeer-to-peer exchange marketplace. But for any of these to thrive, the mainstream crypto owner will have to get better educated. That could fall to 0x.

One alternative path for the not-for-profit would be selling developer services and consulting to those building on top of it. Or it could always do another ICO. But for now, there are a lot of projects out there that don&t want to foot the upfront cost to build their own secure and compliant exchange from scratch. Kalani concludes, &The way Stripe allowed developers and businesses to build on top of it, and not have to worry about regulatory issues and all the infrastructure necessary to take payments, I think 0x is going to do something similar with exchanges for crypto.&

On the heels of its acquisition of bike-share company Motivate, Lyft is gearing up to fully integrate bicycle and scooter sharing into its app. Thereno word on exactly when this will happen, but itlikely it will happen soon.

Lyft is also investing $1 million to advance transportation equity to people in underserved communities. As part of its commitment, Lyft will work with nonprofit organizations like TransForm to develop programs that support people with low incomes.

&Soon you will be able to get real-time transit information, plan a multi-modal trip, and use Lyft Bikes and Scooters to connect to a local transit stop or shared ride pickup location,& Lyft wrote in a blog post.

In June, Lyft revamped its rider app to encourage shared rides.Currently, 35 percent of Lyft rides are shared, but the goal is to reach 50 percent shared rides by 2020, Lyft VP of Government Relations Joseph Okpaku told TechCrunch last month. With scooters and bikes offered via the app, Lyft envisions being better equipped to &bridge the first and last-mile gap.&

By the end of 2019, Lyft says it aims to take 1 million cars off the road. Last year, Lyft says 250,000 of its community members gave up their personal cars.

This comes shortly after Uber invested in part of Lime$335 million round. Uberplan is to put its logo on Limescooters, Bloomberg previously reported. Meanwhile, Uber owns and operates bike-share service JUMP following a ~$200 million acquisition earlier this year. In April, Uber unveiled its multi-modal transportation ambitions, which includes car rentals and public transit integration.

Last month, both Lyft and Uber applied to operate electric scooter programs in San Francisco. The citymunicipal transportation agency, however, has yet to make a decision on which five companies, if any, will receive permits.

I like the Nuraphones a lot. In fact, I named the sound-adapting headphones one of my favorite things of 2017. Clearly I&m not alone in that enthusiasm, either — the Melbourne-based startup scored $4.7 million to expand its market early last year.

Nura announced this week that itmaking its headphones even better, courtesy of a software update. The company is pushing out a bunch of tweaks to the headphones through an upgrade initiative itdeemed &G2.& Chief among them is active noise cancellation — something that was conspicuously absent from the products upon release.

Until now, the company has relied on the passive version — using the unique combination of over-ear cups and in-ear buds to muffle out ambient noise. The update, however, will bring the ability to filter out low-frequency sounds like airplane engine rumble, without adding a high-frequency hiss into the mix.

Also new is the addition of Social Mode, which does the opposite, using the four on-board microphones to let sound in, so users can hear their co-workers or carry on a conversation with the headphones on. They&ll also be used to improve the sound of voice calls, filtering out noisy environments during conversations.

Nowas good a time as any to pick up a new pair, by the way. The company is offering Nuraphones for $260 for AmazonPrime Day — thata 25 percent discount off their normal price.