So it's been a while since I did a vlog. In today's video I talk about what I've been up to over the last few weeks and what I'm doing at the moment. Hopefully you'll find it interesting.

Over the past month or so I've been 'in the lab' coding. Every couple of years or so I get the urge to channel my 'inner geek' and do some coding. It often involves weeks of self learning and hacking in order to bring an idea in my head into fruition. This month I've been beavering away on a 'fan engagement' app that has been mulling around in my mind for a while now.

Sweepstakes rebooted

For those of you who have been following my blog for a while you will know that I do a 'Soccer Sweepstakes' competition, now renamed 'ScoopStakes'.

When I first ran Soccer Sweepstakes, it was done out of recognition that not everyone that visited Steem was a content producer. Soccer Sweepstakes was one of a number of initiatives that rewarded people for taking part in competitions.

In the beginning I did everything manually on spreadsheets. To be honest, this was a pain in the arse. It was a labour of love and definitely not a good use of my time! However I persevered as I'd always had a grand vision for this 'thing'.

For me the 'fan engagement' space, in particular the Sports fan engagement space is an under tapped area. Fantasy football is massive in the UK. There are other apps in the UK that are similar to Scoopstakes, like Sky's Super 6 app. However these are specific to UK residents. Equally, State-side FanDuel is big however that is restricted to US residents.

In my mind, cryptocurrencies are a great enabler of fan engagement competitions. With cryptocurrencies we can automate micro-transactional payments to users across the globe. Not only does it open these competitions to a wider audience, it also serves as a great on-boarding ramp to people new to crypto.

Steem was the first place where creating a fan engagement competition was not only possible but it also served as a way to tap into a pre-existing rewards pool.

All of this could be done 'effortlessly'... 'all I needed to do' was figure out how to get the idea off of a spreadsheet and into some source code!!

As Soccer Sweepstakes developed I taught myself just enough python and mongodb to automate the picking up of user entries and calculation the results. This was okay, however the onus was still hacking the steemit interface and relying on users to submit their comments in a certain format in order for the hack to work.

The next phase what I've started to work was to build my own front end. This is now in full swing:

The next phase is to optimise the performance of the site (it is a bit slow) and to enable users to input predictions directly through the front end (rather than having to use another interface like Steemit).

Eventually the aim is to have a multitude of games, competitions in which users worldwide can win rewards in a number of different cryptocurrencies.

Time to reflect on the Blockchain in Malta

As much as I love to blog and vlog when I can, I'd much rather not be doing it today! I'm in Malta at the moment for the Malta Blockchain Summit and rather than punching words into my keyboard I should be out on a tour of the Island. I'd come to Malta a day early specifically for that purpose. However it is a grey miserable day out there, so I figured I'd limit my excursion to exploring the local area, St Julian's.

With all the hundreds of 'blockchain' conferences out there, this one really stood out. The Maltese Prime minister Joseph Muscat is bullish on blockchain and cryptocurrencies. I watched a video recently where he stand he wanted Malta to be the 'Blockchain Island'. It is not often you here such positive noises coming from the leader of a nation. He will also be the keynote speaker at the conference.

It isn't just words either, when I arrived at the airport, there was a lady in baggage reclaim asking, 'Are you here for the Blockchain Summit? Beat the queues by registering here.' I was then ushered into a little room to register and claim my name badge. Imagine something like that happening at Heathrow or Newark International... the last thing you'd want is to be ushered into a side room for anything 'blockchain related'!!

By the looks of things the conference will very ICO and Crypto Exchange heavy. Malta recently enacted legislation that will enable the regulation of Exchanges and ICO registered in their jurisdiction. This is good in my opinion as it will be give more confidence and legitimacy to the space as a whole.

I would still caution against storing crypto on any Exchange and urge you do your due diligence before investing in any ICO. However having some of these enterprises regulated by a government will go some way to demonstrating that not all crypto business are cowboys and fly-by-nights... to the degree to which you trust the Maltese government. And I'm a big fan of going to a place and understanding the culture for yourself (as much as you can) before forming any opinion on it!

Anyway that's it... I've spent far too much time being anti-social in my hotel room. Time to go out and explore!