Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Ted Livingston
Code Is Now Fully Open Source
As the world grows increasingly complex we believe Satoshi's vision of a "purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash" is more important than ever. That's why our mission at Code is to make it compelling for the average person to control their own money. We've made good progress so far, with the launch of Digital Paper Cash, Cash Links, and Micropayments. Many prominent industry leaders have said these are some of the most compelling experiences they've seen.
Kik - Darknet Diaries
[START OF RECORDING] JACK: [MUSIC] Okay, so, this episode has mature content. I don’t recommend listening to this with young ears around or on some kind of speaker where others might hear it because this episode gets into some dark stuff, so listener discretion is advised. Alright, so this episode is about a mobile app called Kik, spelled K-I-K. It was made in 2010 to help mobile users be able to chat with one another easier.
5 Qualities of a Good Cryptocurrency Trader
By AsianMarketCap Official on The Capital The world of cryptocurrency is just growing by the minute. More and more people are flocking to become cryptocurrency traders. The market is expected to become bigger and bigger as time passes. Multiple altcoins and ICOs have entered the cryptocurrency fray and are posing as serious contenders to becoming the next Bitcoin in the market.
Announcing Kin, a Cryptocurrency for an Open Future
Building a new ecosystem of digital services, together We’ve reached a worrying point in the evolution of the internet: more and more of our everyday digital activities — from talking to friends to ordering food to sharing photos — are controlled by fewer and fewer companies. The biggest companies use their scale to amass advertising dollars and give everything else away for free, making it nearly impossible for smaller competitors to find sustainable business models.
Moving Forward Boldly with Kin
Two years ago we set out to build a new economy that offered equal opportunity to billions of people. Today millions of consumers and hundreds of developers have come together to build this better future with Kin. When it comes to consumer adoption Kin is the most used cryptocurrency in the world. By far. But all is not well. After 18 months of working with the SEC the only choice they gave us was to either label Kin a security or fight them in court.
Letter: Think about the victims and the officers
There have been numerous incidents of police shootings or officers drawing their weapons, such as in Woods Cross and in Ogden, about which I would like to comment. First of all, I am in complete agreement with the families, and especially the parents of people who have been shot by police officers, and understand that they should take legal action against the city and police department involved in the shootings if there is probable cause for such action.
The Creative Photo Challenge Starts Now! Challenge No. 1: Make a Mess
April 9, 2019 featured, photo & video, Uncategorized Ready? Let’s go! Lindsay Adler’s Creative Photo Challenge starts NOW! Let’s jump right in and get your hands dirty. By adding things like paint, flour or molasses to your portraits, you can add texture and color to create a photo that pops! In Challenge #1 – Make a Mess, Lindsay Adler will use one light and Holi Powder to create a portrait that exudes color and motion while making a mess on your set.
Facebook Isn’t Going After Bitcoin. It’s Going After the Dollar
Disclosure: I have no inside knowledge of Facebook’s plans. This post is based on 10 years of experience in messaging and crypto. We think Facebook could be on a path to replace the US dollar as the global reserve currency. This post outlines how that might happen.
Four Commissioners at the SEC are About to Vote on the Future of Crypto in the U.S.
Today the Wall Street Journal published an article about the SEC’s upcoming decision on whether or not to file suit against Kik for our 2017 token sale. This comes after SEC Chair Jay Clayton said “I believe every ICO I’ve seen is a security.” That includes almost every cryptocurrency, from Ethereum on down. This is the thing that everyone in the industry is dealing with, but nobody wants to talk about. For all of us to be able to continue hiring, innovating, and competing, we need to change that.
Letter: Some advice for the president on his wall
As a lifelong Republican, I would like to give President Donald Trump some advice about his insistence on keeping the government closed in order to build a wall on our southern border. I am also the great-grandson of an immigrant from Scotland whose sole purpose in coming to this country was to help build the Salt Lake Temple.
Letter: All my Tribune favorites back together
One of the five reasons I have taken The Salt Lake Tribune for all these years — Kirby, “Zits,” “Garfield,” “Pajama Diaries” and “Doonesbury” — and now they're all together again. There really is a Santa Claus, and all those sacred beliefs that Robert and I share continue to be true as well! Ted Livingston, West Valley City
The world-changing idea behind Bitcoin isn't what you think
Many people believe that Bitcoin has limited utility and that its high price is based solely on speculation. Others say that the only exciting thing about Bitcoin is how the blockchain will help us track items through the global supply chain, or tokenize pieces of art or facilitate financial audits. While these arguments are interesting, they miss the point of what makes Bitcoin so transformative.
Apple iPhone X: First Hands on with Chase Jarvis - CreativeLive Blog
Ten years ago when Steve Jobs launched the original iPhone into pop culture, it had a very distinct feeling about it. Simply put, it felt like the future. Today, some ten years later, I tasted that same taste again. This time with iPhone X. Yes, it’s true – I’m lucky enough to be strapped with one of the very first iPhone X’s to hit the streets (not in stores until next week), I just spent the past few hours running around NYC with a few creative friends.
Apple iPhone X: First Hands on with Chase Jarvis
Ten years ago when Steve Jobs launched the original iPhone into pop culture, it had a very distinct feeling about it. Simply put, it felt like the future. Today, some ten years later, I tasted that same taste again. This time with iPhone X. Yes, it’s true – I’m lucky enough to be strapped with one of the very first iPhone X’s to hit the streets (not in stores until next week), I just spent the past few hours running around NYC with a few creative friends.
Chat is the New Browser
Few people picked up on one of the most interesting things that David Marcus, head of Facebook Messenger, said at TechCrunch Disrupt in September. In an offhanded comment, Marcus noted that users could book airline tickets and hotels through Hipmunk's new chatbot and that the experience was "pretty close to having a native app, and definitely better than mobile web." Just think about that for a second.
Chat is the new web browser
Few people picked up on one of the most interesting things that David Marcus, head of Facebook Messenger, said at TechCrunch Disrupt in September. In an offhanded comment, Marcus noted that users could book airline tickets and hotels through Hipmunk’s new chatbot and that the experience was “pretty close to having a native app, and definitely better than mobile web.” Just think about that for a second.
Bots are better without conversation
It has been four months since we launched the Kik Bot Shop and Facebook opened its bot platform for Messenger. It’s been about the same amount of time since the hype around bots was at its peak, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicting that bots would be as big as apps. Since then, the hype has cooled, with some people now wondering why bots suck and politely asking to not be exposed to them. At Kik, we’ve noticed the same thing as everyone else: So far, there hasn’t been a killer bot.
Bots are Better Without Conversation
It has been four months since we launched the Kik Bot Shop and Facebook opened its bot platform for Messenger. It’s been about the same time since the hype around bots was at its peak, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicting that bots would be as big as apps. Since then, the hype has cooled, with some people now wondering why bots suck and politely asking not to be exposed to them.
A New Metric for Chat
There are few things people do online more than chat — as Kleiner Perkins’ Mary Meeker recently pointed out, messaging apps now count their user numbers in billions — but the industry hasn’t had great ways to measure that activity. Traditionally, the owners of chat apps have focused on message volumes, message frequency, or time spent in app, among other similarly rigid metrics.
Why bots, not A.I., are the future of chat
At Kik, we’ve been thinking about the coming bot revolution for a long time. We first launched a basic bot platform a year and a half ago, and millions of users have been chatting with Kik bots ever since. Other messengers, such as Telegram and Slack, have been doing their own work with bots. Now, Facebook is rumored to be announcing its own bot platform for Messenger at f8 on April 12. It’s no longer a question of if bots are coming, but how.
The Future of Chat Isn’t AI
Instant interaction is key At Kik, we’ve been thinking about the coming bot revolution for a long time. We first launched a basic bot platform a year and a half ago, and millions of users have been chatting with Kik bots ever since. Other messengers, such as Telegram and Slack, have been doing their own work with bots. Now, Facebook is rumored to be announcing its own bot platform for Messenger at f8 on April 12. It’s no longer a question of if bots are coming, but how.
Why We Took $50 Million from China’s Largest Internet Company
Today we’re announcing that Tencent, maker of WeChat (Weixin), has invested $50 million in our company, Kik. This process started a year ago, when our board asked us if a partnership with a large company might give us an advantage in winning the chat race. At first I was hesitant. I was confident we could win the race alone. But, keeping in line with Kik’s principle of considering all the options, I eventually agreed to take a look. I made a list of every major company we could partner with.
200 Million Users
Kik passed 200 million registered users today. That's good news. Two hundred million people have downloaded the app and created a Kik username. If each one of those users took five seconds to say, "Hi," it'd take 31 years to get through them all. That's a lot of people! The truth is, it doesn't really matter all that much. The number of users is an interesting stat, but, to be honest, we'd expect the number to be pretty high.
Hashtags as Social Networks
I first signed up for Facebook in 2005. I had just started at the University of Waterloo when the new social network rolled out for students at the school. Overnight, everyone was on it. It was like one big group, with everyone sharing pictures, making jokes, and coordinating plans. It was amazing. But then everyone else showed up. Family, colleagues, acquaintances. All of a sudden, I had to censor myself. ‘Does this post make me look cool? Okay, good.
After WhatsApp: An Insider’s View On What’s Next In Messaging
Editor’s note: Ted Livingston is the Founder and CEO of Kik, a mobile-first company with over 120 million registered users all over the world. Ted started working in mobile in 2007, while he was still studying at the University of Waterloo. I was driving to a meeting in San Francisco when I got the message: “Facebook to buy WhatsApp for $19 billion.” I pulled over and watched as messages started to stream in. Everyone had the same question: Is Facebook crazy?
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Ted
Contact Ted, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack