Since the Great Recession ended more than 12 years ago, growth stocks have been the talk of Wall Street. Historically low lending rates and an accommodative Federal Reserve have paved the way for fast-paced companies to borrow cheaply in order to hire, acquire, and innovate. A report from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, a division of JPMorgan Chase, found the average annual return for companies that initiated and grew their payouts between 1972 and 2012 completely trounced the average annual return of companies that didn't pay a dividend over the same four-decade span (9.5% vs. 1.6%).
LUMMIS: So the concept of mining bitcoin and its great store of value was something that resonated with me, coming from a mining state.

Cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on a decentralized ledger. This ledger is called a blockchain. Every time crypto is bought or sold, the transaction is added to the blockchain — a public database of the transactions, which is available to other crypto holders. Anyone can join and participate in the blockchain, but data on individual transactions — and the people involved with them — are secured using cryptography (the basis for the term cryptocurrency). For each transaction added to the blockchain, there’s a digital validation process to verify it and prevent fraud.
"For any centralized service, we have to do [client verification] and hold customer data," Zhao said. "On top of that we have to hold customer assets. Unlike banks, when the assets get stolen it's difficult to get them back. There's a high responsibility on the centralized exchanges we need to carry out well."