Computer Science, High Tech, Electronics, Startups, Entrepreneur, Investments and Business.
Electric Car Batteries – It is a bigger environment problem as people make it out to be?
So, often when you get a bunch of people debating over whether electric cars are good, there is never a consensus. Some say it’s too green (see what I did there ;)), too new to be trusted, can be your second car because you can’t yet go on long drives reliably because it needs lengthy recharges etc. And then there are some who claim that electric cars are not environment friendly at all, because the batteries in them are horrible and will end up in landfill with lots of chemicals and be a bigger menace than using black gold. It always struck a weird chord so I wanted to find out more details.
The short answer is, no, it is NOT a big deal. There are lots of ways to recycle these batteries and as popularity of these cars grow, so will ways and regulations on recycling them. They are chock-full of expensive chemicals and if there is money to be made, humans will figure out how. By 2025, 90% of lithium batteries will be car batteries (Other usages are cell phone, regular ones like AA, AAA etc, anything that uses those tiny disc like batteries etc). The main 2 ways for recycling are:
1. Breaking the huge batteries for using in smaller ones such as watches, phones etc. This would be the simplest and lowest cost recycling. This would work as long as the demand for other batteries are higher than that of car batteries.
2. Chemical leeching: This is the process to separate out the lithium, cobalt etc for reuse. Cobalt prices have already doubled in 2017 itself and it is one of the main ingredients in the battery. The problem with mass recycling by chemical processes is that every manufacture uses slightly different chemicals. So there are 2 options here:
- The battery manufacturing process is made standard to enable recycling.
- The manufacturers themselves recycle their own batteries so they can reuse the lithium, cobalt etc (which are naturally occurring minerals and thus limited). They give enough kickbacks so users return the batteries. This brings down their own costs and seems like the natural way to go.
Conclusion: Reject the naysayers and drive forward for a greener future!
How to start your own Stock Exchange?
I found out a few days ago, that someone owns the NYSE! Whaaaat! I had always assumed that stock exchanges were like associations or establishment more like the UN, the court system etc but no, they are not. They are just like any other corporation, except they require huge investments, have lots of regulation to the point that they are monopolistic but can make you insanely rich if you can pull it off.
– Lots of legal requirements that need to be passed
– Different jurisdictions have different requirements in terms of investment for risk coverage. (Need a 100Crore INR in India)
– Very difficult to convince others to IPO and trade at your exchange when you have no track record but you may pull it off if you have ties with banks who finance IPO’s and many entrepreneurial friends.
– What I found most interesting is, one of the make-or-break things was technology. Security, fail-safeness, 100% runtime, ability to complete millions of trades every second, unlimited quick storage, ability to disperse this data – It’s the tech and engineers that can make a huge dufference
– There’s a “stock exchange” for Hollywood! It’s got all the components of a real stock exchange, IPO of movies, regulations, options, long and shorting of shares. Except, it’s gamification but has been proven to predict pretty accurately how a movie/actor/actress will do.
– A couple fellows, Ian Haet & Brian Neissen, started a stock exchange for Startups, they established pretty strict rules for stock trading and founders could use it for getting funding but floating shares when they wanted (unlike crowdfunding). It was acquired by the ISEG a few years later.
– One of the best ways to make sure your stock exchange thrives is if there is competition, from neighboring countries and economies.
– Start off as a private stock exchange, sell shares of your own stock exchange to de-risk/get buy-in/grow network, and grow from there
– Make sure you have a good reason to start one, a niche or a pain to solve. (Country without an exchange, a niche market such as handicrafts, small businesses etc).
