Jefferson County, Alabama, July 17, 2017 (Newswire.com) - Arguably the biggest headline grabbers of 2017, cryptocurrencies are seeing their span of influence growing wider at a meteorical rate. The technology supporting cryptocurrencies and Blockchain has been used by developers all over the world to start some truly exciting projects. Some of these projects have such a tremendous scope to drive innovation faster in a wealth of different industries like healthcare, that they have already raised large funds through the use of ICO (Initial Coin Offering), a new technological alternative to the legacy system of IPO. A total of $522 Million has been raised so far by just 65 cryptocurrency startups in 2017 from ICOs.
One of the most gripping success stories in this new emerging world of crypto-startups has been that of Teresa Tate Callen, a 20-year-old college dropout. She became one of the youngest successful female entrepreneurs when her startup Nouveaux, which is building a decentralized VPN with the aim of increasing user privacy and providing secure access to the internet, managed to successfully raise $2.6 Million through its ICO.
The use of unconstitutional and illegal government mass-surveillance has been the subject of active debate over the past few years not just in the Congress, but also in the media thanks to the work of whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning, William Binney, Edward Snowden and the Wikileaks Foundation to name a few. It was Citizenfour, the 2014 Snowden-based documentary, that inspired Teresa and led her down this road. "I was only 17 back then and had always had a burning passion for coding and learning about the latest technology. I saw Citizenfour and that just completely blew me away. It gave me a purpose in life, and I knew instantly what I wanted to do," said Teresa Tate Callen.
She continued: "Our so called Land of the Free is in crisis, our basic freedom and rights are constantly being impinged upon. Everyone who accesses the internet is being tracked and monitored, we no longer have our privacy. Not only that, the Congress voted in March this year to reverse FCC privacy protection rules without providing any credible reason as to how this serves the best interest of the public, who staunchly protested this move. This decision has now opened the door for ISPs to not just sell customer data to marketers, but also monitor and track every URL they visit through malware and undetectable cookies that cannot be deleted. They have literally sold us out to ISPs."
This is where Nouveaux comes into play. A VPN is used to establish a secure connection by allowing people the ability to anonymize their identity and IP Address while accessing the Internet over a network. By encrypting traffic through their servers, VPNs prevent ISPs from access to it and therefore prevent unethical and illegal tracking and monitoring of users' online activities. However, Teresa explains that even the present day VPNs aren't fully secure, and that's where Nouveaux comes into play: "The problem with VPNs has been that they are private companies: that makes them a central point of failure because their software is simply privy to them. There have been numerous cases of abuse in the recent past where authorities have unlawfully pressurized certain VPN providers to let them access their back-doors, and they have been strong-armed to comply or face the consequences. That obviously compromises user privacy and anonymity.
"Besides, there's always the risk of an individual or the company itself collecting data as has been vindicated through recent exposes by activist hacker groups. The solution to this problem lies in the decentralization of the VPN nodes. Using an open source model where the community could participate and further develop and enhance the code, takes away from the point of single failure, as well as increases stability and reduces risks. That's what we at Nouveaux are building using Ethereum’s Blockchain and SmartContracts Technology. I started out when I was around the end of my freshman year of college and it was such a game changer that I just had to devote my entire time and effort to this, so I dropped out! I guess it worked out well in the end!"
Nouveaux has garnered a great deal of critical acclaim for the work it's doing. Robert Bould, a cyber security analyst at a Fortune 500 company says, "This is one of the most exciting projects to come up using the Blockchain technology. It's such an unbelievable idea, especially with the state of the things in the world today, with governments, hackers, and anyone and everyone with the ability trying to get access to your personal information and track your online activities to either sell it off or to blackmail you.
"There have been an increasingly scary number of ransomware attacks all over the world, due to a lack of proper internet privacy and anonymity. According to Europol, the global ransomware attack in May itself hit hospitals, companies, universities and governments in at least 150 countries. Nouveaux truly has the potential to save us all from these sorts of risks!" In the predominantly male dominated technology industry, young Teresa has managed to break all barriers and has set a great example for the upcoming generation of young females to follow.
Source: Teresa Tate Callen
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