Cryptocurrencies Pick Up – Bitcoin Emerges As Safe Haven

Cryptocurrencies Pick Up -  Bitcoin Emerges As Safe Haven

Cryptocurrencies Pick Up – Bitcoin Emerges As Safe Haven

Investing.com – Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies steadied on Thursday morning in Asia after days of plummeting.

Bitcoin rose 2.08% to $6,394.7 at 10:30AM ET (02:30 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.

Ethereum climbed 4.29% to $188.72 on the Bitifinex exchange.

XRP/USD also edged up 4.9% to $0.27088 on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin rose 3.83% to $52.866 on the Bitifinex exchange.
 

Despite the volatility of recent weeks, Bitcoin’s value has risen 0.1% over the past 30 days, making it something of a safe haven among digital currencies. Ethereum, on the other hand, has slumped about 45% over the past 30 days.

“In this case, Bitcoin is acting like more of a safe haven for cryptocurrencies – it’s kind of consolidating,” said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at cryptocurrency brokerage eToro.

 

Market Intelligence platform CoinFi’s data revealed that short-sellers are putting pressure on markets as bets against Ethereum is at all-time high.

“Retail investors were completely euphoric a few months ago. Now, that emotion has flipped and they’re panicking. Shorts are going to ride that wave,” said CoinFi CEO Timothy Tam.
 

Chinese Wuhan General Group (China) Inc. is seeking to acquire a former U.S. Department of Defense data center to transform it into a digital currency mine and house 1,200 mining machines there.

“We had planned to build this operation three months ago, but with the bearish cryptocurrency market, we took a step back to reassess our strategy,” said Wuhan Group’s CEO Ramy Kamaneh.

 

On Tuesday, U.S. securities regulator announced tighter measures on companies involved with cryptocurrencies.
 

On Monday, Mexico also took steps to required crypto exchanges and banks offering crypto services in the country to obtain a permit from the Bank of Mexico. Users will also not be allowed to access cryptocurrencies on the same day their accounts are created, under new rules.

 

Assets acquired by crypto beneficiaries need to undergo additional validation checks to prevent money laundering and illicit activities.

 

David

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch- Nearby Inflection Points to Watch

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch- Nearby Inflection Points to Watch

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch- Nearby Inflection Points to Watch

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

  • Bitcoin price continues to crawl higher and is moving closer to completing its double bottom.

  • Once completed, price would need to break past the neckline at $8,400 to confirm a long-term uptrend.

  • Corrections from the climb could find support at the short-term rising trend line that held since last month.

Bitcoin price is slowly moving up to form a double bottom reversal pattern, and a neckline break could lead to more gains.
 

Technical Indicators Signals
 

The 100 SMA is also completing its bullish crossover from the 200 SMA to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This would mean that the rally is more likely to resume than to reverse. Price is also moving above a rising trend line connecting the lows since mid-August and the moving averages could serve as dynamic support close to this area.

However, RSI is pointing down after recently reaching overbought territory, which means that selling pressure might still return. Similarly stochastic is on the move down so bitcoin price could follow suit while bearish pressure is in play.

Market Factors

In the absence of any major updates lately, bitcoin appears to be taking its cues from the improving sentiment in the industry. More and more analysts are renewing their bullish calls, with one group even predicting that it could reach $33,000 in 2019.

Furthermore, Satis ICO Advisory Research projects that bitcoin price could surge to $96,000 over the next five years then to $143,900 in 10 years. The firm is also bullish on Monero, predicting it will reach $18,000 over the next five years.

On the flip side, it is less optimistic about ethereum and litecoin while being bearish on Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS. The report also wasn’t optimistic on utility tokens either, and this “weeding out” sentiment appears to be more favorable to bitcoin.

 

SARAH JENN | SEPTEMBER 4, 2018 | 4:19 AM

David

Bitcoin Gains – Analyst Says Correlation Exists Between Crypto, Emerging Markets

Bitcoin Gains - Analyst Says Correlation Exists Between Crypto, Emerging Markets

Investing.com – Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrency prices gained on Monday. Fundstrat Global Advisors’ Thomas Lee’s comments received some focus as he said there is a strong correlation between emerging markets and virtual coins.

Bitcoin was up 0.8% to $6,668.9 at 11:55AM ET (03:55 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.          

Ethereum edged up 0.1% to $272.4 on the Bitifinex exchange.              

XRP traded up 0.3% to $0.32328 in the last 24 hours on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin was also up 0.6% to $56.654.   

Lee said hedge funds are not buying risk when emerging markets sell-off, while the recent slump in digital assets suggested the funds are not buying crypto either.

"Both really essentially peaked early this year, and they both have been in a downward trend," Lee said in an interview with CNBC. "Until emerging markets begin to turn, I think in some ways that correlation is going to hold and tell us that sort of the risk on mentality is those buyers aren't buying bitcoin."

Lee added that he believed the bear market could come to an end soon, especially if the dollar weakens and the Federal Reserve slows its interest rate hike policy, and that he thinks bitcoin could surge to $25,000 by the end of the year. "I still think it's possible," said Lee. "Bitcoin could end the year explosively higher."

Cryptocurrency prices received some support on Friday after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it would review a decision to reject the applications of Bitcoin exchange traded funds, after its staffs rejected the applications from nine companies to list their Bitcoin ETF funds on Wednesday, citing concerns about fraud and manipulation of bitcoin markets.

David

ZCASH Mining 400% More Profitable Than Bitcoin (BTC)

ZCASH Mining 400% More Mrofitable Than Bitcoin (BTC)

 

Zcash (ZEC) is currently the most profitable cryptocurrency for those into crypto mining, with a Return of Investment that far outperforms any other token in the market, including those cryptos with the largest market cap such as BTC, ETH or BCH.

Miners to turn off equipment in Crypto HourAccording to data provided by Anything Crypto, Zcash miners using an Antminer Z9 Mini can expect a return on investment of almost 100% even in the most skeptical scenarios.

To put the calculations in perspective, the second most profitable crypto is Ether. Mining it with an Antminer E3 would yield a return of $1212 in one year, which represents a 151 ROI given that the miner has a cost of $800. The Z9 Mini which costs USD 2k would generate USD 6881, resulting in a 344% profit. Such figures depict the most optimistic scenarios.

The calculations made by anything crypto provide 3 different situation

  1. A current scenario: In which there is absolutely no change. It is taken for reference purposes

  2. An optimistic scenario: 15% difficulty increase monthly and a 10% price increase monthly

  3. A pessimistic scenario: 40% difficulty increase monthly8% price increase monthly

Zcash: A Nice Opportunity

The mining of cryptocurrencies began as a hobby for enthusiasts, however, after the exponential increase in its use, it became increasingly lucrative to the point of becoming one of the business par excellence in the world of cryptocurrencies, competing directly with trading.

The PoW coin mining business has specific particularities that must be taken into account when investing in an ASIC or Mining Rig. The first of these is the mining difficulty.

The difficulty makes it possible to establish certain stability in the cryptocurrency avoiding an excessive number of block validations to decrease the value of the tokens or a lack of validation, which is equally damaging.

When the speed of validtions increases, the blockchain algorithm increases its difficulty, making it necessary to work harder to “mine” a block. The same is right in the opposite case.

This is the reason for the different scenarios put forward by Everything Crypto. But in all of them – at least for now – Zcash is the winner regarding profits.

For those who have a preference for BTC, the most profitable ASIC is the GMO B2 while for ETH it is worth buying an Antminer E3. Interestingly, the Antminer S9, Bitmain ranks 8 flagship team while its improved version, the S9i is ranked 6th.

 

By Jose Antonio Lanz Last updated Jul 14, 2018

David

Bitcoin rebounds after recent bout of heavy selling

Bitcoin rebounds after recent bout of heavy selling

Bitcoin rebounds after recent bout of heavy selling

KUALA LUMPUR: Bitcoin staged a rebound at midday on Thursday, rising to a high of US$6,495 after falling sharply in recent days.
 

At midday, it was up US$233 to US$6,495.

 

Earlier Bloomberg reported that Bitcoin extended losses, bringing its four-session slide to as much as 20 percent, as questions mount about whether the world’s biggest cryptocurrency was manipulated during last year’s record price surge.
 

After rallying more than 1,400 percent in 2017 amid an investor frenzy for digital assets, Bitcoin is down almost 70 percent to around $6,238 as of 4:37 p.m. in New York on Wednesday, from its record high of $19,511 set in December. It traded at a few cents after being launched in 2009.

 

“Things have changed for Bitcoin and the crypto space,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at online trading firm Oanda Corp. in London.
 

“There doesn’t seem to be as much hype, or positive news. Every time we get a negative news story now — after a period of consolidation — we don’t see bullish sentiment come in to support it. It’s almost as if people are waiting to sell it.’'
 

The virtual currency has struggled to reverse a selloff that coincides with negative news, most recently a study of possible price manipulation using the Tether coin. Bloomberg News reported in May that the Justice Department opened up a
 

criminal probe into illegal trading practices that can manipulate the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

 

Tether, one of the most-traded cryptocurrencies, shows a pattern of being spent on Bitcoin at pivotal moments, helping to drive the world’s first digital asset to a record price in December, according to research by a University of Texas professor known for flagging suspicious activity in the VIX benchmark.
 

Questions about Tether and Bitfinex have dogged the cryptocurrency world since last year when Bitfinex lost banking relationships yet continued to operate.

 

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission subpoenaed both firms in December, seeking proof that Tether is backed by a reserve of U.S. dollars, as it claims. Tether and Bitfinex haven’t been accused of wrongdoing.

 

The digital coin has closed below its 50-, 100- and 200-day moving averages for the past 16 days, the longest stretch below those support levels this year.
 

In other technical measures, Bitcoin’s relative-strength index has fallen below 30, a level often used in equities and some other asset classes as indicating oversold. It typically rises, snapping back above 30, in a matter of days, according to a five-year analysis.
 

Many of Bitcoin’s closest peers have also tumbled. Ethereum, the No. 2 coin by market value, and No. 3 Ripple have both dropped about 20 percent this week.

 

“The entire crypto space seems to be taking the hit now,” Erlam said. “For Bitcoin, $6,000 seems to be a support level now. If I’m bearish, I’m desperate to see it break below $6,000.” – Bloomberg

Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2018/06/14/no-letup-for-bitcoin-as-biggest-cryptocurrency-extends-collapse/#4VrphTyklr5IIs0y.99

David

Bitcoin notches two-month low in the wake of cryptocurrency exchange hack

Bitcoin notches two-month low in the wake of cryptocurrency exchange hack

Bitcoin notches two-month low in the wake of cryptocurrency exchange hack

 

  • Bitcoin continued to pull back after its initial 10 percent drop over the weekend.

  • Other major cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, also saw declines in the last 24 hours.

 

Bitcoin eased further on Wednesday following its initial drop after the weekend announcement that South Korean cryptocurrency exchange had been hacked.

 

Other major cryptocurrencies also weakened markedly.

 

Bitcoin traded as low as $6,455.91 early on Wednesday Asia time, its lowest level since April. Bitcoin pared some of those losses to trade around $6,550.76 by 11:40 a.m. HK/SIN, according to CoinDesk.

 

Bitcoin had fallen around 10 percent over the weekend following news that South Korean exchange Coinrail had been hacked, with a number of lesser-known cryptocurrencies such as Pundi X counting among those affected. Bitcoin, however, was not mentioned by the exchange in its statements, according to Google translate.

 

Over the last 24 hours, bitcoin has seen a dip of more than 4 percent, according to CoinMarketCap. So far in 2018, the cryptocurrency is down more than 50 percent.

 

Chart analysts have indicated that bitcoin's move below the $7,000 mark suggested a speedy recovery was unlikely.

 

As for other crypto assets, the last day has proven challenging.

 

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down almost 6 percent in the last 24 hours, CoinMarketCap data showed. Ethereum stood at $499.54 at 11:40 a.m. HK/SIN, according to CoinDesk.

 

Ripple was also lower by nearly 6 percent in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. It traded at 56 cents at 12:15 p.m. HK/SIN.

 

Author Cheang Ming 13/6/2018

 

David

Ethereum (ETH) Price Analysis – Was That A Bullish Breakout?

Ethereum (ETH) Price Analysis – Was That A Bullish Breakout?

Ethereum appears to be breaking above its channel top to signal a reversal.

 

Ethereum had been trending lower inside a descending channel on its 4-hour time frame, but a breakout appears to have taken place. This signals that a reversal is imminent, but price might need to clear a few more hurdles to confirm this.
 

The 100 SMA is still below the longer-term 200 SMA to signal that the path of least resistance is to the downside. In other words, the downtrend is still more likely to resume than to reverse.
 

The gap between the moving averages is widening to reflect strengthening bearish pressure. However, price has also broken past the 100 SMA dynamic resistance to signal a pickup in bullish momentum. Ethereum might still need to move past the 200 SMA dynamic inflection point to confirm that an uptrend is underway.
 

However, RSI is already indicating overbought conditions to show that sellers could still return and push price back inside the channel. Stochastic is also in the overbought zone to reflect exhaustion among buyers, and turning lower could bring sellers back in.

The rebound in cryptocurrencies late last week contributed to a strong rise in ethereum price, but it remains to be seen if the rallies can be sustained. Month-end flows were also pinpointed as a factor leading to the climb, although it’s still worth noting that the market capitalization increased from $304 billion from the end of May to $350 billion over just three days.
 

In an OmiseGO AMA session, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin explained how the network will be able to process 1,000,000 transactions with the solutions of Plasma and Sharding.
 

It also helped that the dollar was unable to draw much support from stronger than expected NFP data as trade war concerns appeared to dominate its price action. There are no major reports due from the US economy so trade-related headlines could influence dollar behavior and draw enough risk flows back to alternative assets like altcoins.

Author : Rachel Lee On Jun 4, 2018

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

David

Bitcoin set to be SURPASSED in the crypto realm? Expert predicts SHOCKING future for BTC

Bitcoin set to be SURPASSED in the crypto realm? Expert predicts SHOCKING future for BTC

BITCOIN will be surpassed in the cryptocurrency realm by the end of 2018 according to an expert that predicted a shocking future for the virtual money during a period of BTC market gains.

Roger Ver, made the unprecedented announcement that he believes other cryptocurrencies will exceed Bitcoin in value.

He stated: “I see it happening, and I believe it’s imminent.”

Mr Ver declared Ethereum possesses the technological capabilities to overtake Bitcoin by the end of 2018 while Bitcoin Cash could surpass its crypto brother “before 2020”.

He told the Independent: “Ethereum could overtake Bitcoin by the end of the year and Bitcoin Cash could do the same before 2020.”

Mr Ver claimed Bitcoin Cash could “double” in value by next week thanks to a slew of funding from “big investors”.

He went on: “It’s not guaranteed but it is much more likely to happen than not.

“Bitcoin Cash has more than doubled in value in the last month and big investors coming in soon could see it double again by next week.

“People love to chase a rising star.”

However Michael Jackson, from venture capital firm Mangrove Capital Partners, emphasised Bitcoin is able to adapt thanks to people who are working to solve its “scalability problems”.

He stated: “There is so much talent in the crypto space, and people are working on solving these scalability problems.

“I don’t see why Bitcoin shouldn’t remain in the number one spot.

“It is still by far the best known and it is ultimately the reserve currency in the space.”

Bitcoin is trading at $8,295.85 at the time of writing while Ethereum is selling for $730.86.

Both cryptocurrencies have seen incredible spikes in value over the course of the last month.

Bitcoin has added a whopping $2,091.97 to its value in the last month.

This marks a sharp value increase of 30.61 per cent.

Meanwhile, Ethereum has seen a sharp 75.85 per cent increase in price in the last month, marking a rise of $315.25.
 

However, the persistent peaks and troughs of cryptocurrencies demonstrate the market’s monstrous volatility.

Author JOSEPH CAREY UPDATED: 05:23, Fri, May 11, 2018

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

Bitcoin set to be SURPASSED in the crypto realm Expert predicts SHOCKING future for BTC

David

Despite Bitcoin’s ‘Sell-Off’ The Cryptocurrency Space Continues To Attract Investors

Despite Bitcoin's 'Sell-Off' The Cryptocurrency Space Continues To Attract Investors

Despite Bitcoin's 'Sell-Off' The Cryptocurrency Space Continues To Attract Investors

Despite Bitcoin's 'Sell-Off' The Cryptocurrency Space Continues To Attract Investors

Volatility, volatility, volatility. Traders certainly love it. But the volatility witnessed of late among many leading cryptocurrencies – including the ‘Big Daddy’ of them all in the shape of Bitcoin as well as Ethereum – has been a "double-edged sword" according to some pundits. Price swings can occur dramatically and result in big profits, should you catch it right.

Equally, significant losses can be sustained should your timing be all awry, there is negative newsflow around the crypto space and/or particular digital currencies.
 

Bitcoin’s Halcyon Days?

One might say you pays your money and takes your chances in the “Wild West” of crypto land. More succinctly, caveat emptor (buyer beware). And, according to Jordan Hiscott, chief trader at ayondo markets, a brokerage in The City of London, in a note from last week (March 27) said: “Certainly the halcyon days of performance gains [for Bitcoin] from 2017 seem long gone.”

Bitcoin moved lower early last week on Tuesday and was trading at around the $7,900 mark. However, this was in stark contrast to the level of $13,275 at the start of 2018. Hiscott’s view expressed at the time in late March was that the situation around the current soggy price level could persist for “at least six months.”

He added: “My theory is based around the situation regarding the liquidation of the Mt Gox Exchange, and the appointed trustee to handle the bankruptcy. Colloquially, this individual is known at the "Tokyo Whale", and having already sold around $400 million worth of both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, he is likely the main catalyst for this year’s move down.”

Interestingly, there still remains around three times that amount of Bitcoin to potentially to hit the market. “With this kind of volume yet to surface, in my view, prices on Bitcoin will remain depressed until this situation has been resolved,” ayondo’s Hiscott posited.
 

New Investors

The wild run on the crypto scene starting from late last year may have created a few sob stories for new investors, as those who bought in during the all-time highs are likely to have incurred losses due to February’s massive correction. Some might even be ruing the day they ever decided to dive in and invest.

In fact, recent statistics indicate that most people who got into bed with and invested in Bitcoin did so at a significantly higher price than the current market price, which is now well below the $10,000 market. This is a remarkable turnaround.

Having reached just slightly north of $19,000 a pop on December 17, 2017, in a something of a feeding frenzy from the month before (seeing the currency’s value almost quadruple from $5,857.32 on 12 November), Bitcoin’s price retreated and has fallen back to around $6,500 as of today (April 1) – and that’s no joke. Since the peak it equates to a decline of 65% in a matter of fifteen weeks.

Bitcoin was not alone in seeing a price a substantial correction from its peak.

Ethereum’s price, which was standing at around $366 as April 1 is down from over $1,330 – the currency's peak – reached on January 14 this year, while it’s a similar picture declining prices from their highs for Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ripple.
 

Top Cryptocurrencies: Trading Prices

Dec 17, 2017 April 1, 2018

Bitcoin

$19,086.64 $6,493.84
 

Ethereum

$717.29 $366.09

 

Bitcoin Cash

$1,939.93 $633.68

 

Litecoin

$332.59 $110.86

 

XRP (Ripple)

$0.76 $0.4713

Source: CoinDesk Inc. Prices in US dollars as of April 1, 2018, 15.20 UTC.

There were stories that many had invested using their credit cards. And, some plucky investors even re-mortgaged their homes. What they are thinking now is anyone’s guess. But if you play high risk markets then there is also the possibility of getting burned big time.

And, if there is one lesson from all this, it is not to believe in all the hype that surrounded cryptocurrencies when the prices were getting pretty frothy and frankly some people were getting ahead of themselves.

This was especially so just prior to Bitcoin futures being traded on the Chicago derivative exchanges, the CBOT and CME. Between the point when it was announced late last October that futures in the cryptocurrency would commence during the fourth quarter 2017 – until Bitcoin’s peak in December – the price had surged by 211%. And, now for Bitcoin we are broadly back at those levels seen when the announcement was made first disseminated to the market by the CME.

Looking back it was unrealistic and unsustainable to expect Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies to continue their explosive runs – ever upwards. And, while not wishing to say I told you so, it is something I had pointed out in some of my previous posts on Forbes. Namely that it didn’t exactly look too healthy or sustainable. Some out there think though there will be correction upwards to where it was before and well beyond, given the recent trading lows over the last 50-day trading period.

Now there has been a tightening of regulations. One of the latest examples being from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the Paris-based financial regulator, with its communique on 26 March concerning leverage on derivative products related to cryptocurrencies amongst other financial products. Regulators in South Korea and China have also weighed in with pronouncements on bans for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and other crypto prohibitions over recent months.

It was fortunate perhaps that the latest G20 meeting in Argentina did not bear down on the crypto space as they could have, which had been flagged up as a distinct possibility by French and German central bankers along with Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England and head of the Basle-based Financial Stability Board (FSB).
 

Investor Appetite?

All of this, however, does not appear to have dampened investors’ drive to be part of the crypto space. Hundreds of millions of dollars in tokens continue to be traded on exchanges. ICOs also continue to rake in the big bucks. Indeed, just three months into 2018 and $4.8 billion in funding has already been raised through various token sales so far.

Blockchain is widely considered to be the next disruptive technology. As such, many believe that the crypto space is a high-potential growth area that could provide massive returns of investment. For early adopters of coins like Bitcoin and Ether, it most definitely has. Although for later ones the jury is out.

As pointed out above, if you bought when the mania gripped at the end of last year you will be nursing a hefty loss. Of course, one might see this as ripe time to buy back in and average out your crypto holdings.

Even established companies are making their respective plays in crypto investing. Trading platform eToro recently secured $100 million in a Series E funding round to support its global expansion and further support of crypto and blockchain. The platform already supports major tokens including Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Ripple.

But the funding round hints at the adoption of blockchain technology for its own use. Crypto exchange Poloniex was also recently bought by Circle, a fintech firm backed by Goldman Sachs, which underscores how traditional institutions acknowledge crypto’s impact.

Such developments only help inspire investor confidence, or so some pundits argue. And, even if coins remain far from their all-time highs, backers continue to stake in blockchain and crypto.

And, in that vein here are five reasons as to why the crypto space still continues to encourage more investors to participate.

 

1. The Promise of Blockchain

It’s tough to argue against blockchain as a technology since there is value in the immutable and transparent record keeping that it provides. But it should be pointed out that Blockchain projects and their protagonists have had a nasty habit of over promising and underdelivering. And, the number of ICOs that failed to deliver in 2017 isn't exactly something to shout about.

Several projects though have already made headway in the areas of finance, healthcare and security. Blockchain’s distributed nature also helps mitigate security and reliability issues that plague other technologies.

Blockchain’s appeal is even bolstered by the emergence of smart contracts and cross-chain interoperability. The possibilities for developing new applications based on blockchain now seem boundless according to the view of some. Because of this, there is no shortage of new and promising ventures building their projects on blockchain.

And, I for one can certainly vouch that hardly a day passes when I do not receive a slew of press release ICO launches in the crypto space. It seems never ending.

Traditional institutions and large enterprises are also committed to adopting the technology. Even banks are forming consortia that would enable them to use blockchain for their various services. Due to this demand, IT providers like IBM and Microsoft are even compelled to offer blockchain-related products and services and blockchain-as-a-service.

 

2. Unicorn Potential

This next wave of tech companies is attempting to bring disruption to a variety of verticals. New projects have now extended beyond blockchain’s typical use cases and have found their way even in sectors like social networks, media and gaming – all of which are billion-dollar industries.

Casting a wider net could help these ventures catch bigger fish. And, for investors, backing such companies early on could deliver significant returns down the line.

Some may be labeling this boom a bubble, in much the same way as happened with a whole host of dotcom ventures back in the naughtiest (2000’s). While this may be true in some regard, one should not dismiss the likelihood that winners can emerge – even if the bubble bursts.

And, in hindsight, who would not have wanted access to Google or Amazon stocks at pre-IPO or at IPO prices? There is always a chance that this slate of crypto-based projects may include future unicorns.
 

3. Early “In”

Clearly, not everyone is a venture capitalist (VC) or an angel investor who could find early “ins” to startups. This typically requires a certain amount of clout and reputation in the business community as well as significant wealth in the war chest. The only way ordinary people were able to invest in new companies was to wait for a public offering.

Today, ICOs have allowed just about anyone to invest early in new projects. ICOs now generates 3.5 times more capital than VC funding. This is largely due to how ordinary investors could invest even relatively small amounts right at the start, based on the promise of returns once the token hits exchanges or when the venture eventually flies.

 

4. Fundamentals Start to Matter

More investors are also realizing that they should not be rash in spending their money on any ICO that comes their way. It does take disciplined due diligence to spot potential unicorns. But even a good idea does not necessarily come to fruition until the service goes live and the market takes to it.

Fortunately, more investors are learning to look into a project’s fundamentals. The uniqueness and value of the concept, the token economy, the potential for target verticals to be disrupted by the technology, the strength of teams behind the projects, and other factors are now being considered by investors.

This rising focus on fundamentals can eventually help minimize speculation and the market’s volatility and even encourage traditional investors to participate.

 

5. Global Reach

Traditional investing has largely been geographically limited due to the regulatory constraints. ICOs, however, have opened up the game, allowing investors from all over the world to participate. This is also becoming increasingly easy given how established platforms are supporting more cryptocurrencies.

While some countries have already put up stringent regulations to limit and even ban crypto investing, many countries still only advise their citizens to be cautious when investing in crypto. Investors from these certain countries are otherwise unbridled to trade cryptocurrencies.

 

Risks and Rewards

At the end of the day, investing as a financial activity entails risks and rewards. While crypto investing seems to carry more risk due to the technology and space’s infancy, the rewards can also be significant.

Fortunately, the crypto space appears to be headed – some believe – towards normalcy as regulation and a focus on fundamentals are helping lessen speculation. Increasing support by traditional trading platforms and the participation of other established organizations also helps bring legitimacy to crypto activities, which ultimately should inspire investor confidence.

Add to all this, the space continues to make significant money. And, as long as this is the case, it will continue to attract enterprising parties from all over. But watch this space.

 

Roger Aitken , CONTRIBUTOR

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

David

Vitalik Wants You to Pay to Slow Ethereums Growth

Vitalik Wants You to Pay to Slow Ethereums Growth

Vitalik Wants You to Pay to Slow Ethereums Growth

Could adding a new fee help preserve ethereum in the long term?

It's a contentious statement in light of the debates ongoing across blockchains over how and when users should pay to support what amount to global computing networks. However, the concept is now gaining notable momentum on ethereum, most recently from the creator of the world's second-largest blockchain himself, Vitalik Buterin.

Buterin's concept, described in a recent blog post, revolves around so-called "rent fees," whereby users would be asked to pay to use the network based on how long they'd like their data to remain accessible on the blockchain.

The idea has recently seen interest generally, as ethereum developers have sought to cope with the platform's increased adoption, and, in turn, the increased amount of data being added that all network nodes need to store.

In short, it's a tragedy of the commons issue – if too many people use the resource for free, the network starts taking on the costs itself. And there's plenty of evidence to suggest that there is already reason to worry.

With rising use spurred by popular apps and ICOs, notable developers, including ethereum researchers Vlad Zamfir and Phil Daian, believe the problem needs to be addressed now.

"No one likes talking about rent, but we need to have this conversation," ethereum developer and Thiel fellow Raul Johnson recently tweeted.

"Core developers need to relay this information to the smart contract developer community ASAP to get their opinions on the matter," he continued, adding:

"The current system as it stands is unsustainable."
 

Fees, explored

Still, Buterin's backing could be a sign that momentum might build around the idea.

So far, he has broached the idea with a pair of proposals on the subject, including a succinct possible solution he calls "a simple and principled way to compute rent fees." And Buterin's first proposal is as simple as its title suggests.

The idea is to compute fees based on a long-term limit on the "state," a slice of special ethereum data that node operators need to store, which tracks who owns the current information about all apps (including user balances, who has posted so much data in, say, a Twitter replacement app and so on).

Under the proposal, state data stored in a node computer's RAM – now about 5GB – will never be allowed to exceed 500 GB. To ensure this, users will have to pay fees based on how long their data is stored. In this way, data is kept in check, since fees will grow if storage creeps toward that limit.

One notable part of Buterin's proposal is that he tries to incorporate a scaling change that ethereum developers have long wanted to add to the platform.

Although the most recent roadmap claims deployment is still years away, "sharding," as it's known, could potentially boost the amount of resources a database can handle by splitting up the data. In ethereum, the idea is, each node wouldn't have to store all of ethereum's historical data – just a slice of it.

"With sharding, the maximum acceptable state size would be per-shard, so the above fees would be decreased by a factor of 100," Buterin said.

Buterin also tries to address another key problem with rent: its bad user-experience. Most rent proposals today would require users to know how long their data will need to live ahead of time, which would be prone to error.

His second proposal explores a way of quashing this annoying guessing game by letting users use their state even after it has expired. Essentially, they would prove that their state existed at a previous point in time, with the help of a cryptographic technique called a "Merkle proof."
 

Deep-rooted problem

One problem with all this, though, is that fees, kind of like taxes, are never popular.

Bitcoin's years-long debate, for example, mostly centered on fees and the trade-offs associated with them. If fees are increased, less data will be stored, making full nodes easier to run. The downside, of course, is it would make the cryptocurrency more expensive to use.

One question is whether ethereum users and developers will react the same way, arguing "the rent is too damn high." In this way, Johnson worries that suddenly adding extra fees would alarm developers who have already deployed apps on ethereum.

Johnson argues for changes that aren't so knee-jerk and should be phased in slowly to give developers time to adjust.

Not to mention, some believe a similar rent needs to be applied to all cryptocurrencies. Indeed, scaling problems – and the associated fees – are a problem across blockchains.

Daian went as far as to argue that bitcoin needs to apply the same model. Like ethereum, bitcoin currently doesn't charge for the lifetime of a coin.

"Bitcoin is not free of these issues," he said, arguing that its simpler model incentivizes state bloat in a variety of ways, "exposing users to a variety of other consequences of mispriced storage."

Pricing resources to the right degree is such an important area of research, that Daian, a smart contract researcher at IC3, and others at the institute have set up an initiative called Project Chicago dedicated to the effort.

Even if this is a lesser-explored area and researchers haven't yet found a concrete solution, he's optimistic.

Daian concluded:

"No cryptocurrency has figured out good models for pricing these resources thus far, and ethereum's storage rent represents a step in the right direction towards these goals.

 

Author: Alyssa Hertig Updated Mar 28, 2018 at 03:07 UTC

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
David ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

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