The Blockchain Is Bigger Than Any Bubble

The Blockchain Is Bigger Than
Any Bubble

Bitcoin is a poor currency and a crazy investment
but the technology behind it is a real breakthrough.

Coin of the virtual realm.

An influential new recruit has joined the chorus of bitcoin skeptics. The chief investment officer of UBS, the world’s biggest wealth manager, says it’s too risky to be added to the firm’s portfolios — and his assessment is relatively mild. Others have called it “the very definition of a bubble” and even “a fraud.” Those stronger terms are justified, especially after the latest spell of wild price volatility. But the idea underlying bitcoin — blockchain, or distributed-ledger technology — could be transformative.

The problem with bitcoin and other so-called digital currencies is that they’re a misuse of this technology. As either a new form of money or an investment, bitcoin has fatal disadvantages. Tokens that are privately created — "mined,” if you insist — can succeed in a limited way as a means of exchange and be used to execute certain kinds of transactions. (Cigarettes in prison are a kind of currency.) But as a reliable store of value, bitcoin is much less useful, because its volatility is so extreme. The value of ordinary currencies is underwritten by governments and stabilized by central banks acting as trusted monopoly producers. Bitcoin and its rivals leave those vital roles vacant.

Moreover, bitcoin has no fundamental value as an asset — no stream of future income, no ultimate assurance of liquidity or security, and (unlike gold, say) no alternative use. Its scarcity (hence some floor on its value) is purportedly guaranteed by the underlying technology, but most of its buyers simply take that on trust. Should they come to doubt that guarantee, its price will collapse. In the meantime, bitcoin’s utility as a means of exchange depends on official tolerance — a point rightly emphasized by UBS’s Mark Haefele. That tolerance cannot be taken for granted, especially as bitcoin’s appeal rests so much on the anonymity of its users. At the moment, its comparative advantage is its usefulness for illicit purposes.

All this said, the distributed-ledger technology that underlies bitcoin is potentially very powerful. By reducing the need for central intermediaries, it holds out the promise of processing transactions of various kinds more efficiently than today. Many banks and exchanges are exploring these applications. Blockchain technology might also be used one day to produce new kinds of central-bank money. Central-bank digital currency could start to replace the electronic payment systems that financial institutions use with each other. A more radical idea is to use digital currency, issued and supervised by the central bank, at the retail level to replace physical cash. All these ideas are worth study now. And they’ll still be worth pursuing after the bitcoin bubble bursts.

Chuck Reynolds

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2017 is the year cryptocurrency joined the global financial system

This week, the value of a single bitcoin officially cleared $10,000,

a new high point that’s over an order of magnitude greater than its price at the start of this year. Bitcoin has defied market expectations before, but in 2017, it didn’t just become more valuable. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have become an acknowledged part of the financial system — albeit a nebulous one.

Bitcoin traded at around $960 at the beginning of the year, and it’s risen steadily since then, with a steep jump in the past two months. There are multiple, complementary explanations for this, but this latest boom was sparked partly by the CME Group, a futures marketplace that announced its intent to start listing bitcoin by the end of the year. It’s a stamp of approval that could help cement bitcoins’ position at other major financial institutions, many of which are already handling bitcoin-related trading in some capacity. Even JPMorgan Chase, whose CEO Jamie Dimon has said he would fire anyone who traded bitcoin, is reportedly considering a plan to let its clients access CME’s futures.

Bitcoin isn’t replacing cash,
but it’s gotten a big stamp of investor approval

Not everyone believes that bitcoin is ready to enter the futures market. Themis Trading principal Joe Saluzzi warned that the currency is dangerously unregulated: “It reminds me of the financial crisis all over again,” he told CNBC. And bitcoin is so volatile that spending it doesn’t make sense. Nobody knows how valuable a single bitcoin might BECOME — while Thomas Glucksmann of currency exchange Gatecoin said $10,000 was still “cheap in my opinion,” bitcoin has also suffered extended catastrophic crashes, including a long slump after passing $1,000 in 2013. As an example of just how surreal bitcoin fluctuations can be, Gizmodo writer Kashmir Hill tweeted about buying a sushi dinner in 2013 for the equivalent of $99,000 today.

There are still places where bitcoin payments make sense, although they’re sometimes unsavory: far-right groups have used them after being dropped by payment processors, for instance. And the underlying blockchain technology has myriad uses that aren’t cryptocurrency-focused — from quickly processing international money transfers to tracking legal marijuana. But people have also found uses for cryptocurrency that go beyond replacing cash. The best-known example of 2017 might be initial coin offerings or ICOs, in which companies sell digital tokens based on cryptocurrencies like Ethereum. ICOs range from serious fundraising efforts to absurd but startlingly successful jokes, and some have earned endorsements from the likes of Paris Hilton and Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang Clan. And unlike Dogecoin or other earlier novelty currencies, they’ve attracted serious regulatory attention.

Some countries have outright banned ICOs — China barred the offerings as a form of “illegal public financing,” and South Korea announced “stern penalties” for running them. But other countries have attempted to clarify how existing rules apply to them. The US Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that some ICOs fell under securities law, setting them apart from general crowdfunding efforts. Japanese regulators also outlined how ICOs may fall under existing financial rules. In the US, the SEC has even issued guidance for how celebrities can hawk them.

Cryptocurrencies’ overall legal status is still complicated, but several countries have made major policy decisions around them in 2017. Some of these are negative: China shut down currency exchanges earlier this year, although traders have moved to other platforms, and the SEC rejected a high-profile application for a bitcoin stock fund. Many other countries have given more ambiguous signals. Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered regulators to develop a wide-ranging set of rules for miners and traders, even as officials have signaled a crackdown. India’s government launched a committee earlier this year to study digital currency regulation, and the Supreme Court recently urged it to speed up its work.

People have been prosecuted for cryptocurrency-related crimes like Ponzi schemes in past years, and governments have issued guidance about bitcoin. Some of these new decisions just raise new questions: the SEC, for instance, didn’t address how it would punish a decentralized network for violating securities rules. Likewise, getting attention from investors and regulators doesn’t tell us whether bitcoin will succeed in the long run, or whether cryptocurrencies will play a major role in most people’s lives. But even if cryptocurrencies aren’t directly competing with their traditional counterparts, the past year shows how serious they’ve become to both regulators and investors.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
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Cryptocurrency Market Cap Breaches $300 Bln, BTC Dominates

The cryptocurrency market cap has breached $300 bln,

according to marketcap.com, with gains in many of the major currencies, particularly as Bitcoin price has jumped over $9,500. The market cap has been driven by a number of factors, but Bitcoin continues to maintain a 53 percent dominance in the total cap. The market cap surge has been spurred on by a huge jump in the value of Bitcoin, but other coins have also had excellent weeks. Ethereum and Litecoin had particularly strong weeks, with Ethereum posting an all-time high and other altcoins like Monero, IOTA, and Dash all had a strong showing as well.

What’s driving the market?

The market cap increase is reflective of a general feeling among market movers that the cryptocurrency market will continue to grow. Investors are beginning to join in the market and are producing substantial gains. The increase in hedge funds, as well as the general awareness in the market, are both strongly bullish signals for the market. The last Bitcoin climb was coupled with declines in altcoins, but this run up has carried altcoins with it. This may well be a strongly bullish sign for the market as a whole. According to many insiders, the market has just begun it’s bull run, with increasing investment coming. According to Mihail Lala – founder and

creator of WAWLLET:

"Gravity is the key element. The investment rivers fed a 300 bln lake due to a natural flow. The market is attracted by need and opportunity. We are just at the beginning of early majority. The lake is just 15 percent loaded."

Chuck Reynolds

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Litecoin Price Hits Record High Amidst Very Solid Cryptocurrency Market

The price of the virtual currency Litecoin reaches an all-time high of $87

per token on as of press time, amidst the sustained solid performance of the cryptocurrency market. It is projected that the price of the digital currency could even surpass the $100 level before the year ends.

The trading of Litecoin has reached almost $381 mln in a 24-hour period across all trading exchanges. This shows that the digital currency is moving towards it all-time high as Bitcoin surged past $9,000. The majority of the Litecoin trading volume was dominated by the exchanges GDAX and Bitfinex, outperforming cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb. The trading data also showed that there are three fiat currency trading pairs among the top three, signifying that there is new capital entering the digital currency market.

Solid performance of the virtual currencies

Litecoin’s sustained upward trajectory is just one of the positive developments in the digital currency market. Earlier, the altcoins Bitcoin and Ethereum have posted record increase in prices. These were followed by Monero and Dash, which also set all-time highs in their prices during trading. The sustained strong performance of the other digital currencies amidst Bitcoin’s phenomenal rise is seen as a sign that the cryptocurrency market will experience phenomenal growth in the near future. In the past, when Bitcoin performed well, the other altcoins like Litecoin were usually adversely affected and posted sharp declines. This new trend shows that the altcoins are increasingly being accepted in the market.

Future for Litecoin

Litecoin’s surge is a sign that the industry players already see the potential of the cryptocurrency. This has also helped pushed the digital currency’s market capitalization to more than $4.5 bln and strengthened the altcoin’s solid growth in the market. It remains to be seen, however, if this bullish performance will be sustained in the days to come.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
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Small Players Turn To Other Profit Sources As Mining Becomes More Competitive

Small Players Turn To
Other Profit Sources As
Mining Becomes More Competitive

The days of mining Bitcoin in your bedroom

on a desktop computer are gradually becoming a thing of the past. It used to be that a small network of staunch Bitcoin supporters would mine the cryptocurrency on individual systems, more as a hobby than anything else. But as time goes by, the network grows more and more large and competitive, and mining becomes a challenge for smaller players.

At the end of 2009, the total hashrate of the Bitcoin network was 8 million hashes per second. By the end of 2010, it had grown to 116,000 million hashes per second. During 2014 the network surpassed 10,000,000,000 million hashes per second. These immense numbers mean that it is close to impossible for a regular Joe to set up a really profitable operation at home and make a living off mining Bitcoin.

Small-scale mining challenging

Powerful hardware costs a lot of money, and that is just the first challenge when starting an operation. Even for an entry-level machine that will be able to cope with the complex calculations, you can expect to fork out a few thousand dollars (including cooling systems). However, the likelihood of success with an entry level machine is slim at best. Most serious miners spend tens of thousands of dollars on strong hardware that can compete with other miners on the network. In fact, bitcoins are now mined almost exclusively in mining pools, with huge data centers running the latest mining hardware. This state of the art hardware is extremely power-hungry, and electricity bills escalate into the thousands.

Big mining pools take the electricity factor so seriously that they do one of two things: either move to operations where electricity is cheap, like China, or to colder countries, such as Iceland, were powerful data centers become more energy efficient. Between high entry cost, the necessity to competitively manage the overhead and the ever-improving new equipment entering the market on a regular basis, the profit margins grow extremely thin. So thin, in fact, that using the economies of scale is almost the only way to make a profit, which ultimately prices small-scale participants out of the market, basically turning Bitcoin mining into just a hobby for them.

Mining isn’t the only option

If you are absolutely set on mining, a good strategy is to mine altcoins, which have lower barriers to entry but a relatively good value against Bitcoin. Your mining efforts are likely to be more profitable, and once the specific token goes up in value you can trade it for Bitcoins. You can also directly invest in altcoins, without mining, and do the same. Wait for the price to go up and then trade it for Bitcoins. The money you save on mining equipment can be spent on additional tokens.

Another strategy is to hold or stake a token. There are a number of coins on the market that will actually compensate you for holding onto a coin for a period of time. Similar to getting paid dividends, token holders will get paid for helping to preserve the security of the network through Proof of Stake mechanisms. This will increase your holding of a specific coin over a shorter period of time, giving you the opportunity to trade against Bitcoin in the short-term. The value of Bitcoin is close to its all-time high at the moment and investing directly in the cryptocurrency can be risky and costly. An indirect investment route through altcoins with better growth potential can mitigate both the cost and the risk.

Easy to achieve on one platform

BitConnect is a self-regulated, decentralized financial system based on Blockchain technology that provides potentially profitable Bitcoin solutions through multiple investment opportunities. They offer BitConnect Lending, which allows users to invest or lend Bitcoins through the BitConnect coin (BCC). Investors will profit from the BitConnect Trading Bot and Volatility Software, paying out daily interest earnings.

High adoption rate

The platform has a large offline communities, providing education on digital tokens all over the world, including the BitConnect Annual Ceremony Event. In a first for the crypto community, they released a music video album to raise awareness of the potential benefits and opportunities cryptocurrencies afford investors and users. BitConnect has also seen a high adoption rate among cryptocurrency enthusiasts, with one of the highest mining hash rates for Scrypt cryptocurrencies.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor
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It Takes a Village: Parenting on the Blockchain

It Takes a Village:
Parenting on the Blockchain

In 1996, former first lady Hillary Clinton published a book about parenting

and child-rearing called It Takes A Village. Clinton’s point was that parenting is a joint effort among many sources, and the ‘village’ is required to raise kids. While the book has since become a sort of joke among political insiders, there’s a subtle truth in Clinton’s concept – that where there are many caring eyes on children, safety is easier.

Never has this need for ‘crowd’ protection been greater than with the baby and children’s items market. Countless numbers of children’s items, with glowing reviews online, have since proven to be defective, dangerous, poisonous or harmful. When these problems are finally made public, the public has already spent money on these products – both a waste of funds and a massive risk for kids.

Enter the Blockchain

Where community and security are concerned, it seems that Blockchain technology has a solution for many problems. In the area of baby and child products, a group of family-focused business entrepreneurs has put together a trust-based platform using Blockchain technology called FamilyPoints. Parents can share real honest reviews about products and services.

Additionally, as parents share reviews and use discounts on products through the trust platform, they receive rewards and can use those rewards on additional discounts and services. These services include high-quality baby and child products without the huge margins of local stores, built in loyalty programs, and excellent educational content for parents and kids alike. As parent reviews and product knowledge grows on the ecosystem, the Blockchain ledger keeps everything immutable. Outside marketers and scam companies can’t influence the ways that products are reviewed. In other words, data and product knowledge are really honest – something that is almost impossible to achieve on traditional product sites.

Power in experience

The FamilyPoints group is not new to child products and education. They have already built one of the most successful content for parents on the internet called Babystep. Founded in 2015, Babystep has built the world’s largest video library of educational parenting content with over 1,150 videos in eight different languages. The company is a winner of the prestigious G-Startup award, China’s biggest startup competition, and has since launched its mobile video platform. Babystep generated 15 mln organic monthly views and has an established subscriber base of 1.5 mln in 2017.

Token sale

The Babystep success indicates that the FamilyPoints platform will follow suit and Clinton’s statement on child rearing may have somehow proven true. The company is planning to launch a new token sale in order to crowdfund the platform and to generate the internal cryptocurrency that will be used on the platform by subscribers. The tokens, FamilyPoints Tokens (FPT), will be generated in a one-time token sale for subscribers. These tokens will be used for reviews, purchases, advertising and more within the ecosystem. The pre-sale will start on Dec. 1, with the public sale following on Dec. 10 and concluding on Dec. 31. Early buyers will receive bonuses.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.
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Dnata Taps IBM for Air Cargo Blockchain Pilot

Dnata Taps IBM for
Air Cargo Blockchain Pilot

Dnata, provider of air and travel services in the Middle East,

has announced the completion of a proof-of-concept examining blockchain's potential in the Dubai air cargo industry. The pilot saw participation from project partners IBM, Emirates Innovation Lab and Flydubai Cargo, and looked at blockchain's potential to address issues across various aspects of airfreight, including security and operations, as well as legal aspects, a press release indicates.

The "successful" trial was conducted on a jointly developed logistics platform, utilizing blockchain for supply chain transactions, taking a purchase order from the origin to the final destination. Stating that blockchain technology and its potential is neither easy to understand or appreciate, Neetan Chopra, senior vice president for IT strategic services at

Emirates Group, said:

"It is imperative to carry out such business experiments and trials so that participants can experience the benefits of breakthrough technologies in a live environment."

The move follows the release of white paper by air transport IT firm SITA, detailing the use of smart contracts in the air transport industry. While, Air France is also testing blockchain technology for supply chain tracking.

Holding Strong:

Failed Price Breakdown a Boon
for Bitcoin Bulls?

Bitcoin has witnessed decent two-way business in the last 24 hours.

A drop below $8,000 during the Asian day was quickly undone and the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value once again approached record highs, hitting $8,333 this morning. At press time, bitcoin is changing hands at $8,228, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index. As per CoinMarketCap, the bitcoin-U.S. dollar (BTC/USD) exchange rate has appreciated by 1.13 percent in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the total trading volume in the last 24 hours was $5 billion, the highest since Nov. 16. The price action analysis indicates the failed breakdown below $8,000 may be costly for the bears.

The chart would show:

Failed breakdown: BTC witnessed a solid rebound from the upward sloping 50-MA and is back in the rising channel.
The relative strength index (RSI) holds above 50.00 (bullish territory).

The descending trend line seen on the chart above has been breached as well, suggesting there is scope for a rally.

The charts suggest a rally to new all-time highs around $8,600 (rising channel ceiling) is possible. The 10-day moving average (MA) is sloping upwards, suggesting dips below the same could be short-lived. Currently, the 10-day MA stands at $7,949 levels.

However, multiple 4-hour closes below $7,9

Chuck Reynolds

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A New Debit Card Is Poised to Make Spending Crypto a Breeze

To make it easier for people in the United Kingdom to spend

their various cryptocurrencies, startup London Block Exchange is launching a new Visa debit card called the Dragoncard. It pays the retailer in pounds, then takes money from the consumer's crypto wallet.

Spendable Crypto

Cryptocurrencies such as ether and bitcoin are surging in popularity thanks to their many benefits over traditional currencies, but they still lag behind those currencies in one key way: they are not easy to spend in physical stores. People can spend USD and euros using a plethora of debit, credit, and gift cards, but their options are severely limited when it comes to spending bitcoin or ether using a cryptocurrency debit card. That’s starting to change, though. The Centra Card can be used just like a debit card to spend bitcoin, ether, dash, and several other popular cryptocurrencies. Token Card is another cryptocurrency debit card, and soon, London startup London Block Exchange (LBX) will launch a prepaid Visa debit card that will act in the same fashion.

The Dragoncard will allow people to convert their bitcoin, ether, ripple, litecoin, and monero to sterling (aka the British pound) at the time of purchase, thereby making it significantly easier for those currencies to be spent in stores throughout the United Kingdom, including ones that have yet to accept alternative forms of payment. Business Insider reports the cryptocurrency debit card will be issued by pre-paid card provider Wavecrest, and it comes alongside an app people can use to buy and manage cryptocurrencies on LBX’s own exchange. When someone uses the Dragoncard, LBX will pay the retailer in pounds first, then take the equivalent amount from the shopper’s cryptocurrency wallet.

Learn more about the future of mobile advertising and how to reach modern audiences

Before rushing off to get a Dragoncard when it debuts in December, though, interested crypto owners should know a few things. First, the card itself is £20 ($26.33). Second, they will be charged a 0.5 percent fee whenever they buy or sell cryptocurrencies on LBX’s platform. Lastly, provider Wavecrest charges a small fee for ATM withdrawals — it is a debit card, after all.

The Path to Acceptance

Despite the fees, the Dragoncard and other cryptocurrency debit cards have the potential to help crypto become widely accepted and, more importantly, understood. The Dragoncard also arrives at a time when bitcoin is experiencing quite a growth spurt. With schools, companies, and even nations starting to embrace bitcoin, the currency is poised to continue increasing in value and popularity, and with the Dragoncard, LBX is hoping to help Londoners join that ever-growing segment of crypto supporters.

“Despite being the financial capital of the world, London is a difficult place for investors to enter and trade in the cryptocurrency market,” LBX founder and CEO Benjamin Dives reportedly said in a statement. “We’ll bring it into the mainstream by removing the barriers to access, and by helping people understand and have confidence in what we believe is the future of money.” “We’re offering a grown up and robust experience for those who wish to safely and easily understand and invest in digital currencies,” said LBX’s executive chairman Adam Bryant. “We’re confident we’ll transform this market in the U.K. and will become the leading cryptocurrency and blockchain consultancy for institutional investors and consumers alike.”

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
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Australian Government Grants $8 Million for Blockchain Energy Pilot

Australian Government Grants $8 Million for Blockchain Energy Pilot

The Australian government has announced that it will provide

over AU$8 million (around US$6 million) in grants for a blockchain-powered smart utilities project. The funding will see a grant of AU$2.57 million go directly to the project, which will be set up in the City of Fremantle. A futher AU$5.68 million will be provided via project partners including blockchain firm Power Ledger.

According to the company's blog, the pilot has been set up to explore how cities can use blockchain technology and data analytics to power distributed energy and water systems. The trial is being conducted with academic and technology partners, including Curtin University, Murdoch University, LandCorp, CSIRO and Cisco. Curtin University is to oversee project management and carry out research supporting the trial.

According Curtin's Prof. Greg Morrison:

"We will develop a smart metering, battery storage and blockchain trading system to allow energy and water efficiencies between critical dispersed infrastructures that would otherwise have required physical co-location."

Power Ledger, the post states, is providing a transactional platform for renewable assets, as well as the ownership model for the "precinct sized" battery.

Image via Power Ledger

The federal grants are being provided as part of the government's Smart Cities and Suburbs Program, with support also coming from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), Western Power, and the CRC for Low Carbon Living. The pilot is expected to commence within two months, and will last for two years, the post states.

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Blockchain Has Potential in Curbing Odometer Fraud: EU Report

Blockchain Has Potential in
Curbing Odometer Fraud:
EU Report

The European Parliament has released a research paper

that explores blockchain, among other technologies, in the prevention of odometer tampering. he report, issued by the Directorate General for Internal Policies, investigates the possible role of blockchain technology in the use case, concluding that it might "present interesting potentials" for effective prevention of fraud through increased transparency and data privacy.

The report explains:

"The blockchain technology currently proposed by the car engineering and electronics industry would allow downloading mileage and GPS data from vehicles, and securing it on a 'digital logbook'."

The study further suggests that blockchain can be supported by a "connected cars" concept that allows cloud access to all relevant vehicle data in a future scenario involving autonomous vehicles. Blockchain technology is one among the three approaches identified to address odometer fraud in the paper, including a standardized framework based on international standards (ISO) and equipping a vehicle with hardware security modules (HSMs) to protect data. The issue of odometer fraud, or "clocking," is one being investigated by other startups in the blockchain space, as well as major enterprises.

In June, CoinDesk reported on a project by startup BigchainDB and German energy company Innogy that aims to create digital identities for vehicles on a blockchain. To tackle clocking, the CarPass project creates a record of the odometer and vehicle activity with the data visible and verifiable on a digital platform. "If someone starts tampering with the mileage, you basically see it as a step change in the data that someone tampered with [it]," said Innogy's Carsten Stocker at the time.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
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