Though were only just under two months into 2017, the cryptocurrency market has been quite eventful. Today we are taking a look into the trading trends of cryptocurrencies since the beginning of the year. While some of the top traded coins on the list may be expected, there are a few projects that might surprise you! These are the 6 most frequently traded coins of the past 30 days.

6. Pascal Coin (PASC)

Researching for this article is the first time Ive encountered Pascal Coin. This is rather embarrassing, especially considering that Pascal Coin has a 30 day trading volume of about $63 million. This coin aims to make cryptocurrencies more accessible to the layman, touting simplified addresses and user friendly UIs. Per coin it is rather cheap as well, trading at around 22 cents per coin.Its selling point is the fact that it does not require the use of a blockchain.Unlike other cryptocurrencies, if you delete Pascalcoins blockchain it would still work due to the way the hashes work.

5. Tether (USDT)

Tether is trading at about a dollar per coin and has maintained months trading volume around $67 million. Tether is an interesting concept that looks to bridge the worlds of crypto and fiat. These tokens as they call what is essentially an altcoin, are able to be traded between peers, but it remains pegged to fiat currencies such as USD. Their use of blockchain technology assures security for the transactions and the coin hopes to keep each token fungible to the US dollar for stability reasons.

4. Monero (XMR)

Monero is a privacy centric altcoin that boasts impressive security and anonymity. With a trading volume of just under $100 million for the last thirty days, it has some weight to it and has seen a resurgence in popularity. Due to its innovative way of rendering blockchain analysis useless Monero is at the fourth spot on our list.

3. Litecoin (LTC)

A little under half of the 30 day trading volume of ETC, we find Litecoin with $161 million. Again, this is a rather obvious contender for the top spots trading wise. With a reasonably low barrier to entry and high trading volumes to keep it relevant, Litecoin is a great way to get started in the cryptocurrency game.

2. Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is also no stranger to leaderboards such as this. ETH enjoys a significant lead over its other blockchain (ETC) with ~$12 dollars a coin and $352 million in the last 30 days of trading. While there is an astonishing disparity between this and Bitcoin, $352 million worth of trading is nothing to scoff at, especially considering its position as the second most traded of the past thirty days.

1.Bitcoin (BTC)

It should come as no surprise to even the newest cryptocurrency user that Bitcoin is still king when it comes to worth and trading volume. With a staggering volume of $3.8 billion tradedwithin the last thirty days alone and a current value of $1170.33 per coin, Bitcoin continues to flaunt its dominance in the market and make those who are hodling rather cheerful.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Top 6 Most Traded Cryptocurrencies in 2017 Thus Far - The Merkle

Executive Brief

Are you considering an investment in Bitcoin? Or considering throwing some spare change at a promising alternative in the cryptosphere? Maybe unsure whether digital currency counts as real money? The crypto-industry is rife with exciting developments, rapid environmental changes, and price movements that have made many people very happy, while news stories from less-fortunate people have caused would-be investors and consumers to question the long-term viability of digital money. Many people could have avoided harm if a comprehensive guide existed to inform investors with a base knowledge of cryptocurrency and a rubric for analyzing currencies that goes beyond the general myopic focus on short-term price speculation in the media. This multi-part guide has been compiled to make it easier to understand the value proposition of digital money, and to explain some of the factors that can affect its price and value over time.

Read the full story below.

Can Digital Currency be considered money?

To understand the long-term value proposition of digital money where its benefits may accrue we must compare it to traditional fiat money for its ability to function as money. The first part of this investment series takes a look at the functions and characteristics that cryptocurrency and traditional money must fulfil to have utility in exchange. This will allow us to better understand the opportunities cryptocurrencies present, and help us in deriving their potential value when comparing them against one another in future releases in this series.

I have included some approximate ratings of banknotes, digital fiat, and cryptocurrency in a chart below to compare how well they currently satisfy these criteria. A second chart shows how each money type could change over the longer-term under the assumption that at least one cryptocurrency enters mainstream use where it is presumed it would have a much larger, and more stable market capitalization.

How the money types compare today:

Money type comparison in long-term, assuming cryptocurrency enters mainstream use

Money must meet three functions, and six characteristics in which to be useful for trade. The following explores these criteria and provides a brief reasoning behind the scores in the provided charts:

Medium of exchange

Money must allow us to use it to trade with those around us.

Banknotes - Great for when physical proximity to counterparty exists, but banknotes are inconvenient for trade with people over longer distances. They are not safe to carry (prone to loss and theft) which makes them less likely to reach their destination than digital alternatives.

Digital fiat - Dont require physical trade proximity which means reduced effort to complete payments. Digital money is also more secure, which increases the likelihood of it reaching its destination, though significant delays exist for cross-border payments - which will likely improve over time.

Crypto - Transfers are near instant to any location in the world with greatly reduced costs for the privilege compared to digital fiat.

Unit of account

Money needs to act as a unit of measurement to price goods and services so we can know and compare an items value (i.e. a $10 good is worth more than a $5 good, and if wages were $5 per hour, we would know that the $10 item would cost two hours of our work).

Banknotes - Long-term track record as unit of account.

Digital fiat - Long-term track record as unit of account.

Crypto - Not an effective unit of account in the current day due to very volatile markets. The volatility largely results from lower total market capitalization. Pricing goods and services in cryptocurrency will remain problematic until this issue is resolved.

Store of value

Money must be able to maintain its value over time. If you receive payment for goods, you will want certainty that the money you received will still have value when you spend it yourself which is why the volatility of cryptocurrency markets has made cryptocurrency difficult to employ as a medium of exchange. The larger the market capitalization of a cryptocurrency, the less prone it is to price shocks much like a large ship doesnt get thrown around in 5 foot swells the way a rowboat would. There exist other factors that affect the longer-term value of a currency like the total units issued. Most cryptocurrencies limit their supply, which dampens the damage inflation may have on their real value over time a stark contrast to government money printing that nearly guarantees that it will be worth significantly less in the future than they are today.

Banknotes - Low volatility in the short term, but inflationary money printing makes it terrible for maintaining value over long periods of time.

Digital fiat = Low volatility in the short term, but inflationary money printing makes it terrible for maintaining value over long periods of time.

Crypto = High volatility for the near-term. Will stabilize if and when markets mature. Nearly all crypto have a limited supply that cannot be modified by any third party to help protect their long-term value.

Durability

Money needs to be resistant to wear and tear for long-term use.

Banknotes = Wear out over time, and the central bank prints more. Digital fiat = Does not wear out. Crypto = Does not wear out.

Divisibility

Money needs to be easily divided into smaller units.

Banknotes - Not divisible beyond how notes were issued. Digital fiat - Divisible into cents. Crypto - Infinitely divisible.

Portability

Money needs to be easily transferrable in trade.

Banknotes - Portable, but banknotes must be physically moved to destination of trade and its cost to move is higher (effort and risk of loss or theft). Digital fiat - Portable worldwide, but expensive with significant delays in processing when crossing borders. Cross-border payments likely to become faster in the future, though fees are likely to remain high in the banking system. Crypto = Extremely portable with near-instant processing at near-zero cost.

Acceptability

Money needs to be widely accepted to be useful in trade.

Banknotes - Accepted nearly everywhere Digital fiat - Accepted nearly everywhere Crypto - Generally not accepted, but has the same potential for acceptability over time.

Limited supply

There needs to be a limit on the amount of money in circulation to protect its value from inflation.

Banknotes - Short-term limitations on supply, though supply is changed at will by a third-party with persistent regularity. Digital fiat - Short-term limitations on supply, though supply is changed at will by a third-party with persistent regularity. Crypto - Algorithmically enforced limitations on supply, and total money supply at any point in time, and into the future is easily predictable.

Uniformity.

All versions of a currency must have the same purchasing power. A $10 bill from 1950 should still buy $10 of goods or services today.

Banknotes - Short-term uniformity in value. Complete failure in holding value long-term. One dollar from dollar in 1913 would be worth only 4 cents today, at a cumulative inflation rate of 2352.9%. Digital fiat - Complete failure in holding value long-term. One dollar from dollar in 1913 would be worth 4 cents today, at a cumulative inflation rate of 2352.9%. Crypto - Depends on the currency. No correlation with downwards purchasing power has been established with Bitcoin, and despite volatility, many cryptocurrencies have achieved remarkable long-term success. Bitcoin return to date since first traded in 2010 = 1,500,000%; since Feb 2012 = 22,500%; since Feb 2014 = 88%; since Feb 2016 = 247%. (Changing the dates drastically changes the return rates, and in some cases makes them negative).

The charts and reasoning show that while early appraisals of cryptocurrency indicate they are far from the final product, their potential to improve the way we interact with money has made a lasting stamp on the market. This potential is what gives most cryptocurrencies their value as speculative assets reflective of a combination of potential future performance and current trade-able value. As more people see cryptocurrency not just as an investment, but as a means to redefine the way we experience money, the user base increase would mean massive crypto-industry growth with new jobs, wealth creation, and a return on crypto related investments.

The Financial technology industry is one of the fastest growing, and most promising industries for investment and 2017 shows no signs of it slowing down. The next chapters in this series will examine the history and learned-lessons from crypto-sphere, and recommend best practices for finding and investing in the right cryptocurrencies and projects for you.

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Op-Ed: The Cryptocurrency Investment Series - DCEBrief (press release)

February 20, 2017, Belize City The team behindOroCoinhas successfully completed the launch phase of its cryptocurrency project. Following the successful launch, OroCoin is now trading on several major cryptocurrency exchanges, including C-Cex.com.

The OroCoin team, with an extensive experience in the cryptocurrency sector, believes to have created a unique and creative concept. They have worked on ensuring that the currency provides value to traders, hoarders and cryptocurrency miners alike.

OroCoinhas lots of unique characteristics including fast confirmation times and quick adjusting difficulty. The difficulty adjustment feature is put in place to ensure profitable mining irrespective of the number of active miners at any point in time.

Oro is Spanish for gold,said Horatio J, one of the lead developers on the OroCoin project.With this project, we wanted to set a new gold standard in the cryptocurrency space, creating an asset that was fun and profitable for everyone,he added.

The next stage of the OroCoin project is to build and grow a presence within the cryptocurrency community. It will include activities surrounding dissemination of information and building relationships with other cryptocurrency businesses. Additional goals for the development and promotion of OroCoin along with the roadmap is available on the cryptocurrencyswebsite.

OroCoin can be bought and sold on exchanges such as C-Cex.com, Cryptopia, CoinExchange.io and Nova Exchange. Links to these exchange platforms are available onOroCoin.co.

About OroCoin

OroCoin (translates to gold coin) is a unique cryptocurrency that is on its way to becoming a new gold standard in the cryptocurrency industry. Based on the Scrypt PoW consensus algorithm, OroCoin distinguishes itself from others by pegging its block rewards to golds value.

Learn more about OroCoin at http://orocoin.co/ OroCoin on GitHub https://github.com/orocoin/orocoin OroCoin on BitcoinTalk https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1737101

Media Contact

Contact Name:Samantha Westin Contact Email:[emailprotected] Location:Belize City

OroCoin is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

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OroCoin Now Trading on C-Cex and Other Major Cryptocurrency Exchanges - newsBTC

ASHFORD, England, Feb. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --BitConnect Coin (BCC)has showcased significant growth within the digital altcoin community as it tries to make a place for itself beside the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum. BCC is continuing the trend established by the two heavyweight cryptocurrencies since 2015, which saw an exponential rise in digital currency trading activity followed by doubling of Bitcoin's value in 2016. The upcoming feature additions to BCC throughout 2017 will further boost its value.

Since the completion of BCC's initial launch following the ICO, its price has experienced few ups and downs. Like any new digital or physical product, BCC experienced a drop in the demand and value soon after its release. Being a cryptocurrency that is providing real value to the market, BCC has recovered to emerge bigger and stronger than ever.

BCCs chart shows a more than two-fold increase in its price during the recent weeks. In addition, the cryptocurrency platform had to increase its mining difficulty to levels much higher than that of any other scrypt-based coin in the altcoin market, mainly due to an increase in the BitConnect Coin mining activity. Consequently, the exchange volume has been exhibiting significant growth in anticipation of the new features that are going to be included later this month.

WithBitConnect Coin, users can expect a new level of empowerment. The open source platform connects users socially and financially to a secure, protected community of investors and lenders. BCC owners can also connect with the community to increase the value in their respective wallets as the cryptocurrency's price increases. They also get an opportunity to earn interest.

The BCC cryptocurrency's demand and price are expected to increase further as the platform prepares to launch the much awaited BitConnect application for Android and iOS devices. The BCC mining process will stop yielding new coins by the end of 2017. In the later part of this year, the cryptocurrency will see more innovation and inclusion of new convenience features. Few much-awaited releases on the BitConnect platform include BCC Mining and Staking Pool that provides a way for the community to earn BitConnect Coin reward for mining and minting, a new mobile wallet app, and BCC paper wallet. This year will also see the launch of BCC Smart Card for everyday usability of the digital currency.

BitConnect hasbecome the world's fastest growing online Bitcoin community. It has risen from being a concept in Q1 of 2016 to a top 100K website on Alexa in less than one year.

About BitConnect

BitConnect is an open source platform for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency users to earn, learn, buy and sell bitcoins to other trusted community members directly.

Learn more about BitConnect at https://bitconnect.co/ Learn about BitConnect coin at https://bitconnectcoin.co/ Register on BitConnect Exchange at https://bitconnect.co/register Access BitConnect-QT wallet at https://bitconnectcoin.co/guide/10/How-To-Set-Up-BitConnect-Coin-Wallet-on-Windows-Operating-System#Download

Media Contact

Contact Name:Vindee Contact Email:bitconnect@tutanota.com Contact Phone:+16415696739 Location:Ashford, England

BitConnect is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

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BitConnect Cryptocurrency Trading Gains Traction, Price Catches Up - Yahoo Finance

Forbes

This Is The World's First Cryptocurrency Issued By A Hedge Fund Forbes But if you both held the same cryptocurrency, and it went up in value together, maybe there would be more collaboration. He believes the currency will incentivize the data scientists to make better stock market prediction models, thereby improving ... and more »

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This Is The World's First Cryptocurrency Issued By A Hedge Fund - Forbes

BEIJING, Feb. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --On the background of anever-increasing number of electronic financial systemswhich are emerging every day on the network, the appearance of a new environmentally friendly cryptocurrency can not pass unnoticed. "How can users get mining percentage without special equipment, without having to spend huge amounts of money to pay for the electricity bills? Why is there so little truly interesting and important projects in the world? How to play on the exchange and currency markets, and what is the mission of E-Dinar Coin cryptocurrency," asked CoinMarketCap.

CoinMarketCap:E-Dinar Coin has positioned itself as the world's first eco-friendly decentralized cryptocurrency. How can its mining be possible without energy consumption?

Insider My:E-Dinar Coin mining doesn't require a huge amount of energy compared with other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. For participation in holding the overall transactions in the system and ongoing transfers, people can get mining bonus in the amount of up to 0.65% per day. It is a reward for their participation in the development of the system, as by making internal transactions among other participants in the E-Dinar Coin system, every user contributes to the overall development of our increasing network of distributed transactions and at the same time, their income.

Mining of E-Dinar Coin cryptocurrency is performed without special equipment, with no electricity costs, whilst our cryptocurrency miners are, first of all, people who are willing to change the world for the better.

CoinMarketCap:You're talking about a global purpose - the desire to change the world ... Can you describe the mission of the E-Dinar Coin project?

Insider My: Our mission IS to change the world for the better.

Now our main task is to ensure that E-Dinar Coin is known by more people around the world. And it is important that users, by offering products and services, would explain as well what is the Federal Reserve System, how unfairly it operates and why binding to gold is abolished; why barter was banned; why the Dulles Plan - the American post-war doctrine against the USSR - did work; why large transactions can be conducted mostly in dollars and only with the use of SWIFT (Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication channels); why no any other currency is quoted for such calculations. We need to explain this people to give them a possibility to get answers to those questions!

Here, as always, everything depends on the people who choose the time and object of the development. After all, there was a time somebody was engaged in popularization of the US dollar and its world domination. And it worked! It still depends on the willingness - of what we want after all. To do good and to be engaged in charity or just pretend to do all these things? Today the whole world will turn to charity! If people consolidated their efforts we would have been able to solve all ecological problems and humanity could travel through space, rather than sit in one-bedroom apartments and pay for gas and light! There is always need in people-actions! Those who will act rather than talk. This is exactly what E-Dinar Coin is into. It acts.

CoinMarketCap:Tell us about your team: what was preceded to E-dinar Coin launching? Did you work on other known projects in the area of cryptocurrency?

Insider My: In launching of E-Dinar Coin there were involved a lot of highly intelligent and talented people. We are not exaggerating when we saythat E-Dinar Coin was created by the best specialists of Blockchain world and the world of online games, the best financiers and employees of the banking sector, employees and managers of p2p exchanges, major companies of different sectors of the economy, with vast experience in business, European and US financial analysts, programmers from China ... Those are people who worked on the creation of websites like Alibaba, former employees of corporations such as Google.

They not only helped with the launching of the project, but also they are involved in the development of updates and generation of improvements to the current system, because we will always strive to make the E-Dinar Coin service even more user-friendly!

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CoinMarketCap:The most popular cryptocurrencies have their own source code in their public domain. Does it allow any user to check the integrity of the code, as well as help developers in identifying shortcomings. Why did you decide to keep your source code in secret?

Insider My: Information about the source code is available for programmers who are interested in the development and connection of cryptocurrencies to their applications, stores and exchange markets, with which we have been working since E-Dinar Coin has been launched and with whom planning a long-term cooperation. Our product is unique. Partially, we used the accumulated experience of other projects, but ultimately created a completely new project, combining together all the best peculiarities of blockchain used at various projects and platforms.

We occupied the niche which no one claimed before. And we do not open the code simply because now we do not want it to be used universally.

CoinMarketCap:Speaking about E-Dinar Coin putting together the best features of the various projects, for example, the presence of referral program in the project? Why are you putting so much attention to it in your marketing plan? How often people skeptically talk about multi-level marketing in the field of cryptocurrency?

Insider My:We consider E-Dinar Coin, in some way, as a game, based on the principles of blockchain technology. Players here can stay in their locations or open new levels, "pumping" their accounts. In general, there are 7 levels in the system (three levels - in China)

We believe that the true value is only determined by the involvement of its members in the cryptocurrency project: when people are engaged in mining, developing it and attracting new users, then the cryptocurrency value increases.

In most projects, the final participant is suspended from the most important - the management process. For example, weuse a certain currency and attract my friends to use it. Does in change something for us? Do weget an extra income? No! This is happening because the process manages a certain company, like the ones that we mentionedabove. In E-Dinar Coin there are no corporations, our greatest asset is the people! And participants in the project are aware of that, in fact, it determines the rapid development of E-Dinar Coin, as we are all united by one goal, one purpose.

CoinMarketCap:Tell us more about DPOs algorithm. What are its advantages over the PoS or PoW?

Insider My:DPoS mining algorithm was chosen in purpose. It is based on the need to prove the storage of a certain amount of funds in the account. Using this method, the cryptocurrency algorithm allocates new units in proportion to the current balance on the wallet. Thus, the obtained coins are allocated to the wallets of members who are the most loyal to the cryptocurrency. It means that each account holder can partially control the production of coins. It makes all members equally responsible for the most important processes, such as the reduction or growth rate, an increase of production or an increase of popularity! Anyone who keeps their assets in EDC is the owner of a new distributed system based on blockchain technology.

Bitcoin uses a PoW. Bitcoin mining is based on spending huge amounts of electricity, which is bad for the environment. Mining is not available to ordinary citizens, because they simply do not have such powerful computers. And it makes us much more interesting and accessible to ordinary citizens - EDC can be mined by using just a regular smartphone.

CoinMarketCap:On the official website you say that one of the objectives of the project is to combat air and water pollution by means of investment in urban projects, which is very noble and important. Can you give a few examples of such projects? What results have you achieved in this direction at the moment?

Insider My: E-Dinar Coin does not waste energy on mining, on the contrary, the system provides cryptocurrency to stimulate the production of clean energy.

We have already signed a preliminary agreement on cooperation with OneraSystems, renowned developer of solar power in Egypt, which provides implementation of the project of installing solar power with capacity of 50 MWp (megawatt / peak) to provide E-Dinar Coin with solar energy, as well as in order to continue the further development of the system.

At the moment, we are also discussing about our co-operation project with the Wildlife Fund (WWF). However, we willtell you later about our joint projects and the solutions, which we plan to achieve.

CoinMarketCap:You recently announced plans to expand the EDC users community to one billion of people and it is not an easy goal.

Insider My: There are registered more than half a million users in the project right now! The system of E-Dinar Coin is constructed in such a way that it allows us to increase the number of users to one billion and provide them with the necessary amount of coins.

Nowadays, in the world there are only three currencies, which can provide a billion of dollars, a billion of euros and a billion of EDC. All these currencies are transportable, but imagine how will you transport one million dollars or a million euros? Shipping in an aircraft or submarine? How can you ensure the safety of such loads? To date, the world's only fastest and most reliable way to conduct transactions is cryptocurrency. The user can deposit and withdraw money in any country due to the decentralized system.

CoinMarketCap:Analyzing the chart of the EDC rate, you can trace the period of active growth at the end of August and beginning of September, after that there is a lull in the growth of prices. How can you explain this break? Do you work together with the community over the resumption of the growing trend?

Insider My: It's not a correct question, because E-Dinar Coin is growing daily, so there is no need to work towards the resumption of growth.

Just think of these figures: now more than 500,000 people are registered in the system, while the number of transactions per day amounts to over 150,000, as well the daily number of users increased to 8,000-15,000 people! For comparison, 12,000,000 users are registered at the most popular Blockchain platform, and the number of their transactions amounts to 200,000 per day. This comparison shows the dynamics of our cryptocurrency, so we do not understand what the trend we need to renew?

Media Contact:

KateTang Phone: 646.389.5435 Email: contact@shoo-in.com

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Cryptocurrency of the Future - E-Dinar Coin - Yahoo Finance

Tuesday, February 21, 2017 4:43 AM UTC

Ticino, a region in southern Switzerland, has revealed its plans to issue its own local digital currency for everydayuse.

The announcement comes on the heels of the City Council of Zug in the east Switzerland launching a pilot project allowing paying for municipal services with bitcoin last May. During the initial phase of the programme, the maximum amount payable with the cryptocurrency was limited to 200 Swiss francs. The city authorities are not opposed to extending the experiment to other cryptocurrencies.

Called Ticinocoin (TIC), the future cryptocurrency is a brainchild of computer scientists Claudio Rossini and Michele Fiscalini. The developers have already tested the currency: the pilot phase of the project was completed last week, Tribune de Geneve reported.

According to Fiscalini, circulation of TIC may be limited to local services and products from Ticino. The exchange rate of TIC is expected to be one Swiss franc. The operations with ticinocoin may require obligatory authorisation by FINMA, the Swiss monetary regulator, the release said.

Ticinocoin is not the first local currency in Switzerland. In 2015, Lmanic Arc introduced the regional currency Lmans, which now accounts for over 100,000 units in circulation. The launch of the electronic version of Lman is due in March. Furthermore, Valais may introduce its own complementary currency Farinet this year.

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Ticino plans to launch local cryptocurrency 'Ticinocoin' - EconoTimes

BTC trading is relatively anonymous, and many online brokerages will not require any proof of identification when trading this cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin, or BTC, is a cryptocurrency that is traded as a commodity at many online brokerages. It is unique in many ways. For starters, BTC is not subject to central bank policy and it operates outside of the realms of regulation. BTC trading is relatively anonymous, and many online brokerages will not require any proof of identification when trading this cryptocurrency. BTC has revolutionized the way that retailers, buyers, and traders interact with one another and the markets. Many folks are now dabbling in Bitcoin trading in much the same way as they do with traditional currency pairs like the AUD/USD, GBP/EUR and USD/JPY among others. Fortunately, you dont need much trading experience to get involved in digital currency trading since everything is relatively easy to understand. However, novices will want to avoid the following pitfalls:

Most every financial trade can go one of two ways up or down. As a trader, you must be prepared for losses, and you should allocate a bankroll with that in mind. When you trade highly speculative financial instruments like BTC, losses are commonplace. This is especially true for novices who have little experience in currency trading, or digital currencies like Bitcoin. The golden rule is never to invest money that you need for everyday expenses. If youre going to trade BTC online, make sure that you have a diversified financial portfolio to act as a hedge against any losses you may accrue.

Trading currencies, commodities, indices, and stocks is inherently volatile. Trading cryptocurrency is especially volatile. It is extremely important to go into a trade knowing what goals you have in mind. You should always have a figure in mind when you take profits, or a figure at which you cut your losses. You do not want to be trading with an emotional mindset thats a recipe for disaster. Greed is the Achilles heel of many a trader. When a currency is rising relative to its peers, it is normal to want to continue benefiting on the upside, or downside when it appears that there is significant momentum at play. However, greed has led to more losses than anything else. Always keep target prices in mind. One way you may wish to do this is by trading with strategies. A good example of a BTC trading strategy is the trendline strategy. You certainly do not want to be trading in a euphoric state of mind, or in a state of mind where you are despondent. It is better to trade when an asset is rising in price, before it peaks, and before it bottoms out.

When you set a stop loss, you are setting an automatic liquidation of your trade. Once the trade hits a certain value, a sell order will be initiated and your trade will be closed out. If you are losing money, the stop loss will prevent you from losing more. The reason stop losses are so popular with traders is that it is impossible to keep your eye on hundreds of trades simultaneously, so the automatic stop loss will sell your losing trade to prevent further losses. Stop losses are important when youre using high levels of leverage. They prevent you from hemorrhaging cash when the trade is not going your way.

Technical analysis and fundamental analysis are important components of your trading arsenal. Even if you have little mathematical or statistical ability, it behooves you to research a little about charts and market trends. Once you understand the basics of chart reading, you will find that your BTC trades are much more successful. Several types of charts are available to you, including candlestick charts which display price movements over time intervals. You will note things like opening prices of BTC, closing prices, low prices, high prices and the trading range.

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Cryptocurrency Trading Techniques for Novices - newsBTC

In the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, innovation is one of the key factors to success. Various companies and teams are using these disruptive technologies to come up with creative business models. Below are a few companies that have caught peoples attention over the past few years. Rest assured more of these projects will come to fruition moving forward.

Decentralizing the concept of cloud storage sounds quite intriguing. Storj aims to achieve this goal and provide cheap bandwidth and storage solutions for everyone in the world. Users can also make money by renting their hard drive space to other Storj users. Everyone in the community becomes part of the cloud, removing the need for centralized servers altogether.

Decentralization is key in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world. The MaidSafe team aims to decentralize the internet as we know it. Users are able to store private data, host websites, and share public data on the SAFE network. Similarly to Storj, MaidSafe relies on unused hard drive space. However, users can also rent out unused processing power and data connections to others. There is no intermediary involved in the process, nor anypermissions required.

Prediction markets are gaining momentum as of late. There is a certain appeal to predict the outcome of real-world events, rather than just focus on sports or politics. Through prediction markets such as Augur, it is possible for anyone in the world to create a bet on whatever life situation they choose. It is not a gambling opportunity in the traditional sense, albeit there are financial stakes involved.

What makes prediction markets so appealing is how they harness the wisdom of the crowd. Instead of relying on industry experts. Everyones opinion is collected to provide valuable insights into how specific situations may evolve over time. Considering how this entire approach is decentralized as well, there is no reason not to give prediction markets a try.

One of the primary selling points of Ethereum is its smart contract technology. Creating digital agreements between parties that self-execute is a significant development in the world of blockchain technology. Although companies are working to bring smart contract technology to bitcoin, Ethereum is the go-to solution for this concept right now. Smart contracts can change virtually every business model we know today and its only a matter of time until this shift happens.

It has to be said, Steemit is taking content creation and monetization to a whole new level. The platform allows anyone to create and share any type of content they like. Users who upvote these creations will allow the creator to earn money in the form of cryptocurrency. Quite a few people have made thousands of dollars from the Steemit platform already. Getting paid to create content by the people who like your creations, rather than advertisers, is the way forward, that much is certain.

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Top 5 Cryptocurrencies With a Unique Business Model - The Merkle

Cryptocurrency will cripple governmental ability to collect taxes, and they wont see it coming. When its already happened, expect major changes to take place in how society is organized on a large scale but also expect governments to act in desperation to retain control.

As bitcoin launched in 2009, most early adopters saw its disruptive potential. While bitcoin has stalled for some time approaching a valid use of the term stagnation, cryptocurrency in a larger context is still just as disruptive. In 2011, I stated that bitcoin (cryptocurrency) will do to banks what e-mail did to the postal services. This is not just true, but it will be even more brutal to governments, and by extension, governmental services.

Now, governments love anything that smells like innovation, because it means jobs, this magic word that smells of magic unicorns to anybody in government. Therefore, people who like innovation are nurturing this bitcoin thing, this cryptocurrency thing, this ethereum thing (as if governments made a difference, but still). Lots of startups in tip-of-the-spear financial technology means that their government may get a head start over other governments. They have no idea that cryptocurrency will radically scale back the power of government, not just their own one, but also all those other governments over which it seeks a competitive edge.

Individual people in government can also love bitcoin because it gives them something to do. More specifically, it gives them something to regulate. Fortunately, other people in government see that this gives them something to do, which is to hold those government regulators with an overdeveloped sense of order somewhat in check. Youll hear no shortage of wannabe regulators saying that bitcoin is bad because its being used in crime and contraband trade!, to which I usually respond, well, bitcoin is a currency, so I mean you put it in relation to the US Dollar, which then is not used in crime and contraband trade, is this the argument youre using to support your position?, at which point the discussion generally changes topic.

This completely disregards the observation that bitcoin and cryptocurrency were designed to not submit to regulation in the first place. Well, at least not governmental regulation. It is heavily regulated but by its source code, and by its source code alone.

The reason this will cripple todays governments todays idea of what a government is and does is because todays economy is built on one layer doing actual work and three layers of abstraction on top.

At the first and bottom layer of our economy are the individual people doing all the actual work.

The second layer on top of the first is the abstraction we call corporations, which is a way to organize our economy and optimize transaction costs.

The third layer on top of the second would be banks, which handle money for corporations and individual people in a middleman gatekeeper position.

Finally, the fourth layer is the government, which takes advantage of the banks gatekeeper position to siphon off taxes from money flows in order to fund itself and governmental services. In other words, layer four completely depends on layer three for its operations or at least for the relative simplicity of funding its operations.

Now, what bitcoin and cryptocurrency do is make away with the banks cutting them out of the loop entirely, making them redundant, obsolete, dinosaurified. This resulting absence of anything where banks used to be creates an air gap between the functional part of the economy people and corporations and governments who want funding.

The way governments want to tap all money flows in order to fund itself is not entirely unlike how the surveillance agencies want to tap all information flows in order to have an information advantage. In this way, the deployment of cryptocurrency is to tax collection what deployment of end-to-end encryption is to mass surveillance. The government can no longer reach into money flows and grab what it wants, but will be dependent on people actively sending it money. The government cant point a gun at a computer and have it give up its money; you can only make a computer operator feel very sorry for not voluntarily producing the keys to that money. So the government is no longer able to collect taxes without the consent even if coerced and forced consent of the people being thus collected.

The deployment of cryptocurrency is to tax collection what deployment of end-to-end encryption is to mass surveillance.

Governments, and individual people in government, have no idea about this bigger picture. Theyre far to wrapped up in things-as-usual to notice. They wont see it coming until its already happened.

When this happens, there will be no shortage of people in government who suddenly want to regulate cryptocurrency only to find out it will be as effective as regulating gravity. When this happens, government as we know it will be redefined from a coercive Colossus able to take what it wants and do what it wants into a construct that actually depends on people wanting to fund it. This will be a very interesting time to live in. While todays governments will see themselves as getting crippled, I suspect most citizens will regard it as unquestionably healthy that governments will actually begin to depend on the approval of the people at large.

Were just beginning to see the changes to society that the Internet brings. This is one of them.

(Note: I write cryptocurrency and not bitcoin on purpose here, just as Id prefer proclaiming the success of social media over the success of Myspace.)

Rick is Head of Privacy at Private Internet Access. He is also the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. Additionally, he has a tech entrepreneur background and loves good whisky and fast motorcycles.

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How cryptocurrency will cripple todays governments and ...