The Coin

We are going to create a digital token. Tokens in the ethereum ecosystem can represent any fungible tradable good: coins, loyalty points, gold certificates, IOUs, in game items, etc. Since all tokens implement some basic features in a standard way, this also means that your token will be instantly compatible with the ethereum wallet and any other client or contract that uses the same standards.

If you just want to copy paste the code, then use this:

The token contract is quite complex. But in essence a very basic token boils down to this:

So let's start with the basics. Open the Wallet app, go to the Contracts tab and then Deploy New Contract. On the Solidity Contract Source code text field, type the code below:

A mapping means an associative array, where you associate addresses with balances. The addresses are in the basic hexadecimal ethereum format, while the balances are integers, ranging from 0 to 115 quattuorvigintillion. If you don't know how much a quattuorvigintillion is, it's many vigintillions more than anything you are planning to use your tokens for. The public keyword, means that this variable will be accessible by anyone on the blockchain, meaning all balances are public (as they need to be, in order for clients to display them).

If you published your contract right away, it would work but wouldn't be very useful: it would be a contract that could query the balance of your coin for any addressbut since you never created a single coin, every one of them would return 0. So we are going to create a few tokens on startup. Add this code before the last closing bracket, just under the mapping.. line.

Notice that the function MyToken has the same name as the contract MyToken. This is very important and if you rename one, you have to rename the other too: this is a special, startup function that runs only once and once only when the contract is first uploaded to the network. This function will set the balance of msg.sender, the user which deployed the contract, with a balance of 21 million.

The choice of 21 million was rather arbitrary, and you can change it to anything you want in the code, but there's a better way: instead, supply it as a parameter for the function, like this:

Take a look at the right column besides the contract and you'll see a drop down, written pick a contract. Select the "MyToken" contract and you'll see that now it shows a section called Constructor parameters. These are changeable parameters for your token, so you can reuse the same code and only change these variables in the future.

Right now you have a functional contract that created balances of tokens but since there isn't any function to move it, all it does is stay on the same account. So we are going to implement that now. Write the following code before the last bracket.

This is a very straightforward function: it has a recipient and a value as the parameter and whenever someone calls it, it will subtract the _value from their balance and add it to the _to balance. Right away there's an obvious problem: what happens if the person wants to send more than it owns? Since we don't want to handle debt in this particular contract, we are simply going to make a quick check and if the sender doesn't have enough funds the contract execution will simply stop. It's also to check for overflows, to avoid having a number so big that it becomes zero again.

To stop a contract execution mid execution you can either return or throw The former will cost less gas but it can be more headache as any changes you did to the contract so far will be kept. In the other hand, 'throw' will cancel all contract execution, revert any changes that transaction could have made and the sender will lose all ether he sent for gas. But since the Wallet can detect that a contract will throw, it always shows an alert, therefore preventing any ether to be spent at all.

Now all that is missing is having some basic information about the contract. In the near future this can be handled by a token registry, but for now we'll add them directly to the contract:

And now we update the constructor function to allow all those variables to be set up at the start:

Finally we now need something called Events. These are special, empty functions that you call to help clients like the Ethereum Wallet keep track of activities happening in the contract. Events should start with a capital letter. Add this line at the beginning of the contract to declare the event:

And then you just need to add these two lines inside the "transfer" function:

And now your token is ready!

If you aren't there already, open the Ethereum Wallet, go to the contracts tab and then click "deploy new contract".

Now get the token source from above and paste it into the "Solidity source field". If the code compiles without any error, you should see a "pick a contract" drop down on the right. Get it and select the "MyToken" contract. On the right column you'll see all the parameters you need to personalize your own token. You can tweak them as you please, but for the purpose of this tutorial we recommend you to pick these parameters: 10,000 as the supply, any name you want, "%" for a symbol and 2 decimal places. Your app should be looking like this:

Scroll to the end of the page and you'll see an estimate of the computation cost of that contract and you can select a fee on how much ether you are willing to pay for it. Any excess ether you don't spend will be returned to you so you can leave the default settings if you wish. Press "deploy", type your account password and wait a few seconds for your transaction to be picked up.

You'll be redirected to the front page where you can see your transaction waiting for confirmations. Click the account named "Etherbase" (your main account) and after no more than a minute you should see that your account will show that you have 100% of the shares you just created. To send some to a few friends: select "send", and then choose which currency you want to send (ether or your newly created share), paste your friend's address on the "to" field and press "send".

If you send it to a friend, they will not see anything in their wallet yet. This is because the wallet only tracks tokens it knows about, and you have to add these manually. Now go to the "Contracts" tab and you should see a link for your newly created contract. Click on it to go to its page. Since this is a very simple contract page there isn't much to do here, just click "copy address" and paste the contract address on a text editor, you'll need it shortly.

To add a token to watch, go to the contracts page and then click "Watch Token". A pop-up will appear and you only need to paste the contract address. The token name, symbol and decimal number should be automatically filled but if it's not you can put anything you want (it will only affect how it displays on your wallet). Once you do this, you'll automatically be shown any balance you have of that token and you'll be able to send it to anyone else.

And now you have your own crypto token! Tokens by themselves can be useful as value exchange on local communities, ways to keep track of worked hours or other loyalty programs. But can we make a currency have an intrinsic value by making it useful?

You can deploy your whole crypto token without ever touching a line of code, but the real magic happens when you start customizing it. The following sections will be suggestions on functions you can add to your token to make it fit your needs more.

All dapps are fully decentralized by default, but that doesn't mean they can't have some sort of central manager, if you want them to. Maybe you want the ability to mint more coins, maybe you want to ban some people from using your currency. You can add any of those features, but the catch is that you can only add them at the beginning, so all the token holders will always know exactly the rules of the game before they decide to own one.

For that to happen, you need a central controller of currency. This could be a simple account, but could also be a contract and therefore the decision on creating more tokens will depend on the contract: if it's a democratic organization that can be up to vote, or maybe it can be just a way to limit the power of the token owner.

In order to do that we'll learn a very useful property of contracts: inheritance. Inheritance allows a contract to acquire properties of a parent contract, without having to redefine all of them. This makes the code cleaner and easier to reuse. Add this code to the first line of your code, before contract MyToken {.

This creates a very basic contract that doesn't do anything except define some generic functions about a contract that can be "owned". Now the next step is just add the text is owned to your contract:

This means that all the functions inside MyToken now can access the variable owner and the modifier onlyOwner. The contract also gets a function to transfer ownership. Since it might be interesting to set the owner of the contract at startup, you can also add this to the constructor function:

Suppose you want the amount of coins in circulation to change. This is the case when your tokens actually represent an off blockchain asset (like gold certificates or government currencies) and you want the virtual inventory to reflect the real one. This might also be the case when the currency holders expect some control of the price of the token, and want to issue or remove tokens from circulation.

First we need to add a variable to store the totalSupply and assign it in our constructor function.

Now let's add a new function finally that will enable the owner to create new tokens:

Notice the modifier onlyOwner on the end of the function name. This means that this function will be rewritten at compilation to inherit the code from the modifier onlyOwner we had defined before. This function's code will be inserted where there's an underline on the modifier function, meaning that this particular function can only be called by the account that is set as the owner. Just add this to a contract with an owner modifier and you'll be able to create more coins.

Depending on your use case, you might need to have some regulatory hurdles on who can and cannot use your tokens. For that to happen, you can add a parameter that enables the contract owner to freeze or unfreeze assets.

Add this variable and function anywhere inside the contract. You can put them anywhere but for good practice we recommend you put the mappings with the other mappings and events with the other events.

With this code, all accounts are unfrozen by default but the owner can set any of them into a freeze state by calling Freeze Account. Unfortunately freezing has no practical effect, because we haven't added anything to the transfer function. We are changing that now:

Now any account that is frozen will still have their funds intact, but won't be able to move them. All accounts are unfrozen by default until you freeze them, but you can easily revert that behavior into a whitelist where you need to manually approve every account. Just rename frozenAccount into approvedAccount and change the last line to:

So far, you've relied on utility and trust to value your token. But if you want you can make the token's value be backed by ether (or other tokens) by creating a fund that automatically sells and buys them at market value.

First, let's set the price for buying and selling:

This is acceptable for a price that doesn't change very often, as every new price change will require you to execute a transaction and spend a bit of ether. If you want to have a constant floating price we recommend investigating standard data feeds

The next step is making the buy and sell functions:

Notice that this will not create new tokens but change the balance the contract owns. The contract can hold both its own tokens and ether and the owner of the contract, while it can set prices or in some cases create new tokens (if applicable) it cannot touch the bank's tokens or ether. The only way this contract can move funds is by selling and buying them.

Note Buy and sell "prices" are not set in ether, but in wei the minimum currency of the system (equivalent to the cent in the Euro and Dollar, or the Satoshi in Bitcoin). One ether is 1000000000000000000 wei. So when setting prices for your token in ether, add 18 zeros at the end.

When creating the contract, send enough ether to it so that it can buy back all the tokens on the market otherwise your contract will be insolvent and your users won't be able to sell their tokens.

The previous examples, of course, describe a contract with a single central buyer and seller, a much more interesting contract would allow a market where anyone can bid different prices, or maybe it would load the prices directly from an external source.

Everytime you make a transaction on ethereum you need to pay a fee to the miner of the block that will calculate the result of your smart contract. While this might change in the future, for the moment fees can only be paid in ether and therefore all users of your tokens need it. Tokens in accounts with a balance smaller than the fee are stuck until the owner can pay for the necessary fee. But in some usecases, you might not want your users to think about ethereum, blockchain or how to obtain ether, so one possible approach would have your coin automatically refill the user balance as soon as it detects the balance is dangerously low.

In order to do that, first you need to create a variable that will hold the threshold amount and a function to change it. If you don't know any value, set it to 5 finney (0.005 ether).

Then, add this line to the transfer function so that the sender is refunded:

You can also instead change it so that the fee is paid forward to the receiver by the sender:

This will ensure that no account receiving the token has less than the necessary ether to pay the fees.

There are some ways to tie your coin supply to a mathematical formula. One of the simplest ways would be to make it a "merged mining" with ether, meaning that anyone who finds a block on ethereum would also get a reward from your coin, given that anyone calls the reward function on that block. You can do it using the special keyword coinbase that refers to the miner who finds the block.

It's also possible to add a mathematical formula, so that anyone who can do math can win a reward. On this next example you have to calculate the cubic root of the current challenge gets a point and the right to set the next challenge:

Of course while calculating cubic roots can be hard for someone to do on their heads, they are very easy with a calculator, so this game could be easily broken by a computer. Also since the last winner can choose the next challenge, they could pick something they know and therefore would not be a very fair game to other players. There are tasks that are easy for humans but hard for computers but they are usually very hard to code in simple scripts like these. Instead a fairer system should be one that is very hard for a computer to do, but isn't very hard for a computer to verify. A great candidate would be to create a hash challenge where the challenger has to generate hashes from multiple numbers until they find one that is lower than a given difficulty.

This process was first proposed by Adam Back in 1997 as Hashcash and then was implemented in Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto as Proof of work in 2008. Ethereum was launched using such system for its security model, but is planning to move from a Proof of Work security model into a mixed proof of stake and betting system called Casper.

But if you like Hashing as a form of random issuance of coins, you can still create your own ethereum based currency that has a proof of work issuance:

Also change the Constructor function (the one that has the same name as the contract, which is called at first upload) to add this line, so the difficulty adjustment will not go crazy:

Once the contract is online, select the function "Proof of work", add your favorite number on the nonce field and try to execute it. If the confirmation window gives a red warning saying "Data can't be execute" go back and pick another number until you find one that allows the transaction to go forward: this process is random. If you find one you will be awarded 1 token for every minute that has passed since the last reward was given, and then the challenge difficulty will be adjusted up or down to target an average of 10 minutes per reward.

This process of trying to find the number that will give you a reward is what is called mining: if difficulty rises it can be very hard to find a lucky number, but it will be always easy to verify that you found one.

If you add all the advanced options, this is how the final code should look like:

Scroll down and you'll see an estimated cost for deployment. If you want you can change the slider to set a smaller fee, but if the price is too below the average market rate your transaction might take longer to pick up. Click Deploy and type your password. After a few seconds you'll be redirected to the dashboard and under Latest transactions you'll see a line saying "creating contract". Wait for a few seconds for someone to pick your transaction and then you'll see a slow blue rectangle representing how many other nodes have seen your transaction and confirmed them. The more confirmations you have, the more assurance you have that your code has been deployed.

Click on the link that says Admin page and you'll be taken the simplest central bank dashboard in the world, where you can do anything you want with your newly created currency.

On the left side under Read from contract you have all the options and functions you can use to read information from the contract, for free. If your token has an owner, it will display its address here. Copy that address and paste it on Balance of and it will show you the balance of any account (the balance is also automatically shown on any account page that has tokens).

On the right side, under Write to Contract you'll see all the functions you can use to alter or change the blockchain in any way. These will cost gas. If you created a contract that allows you to mint new coins, you should have a function called "Mint Token". Select it.

Select the address where those new currencies will be created and then the amount (if you have decimals set at 2, then add 2 zeros after the amount, to create the correct quantity). On Execute from select the account that set as owner, leave the ether amount at zero and then press execute.

After a few confirmations, the recipient balance will be updated to reflect the new amount. But your recipient wallet might not show it automatically: in order to be aware of custom tokens, the wallet must add them manually to a watch list. Copy your token address (at the admin page, press copy address) and send that to your recipient. If they haven't already they should go to the contracts tab, press Watch Token and then add the address there. Name, symbols and decimal amounts displayed can be customized by the end user, especially if they have other tokens with similar (or the same) name. The main icon is not changeable and users should pay attention to them when sending and receiving tokens to ensure they are dealing with the real deal and not some copycat token.

Once you've deployed your tokens, they will be added to your list of watched tokens, and the total balance will be shown on your account. In order to send tokens, just go to the Send tab and select an account that contains tokens. The tokens the account has will be listed just under Ether. Select them and then type the amount of tokens you want to send.

If you want to add someone else's token, just go to the Contracts tab and click Watch token. For example, to add the Unicorn () token to your watch list, just add the address 0x89205A3A3b2A69De6Dbf7f01ED13B2108B2c43e7 and the remaining information will be loaded automatically. Click Ok and your token will be added.

Unicorn tokens are memorabilia created exclusively for those who have donated to the address 0xfB6916095ca1df60bB79Ce92cE3Ea74c37c5d359 that is controlled by the Ethereum Foundation. For more information about them read it here

You just learned how you can use ethereum to issue a token, that can represent anything you want. But what can you do with the tokens? You can use, for instance, the tokens to represent a share in a company or you can use a central committee to vote on when to issue new coins to control inflation. You can also use them to raise money for a cause, via a crowdsale. What will you build next?

Go here to read the rest:
Create a cryptocurrency contract in Ethereum

New York City

About a dozen rain-soaked people were crammed between the revolving doors and security barriers in the lobby of New York Universitys Stern School of Business as torrents pelted down outside. All desperately wanted in to the hottest ticket in town, one that promised to make some of them overnight millionaires, if not billionaires. Among them was Dan Morehead, a former Wall Street titan turned bitcoin investor, and a dentist working on a blockchain startup who had flown in from Seoul.

I dont really care that you overbooked, its not my problem! I dont care about a refund, one agitated man seeking entry barked at two T-shirt clad twentysomethings on the other side, one of them clutching a clipboard.

You can be upset and raise your voice, but we cant change anything, one of the gatekeepers replied.

We have three clients down there! another man interjected.

The clipboard holder dutifully scribbled down names. When it was my turn, she said NYU wanted to clear out the huddled mass blocking the buildings entrance: The auditorium holds like 470 people. We have more than 500 people down there right now. NYU is calling security.

Inside, a conference called Token Summit was in full swing. The event was the first to focus on a rapidly snowballing phenomenon called cryptocurrency token offeringsa new fundraising method that allows companies to raise millions of dollars in mere minutes.

The cryptocurrency world has gone mad for token offerings. These launches, popularly known as ICOs or initial coin offerings, have already raised more than $150 million this year, according to research firm Smith + Crown. They are seen as a disruptive new mechanism that could displace traditional venture capitalists from the fund raising processa view thats been endorsed by a coterie of brand name VCs themselvesand remake the internets business model with decentralized applications and cryptocurrencies. Take an outfit known as Gnosis, a decentralized prediction market, which raised $12 million in under 15 minutes, valuing it at $300 million. Investors had invested based solely on a PDF prepared by its founders (recently a firm called Brave raised $35 million in 30 seconds).

As cryptocurrency prices exploded, ICO fever gripped the over 2,700 blockchain tech enthusiasts who descended on New York in late May for a series of back-to-back industry conferences. Rumors flew about the fortunes being made, as the cryptocurrency ethereum climbed from $127 per unit of ether at the start of the week to $228 by Thursday. The head of an ethereum app development shop was said to hold 6 million ether, meaning he went from being a mere millionaire on Monday to an ether billionaire, holding $1.4 billion worth of the stuff, three days later. Out of the 2,700 attendees there were at least 500 millionaires, and between zero to five billionaires, said one longtime observer of the cryptocurrency scene, who wanted to remain anonymous.

The oracles of Silicon Valley say token offerings could reinvent the freemium business model of the internet, upending the huge centralized servicesthink of Facebook or Googlethat have emerged. Instead of enticing users with free services, paid for by venture capital, and then eventually turning a profit by showing ads to those users, tokens offer a direct channel for capital to flow between user and the technologist.

The user would pay for a token upfront, providing funds for coders to develop the promised technology. If the technology works as advertised and gains popularity, it should attract more users, thus increasing demand for the token offered at the start. As the token value increases, those early users who bought tokens will benefit from appreciating token prices. Each token offering has different rules around the total supply of tokens and when they are released.

This is a better-than-free business model, where users make money for being early adopters, write Balaji Srinivasan and Naval Ravikant, a partner at venture firm Andreessen Horowitz and the founder of investing platform AngelList, respectively. Ravikant has launched a platform called CoinList that will help accredited investors put money into token launches.

Token offerings could also correct an imbalance in the way financial rewards are distributed among technologists. Historically, the people who develop foundational technologies, such as protocols, have watched from the sidelines as othersfirms that build the applications running atop those protocolsreap the riches. The Google search engine, for instance, is an application that trawls the world wide web, which is made up of a collection of open-source protocols. Yet its Googles founders who are billionaires and not Tim Berners-Lee, who came up with the protocols that made not just Google, but the entire web, possible.

Cryptotokens could change that because protocol creators now have a way to be rewarded for the success of their technology, without having to create a hit application on top of it. With tokens the creators of a protocol can monetize it directly and will in fact benefit more as others build businesses on top of that protocol, writes Albert Wenger, a partner at Union Square Ventures.

This is the argument behind the fat protocol investment thesis: the protocols of the past were thin and unable to accrue financial value. The application layer resting atop those protocols were the ones to reap the rewards. But cryptotokens could enable the protocols of today to become fatcreating more wealth and value than even the enormously successful applications of the past. These new fat protocols may eventually create and capture more value than the last generation of Internet companies, Srinivasan and Ravikant write.

Venture firms who subscribe to this theory have wasted no time putting their money where their mouths are. This is why firms like Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz have backed funds like Polychain Capital, which invest exclusively in token offerings. While the tokens are being raised for digital services at the momentthings like storage, identity management, or chat room stickersone can imagine them being used for offline products and services someday in the future, too.

Nor are tokens limited to new projects. The chat platform Kik, with 15 million monthly active users, launched its own token last week at the conference, in the hopes of seeding an economy built around chat (pdf). In practice this means Kik users can earn and spend on special stickers, images, or even entry to celebrity chat rooms using the chat apps Kin token. Unlike traditional loyalty points issued by a merchant, however, the Kin tokens are decentralized because they are issued on top of ethereum (more on that below). The Kin digital currency could exist even if the chat app vanished after issuancealthough it probably wouldnt be used very much and would be worth little.

At this stage, an explainer on what tokens are, exactly, is helpful. You can think of a token offering as a hybrid between a Kickstarter campaign and a stock market flotation. On one hand, the launch lets customers reserve a product or service before its completed and ready for the marketthats the Kickstarter part. On the other hand, it also gives those customers a stake in the future of that product or service; if the service gains in popularity, the token should rise in price, enriching the original users, making it a lot like getting in on a hot IPO. However, one of those analogies puts token issuers squarely in the sights of securities regulators, so the distinction is crucial. More on that later when we discuss the legal gray area that tokens occupy.

Like the rest of the cryptocurrency industry, token offerings rely on a basic circular logic: A token has as much value as its users bestow on it, just as bitcoin rises in price so long as demand outstrips supply. But token boosters say their units of digital currency are different from bitcoin in one critical respect: they are programmable, and have been coded to perform various useful functions.

Tokens issued today are built atop ethereum, the second most valuable cryptocurrency on the market. Ethereum is like bitcoin because it is a tradable digital currency, which is called ether. Its unlike bitcoin because it was designed with its own programming languagea significant departure from, and its creators say, an upgrade over, bitcoin. This language allows people to write smart contracts or automatically executed agreements on ethereum. A bond, for instance, might automatically pay out its coupon, without the need for an intermediary or paperwork.

It turns out that ethereums programming language is powerful enough that coders can write smart contracts that issue new units of digital currency, bound by their own rules. This is what the tokens offered today are: a series of complicated ethereum smart contracts. The ethereum network itself is being used as a giant token-issuing machine. Right now ethereum is a token factory, says Muneeb Ali, co-founder of Blockstack, a startup working on building tools for a decentralized internet.

The circularity of cryptocurrency economics is at play again here: Ethereum itself raised capital from its users by offering ether tokens in 2014, raising $18 million. The ethereum protocol then became a staging ground for experiments in token funding: A vehicle called the Decentralized Autonomous Organization managed to raise $150 million on the promise that it would be a new form of business structure, one that automated away managers using a combination of smart contracts and tokens. It was promptly hacked for millions and flamed out spectacularly.

An ethereum-based token is to ether as a US dollar is to a concert ticket, as Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at the Coin Center think tank, suggests. In the real world we often use all sorts of items rather like we use cash, he writes. We use tickets, coupons and a variety of bearer instruments because they entitle the holder to different things. These customized tokens can be traded on secondary markets, like exchanges, and have their own value, independent of the price of ether.

While the potential of token launches remains vague, though powerful, almost everyone I spoke to at the New York conferences agreed on one thing: The US government would crack down on the offerings eventually. No one seems to think the good times for ICOs will last.

The legality of tokens hinges on something called the Howey test, named after a Florida company in the 1940s that tried to raise capital by selling contracts against its citrus grovesa practice that the US Supreme Court ruled was similar to a stock offering. At the Consensus conference, the debate about whether or not ICOs were like citrus grove contracts was captured by an exchange between Van Valkenburg, who argued that tokens are like products and not securities, and Preston Bryne, a lawyer and founder of a blockchain company called Monax.

Its like buying gold its not like buying a security in a gold mine, said Van Valkenburg. Responded Bryne, This is complete nonsense. Everybody knows what this is. Its, in substance and form, the sale of investments that people are purchasing with expectation of profit at a later date.

Of course, what really matters is the regulators opinion. The US Securities and Exchange Commission hasnt weighed in on the matter yet. But an SEC official who spoke at the Consensus conference, Valerie Szczepanik, who heads its unit looking at blockchain tech, sounded a note of caution, according to Reuters: Whether or not you are regulated by the SEC, you still have fiduciary duties to your investors. If you want this industry to flourish, protection of investors should be at the forefront.

Token boosters await official intervention with a mixture of trepidation and relief. Take Stan Miroshnik, who was a veteran investment banker with Morgan Stanley in London. He now runs a firm called Argon that corrals big investorslike cryptocurrency whales, adventurous family offices, and hedge fundsinto token launches to ensure theyre sold out.

When a group of coders wants to raise money for their project, Miroshnik hits Slack teams, Telegram groups, and gets press in the cryptocurrency trade media to rustle up business. Having seen the technology boom in the 90s, this is just another emerging capital market, he says. It needs institutional grade providers like ourselves who come out of traditional investment banks. One day Fidelity is going to show up and say, I want $4 billion of that token, help me buy it. You need someone who can, frankly, speak their language.

For Miroshnik, the sooner the SEC steps in, the better. I welcome it, he says. It would be helpful to figure out where the boundaries are.

Read this next: Bitcoin set a new price record as the industry gathers for its biggest event of the year

Originally posted here:
The new cryptocurrency gold rush: digital tokens that raise millions in minutes - Quartz

Forbes

Cryptocurrency Is A Bubble Forbes Bitcoin has gone off the dial in the last few weeks, hitting above $2,700 a coin. It has fallen back since, but the other cryptocurrencies have shot up in the aftermath. Anyone who rode the dotcom boom will recognise the symptoms: up like a rocket and ...

See more here:
Cryptocurrency Is A Bubble - Forbes

Forbes

The Benefits And Best Practices Of Branding Your Own Cryptocurrency Forbes In 2015, "Minecraft," one of the most popular online games now owned by Microsoft, announced that PlayMC, one of their servers, would be introducing their own cryptocurrency in order to teach children about the digital currency. It's a pretty smart ...

Originally posted here:
The Benefits And Best Practices Of Branding Your Own Cryptocurrency - Forbes

As more and more people from around the world are turning to cryptocurrency trading, sending many blockchain tokens to all time highs, companies in the field are apparently trying to capitalize on the massive rally and draw new investments while the subject isdominating mainstream financial news.

San Francisco-headquartered Bitcoin wallet and exchange Coinbase is set for another funding round, this according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The London Summit 2017 is coming, get involved!

Coinbase is reportedly seeking to secure at least another $100 million for its global operations. The valuation by which the firm is offering the investment opportunity gives it the biggest ever price tag for anycryptocurrency firm $1 billion.Coinbase has previously raised approximately $116.5 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Venture and more, divided between several rounds.

Back in March, New Yorks financial regulator, the state Department of Financial Services (DFS), announcedthat Coinbases licensing application to offer Ethereum and Litecoin wasapproved.Coinbase thus joined four other rivals that previously gained BitLicenses from the DFS to operate in New York.

The firm also recently announced that it is takingnewsteps in its transition to a truly global organisation with big plans for the year ahead.

The first step itrevealed isthe opening of a new office in London, whichwill serve as the hub for Coinbases European operations.

Additionally, it announced the addition of two new trading pairs at GDAX, its institutional digital asset exchange. Customers in Europe can now trade Ethereum and Litecoin on Coinbases ETH/EUR and LTC/EUR books.

Excerpt from:
Coinbase is Seeking Another $100m, Biggest Round for a Cryptocurrency Firm - Finance Magnates

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology has received significant attention at the ongoing Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. The Russian Central Bank made an important announcement regarding its plans to introduce a national cryptocurrency during the event. The introduction of a national cryptocurrency comes at a time when Russia is mulling over the possibility of legalizing Bitcoin and other altcoins in the country. The plans to develop a national cryptocurrency was announced by Russian Central Banks Deputy Chairman, Olga Skorobogatova.

Skorobogatova was quoted by one of the leading Russian media outlets saying,

Regulators of all countries agree that its time to develop national cryptocurrencies, this is the future. Every country will decide on specific time frames. After our pilot projects, we will understand what system we could use in our case for our national currency.

The Russian Finance Ministry recently announced its intentions to introduce Bitcoin regulations, offering a legal status to cryptocurrencies. The move is completely opposite to the ministrys earlier stance which involved criminalizing the use and trade of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Russias decision to legalize Bitcoin closely follows Japans latest move to recognize the cryptocurrency as a legally valid mode of payment. The Russian Central Banks decision to introduce a national cryptocurrency is similar to the proposals put forward by respective regulatory bodies in England, United States and others.

Governments can save a lot of taxpayers money and resources by adopting cryptocurrency as a legal tender. The use of cryptocurrency will eliminate the costs otherwise involved in printing, transporting and managing physical banknotes. At the same time, cryptocurrency adoption will further promote the adoption of cashless payment methods.

With the banking sector increasingly adopting blockchain technology, the transition between conventional monetary system involving physical currency to blockchain based electronic currency will be smooth. It is just a matter of time before other countries also start adopting a similar stance.

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Russia to Soon Get Its Own National Cryptocurrency - newsBTC

Cryptocurrency (digital currency) is taking off this year. New millionaires are being made almost daily as Ethereum, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, Stratis, and other cryptocurrencies reach all-time highs. It is becoming somewhat of a modern-day gold rush.

As I write this, Bitcoin's "market cap" is $37 billion, with a value of $2,281 per Bitcoin. For a coin that was once worth only pennies, Bitcoin investors have made serious money in the past few years.

Bitcoin might be the oldest, but it's not the only cryptocurrency on the block. In fact, the majority of people getting into cryptocurrency are flocking to Ethereum. Ethereum has had the most impressive gains this year after recently being the first cryptocurrency to be backed by major corporations such as Microsoft, Samsung, JPMorgan Chase, and others in what's being called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Ethereum does for code and programming what Bitcoin did for financial transactions. For simplicity's sake, think of Ethereum like a more advanced and sophisticated Bitcoin backed and utilized by major corporations because of its technological advances and clear pathway to building a decentralized internet.

One Ether (Ethereum's crypto token) was worth as little as $12 earlier this year, but the cryptocurrency is now worth $228 per coin with a total market cap of $21 billion. Ethereum is slowly but surely making gains on Bitcoin's market cap. Many spectators believe that "the flippening" will happen sometime this year, in which Ethereum becomes the most valuable (market cap) cryptocurrency in the world, overtaking Bitcoin in total value (total number of coins times price per coin).

Ethereum isn't the only new coin on the block, but it is definitely the most promising. Others to watch that I will explain and write about in future articles include Ripple, Litecoin, Statis, and Siacoin. All these coins have something unique and technologically innovative about them.

Buying cryptocurrency is confusing for a lot of people. It's not a stock or a typical "investment." It's not like anything most people have ever seen or experienced. You don't get shares; instead you get digital coins or tokens. The coins are "better" than a paper dollar bill because they actually support a greater cause, as in Ethereum's case, to build a decentralized internet and host code and apps on a decentralized platform. And coins help "fuel" that cause, so to speak, without getting technical.

For most people in the U.S., Coinbase would be the easiest option to buy Ethereum, Bitcoin, or Litecoin (it doesn't support any others yet). After verifying your account, you can add a number of payment methods including credit or debit cards, U.S. bank accounts, or even wire transfers of funds. Other options for exchanges that will take U.S. dollars for coins are Kraken, and Gemini in the U.S. Typically you will need to verify your account with a driver's license and add other details to expand your buy limits. Since cryptocurrencies are "hard currencies," the exchanges don't want to risk getting ripped off, since you can't reverse a cryptocurrency transaction once it's done.

If you are looking for some of the newer coins that are making big movement but haven't made their way to the aforementioned exchange sites, you can look into Poloniex or Livecoin. You can transfer Bitcoin or Ethereum to these platforms from Coinbase and then exchange it for any other digital currency that you want.

If you are outside the U.S., here are a few options for exchanges that take your local currency: BTC Markets (Australia), Bitthumb or Coinone (Korea), CHBTC or Huobi (China), and QuadrigaCX (Canada.) You can find a full list on this page of where to buy Ethereum for your local currency.

Read the rest here:
How to Buy Your First Cryptocurrency Coins (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ripple) - Inc.com