Daily Archives: July 13, 2020

The growing number of ISA millionaires in the UK underlines the power of investing in shares to create wealth and get rich. Meanwhile, playing the National Lottery is hopeless as a wealth-generator for many, and dabbling with Bitcoin comes with massive risks.

Playing the National Lottery is a harmless bit of fun, but its no good as part of a plan to get rich. Why? Because the probability of winning a life-changing sum of money is vanishingly small.

According to the National Lottery website, the odds of getting six numbers right and winning the jackpot are one in 45,057,474. And the odds of getting five numbers plus the bonus ball are one in 7,509,579.

So maybe we should turn to Bitcoin and some of the other cryptocurrencies for our shot at making a million. I cant deny that some people have done extremely well from moves in the price of Bitcoin over the past few years.

Indeed, the first price ever recorded for Bitcoin was in October 2009 when a chap called Martti Malmi sold some for 0.09 US cents each. Peanuts, in other words. And the highest price ever recorded for a Bitcoin happened in December 2017 when it sold for $20,089. Thats loads of money when compared to the original price.

Today, the Bitcoin price is around $9,300, which is still many thousands of percent higher than its starting price. And, for me, thats one of the main problems. I see huge potential for the price to fall back down and limited opportunity for it to rise much from where it is now. Indeed, the spectacular rises of the past few years may never be repeated.

I reckon Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies are risky vehicles driven by nothing much other than speculation. So Id avoid them all and turn to shares and share-backed investments in a drive to create wealth. Indeed, over the long haul, studies have shown that shares on the stock market have outperformed all other major classes of asset. And I think thats a good starting point for any plan to get rich.

You can sidestep some of the risks involved with investing by avoiding speculative stocks and diversifying across several different shares. You could even invest using managed funds and trackers for a wider approach to diversification.

But if you focus on identifying good-quality underlying businesses and buy the shares at opportune moments when good value is on offer, you could do well over the long haul. Key to generating wealth is to compound your investments. So Id plough all my dividends and gains from selling shares back into more shares.

I reckon a carefully managed programme of investment in quality shares over a long period of time is a surer and better way to aim for wealth. So Id forget speculating on Bitcoin and playing the National Lottery.

The post Forget the National Lottery and Bitcoin! I reckon shares are a better way to get rich appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Kevin Godbold has no position in any share mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Motley Fool UK 2020

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Forget the National Lottery and Bitcoin! I reckon shares are a better way to get rich - Yahoo Finance UK

Avoiding cheap UK shares in favour of gold and Bitcoin may seem to be a logical approach for any investor seeking to make a million. Gold and Bitcoin have risen significantly over recent months, while indexes such as the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 have lagged their performances.

However, the track record of the stock market suggests a long-term recovery is very likely. Therefore, buying undervalued stocks today and holding them over the coming years may substantially increase your chances of becoming an ISA millionaire.

With that in mind, here are two cheap UK shares that could be worth buying today due to their potential to produce high returns in the long run. They could increase your chances of building a 1m ISA.

While many UK shares have delivered disappointing performances of late, Imperial Brands (LSE: IMB) 57% share price fall over the past five years is relatively poor.

Despite this, the companys most recent results showed it continues to produce rising revenue. For example, its sales in the first half of the year increased by 2%, with a growing market share in tobacco products boosting its financial performance. Alongside cost reductions, this suggests the profit potential for the business could improve over the medium term.

Clearly, tobacco volumes are likely to come under further pressure as consumer trends change. Furthermore, asset impairments caused a severe decline in the companys profitability in its most recent update.

However, with Imperial having strong brands that offer pricing power, as well as scope to invest in next-generation products such as e-cigarettes, it could deliver a relatively robust financial performance in an uncertain economic period.

As with many UK shares, Imperial Brands has reduced its dividend. However, it continues to offer a relatively attractive dividend yield of 10%. As such, it may yet experience further challenges in the short run, but could deliver a relatively impressive total return in the long run.

The Morrisons (LSE: MRW) stock price has outperformed many UK shares over recent months. Its down 8% since the start of the year, which is ahead of the FTSE 100s 20% decline in 2020.

The companys most recent update highlighted the rise in demand since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. For example, in the first quarter, its like-for-like (LFL) sales increased by 5.7%. This trend may persist over the coming months especially with the popularity of online shopping likely to rise.

Morrisons has invested heavily in its online offering, which could position the business for long-term growth as the gradual shift from in-store to e-commerce continues. Its balance sheet strength suggests it has the financial position to maintain a high degree of investment in its online services. It should also help it overcome what could prove to be a period of higher costs as it adapts to a changing retail environment.

Therefore, now could be the right time to add the stock to a portfolio of UK shares. Over time, they could boost your chances of becoming an ISA millionaire.

The post Forget gold and Bitcoin. Id buy these 2 cheap UK shares today to become an ISA millionaire appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Peter Stephens owns shares of Imperial Brands and Morrisons. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Imperial Brands. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Motley Fool UK 2020

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Forget gold and Bitcoin. I'd buy these 2 cheap UK shares today to become an ISA millionaire - Yahoo Finance UK

Tey Elrjula is a tech entrepreneur, a refugee and the author of The Invisible Son, now available for pre-sale.

Bitcoin is good for whatever you need. Ive used it to order pizza and to build a fulfilling career, despite all types of hardships.

Ive been using bitcoin for years because my family needs it, not because I enjoy speculative trading. In 2013 I was introduced to cryptocurrencies while working with software engineers in the Netherlands. My idea was that if we created money from code, then money would become a way of communication and its value would represent the community.

I used to send money from the Netherlands to my family in Lebanon twice a month, and the fees were killing me. Even worse, the long waiting lines at money transfer shops were torture. There are still a lot of insurmountable restrictions on money transactions, especially those that exclude large populations around the world.

For example, a sizable segment of people in Saudi Arabia doesnt have residence permits and are not able to transfer money to their families in countries such as India or Pakistan. Bitcoin doesnt have those restrictions or involve exorbitant transactional charges.

Later in 2013, I started a Facebook group on bitcoin. I moderated the page and had discussions with many of the 10,000 people who came there, most of whom were from Egypt. I met a lot of interesting people in that group, such as Abdullah Almoaiqel. Abdullah is now the co-founder and partner of Rain, which is the first regulated digital currency exchange in the Middle East. The company is based in Bahrain and operates from Bahrain and Egypt.

Then, in 2014, everything started going wrong. My European residency card expired at the end of that year and there was a war going on back home. People said Hezbollah, the local militia, was fighting to keep ISIS out of Lebanon.

Technology is helping us live in a world where we need to trust less and verify more.

Half of Syria was flooding into the Netherlands back then, and smugglers were active on the other side of Europe. I bought a small book to teach me how to pray in Islam, then started to practice my prayers and listen to the Koran. I also started listening to Sayed Hassan Nasrallahs speeches, his recitals and calls to fight alongside Hezbollah in Syria. I was surrendering to my fate of being deported to Syria or Lebanon.

Sleepless nights went by, with the Facebook pages continuously broadcasting images of the brutality of war in Syria. I did not want to be part of this.

On Sept. 11, 2014, 500 migrants lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea attempting to cross tosafe land. It was at that moment I realized how blessed I was to be in Europe, and I surrendered to the idea of becoming a refugee.

Meanwhile, I kept working on the Facebook page I ran with a top Egyptian software engineer and early adopter of bitcoin. The Egyptian bitcoin users kept me busy. I chatted with a lot of people and answered their questions on the mining process, price speculation, buying bitcoin and selling it. They knew I was moderating from Holland, but didnt know I was now partially undocumented.

I turned 30 in the camp and lied to my parents, telling them I was in my nice European apartment waiting for the immigration authorities to renew my residency. Nobody knew I was living alongside the other Arab refugees in a camp except me.

Refugees do not have IDs, so they cant have bank accounts. They dont know anyone in the Netherlands, not yet at least. Bitcoin became an even bigger part of my professional work. The constant exposure to crypto landed me translation jobs for reporters who were covering bitcoin stories.

On sunny days, I earned a few hundred euros as an escrow agent connecting buyers and sellers of bitcoin. In July 2015, I earned a technical expertise certificate from the University of Nicosia and registered on the bitcoin blockchain. Finally, I was credentialed, a professional and no longer a hobbyist.

Slowly my Bitcoin identity was overcoming my refugee identity.

The general public looks at the Bitcoin network as a gambling game in which you can lose all your money. Many meetups were starting to appear in the Netherlands. I started working as a speaker. One such event in the Netherlands was called Bitcoin Wednesday, held on the first Wednesday of every month. Slowly, my Bitcoin identity was overcoming my refugee identity.

For years to come and every time I come out onto a stage, I would ask people to put their hands in their pockets and take the coins out. In return I would give them bitcoin for the same amount. Why? Because the best way to understand bitcoin, especially after they hear the pizza story, is to use it.

Money and identity have been hand-in-hand for centuries, yet I used bitcoin without an identity. Besides my email, I did not need anything to use money and transact digitally. However, I do need an identity to present myself to the world and interact with services like education and diplomas, health care and vaccines, travel and airline tickets. Technology is helping us live in a world where we need to trust less and verify more.

I have travelled to more than 20 different European cities and a few in the Middle East delivering keynotes, public presentations and leading workshops showing organizations the digital future of education, money and business where it is built on principles ofdont trust, verify.

Bitcoin may not be useful for everything, but it sure as hell changed my entire life.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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I'm a Syrian Refugee. This Is How Bitcoin Changed My Life - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

On July 4, 2020, the Bitcoin Cash proponent Cain published an interview with the blockchain developer, Shammah Chancellor, about a new project called Stamp Chat. At its basic level, Stamp is a prototype of a layer-2 private messaging and payment system on Bitcoin Cash. It implements stealth [plus] confidential transactions on top of Bitcoin Cash using layer-2 protocol technologies.

This week Bitcoin Cash supporters were introduced to a new interview about a tool called Stamp, an encrypted message and payment system that leverages the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) chain. Stamp was highlighted about a month earlier via a Bchignite.com livestream. The project is being developed by the software programmer Shammah Chancellor, otherwise known as @micropresident.

The project was introduced on Saturday, July 4, 2020, by the Bitcoin Cash proponent Cain (@bchcain) via the read.cash blog. Cain gives a summary of how governments today have the ability to censor our speech online, and our financial lives as well through centralized parties. The BCH enthusiast highlights how our freedom of expression is censored and monitored by the powers that be.

The fact that we are being monitored limits our freedom of thought and our freedom of expression, Cains interview stressed. You might think twice about entering something into a search engine, or posting something on Facebook or Twitter. This limits our ability to communicate and explore ideas, and this is why I am so excited by Stamp, the new Bitcoin Cash project being developed by Shammah Chancellor, aka @micropresident.

Cains post further added:

Stamp is still in its early stages and only available on testnet, but the interface already looks polished and many features like group chats and nested messages have already been deployed. According to his Github page: Stamp is a prototype of a layer-2 private messaging and payment system on Bitcoin Cash. It implements stealth [plus] confidential transactions on top of Bitcoin Cash using layer-2 protocol technologies.

Individuals who are interested in Stamp can check out the Github repository and get more familiar with the project. The Github repos disclaimer is a touch different and states: Stamp is in early alpha development stage. There will be multiple breaking changes from now until a stable release. We default to the Bitcoin Cash testnet as to protect against lost funds.

Those who are interested in testing the Stamp protocol can do so by accessing the cashweb/stamp/releases section and grabbing test coins from faucet.fullstack.cash.

The Stamp developers who contribute to the project also have a Telegram chat channel as well for people who want to learn more about the project. Shammah Chancellor also describes the Stamp project in great detail during his interview with Cain.

Stamp is the name of the wallet that uses a number of backend protocols, the developer explained. These protocols are a suite called Cashweb, with the vision being that everything online is powered by Bitcoin Cash. Fundamentally, Cashweb is powered via standard web technologies: Websockets, JWT tokens, HTTP/2. The idea being to make it easy for non-cryptocurrency developers to integrate with.

Cashweb is a [three] tier network, Shammah Chancellor continued. The first tier being Bitcoin Cash. The second tier is a keyserver network, which is used to look up, in a cryptographically secure way, important information about a Bitcoin Cash address. The third tier is a messaging system (called relay servers) which allows wallets to pass, encrypted, structured messages between them. The developer concluded:

When you add a contact to a Stamp wallet, it reaches out to a keyserver and requests your contact information. This is then verified, and used to determine which relay server they accept messages on. Once your wallet has this information, it can start exchanging structured, encrypted, messages between itself and another user.

Cryptocurrency supporters who are interested in reading the rest of the interview between Cain and Shammah Chancellor can follow this link here that stems from the read.cash blog.

On the Reddit forum r/btc, BCH proponents seemed pleased with the announcement and some people contributed to the development funding. Looks promising, an individual wrote on Reddit. I sent a bit of funding. Good luck with it.

What do you think about the Stamp project built on the Bitcoin Cash network? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Stamp, Read.cash, Cain

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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