Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

Ethereum cryptocurrency code is used, which means the following options:

The technology of blockchain proved itself as perhaps the safest way of keeping records of transactions performed within a certain society, each member of which owns a copy of the database distributed among members of the given society.

Blockchain - a chain built from the formed blocks with records of all transactions. A copy of the Blockchain chain or its part is simultaneously stored on multiple computers and synchronized according to the formal rules for constructing the chain of blocks. The information in the blocks is not encrypted and is available in clear form, but is protected from cryptographic changes through hash chains. Thus, the Blockchain database is distributed (decentralized) and cryptographically protected (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain).

The possibility of mining, which gives the use of the methodology of protection against false data and fraud PoW, is by far the most widespread and reliable crypto currency in the environment.

A proof of work is a piece of data which is difficult (costly, time-consuming) to produce but easy for others to verify and which satisfies certain requirements. Producing a proof of work can be a random process with low probability so that a lot of trial and error is required on average before a valid proof of work is generated (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Proof_of_work).

The minimum unit is 10^-4, 0,0001 RCN.

The conclusion of the block will occur every 20.5s (Similar to the Ethereum software environment, https://bitinfocharts.com/ru/ethereum/ ). The block volume limit is 12 KBytes.

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REcoin is a new Ethereum-based cryptocurrency

With the meteoric rise in popularity of Ethereum, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are back in the news again. Graphics card prices have soared with the promise that those who have the computers and know-how to do some serious mining can take home huge sums in a Bitcoin-like gold rush to snatch up as much virtual currency as possible. But how easy is it to make your fortune in cryptocurrency? And is it worth your while getting started?

For the uninitiated, mining for currencies like Bitcoin and Ether means devoting a huge amount of computer processing power to doing accounting sums for the platforms behind them, helping to verify the accuracy of the public blockchain ledgers.

Youre essentially getting rewarded for keeping the books for these platforms, which weve explained in more detail here, and the rise of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and others has led to a flood of amateur enthusiasts jumping into the mining businessthe idea of having your computer whirring away making you free money sounds almost too good to be true.

And in reality, it almost isyou can get rich from cryptocurrencies, but you need to put in plenty of work, and have luck on your side. Youre more likely to get a windfall due to market pressures than the quality of your mining rig, which is why its only worth a shot for the most committed and the most adventurous.

Mining for cryptocoin requires some free software tools and a dedicated rig. Turn the clock back several years and you could get away with a powerful home PC and make a few bucks. These days you can waste a weekend and a months wages on building a machine with four graphics cards purring away in a row and still not make a profit.

GPUs are now established as the mining processors of choice in most situationsgraphics cards are even built for and marketed towards miners nowbasically because theyre better at doing lots of laborious, repetitive tasks, whereas CPUs are better suited to switching between many tasks quickly.

The trouble is, the serious players have got whole farms of these computers, and unless youve got a warehouse and some life savings to spare, youre going to be lagging a long way behind. Youre up against huge foreign operations running off cheap electricity and hardware bought wholesale.

Even if you do get yourself a rig set up and find a currency with a bit of a profit margin, youre still putting yourself at the whims of the cryptocurrency marketsmining can start or stop becoming profitably depending on a currencys current value.

There are several profit calculators on the web that will tell you how much computing power and electricity you need to make a certain amount of cash, so you can see exactly how much (or more likely, how little) you could make. Take Bitcoin, for example, which is now just about impossible to mine profitably for average users at homeyoud need thousands of GPUs running before youd get close to getting more back in Bitcoin than youd be paying for electricity.

You can fork out thousands of dollars on specialized kit, if you want to, but even then youre only going to be raking in a handful of dollars a day with Bitcoin. That of course can go up or down as the currency value fluctuates, and whats profitable one day might not be the next if your chosen cryptocurrency dips in value, or gets some bad media coveragethats where the slice of luck we mentioned earlier comes in.

Other options, like Feathercoin and Ether, have a better profit potential than Bitcoin right now, with the caveats weve already mentioned: If youre serious about your mining then you need to keep a very close eye on the market trends, because the situation can change on a weekly or even daily basis. A single Litecoin, another cryptocurrency, has swung from costing you between $10 and $55 this year alone.

For instance, a huge $64m Ether heist carried out last year was severe enough to cause a fork in the Ethereum platform it runs on top of, and a halving in price of Ether itselfif youve got a powerful, expensive, cryptocurrency mining operation going on in your basement then thats a serious hit on your profits through factors completely out of your control. Sure, a swing the other way can make you relatively rich, but its a risk, and the upward trend wont necessarily continue.

Many modern-day miners join a mining pool, combining resources with other users and getting a share of the profits, but the same risks remain. Fork out a few thousand on a mining rig, take the time to study the market trends, go through the process of setting up the programs, join up with a mining pool, and yes you canif the prices stay buoyant and youve picked your cryptocurrency wiselymake a few thousand dollars a year. Whether or not its worth the risk and investment is up to you.

And if your investment isnt already precarious enough, remember the scene is constantly changing: In the near future Ethereum is set to switch from its existing Proof of Work (PoW) system for extending the blockchain to a new Proof of State (PoS) system which is easier to scale and less energy intensive.

Without going too far into the technical details, it essentially makes the mining process more like earning interest on money youve already got: Racks of graphics cards wont be able to generate wealth as they did in the past, which is bad news for miners looking for a profit even if its good news for your electricity bill. Instead, earning money will rely on staking (investing) rather than mining.

In other words, if youre already halfway through building your Ethereum mining machine you might want to pick a new cryptocurrency... at least until the ground rules change on that one too. (Remember what we said about the constant state of flux?) And thats really the only way to squeeze any profit out of cryptocurrency mining operationskeep moving as fast as the market does, and switch up the currencies you target as conditions change.

As soon as one cryptocurrency becomes profitable to mine, as weve seen with Bitcoin and Ethereum, everyone wants a piece of the action and making money gradually gets harder. Its then time to get in early on another currency. In short, if you want to get rich (or at least make a profit), you need to pick and keep picking the right cryptocurrencies, have a serious amount of graphics processing power in hand, hope that your chosen currencies stay secure and keep increasing in value, and put in a lot of time and effort.

Its not impossible, but we can think of easier ways to make a buck. If youre determined to jump in and get involved in cryptocurrency mining, if only for the educational and geek appeal rather than to make any money, your best bet is to immerse yourself in one of the many mining forums out there, which will give you the inside track on the latest news and market trends.

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How Exactly Do You Get Rich of the Hot New Cryptocurrency? - Gizmodo

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BlackRock Global Chief Investment Strategist Richard Turnill argued Tuesday (July 11) that loose monetary policy has resulted in a huge run up in cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, but it doesnt pose a risk to the financial system.

According to a report in Reuters, Turnill said bitcoin price movements could be influenced by easy monetary policies that were instituted by central banks following on the heels of the global financial crisis that started in 2007 and lasted until 2009. The gains in cryptocurrencies could also be a sign the market could be in a bubble.

I look at the charts, and to me that looks pretty scary, Turnill said at a media briefing in New York covered by the newswire. He and his BlackRock colleagues have been telling clients to remain invested in global stocks despite the risk and despite warnings from some strategists that prices are too high. As to the speculations, hes not concerned about the broader implications from the wild movements in the digital currencies.

Theres no evidence that if that price went to zero tomorrow that thered be any broader financial implication over time, but to me it is [an] example of where youre getting some big price movements in the market.

BlackRock isnt the only one to warn about a bubble in cryptocurrencies. Those same concerns have hurt Ethereums price this week. According to a news report, the digital currency has been having a tough go of it lately, falling more than 45 percent since hitting a record high of $400 in mid-June.

There is talk that the cryptocurrency market is reaching a bubble after Mark Cuban said bitcoin, the Ethereum competitor, was already in bubble mode. I think its in a bubble. I just dont know when or how much it corrects, Cuban recently tweeted, noted the report. When everyone is bragging about how easy they are making $=bubble.

Following those speculations, came a statement from Jeffrey Kleintop, Charles Schwabs chief global investment strategist, who, according to the report, also suggested bitcoins price was in a bubble and in one not seen before.

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BlackRock Strategy: Cryptocurrency Speculation Doesn't Present Systematic Risk - PYMNTS.com

Former Credit Suisse Group AG trader Nikolay Storonsky is getting $66 million from investors including Index Ventures to help grow his two-year-old banking startup in the U.S. and Asia and enabling it to offer cryptocurrency trading.

His London-based Revolut Ltd. raised the money in a round that included Balderton Capital and Ribbit Capital, according to a statement on Wednesday. Storonsky, 32, will use the funds to expand in Asia and North America, and let customers hold cryptocurrency. He also plans to gather $5 million in crowdfunding from consumers on Seedrs later this month.

Source: Revolut

Revolut, which Russian-born Storonsky founded two years ago with former Deutsche Bank AG technology developerVlad Yatsenko, makes money from fees on ATM withdrawals and takes a cut from merchant charges on payments in shops. As early as next week, it plans to let customers hold, exchange, spend and transfer virtual currencies such as bitcoin, litecoin and ethereum for free, profiting from the price differences between buyers and sellers as opposed to charging commission.

Adding cryptocurrencies and the ability to buy and sell them is a big step forward for a financial organization, Storonsky, who used to trade equity derivatives, said in an interview. Big banks are looking at us and seeing what were doing, for future things they want to add to their product pipeline, but theyre very slow.

For more on digital startups challenging European lenders, click here

The cryptocurrency sector has lost about a third of its market value since peaking in early June, pushing it into what traditional equity market analysts label as a bear market. Bitcoin, the largest of the digital currencies, is down about 20 percent from its peak of $3,000, reached June 12. Smaller rivals such as ethereum are getting hit even harder.

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Storonsky is among former bankers such as ex-JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive Blythe Masters and erstwhile Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins who are taking advantage of new technology to win customers in an industry dominated by their old employers. Although most fintech firms have yet to achieve significant scale and profit, the startups as a whole are threatening to upend banks handicapped by creaky computer systems.

Revolut, which currently employs 140 people in London, Krakow and Moscow, plans to open offices in New York and Singapore and hire about 20 more staff, according to Storonsky.

The Asia and North American growth plan will come in parallel to expanding in Europe. These are big markets, theres huge demand for our products, he said. Weve got waiting lists and now is the time to enter.

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Ex-Credit Suisse Trader Raises $66 Million for Bitcoin Push - Bloomberg

Veteran Japanese cryptocurrencyexchange Btcbox has announced that it will be establishing a subsidiary to target the Hong Kong bitcoin markets. The subsidiary, MBK Asia Limited, will operate in partnership with Japanese investment bank, MBK CO. Ltd.

Also Read:Rollout of 260,000+ Bitcoin-Accepting Stores in Japan Begins

Japanese bitcoin exchange Btcbox will be establishing a Hong Kong bitcoin exchange subsidiary in partnership with investment bank MBK Co. Ltd. The proposed subsidiary, MBK Asia Limited, this week announced that it has filed for registration as an incorporation within Hong Kong.

Btcbox has been operating since 2014, making itone of the oldest bitcoinexchanges in Japan. Since 2016 the company has increasingly geared its operations toward altcoin trading. Despite its longevity, Btcbox has struggled to capture a significant share of the Japanese cryptocurrency markets, posting the first profitable single month in the companys entire history this May.

Japanese investment bank MBK has already reaped benefits from its pending entry into Hong Kongs cryptocurrency markets. The recent liberalization of Japans regulatory stance toward bitcoin and dramatic rise in price seen by many cryptocurrencies have inspired sharp gains in the share price of Japanese businesses with exposure to virtual currencies with MBKs shares rising in price by approximately 17% since February.

MBK has traditionally engaged in the provision of equity investment, debt financing, fund management, and merger and acquisition advisory. The move to enter the cryptocurrency markets is a notable diversification for MBK, which was first founded in 1947 and has traditionally been associated with Japans post-war manufacturing and merchant banking sectors.

The establishment of Btcboxs subsidiary has been largely inspired by Japans permissive regulatory climate, with the company perceiving recent regulations as a likely catalyst for both recent and future growth. In April of this year, demand for virtual currencies has been increasing more than ever since the revised fund settlement law etc. came into effect in order to optimize the service on the virtual currency. Btcbox has also seen an increase in customer assets under management expected from an increase in new customers, as well as an increase in sales of bitcoin.

The Hong Kong-based subsidiary also announced future plans to negotiate partnerships to provide remittance and settlement services to the international finance markets.

Do you think that Btcbox will be successful in capturing a significant share of the Hong Kong bitcoin markets? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and BTCbox

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Japanese Cryptocurrency Exchange BTCBox Enters Hong Kong ... - Bitcoin News (press release)

Over a month ago, speculation abounded on whether China was developing its very own cryptocurrency to essentially digitize RMB. Now we know quite certainly that the Central Bank of China has developed and is currently testing a cryptocoin.

Although there have been no official statements from China, according to several reports online, the Peoples Bank of China has been slowly testing its cryptocurrency through mock transactions between commercial banks within the country. The plan would be to eventually launch the digital currency alongside Chinas primary currency RMB (aka yuan). Some of the key benefits of having a fiat cryptocurrency for China include: making it easier forpeople in more rural areas that dont have access to traditional banks toreceive financialservices which would in turn lower transaction costs; greater oversight over other digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ether; as well as the reduction of corruption, fraud, and counterfeiting.Yao Qian, the Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Department at Chinas central bank recently authored an extensive report detailing many of the ways China could benefit from digital currencies.

One of the fears highlighted by some experts is the fact that by having a central digital currency, commercial banks could be undermined and lose customers. Chinas goal, though, is to integrate the digital currency into the existing banking system by allowing commercial banks to operate cryptocoinwallets for the central coin. The mock transactions between commercial banks would be a good place to test the planned integration.

Cryptocurrencies have been making headlines recently; mostly on account of the extreme volatilityinvolving the price of coins like Bitcoin and Ether as well as the many Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) that have raised ridiculousamounts of money within a few hours and even minutes. With much of the news focused on only one aspect of the cryptocoin market, its easy to lose sight of the technologys many other uses. The central idea behind cryptocurrencies is decentralization; allowing people anywhere in the world to transact instantly with zero transaction costs.

The fact that a country as large as China is developing and prototyping a cryptocoin, even though it will likely be controlled and restricted by the central government, speaks volumes to the technologyspotential. China is not the only one getting involved, however. Last month, Singapore made headlines as well when it announced it had successfully digitized its currency. Canada, England, and Russia are also experimenting with cryptocurrencies. Hopefully, more countries will follow suit.

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China's Central Bank Testing Prototype Cryptocurrency - Crowdfund Insider

Valuations of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple have skyrocketed in recent months, with all three of the leading cryptocurrencies making significant gains to market price and market capitalization since the beginning of the year. Ripple has reached a market cap of almost $10 billion and Ethereum's has grown to more than $20 billion in that time period. Prices have grown considerably over the same time span. A recent article by Tech Crunch suggests that these sudden and significant gains may be due in large part to activity taking place in China and Japan.

China has become one of the world's largest hubs for cryptocurrency mining. Huge mining pools have formed thanks to the low costs of hardware and electricity in the Asian nation, and that has prompted China to account for more than 60% of the Bitcoin networks collective hashrate. Still, that position was tempered somewhat early in 2017, when the Chinese government began to crack down on the country's digital currency exchanges. This prompted a suspension of all withdrawals of cryptocurrencies in the country, and the market suffered heavily as it lost a substantial portion of its trading volume at one time. Tech Crunch points out that the government in China moved to change some of its regulatory framework in order to allow withdrawals to resume for certain top exchanges. As this news hit the crypto space in recent weeks, it inspired consumer confidence and may have contributed to a rise in currency values.

Before this year, Japan represented only about 1% of all Bitcoin trading volume. This number has been increased by about six times in recent months, and Japan has begun to account for more than half of all Bitcoin trade volume on some days. Why the sudden increase? When liquidity in China stagnated thanks to government regulations, the market in Japan exploded. With the sudden gains in interest in the Japanese Bitcoin market, the worldwide currency market grew as well.

There may be other reasons China and Japan have contributed to the gains that cryptocurrencies have made in recent months, too. The tight government control over the Chinese yuan may have prompted Bitcoin to become viable as an alternative asset class, with digital currencies becoming viewed as more accessible and less volatile than the fickle yuan. Simultaneously, as the Bank of Japan has used quantitative easing to create low or even negative interest rates, digital currency values in that country have risen, too. As consumers become less confident in the strength of the yen, they have increasingly turned to the decentralized digital space. Add to this the fact that more and more Chinese and Japanese major financial institutions are beginning to accept and adopt cryptocurrencies, and the role that these two countries have played in the industry's recent growth becomes even more pronounced.

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China, Japan are Behind Recent Cryptocurrency Spike - Investopedia

The cryptocurrency Cassandras are starting to look right.

The sector has lost about a third of its market value since peaking in early June, pushing it into what traditional equity market analysts label as a bear market. Bitcoin, the largest of the digital currencies, is down about 20 percent from its peak of $3,000, reached June 12. Smaller rivals such as ethereum and ripple are getting hit even harder.

When when we look for signs of excess in the market, I look at bitcoin and to me that looks pretty scary, Richard Turnill, global chief investment strategist at BlackRock Inc., said during a midyear outlook presentation in New York on Tuesday.

Whether the virtual currencies were caught up in an asset-price bubble was debated as the market capitalization of the sector soared this year, raising skepticism from pundits including tech billionaire Mark Cuban. Backers such as Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse, whose money-transfer company is tied to the third-largest cryptocurrency by market value, said he isnt convinced.

"I would be surprised if there was a major crash," Garlinghouse said in an interview at Bloombergs New York headquarters Monday. "Could we see digital assets continue to double or triple or quadruple from where we are today? That wouldnt surprise me at all."

Digital coins are currently worth around $80 billion, down from a market capitalization of $100 billion on Friday and $115 billion on June 14, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.

This weeks slump coincides withinitial hearings in the trial of the former head of Mt. Gox, the bankrupt Japan-based bitcoin exchange that imploded in 2014 after losing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoin. Chief Executive OfficerMark Karpeles pleaded not guilty in Tokyo on Tuesday to charges of embezzlement and inflating corporate financial accounts.

The turbulence may be far from over, too, as rival bitcoin enthusiasts are set to adopt two competing software updates at the end of July. This has raised the possibility that bitcoin will split in two, an unprecedented event that would send shockwaves through the market.

Read more on the dispute between bitcoin developers

Volatility is nothing new for cryptocurrency buyers, who have faced losses in recent months as exchanges grapple with outages and poor performance, struggling to keep up with the volume surge that has swept the market amid speculation about the potential for widespread adoption of virtual assets and blockchain technology.

"It is easy to look at the appreciation that we have seen this year and conclude that we are witnessing a bubble, said Martin Garcia, vice president of sales and trading at Genesis Global Trading. While I understand that the prices we are seeing now a more than a little frothy, I think that we are in the very early stages of the development of an entirely new asset class."

Read more from our TOPLive Q&A with Martin Garcia

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Cryptocurrencies Are Getting Crushed - Bloomberg

Unless you've been under a rock, you've likely read a lot about ICOs (initial coin offerings) in the last few weeks. These are offerings by companies starting their own variant of blockchain-based digital currencies.

This year has not only seen the explosion in the price of bitcoin itself but also the second and third most popular cryptocurrencies Ethereum and Ripple.

More interesting, there's been a rise of many additional cryptocurrencies such as Steem, Dash, AntShares and Dogecoin. In fact, if you measure bitcoin's market capitalization as a percentage of the market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies, it's currently at 45.5 percent, down from 94 percent a year ago.

The value of all cryptocurrencies now is $88 billion, which is actually down from $114 billion a few days ago.

New ICOs have raised $500 million so far this year. One community that is showing great interest in becoming part of the trend of launching a new cryptocurrency is start-ups.

Last week, Thai fintech start-up Omise raised $25 million in an ICO to develop a decentralized payment platform. The company had already raised $20 million in traditional VC funding.

Rahul Sood's esports betting company Unikrn is launching its own cryptocurrency called UnikoinGold as the way to place esports bets on its platform. Unikrn has raised $10 million from Mark Cuban, Shari Redstone's Advancit Capital, Elisabeth Murdoch's Freelands Ventures and others.

However, social messaging company Kik has bigger plans for its upcoming ICO. In a recent talk given by Kik founder and CEO Ted Livingston, he explained that Kik saw its ICO of a currency called Kin as a potential alternative exit for them.

Like the Omise and Unikrn examples, Kik has also raised traditional venture capital money more than $120 million, including $50 million from Tencent most recently valuing the company at $1 billion. Kik's ICO will help bring it more money. Kik will sell 10 percent of its Kin currency (half to institutional investors and half to retail investors). Kik will keep 30 percent of Kin and 60 percent of Kin will be overseen by a nonprofit Kin Foundation aimed at making Kin a popular cryptocurrency. That foundation will give away 20 percent of its stock of Kin every year to developers and others who help build out the economy for Kin.

Kin will be used as the currency on the Kik social network for things like emojis, stickers, hosting and participating in group chats, building apps like bots, etc. However, the stated goal is for Kin to also be used as currency outside of the Kik app.

Even if stays confined within the Kik community, Kik has 15 million monthly active users. It's currently ranked in the 60s in terms of popularity on the App Store. That community alone will make the currency among the more popular cryptocurrencies.

But here is what's interesting, Livingston said that, if all goes well, this ICO could be Kik's liquidity event. Up until now, Kik has been thinking it had to translate its popular youthful community chat service into ad dollars in order to make a successful business similar to what Facebook has done. The problem is that Facebook and Google continue to suck up more and more of the ad dollars that are getting spent in the space.

Livingston said in the talk that the penny dropped for him when he saw Snap's S-1 IPO filing in February. Here was a young Facebook competitor seemingly doing everything right and yet still failing in its growth of its ad-based revenue. If Snap was failing, Livingston thought, what hope did Kik have of building a better ad mouse trap?

Yet, he thought, if Kik could develop a cryptocurrency that became a self-sustaining economy and Kik owned a big chunk of that supply limited currency the value of that stake in Kin could end up being more valuable than the potential exit valuation for Kik as an ad-based business in an IPO or through an acquisition. Luckily, one of Kik's earliest investors was Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, also a big investor in the cryptocurrency space. He agreed with Ted.

Can you name the fourth most popular cryptocurrency? It's Litecoin and has a market cap of $2.5 billion. If Kin got that kind of valuation and with an established community of 15 million monthly active users, it could be a currency worth more Kik's 30 percent stake in Kin would be worth $750 million, almost equal to the valuation of Kik's last round. If Kin became as valuable as Ripple the third most popular cryptocurrency today Kik's stake would be worth $2.5 billion.

Livingston pointed out that, in this kind of scenario, an exit via M&A or an IPO would be unnecessary for Kik. Its existing backers could simply convert their shares into Kin and liquidate them. Kik could stop trying to win advertiser dollars, if it wanted. It could simply focus on developing the community's use of Kin and helping Kin proliferate outside of the Kik ecosystem.

In this scenario, according to Livingston, "we just step back and watch it continue."

Will it work out this way? Possibly for some lucky start-ups but certainly not for all. The world likely doesn't need 1,000 different cryptocurrencies. The current gold rush mentality with ICOs will probably only get bigger in the months and years to come but will probably also meet the inevitable bust of the dot-com era.

But some cryptocurrencies will endure especially ones with strong use cases and/or communities supporting them. It's intriguing to imagine if some ad-dependent companies like Kik will opt to stop competing with Facebook and Google on a battlefield they can never succeed at and go for an alternative cryptocurrency path to value creation.

Kik is truly breaking new ground with its ICO. It will be intriguing to see if it causes other unicorns to follow its lead.

Commentary by Eric Jackson, sign up for Eric's monthly Tech & Media Email. You can follow Eric on Twitter @ericjackson .

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Snap

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Why a messaging start-up is making its own digital currency instead of going public - CNBC

With so many cryptocurrency ICOs taking place right now, something will need to change. It appears the entire cryptocurrency ICO scene is turning into a bit of a joke. Useless tokens are created which offer no real value to users, yet people are still throwing money at them. It is very unsettling.

There arepositive and negative sides to the entire cryptocurrency ICO sector. The positive element comes in the form of giving people a way to raise enough funds to create new products and services. Although not all of these concepts will succeed, using an ICO is the quickest and less cumbersome way of raising the necessary money right now. It creates a slew of new opportunities, which may also be its downfall.

To put this latter part into perspective, one could make the argument a lot of dumb money is poured into cryptocurrency ICOs. Most of these investors do not even take the time to read a projects website or white paper. All they want is instant gratification and see the value of their tokens go up by 1,000% in a week or less. Sustaining such a bubble will not be possible for much longer.

As a result, we now see a lot of prominent ICO tokens decline in value as soon as they hit an exchange. Not because people are selling at a profit, but mainly because these investorshave no patience. In fact, it has become almost cheaper to buy ICO tokens after a Bittrex listing compared to partaking in the ICO itself. Even with lucrative bonuses for early investors, there is no real reason to buy into ICOs right away. Once again, another sign of the cryptocurrency ICO bubble about to pop.

To make matters even worse, we now see people spending money on joke ICOs which offer no inherent value. Some people still believe even vaporware can be turned into something valuable, though this is rarely the case. In fact, anyone can create their own ERC20 tokens in an hour or less and post the smart contract address to the whole world. Regardless of what the tokens may be used for, there will always be people actively investing in these ICOs.

Not too long ago, we touched upon the concept of the Useless Ethereum Token. It was believed this joke ICO would not receive any money whatsoever. Things have turned out quite differently. The projects smart contract address has seen nearly 20,000 transactions since it was revealed to the public. People are actively sending money to it, although no one knows why exactly. Most of these transactions are for 0.01 ETH. However, thousands of those small transactions still add up over time.

The cryptocurrency ICO ecosystem is showing a lot of signs of becoming a bubble. Billions of dollars have been invested in projects with no actual demo or prototype. The code for these projects has never been vetted by third parties in manycases. Lots of people will lose money due to investing in ICOs. Doing your own research when it comes to cryptocurrency ICOs has never been more important than it is today.

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The Rise and Potential Fall of Cryptocurrency ICOs - The Merkle