Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

CHICAGO, April 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Decred is a cryptocurrency project and platform built from the ground up to leverage the will of its constituents to drive change. This approach eliminates the conflicts that arise when powerful entities attempt to assert control over a cryptocurrency. Decred adapts to continually meet the needs of the people it serves.

April 25, 2017, marks the highly anticipated release of Decred v1.0. This historic release puts Decred stakeholders in charge of shaping the future of Decred through direct community consensus voting. For the first time in the history of cryptocurrencies, governing control moves away from centralized authorities, such as developers and miners, and is given to the community of stakeholders. Decentralization struggles without decentralized governance; this is especially true when it comes to a rapidly growing global currency.

Most cryptocurrencies distinguish themselves by how they secure the transactions on their network. For example, Bitcoin is famous for using a proof-of-work algorithm that rewards miners for finding solutions to a cryptographic hash puzzle. Other cryptocurrency projects rely on proof-of-stake algorithms that reward users who hold the currency in a "staking" wallet with interest on the balances they carry. Both approaches have strengths and limitations; Decred takes advantage of the best of both worlds with a hybrid proof-of-work and proof-of-stake consensus system. This allows the platform to strike a balance between benefits to both miners and stakeholders, giving rise to a more robust notion of consensus.

The 1.0 release of Decred will include the first community vote on two important issues. After 75% or more of miners and stakeholders have updated to 1.0, Decred stakeholders will be able to vote on one consensus change and one signaling vote. Due to the rapidly growing popularity of Decred, the number of stakeholders buying vote tickets has increased dramatically, leading to large oscillations in the ticket price. This is a good example of an unanticipated condition which needs to be resolved through community consensus. A new ticket price algorithm will aim to ease the large oscillations in ticket price and lead to better ticket price discovery while still maintaining the target ticket pool size. A consensus change of this magnitude is very difficult to achieve in more traditional cryptocurrencies and requires the voluntary acceptance of the code by miners that may or may not have their own agendas. If it passes, the new ticket price algorithm will activate seamlessly for everyone with no further intervention.

The second vote will allow stakeholders to signal support for Lightning Network development. The Lightning Network is a payment layer that makes it economical and fast to process payments, especially small payments, like buying a cup of coffee without having to pay a large transaction fee to process the transaction. If this signaling vote passes, the developers will begin work on integrating Lightning Network on the Decred blockchain. Once development is complete and tested, a future consensus vote can be taken to automatically activate the Lightning Network code.

The recent Decred 2017 roadmap [1] highlights some of the other massive innovations that the team hopes to put up for a vote throughout the year. In addition, a new improvement proposal system will be put in place soon to allow for the community to contribute directly to the agenda for Decred.

The release of Decred 1.0 is a watershed moment in the cryptocurrency movement. Decred finally does what has never been done before, putting the power of change in the hands of the very people that care about it most.

Decred is celebrating version 1.0.0 release with a puzzle challenge. The 'Autonomy Puzzle' challenge [2] features an initial prize of 500 decred (DCR) to the first solver, equivalent to approximately USD 7,500 at the time of this release. However, players will be working against the clock, as the prize will be reduced every 24 hours. The puzzle difficulty level has been rated 'easy to medium,'as Decred is aiming to include participants of all skill levels. For more specific details or to join the puzzle-solving conversation, visit the Decred Slack channel #puzzles.

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Decred Releases v1.0: The World's First Cryptocurrency of the ... - Yahoo Finance

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Cryptocurrency exchange provider Ethbits has reached its minimum funding goal signalling that development on a new iTrade platform will now begin.

The UK-based company has already built a peer to peer cryptocurrency exchange, called Ethbits Local, to facilitate secure trades between people from bank accounts to cryptocurrency. Ethbits Local will offer the ability to trade face-to-face across a range of cryptocurrencies, a unique feature that is in high demand.

Given the current success of the crowdsale, Ethbits Local will now start development of Ethbits iTrade, an exciting new cryptocurrency exchange which will not only act as a standard exchange but also has a copy trade feature, where new traders can copy professionals and experienced traders can gain followers to maximise their profits. Ethbits Local will launch in May, immediately after the crowdsale ends followed closely by iTrade.

Reaching our Minimum goal within the 1st week is super exciting, as a result the copy trading exchange is now in development. We are at the start of something ground breaking in the crypto world and the more support we can get, the faster we can grow and the more rewards we can generate for the token holders. We will now implement provably fair profit sharing to ensure the continued confidence in our company. Monty Singh, CEO, Ethbits LIMITED

Support for the platform has been strong with 300 contributors acquiring Ethbits (ETB) tokens. ETB gives the holder access to up to 40% of gross profit from trading fees, depending on how much is raised by the end of the crowdsale. ETB tokens can also be used to pay for transaction fees on the exchange ensuring the volume of the token remains a high as possible, driving both of the platforms. iTrade will launch with the top 15 cryptocurrencies on offer with plans to diversify further as the exchange grows.

Ethbits has just announced that it will partner with BCB ATM [https://bcb-atm.com/ ] an expanding Bitcoin ATM service based in the UK. Ethbits iTrade platform will be linked to BCB ATMs to help people find crypto traders in their local area.

The crowdfund will run until 13th May at 5pm UTC. To get involved see https://ico.ethbits.com. Participants will receive 100 ETB for 1 ETH until Saturday 22nd April when the price will increase.

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ETHBITS Gets Green Light for New Copy Trading Cryptocurrency Exchange - CryptoCoinsNews

cryptocurrency /kriptkrns/ noun noun: cryptocurrency; plural noun: cryptocurrencies; noun: crypto-currency; plural noun: crypto-currencies 1. a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a centralbank.

This is the answer Google will give when asked What is cryptocurrency? While this answer/definition is absolutely correct; it reads like an excerpt from a complex finance document or engineering patent. Suffice it to say that this definition may not explain much to the average person with little to no experience with the professional field of information and technology.

As the computer person of my family, I often find myself explaining technical concepts to individuals with less exposure than myself. Sometimes these concepts are simple enough to use a real-world concept that more people are familiar with for direct comparison (look for my post on how to explain how the internet really works to anyone); but occasionally I need to explain a difficult to grasp concept that is comprised and built from equally difficult to grasp concepts. The difficulty in understanding computers is generally not the actual concepts themselves but in the true understanding of the processes. You can be a veritable genius at arithmetic; but if you are given a word problem to solve that is written in a language you cannot read; your amazing analytical skills are for naught (at least in this particular case analytical skills tend to never be completely useless).

This blog post is my attempt to quickly and succinctly explain the somewhat mysterious concept of cryptocurrency to anyone. This concept has managed to elude even some of us who are technically inclined, so this may be a bit of a challenge. There are many types of cryptocurrencies that exist but almost all of them are based on the original: bitcoin. For the sake of simplicity, this article will focus on bitcoin.

The IRS considers Bitcoin as property. Taxable property. To the average person this means that owning and trading bitcoin is basically the same as owning and trading gold. Boom. This is understandable. Bitcoin is a (digital) commodity that we can use for trade. True to its name, cryptocurrency is digital money. One of the biggest arguments against the feasibility of digital money is the fear that if a person is clever enough they could copy existing digital money like a file a give themselves infinite money. Cue the maniacal mad scientist laughter. This problem actually has a name; Double-spending. The inventors of bitcoin created a way to solve this problem. The solution is built into the way bitcoins are created, which leads us to the question, So where exactly does one get these bitcoins of which I speak?

Bitcoins are produced by bitcoin miners. Yes, just like a gold miner. No, not at all like someone too young to see an R-rated movie. The bitcoin mining process is similar to the way real life mining works. Bitcoins are generated by solving an increasingly-complex computational problem. Were not talking long division here. Think more along the lines of counting the grains of sand on a beach in a thunderstorm levels of difficulty, and the storm only gets worse. This complex problem is the mud or rock wall that gold is buried in. Once the problem is solved, the miner who solved the problem is rewarded with a mining fee (paid in bitcoin) and actual bitcoins the same way the gold miner is rewarded with gold after working through the mud or rock.

When bitcoin was first introduced in 2008 there were not a lot of bitcoin miners. The powerful computers required to solve the problems quickly became cost prohibitive to the average person. This trend has only increased as the popularity has grown and now it is common for miners to work together as a group. Think of several gold miners partnering together and buying a dump truck and other heavy duty equipment to sift through the mud and rock for gold. They will have to share the profits with each other but they will find more gold and find gold faster than they did as individual miners. This practice is called forming a mining pool and is one of the more popular ways to start producing bitcoin.

When bitcoins are collected via mining or a transaction they are stored in a digital wallet. The digital wallet keeps track of how many bitcoins a person has and is used to send or receive bitcoins for transactions. Digital wallets are provided by online services but the data they contain can also be stored offline on USB keys for safety.

In my opinion, one of the most interesting concepts about bitcoin is the inherent security built into the way all bitcoin data is stored. Every bitcoin creation and transaction since the cryptocurrencys introduction is stored in a publicly available ledger called a blockchain. Think of the blockchain as an extremely long receipt of every single bitcoin transaction that has ever taken place. When a transaction occurs using bitcoin, the transaction needs to be verified and recorded which adds the transaction to the blockchain. That complex and forever growing grains of sand problem is how these transactions are verified and recorded. Miners competitively work to verify pending transactions and whoever solves the problem first successfully adds the transaction (which includes the debit of bitcoin from one wallet and the addition of bitcoin to another) to the blockchain and collects the reward; creating new bitcoins in the process. This process inherently prevents the duplication of any bitcoin as each newly generated coin is composed of parts of the transactions that have happened before it.

Bitcoin is used in the same manner as online payment services and more and more vendors are starting to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. One of the benefits bitcoin payments provide is the low to nonexistent overhead charges associated with online, debit and credit card transactions. The fees associated with the common online payment services are bypassed when using bitcoin because of the peer-to-peer nature of the transaction process. This is for the people, by the people at its finest. The minimal transaction fees are much lower than the typical 1%-3% charged with other transaction methods.

Watch for a future post where we dive deeper into the shadowy world of the crypto in cryptocurrency.

https://www.bitcoinmining.com/

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Cryptocurrency 4Thought Studios Medium

Select Country Afghanistan (+93) Albania (+355) Algeria (+213) American Samoa (+1684) Andorra (+376) Angola (+244) Anguilla (+1264) Antarctica (+0) Antigua and Barbuda (+1268) Argentina (+54) Armenia (+374) Aruba (+297) Australia (+61) Austria (+43) Azerbaijan (+994) Bahamas (+1242) Bahrain (+973) Bangladesh (+880) Barbados (+1246) Belarus (+375) Belgium (+32) Belize (+501) Benin (+229) Bermuda (+1441) Bhutan (+975) Bolivia (+591) Bosnia and Herzegovina (+387) Botswana (+267) Bouvet Island (+0) Brazil (+55) British Indian Ocean Territory (+246) Brunei Darussalam (+673) Bulgaria (+359) Burkina Faso (+226) Burundi (+257) Cambodia (+855) Cameroon (+237) Canada (+1) Cape Verde (+238) Cayman Islands (+1345) Central African Republic (+236) Chad (+235) Chile (+56) China (+86) Christmas Island (+61) Cocos (Keeling) Islands (+672) Colombia (+57) Comoros (+269) Congo (+242) Congo, the Democratic Republic of the (+242) Cook Islands (+682) Costa Rica (+506) Cote D'Ivoire (+225) Croatia (+385) Cuba (+53) Cyprus (+357) Czech Republic (+420) Denmark (+45) Djibouti (+253) Dominica (+1767) Dominican Republic (+1809) Ecuador (+593) Egypt (+20) El Salvador (+503) Equatorial Guinea (+240) Eritrea (+291) Estonia (+372) Ethiopia (+251) Falkland Islands (Malvinas) (+500) Faroe Islands (+298) Fiji (+679) Finland (+358) France (+33) French Guiana (+594) French Polynesia (+689) French Southern Territories (+0) Gabon (+241) Gambia (+220) Georgia (+995) Germany (+49) Ghana (+233) Gibraltar (+350) Greece (+30) Greenland (+299) Grenada (+1473) Guadeloupe (+590) Guam (+1671) Guatemala (+502) Guinea (+224) Guinea-Bissau (+245) Guyana (+592) Haiti (+509) Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands (+0) Holy See (Vatican City State) (+39) Honduras (+504) Hong Kong (+852) Hungary (+36) Iceland (+354) India (+91) Indonesia (+62) Iran, Islamic Republic of (+98) Iraq (+964) Ireland (+353) Israel (+972) Italy (+39) Jamaica (+1876) Japan (+81) Jordan (+962) Kazakhstan (+7) Kenya (+254) Kiribati (+686) Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (+850) Korea, Republic of (+82) Kuwait (+965) Kyrgyzstan (+996) Lao People's Democratic Republic (+856) Latvia (+371) Lebanon (+961) Lesotho (+266) Liberia (+231) Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (+218) Liechtenstein (+423) Lithuania (+370) Luxembourg (+352) Macao (+853) Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of (+389) Madagascar (+261) Malawi (+265) Malaysia (+60) Maldives (+960) Mali (+223) Malta (+356) Marshall Islands (+692) Martinique (+596) Mauritania (+222) Mauritius (+230) Mayotte (+269) Mexico (+52) Micronesia, Federated States of (+691) Moldova, Republic of (+373) Monaco (+377) Mongolia (+976) Montserrat (+1664) Morocco (+212) Mozambique (+258) Myanmar (+95) Namibia (+264) Nauru (+674) Nepal (+977) Netherlands (+31) Netherlands Antilles (+599) New Caledonia (+687) New Zealand (+64) Nicaragua (+505) Niger (+227) Nigeria (+234) Niue (+683) Norfolk Island (+672) Northern Mariana Islands (+1670) Norway (+47) Oman (+968) Pakistan (+92) Palau (+680) Palestinian Territory, Occupied (+970) Panama (+507) Papua New Guinea (+675) Paraguay (+595) Peru (+51) Philippines (+63) Pitcairn (+0) Poland (+48) Portugal (+351) Puerto Rico (+1787) Qatar (+974) Reunion (+262) Romania (+40) Russian Federation (+70) Rwanda (+250) Saint Helena (+290) Saint Kitts and Nevis (+1869) Saint Lucia (+1758) Saint Pierre and Miquelon (+508) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (+1784) Samoa (+684) San Marino (+378) Sao Tome and Principe (+239) Saudi Arabia (+966) Senegal (+221) Serbia and Montenegro (+381) Seychelles (+248) Sierra Leone (+232) Singapore (+65) Slovakia (+421) Slovenia (+386) Solomon Islands (+677) Somalia (+252) South Africa (+27) South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (+0) Spain (+34) Sri Lanka (+94) Sudan (+249) Suriname (+597) Svalbard and Jan Mayen (+47) Swaziland (+268) Sweden (+46) Switzerland (+41) Syrian Arab Republic (+963) Taiwan, Province of China (+886) Tajikistan (+992) Tanzania, United Republic of (+255) Thailand (+66) Timor-Leste (+670) Togo (+228) Tokelau (+690) Tonga (+676) Trinidad and Tobago (+1868) Tunisia (+216) Turkey (+90) Turkmenistan (+7370) Turks and Caicos Islands (+1649) Tuvalu (+688) Uganda (+256) Ukraine (+380) United Arab Emirates (+971) United Kingdom (+44) United States (+1) United States Minor Outlying Islands (+1) Uruguay (+598) Uzbekistan (+998) Vanuatu (+678) Venezuela (+58) Viet Nam (+84) Virgin Islands, British (+1284) Virgin Islands, U.S. (+1340) Wallis and Futuna (+681) Western Sahara (+212) Yemen (+967) Zambia (+260) Zimbabwe (+263)

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Cryptocurrency Market by Size, Share & Types - 2023

In the 21st century, money is no longer limited to bills, coins and credit cards. In fact, some money is truly international -- not owned by any particular government -- and regulated by the people instead of a central entity. It also exists wholly on the internet. This type of money is called cryptocurrency.

You may have heard of or even used Bitcoin when it first became popular several years ago, but where Bitcoin used to rule, other cryptocurrencies are now being used to pay back family members for lunch, charge customers for products and services and make other everyday transactions. As an entrepreneur, its important to keep an eye on the most commonly-used cryptocurrencies. Here are six I think you should know about.

Rather than competing with Bitcoin like many other cryptocurrencies, Ethereum complements it; while the Bitcoin blockchain network tracks ownership of its own currency, the Ethereum blockchain runs programming codes for its users applications. People use Ethereum to create custom (but trustworthy) crowdfunding platforms, autonomous online organizations and even their own cryptocurrencies. Because these applications are decentralized, they can only be built in the Ethereum network.

Though Ether, the network's money,wasnt made to be used for everyday payments, anything of value can be traded for products and services; as a result, many developers use it to pay for each others help in building applications.

However, most online stores that accept cryptocurrency do not take Ether.

Related:11 Ways to Make Money While You Sleep

If Bitcoin were gold, Litecoin would be silver. Litecoin works just like its more popular counterpart, but its worth a little less -- there are 21 million total Bitcoin in existence and 84 million Litecoin. Litecoin are easier to mine and quicker to move from person to person due to its faster block generation. It is perhaps the least intimidating cryptocurrency for those who are new to exchanging money online: Litecoins wallet can be downloaded fromthe official Litecoin website, and its fully encrypted to prevent accidental spending and computer viruses. This is a super simple network for those who need to move smaller amounts of money fast.

While other cryptocurrencies avoid banks, Ripple embraces them. In fact, Ripple was made for banks, as it allows them to make faster, low-cost, on-demand global payments of any size. Traditional cross-border transactions require banks to go through an intermediary (or often several), which delays completion. Ripple offers a faster and more direct alternative. When a bank customer in the US wants to send a payment to a different bank customer in China, for example, Ripple immediately queries both banks for their transaction fees and makes the transfer in a matter of minutes. It even updates both customers ledgers right away so they can view their balances following the transaction. This unique cryptocurrency enables banks to offer new and improved payment products, and it simplifies regular transactions for consumers around the world.

Related:Habits of the World's Wealthiest People (Infographic)

Though Dash can be used for transactions between consumers, it was made for shopping. Think of Dash as a replacement for PayPal. Many merchants accept Dash just as they do USD, but the transaction is faster -- you dont have to wait a day or two to see the payment charge to your account. Like any other cryptocurrency, you can buy Dash using government-regulated currency and keep it in a designated Dash wallet until youre ready to spend it at a compatible merchant. You may even consider adding your own business to the merchant map!

If you want to maximize your confidentiality, this cryptocurrency is for you. Zcash has been dubbed the first zero-knowledge cryptocurrency with its ability to shield the identities of all senders, recipients and values. Each transaction is fully encrypted, so users can enjoy the advantages of a public blockchain without offering up private information. Many view Zcash as a more confidential version of Bitcoin.

Related:5 Habits of the Wealthy That Helped Them Get Rich

Monero is another excellent cryptocurrency option for those concerned about their privacy. This currency was designed to give individual users full control over their money; with Monero, you are your own bank. Transactions are selectively transparent, meaning you decide who can and cant see where your money is going. Crises faced by banks and governments wont affect your assets or compromise confidential information. Finally, like many cryptocurrencies, Monero is decentralized and community-built -- over thirty developers have directly contributed to Monero so far.

If your business doesnt use any of these cryptocurrencies already, you may want to start incorporating them soon. When it comes to online financial transactions, cryptocurrencies like the ones above have quickly started to give PayPal, Stripe and other payment systems a run for their money.

Cryptocurrency transactions arent validated by a central entity, meaning there are no bank or platform fees associated with payments -- just optional, minute fees (one percent or less) that speed up the transaction. You also dont have to wait nearly as long to receive cryptocurrency as you may with traditional money.

Again, a cryptocurrency'smost important feature might be that it'struly international; no particular government owns or regulates it. This means there are no fees for payments that cross borders, and the transaction works the same no matter where you or the other party are located.

The only major disadvantage to cryptocurrency is the need to sell it for USD (or any other government currency). However, this process closely imitates the way youd transfer PayPal funds to your checking account.

Matthew Toren is a serial entrepreneur, mentor, investor and co-founder of YoungEntrepreneur.com. He is co-author, with his brother Adam, of Kidpreneurs and Small Business, BIG Vision: Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made E...

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6 Cryptocurrencies You Should Know About (and None of Them Are ... - Entrepreneur

Neil Haran is an angel investor and cryptocurrency advocate.

Speculators flocked to Bitcoin and many of the alt-coins in hopes of getting in early and making a big exit, but everyday users havent warmed to cryptocurrencies.

There are many reasons why, but one of the largest barriers to mainstream adoption is the price volatility of cryptocurrencies.

So the question is, why do the prices change so much in the first place? It comes down to supply and demand: Most cryptocurrencies have only a fixed total supply, and yet demand for the coins is uncertain and constantly fluctuating thanks to speculation.

Of course, its easy enough to talk about the problem coming up with a solution is quite another matter.

The need for stability is not unique to cryptocurrency. Any currency needs to be stable in order to be used as a trusted medium of exchange. The more that prices rise and fall, the more ordinary people will shy away from using the coins for everyday transactions.

Whether they hoard the coins in the hope that prices will rise sharply soon, or they avoid using them altogether for fear that they will lose all of their value, people are not yet accustomed to seeing cryptocurrency as real money.

Worse, the unpredictability of prices wreaks havoc on regular money services, like remittance, currency conversion, and the use of ATMs. In order to use cryptocurrencies, businesses have to hedge their risks by charging exorbitant fees.

Bitcoin ATMs can charge up to 15 percent just to convert to fiat currency. This totally defeats the original purpose of cryptocurrencies, which was to offer a cheaper and more flexible alternative to other payment methods. With no advantage over government-printed money, why would the average person use them?

Price volatility has plagued Bitcoin from nearly the beginning. With what we have learned over the better part of a decade, why have cryptocurrencies still not solved this problem of fluctuating prices?

Human nature gets in the way, as it tends to do. It is difficult to stabilize prices in a world where people would rather play the market and get instant gratification by re-selling their coins for as high a price as possible. Without careful planning from the very onset of a cryptocurrencys existence, its hard to recover from the effects of speculation.

Image: JaaakWorks/iStock/Getty Images

When building a cryptocurrency from scratch, you first need a solid foundation. From this foundation, the currency can grow and self-correct as it develops.

Gauging demand

The first piece of the puzzle is being able to reliably predict demand. Uncertainty around demand is the main cause of price fluctuation, as every users intentions are a mystery to every other user. Having a way to gauge real demand for a coin would go a long way in fixing this problem.

The issue with predicting demand, though, is the existence of speculators creatingartificial demand. This is the core of the problem: With so much speculation, the price for the cryptocurrency will not reflect its actual usage and demand. It simply becomes a bubble that is constantly on the verge of bursting, and no one wants to risk their hard-earned money on that.

Traditionally, the solution to the problem of stability was to have a central bank. The government could then alter the money supply at will, for example by causing inflation. Cryptocurrencies are by definition decentralized that is part of their advantage and without a central bank they need an entirely new approach when it comes to squashing volatility. They need to do this without compromising the freedom of the users and without resorting to inflation.

Cooperation over competition: A decentralized community

United we stand, divided we fall.

What if there was a currency that encouraged people to cooperate? What if people were incentivized by a spirit of growth, rather than of greed? Under the ideal model, a network of cooperative businesses and services would coordinate with each other as a single unit. The coin would be shaped democratically by this co-op (shaped not controlled). Every user would have incentives to help the network grow as a whole, and the use of a blockchain would help make the process be fair.

Instead of rampant online speculation, users would visit local exchanges to buy and sell the currency. The community as a whole would vote on when to increase the coins price, which would keep things democratic and guard against sharp spikes.

Official local exchanges

Having to look other users in the eye can make a world of difference. Face-to-face exchanges at trusted locations means that the sale of a coin can be more easily limited, and this can act as a throttle to gauge demand. People on the front lines, seeing the real demand for the coin in person, can then vote to increase the price. Having stable locations to exchange the currency also creates consistency. It removes the guessing game of wondering where you can buy and sell your coin.

The advantages are not just purely economic, either. Cryptocurrencies dont exactly have the best reputation thanks to their penchant for attracting unscrupulous people. Unethical or illegal businesses will tend to be voted out of cooperative networks with face-to-face exchanges, however, which can go a long way toward legitimizing the currency. It would still be possible to run such enterprises of course, but they would never be part of the co-op.

Local exchange dominance

This kind of approach can only work if there are dramatically more local exchanges than online exchanges. It would mean that the local exchanges would dictate the pricing of the currency.

Marketing early can be disastrous

Marketing is a powerful force, and as such it needs to be handled with care. On the one hand, founders naturally want to attract investment early on. This will raise the price of the coin and help pay for infrastructure, as well as boost the growth of the coin. On the other hand, historically the earliest investors in cryptocurrency have been extremely low quality they are the speculators who doom the currency in the long run and scare away mainstream users.

With speculation, capital infusion is needed to keep the currency stable, which can be a significant task. Take Bitcoin for instance: With a market cap of roughly $20 billion, it would need a huge amount of capital to have a stable floor.

Slow and steady wins the race

Cryptocurrencies are still in their infancy, and its hard to tell where the path for most of the major currencies is headed. What is the finish line that they are aiming for? What will the end game be? Most cryptocurrencies have little direction besides the whims of the market, so theres no telling where they will end up. However, there are a handful of interesting coins that have invested in strategies that nudge them in a specific direction.

The central app coin method

This is a strategy that is centered around creating value with unique products and services that are associated with the currency. In this way, you could say that the currency is backed by something that people actually want.

For example, the MaidSafe network incentivizes users to provide something of value to the network (storage space), and offers the use of apps and services in return for coins. This naturally leads to better cooperation. People want to create value and channel their efforts toward the growth of the currency that they have in common.

The setup and switch method

Similar to the central app strategy, this method establishes a user base first, and then introduces the currency. Bitshares and its array of associated startups is a good example of this. Several networks with varying currencies Steemit and their STEEM currency, Peerplays and their tokens, for instance slowly built their user base and value exchange system, and now they plan to adopt a central currency with Bitshares. This allows them to create a stable base first before pooling their resources.

The grassroots movement

Finally, the best way for a currency to create that all-important foundation of true users is through bootstrapping. Just like a business startup, a currency like this would need a user base that believed in a common mission. It would need everyone in the system to be able to see the inherent value of the coin, and to understand that it could be worth much more than the value it is traded for in its early stages.

An example of one of these grassroots efforts is FairCoin. Its a currency established and led by FairCoop, whose strategy is to build an ecosystem where businesses cooperate to give users maximum value. It is a currency built from the ground up to incentivize the long-term interests of users instead of their short-term greed not just because its the right thing to do, but because it makes sense.

FairCoin focused from the beginning on building infrastructure for everyday users. Because of the strong relationships among members of the co-op, they can have thousands of ATMs, debit cards and exchanges that make mass adoption much easier.

An approach like this allows the currency to slowly build itself in the background without the need for a spotlight and the barrage of speculators that come with it. This offers the huge advantage of stability from the very beginning, though it does pose the problem that FairCoin has to bootstrap with less capital than most coins. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, they cant rely on CoinMarketCap to sing their praises by displaying artificially rising prices (the effects of speculation).

In other words, FairCoin traded the excitement of volatility and greed for a quiet, long-term stability. The only problem is that people might not notice! Drama catches the human eye, after all.

Hard forks

Lets take a look at the hard fork that looms in the horizon for Bitcoin. As if things werent complicated enough, now there could be two competing chains for the currency. There are already many technical barriers to Bitcoins adoption among mainstream users, and this is yet another one. This makes the price even more uncertain, and uncertainty is like poison for a currency.

On the other hand, if you have a large community and a co-op on top of an immutable blockchain, then a hard fork is extremely unlikely and unnecessary. Cryptocurrencies like MaidSafe, Bitshares and FairCoin all represent solid communities that are incentivized to cooperate instead of speculate. This means that the coin can be worth more than its market price; it has a high inherent value within the system itself.

This makes it so that users have very little reason to defect from the existing community. A hard fork would mean giving up many benefits of the co-op, so people stay loyal to the original vision of the currency. When something deeper than just greed ties a community, hard forks dont occur as often.

Stable prices dont just happen by accident. They are not a miracle of the market they require a carefully constructed foundation. A stable currency needs a stable ecosystem first.

While its tempting to market the currency too soon because capital injection can do a lot to raise prices in those critical early periods, its better to wait. Advertising is like opening up Pandoras box and inviting the world to look inside. Some of those users will be interested in the actual currency, but others will be undesirable speculators that just leech off the system. For a currency to be stable, it needs to be used by the 99%, not just a handful of investors.

A currency needs to grow with the people, not past them. Look at the state of Bitcoin and its inflated prices. The everyday person can no longer either mine the coin or expect to use the coin in everyday transactions without high fees or risk. It has been given up to the speculators.

With a truly stable currency, on the other hand, you can have currency conversion, remittance, ATM withdrawals and other financial services with lower fees than fiat systems. In other words, it can be used as intended as money. This is what will ultimately attract a mainstream audience and will actually incentivize them to make the switch to cryptocurrency.

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What's keeping cryptocurrencies from mass adoption? - TechCrunch

In Asia, Europe and the Americas, Cryptocurrency trading has become a way of life, but that is not the case in Nigeria and other African countries. In this interview, the Chief Executive and Principal Consultant,Crypto Plus Certified, Mr. Peter Ayoade Moradeyo tellsNdubuisi Francisthat his company is poised to close the knowledge gap with the ultimate goal of enlisting Nigeria on the global cryptocurrency exchange. Excerpts:

What is a good way to concisely explain Bitcoin, block chain and crypto currencies?

The success story of Crypto currency dates back to 2009, during the financial breakout, when Bitcoin was formed on blockchain technology. Bitcoin was first introduced in Asian countries and gradually to Europe, US etc. It is needful to clarify however, that the blockchain technology is not the same thing as Bitcoin; the relationship between them is only that Bitcoin is deployed on the blockchain technology. Interestingly, Bitcoin seems to be more popular today than the platform on which it stands. Now, there are two things which distinguish Crypto currency from the normal currencies. The first is that it is finite. It has a fixed number that can be taken off and immediately that happens, its value shoots up and we all know that anything that can finish naturally increases in value as it is being taken up. So, as the world gradually adopts cryptocurrency, the available number reduces and value automatically drives upwards, causing it to grow dynamically in value. That explains why Bitcoin has been able to grow like that since 2009. The second thing is that cryptocurrency has intrinsic value or what some call store of value. Let me explain it this way: each copy of a coin is an address, a location on the blockchain. When one address belongs to a person, that address cannot belong to another person in any part of the world. This is unlike the fiat counterpart where any money reading on a persons bank account means that the bank owes the account holder to the tune of the said amount, but not necessarily that that money is the account holders to cash at any time. This is why sometimes the banks would tell an account holder that they do not have enough cash to complete a transaction. The case of the blockchain is different because the value is intrinsic and better preserved.

What is the function of CryptoPlus Certified?

Since 2009, Bitcoin and several other alt coins have been coming up. Alt coins are referred to as alternative coins to Bitcoin which is the first and most popular of them all. At a point, we realised there was an opportunity where Bitcoin and other coins can relate in value;there is value relativity between them. So, we started by trading Cryptocurrency. I can recall that sometime in 2015, there was an upsurge of certain Ponzis in Nigeria. Nigerians sustained the following of Ponzis until it became almost endemic. Unfortunately, very few Nigerians knew about the very essence of the medium of transfer which Bitcoin was during the transaction of these Ponzis. Bitcoin was only used because it did not need a third party like banks to facilitate a transaction between the Ponzis and their victims. So, the Ponzis took advantage of their patronage, cashing in on the anonymity of transaction which was part of the features of cryptocurrency. What was supposed to have been an advantage became a disadvantage because of the ignorance of Nigerians. Someone needed to educate Nigerians appropriately as to what cryptocurrency really meant and what disruption it was meant to address. So, we now came up because before now, we had a deep background on its trading. We decided to reappraise the image of Cryptocurrency as it were in Nigeria. Also, at several conferences we have been all over the world, we realised that Africans are non-existent on several cryptocurrency trading platforms. Just like we have the Nigerian Stock Exchange with several companies trading on its platform, there are also several participating bodies that trade value among us. The sad thing here is that Africans are non-existent on any Cryptocurrency exchange whether in US, Asia or Europe. This is also true when one considers Cryptocurrency graph. The Asians are up there; Europe and America are there too, but Africa is non- existent. Our function at Crypto Plus Certified is basically to close the knowledge gap so that people can take advantage available and then Nigeria can be enlisted on what we call the global Cryptocurrency exchange. We trace the current state of Crypto currency trading to slowness of adoption. The federal government is yet to adopt a framework for the implementation of blockchain that can give rise to participation. Several countries have done that but for some reasons it has not happened in Nigeria.

You have a dream to raise and establish 1,000 Nigerians on the Poloniex Exchange. What is the implementation plan put in place to achieve this and why the choice of Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt?

We need to make it clear that Nigeria is a country with many opportunities. We also need to state that Bitcoin came into Nigeria with a wrongly perceived image, and on the wrong platform. So, our first goal is to take the responsibility to repair that image, and then reappraise the benefits and enlist Nigeria as a participator in the normal trading of Cryptocurrency. In order to achieve that, we launched what we called, Dream 1000. It is all about trading on Poloniex which is the largest Crypto exchange in America and we are currently working with them on releasing a mobile platform strictly for Nigerians and it will work as an arbitrage with our own exchange which will come from Germany. We want to work as an arbitrage so that they will trade on our own platform via the mobile interface. Nigerians can be taught on how to trade this currency easily, and our strategy is very unique because the mobile application is actually enhanced to be able to reduce all the variables of trading system. Since we launched the Dream 1000 recently in Lagos, we have had some of our students who were able to distinguish themselves with the level of knowledge we passed to them and they are going to show Nigerians that we are serious about what we are here to do. We have this oncyptopluscertified.org.

How has the response been like?

I grew up in Nigeria before I decided to relate with other countries for business reasons. One thing I know about Nigerians is that they respond to results. So, the first thing we want to identify is, we want to be able to have people who have had results and that is why all the events we have done, we have been showcasing people that distinguished themselves, those that we gave the knowledge and they applied it and got results. We want to be inspired by results and not just belief.

Can Bitcoin be regulated? What about Bitcoin and taxes?

Those conversant with information coming out of cryptopluscertified would have noticed that Nigeria is currently on a discourse on how to regulate Cryptocurrency trading based on several frameworks. I have several write ups regarding this. Cryptocurrency trading as it were is decentralised and this is why the banking system cannot operate it. It is decentralised because of its nature. For instance, Bitcoin as it were, does not have a management interface and that is why the regulation has not been somewhat forthcoming. But it is found to be very secured and has ability to store values. That has been the reason for all the enquiries on how do we have a framework for a kind of currency that has thus kind of features? Sometimes, it takes time, but individuals are working and several people have stored values on it and exchanged it with another. The US is an example where Poloniex is operating. So looking at it more objectively, the regulatory framework and the operational climate go hand in hand but they can be mutually exclusive.

Bringing it to a laymans understanding, what are the advantages of Bitcoin and how does Bitcoin work?

In a laymans way, I would like to use the similitude of changing one currency to another, for instance. If you have some Naira notes and you want to change to Dollar, knowing the exchange rate that relates one to the other will be very helpful. Now to a layman if I bring my Naira and want to buy a Dollar, I will change the Naira to a Dollar based on the foreign exchange rate agreed between the person selling the Dollar and myself. Now imagine where you have the Bureau de Change in the middle and you have the buyer, that is, the demand, on one side and the supplier on the other side; that is the way it works. The person at the middle collects commission from two persons. The buyer sells at a price based on demand and supply. So, if the demand is higher than supply, the price is likely to go up. If Im able to read that the demand and price for a thing I bought and own have gone up and I sell it, now the difference between what I bought and what I am selling now that the price has gone up is my own profit. That is the basic analysis of how it works.

Demand for Cryptocurrencywhat are your training modules like? The fee, process and duration?

Training is 30 days and we have a huge demand for it and because of this, we have set up world class training hubs in the three geopolitical zones Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. So, demand is already there. We have a structure that accommodates different levels of trading the strategic portfolio building and robotics. Our modules cover; Introduction to Cryptocurrency Trading CPC 101 Cryptocurrency Masterclass Advanced Trading CPC 102 Trading Engaging Robotics CPC 103 People are already aware of what Cryptocurrency is; it will be wrong for us to say that people are not aware of it. The only thing is that there is a knowledge gap on how to use it and take advantage of the value in it, and that is what we are trying to close up.

Is there any risk attached to Cryptocurrency Is Bitcoin legal? And how secure is Bitcoin?

The idea of trading Cryptocurrency and the national legal framework is mutually exclusive. Trading on Cryptocurrency can be done when someone knows how to handle it. The reason for the legal framework is to protect the participators because when there is no third party that puts power in the hands of those that know the Whats and Hows. Bitcoin is safe and this knowledge is out there. You are your own bank. Records are protected by mathematical laws and are irreversible. The Blockchain technology protects its addresses and have histories on an open ledger, and is always available and transparent for anyone to confirm.

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Moradeyo: We Want to Close the Knowledge Gap on Crypto Currency - THISDAY Newspapers

Last week saw Bitfury striking a deal with the Ukranian government to put the latters data on a Blockchain platform. The deal will ensure blockchain recordings for areas like public health and services, state registers, energy and social security.

In a twist, High Tech Private Equity Fund SICAV plc is reported to have acquired nChain, a Blockchain company associated with Wright Craig, the man who once claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. The company plans to make available their intellectual property assets to the blockchain community via royalty-free licensing and open sourcing.

An initial Coin Offer intended for mining activities to support the signaling of Bitcoin Unlimited has been halted as a result of not reaching its goal. The ICO was allegedly linked to Chinese Angel Investor in Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic, Chandler Guo.

On the Bitcoin Network scaling front, the worlds largest Bitcoin mining pool, F2Pool has declared its support for Segwit. Wang Chun, Owner of F2Pool revealed on Friday that 56 percent of his network members are in support of Segwit.

Eventually, the advent toward mainstream adoption of blockchain gets after Mark Carney, Bank of Englands Governor, claimed blockchain technology can save banks tens of billions of dollars a year. The governor was speaking International Fintech Conference last week in London, where he further revealed that the next generation of Britains interbank wire system will be blockchain-compatible.

Bitcoins current price recovery is outstanding despite the fact that the scaling debate is still raging on. Some experts believe it is being driven by mainstream adoption in Japan. As at 22:00 GMT, Bitcoin has appreciated by 0.22 percentage point and its market value was $1180.73 maintaining the number one position on CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum is still holding on to the 2nd spot and has kept the velocity from the current altcoin rally although it lost 0.82 percent today. Its market price was $48.49.

After a stratospheric rise that resulted in Ripple ousting Dash from number three, it has slow down to some degree. The cross-border transfer crypto with KYC was selling at $0.033308 with a 1.33 percent downward adjustment.

The battle for number four is so titanic. For three days now, Litecoin and Dash has been dislodging each other to take over momentarily. However, at the time of filing this report, Dash was reigning with a 0.21 percent depreciation, posting an exchange rate of $75.23.

Litecoin also took a fall of 1.02% and was being sold for $10.71. It must be stated that the decision to implement Segwit has boosted its price and market cap.

Even though Monero was recently indicted in a finding that found out that some of its transactions are traceable, it doesnt seem to be affected much and is still at the 6th position. It scored a negative 1.76 percentage point and the exchanges listed it for $20.38.

Moreso Ethereum didnt have a good time either. At number seven, it could be bought for $2.65 and dip 0.42 percent.

With a market price of $0.024212 and 0.48 percent upward gain, NEM kept its 8th position intact. The consistency for the Smart Contract platform is impressive.

Angur with the selling rate of $11.52 and a 2.55 percent upward adjustment maintained number 9 as well as the biggest gain on top 10.

In a surprising move, PIVX has pushed Maidsafecoin to the 11th position and it is now counted among the top 10 Cryptos on CoinMarketCap. This anon digital currency in a few months has established itself among the elites. It bagged a 0.93 percent growth and its price was $2.01.

On the top 20, Factom rose by a significant 14.37 percent. It is one of the Cryptos below top 10 that must be watched keenly. Sadly Bitconnect which was at top 10 briefly on Wednesday fell negative 26.63 percent to be the biggest loser.

Disclaimer: The above references are an opinion from our Op-Ed. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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Weekly Round-Up and Cryptocurrency Markets Update - CryptoCoinsNews

In less than one year, the BitConnect online community has gained over 50,000 members around the world. The most dominant and valuable cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, took over two years to reach the same market price of the new altcoin.

BitConnect Coin is designed to offer financial freedom to the masses by reducing if not eliminating the dependency on centralized banking and financial institutions. In addition, the cryptocurrency is also more secure than conventional financial instruments, eliminating the chances of identity theft and other issues that currently plague fiat based electronic payments infrastructure.

BitConnect Coin offers a new level of empowerment to its community members. Members can connect socially and financially to a secure, protected community of investors and lenders. By connecting with the community, BCC users can increase the value of their coins in the wallets as the cryptocurrencys price increases.

BitConnect has also added a news department, engaged with online leaders like Kim Dotcom, successfully launched its own digital currency, added a proprietary Bitcoin wallet, launched an innovative global Bitcoin lending program, and surged from zero traffic to a top 100k Alexa ranking. It is the worlds fastest growing online Bitcoin community.

BitConnect Coin is a Scrypt (PoW/PoS) consensus algorithm based cryptocurrency with a finite number of tokens. The total number of BCCs are limited to 28 million. The limited number tokens ensure constant appreciation of value in the light of ever increasing demand.

BitConnect Coin facilitates quick transactions between wallets allowing people to make instant transactions between each other or to pay for goods or services. Unlike Bitcoin, the block generation time on BCC platform is 2 minutes. These features prevent transaction backlogs and at the same time also proves to be more rewarding during the PoW phase, where miners stand to receive a block reward of 10 BCCs.

As more people adopt the cryptocurrency, it is only going to get stronger to become one of the top altcoins in the market.

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

MORE BITCONNECT

MORE BITCOIN

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BitConnect Coin Blasts Off Faster than Bitcoin in Cryptocurrency - Card Trak

Formerly known as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group,CME Group is the largest, most diverse derivatives marketplace in the world, handling an average of 3 billion contracts worth approximately $1 quadrillion annually.

The company recently filed a US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) application describing a comprehensive system for a derivative contracts system allowing cryptocurrency miners to offset risk.

- CME Group

While mining costs are generally known upfront, estimating income generated by a mining operation can be extremely difficult. There is uncertainty involved in predicting how many bitcoins a given mining computer will mine over time, uncertainty in terms of how much the mined bitcoins will be worth in terms of legal tender (e.g. USD), and uncertainty in trying to predict what the Bitcoin difficulty factor will be in the future.

Derivative contracts allow investors to hedge these risk by providing offsetting compensation in case of an undesired event, and can be used to allow miners to hedge risks associated with a virtual currency's difficulty factor or with the expected yield of a computer performing mining operations.

Because the long-term growth rate of the difficulty factor is impossible to know in advance, by taking a long position in the contract, or being long a call option on the contract, a miner can lock in a projected growth rate of the difficulty factor, the patent filing explains. If the network hash rate grows faster than anticipated, the income from mining may fall, but the variation and settlement of the futures or the funds received by exercising a cash-settled call option contract would cover the loss. On the other hand, if the difficulty factor grows more slowly than anticipated or falls, the contract would lose value or the call option premium would expire as worthless, but a miner would make more money than expected on mining operations.

- CME Group

Derivative contracts described in the patent application can be created to estimate the income that a miner can expect to produce based on the operations and configuration of a selected computer system. The value of these contracts at settlement can be tied to an index value that is determined based on the estimated or actual number of virtual currency rewards granted over a designated time period.

The estimated or actual transaction fees associated with all virtual currency blocks generated during a designated time period can also be accounted for. An expected yield can be calculated based on a hash rate, in order to estimate the amount of virtual currency that a virtual currency miner can expect to produce using a given mining configuration. The expected yield can then be converted to a real currency value using a known conversion factor, and this real currency value can be used to generate a settlement value for the associated contract.

The conversion factor can be included in the definition of the contract to be cleared and can be used to determine how much the contract will pay on settlement. For example, the conversion factor may describe a conversion rate from the received difficulty factor to a predetermined real currency (e.g., USD).

A separate example contract can also be used by mining hardware manufacturers to hedge their product inventory. As the difficulty factor rises, mining computers may become less marketable, so taking a long position in the generated contract, or being long a call option on the generated contract, would allow manufacturers to lock in a projected growth rate of the difficulty factor and hedge against the risk of falling hardware prices.

- CME Group

The patent includes far more than derivatives contracts. The filing describes a financial computer system that also lists the contract, receives, and matches orders, prior to settlement by a clearing computer. The contract may take the form of a futures contract, an option contract, an OTC swap contract, or another financial instrument.

The system may also include an electronic trade engine, while a user database may include information identifying traders and other users of financial computer system. A match engine module may match bid and offer prices for contracts configured in accordance with aspects of the disclosure. Moreover, a trade database may be included to store historical information identifying trades and descriptions of trades. Furthermore, an order book module may be included to compute or otherwise determine current bid and offer prices.

The computer network system is only one example of a suitable system and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the various embodiments of the disclosure, the patent application states. Aspects of the present disclosure can be implemented with computing devices and networks for exchanging, transmitting communicating, administering, managing and facilitating trading information including, but not limited to virtual currency spot rates, network hash rates, and virtual currency difficulty factors.

- CME Group

CME Group launched a pair of price indexes in November, for Bitcoin reference rate, while the companys digital securities trading platform, CME Direct, was recently chosen to become the home of trading for RMG digital gold, a blockchain-based security product offered by the UKs Royal Mint. Sandra Ro, CME Groups Head of Digitization headed both the RMB and index projects, and is listed as one of three inventors on the derivatives patent.

Despite Satoshi Nakamoto giving Bitcoin and blockchain technology freely to the world through an MIT Open Source license, Bank of America, R3 CEV, BitGo, and Coinbase are just a few of the many companies filing patents on intellectual property in the Bitcoin and blockchain space.

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CME Group files patent for comprehensive cryptocurrency derivatives system - Brave New Coin