Feb. research: Pt 2

As I am pretty pressed for time, I am going to do a little less in depth overview of other coins to watch in the short to mid term. You will need to do a little reading for this one.

Eternity (ENT)

Market Cap: 1.4$ million

Price:  0.35$ / 0.00003519 BTC

Purpose of coin: Payment platform.

Website: http://ent.eternity-group.org/

Quantum RL (QRL)

Market Cap: 70.6$ million

Price:  1.36$ / 0.0001350 BTC

Purpose of coin: Communication layer to tackle quantum computing threats.

Website: https://theqrl.org/

QRL – The Quantum Resistant Ledger theqrl.org The Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL) is a blockchain designed to withstand the computational attacks possible on other blockchains as the developments in quant…

Edgeless (EDG)

Market Cap: 73.6$ million

Price:  0.89$ / 0.00008902 BTC

Purpose of coin: Ethereum based casino.

Website: https://edgeless.io/

Vibrate (VIB)

 

Market Cap: 45.1$ million

Price:  0.27$ / 0.00002712 BTC

Purpose of coin: Community for musicians, venues, events, gigs, and contact info for music.

Website: https://www.viberate.com/

Viberate – smarter way to explore live music http://www.viberate.com A global platform for musicians, venues and music events. All in one place, presented with rich profiles. Register for free.

Deep Onion (Onion)

Market Cap: 51.7$ million

Price:  4.95$ / 0.0004886 BTC

Purpose of coin: Privacy coin using TOR.

Website: https://deeponion.org/

DeepOnion – Anonymous Cryptocurrency and Untraceable Payments deeponion.org DeepOnion is an anonymous cryptocurrency that is untraceable. All transactions are private and sent through the TOR network.

Unify (UNIFY)

Market Cap: 2.8$ million

Price:  0.15$ / 0.00001555 BTC

Purpose of coin: Crypto ecosystem for crowdfunding.

Website: http://www.unify.today/

Unify http://www.unify.today Unify is cryptocurrency made for crowdfunding

Sugar (SGR)

Market Cap: 0.5$ million

Price:  0.14$ / 0.00001465 BTC

Purpose of coin: Crypto exchange.

Website: http://sugarexchange.io/

Sugar Exchange – Cryptocurrency trading platform. sugarexchange.io is a new type of cryptocurrency trading platform utilizing proven methods, as well as implementing advanced technology to ensure a superior user experience.

Nebulas (NAS)

Market Cap: 330.2$ million

Price:  9.30$ / 0.0009118 BTC

Purpose of coin: Crypto search engine.

Website: https://nebulas.io/

Nebulas – Decentralized Search Framework nebulas.io Nebulas is a decentralized platform which provides a search framework for all blockchains.

Icon (ICX)

Market Cap: 1.7$ billion

Price:  4.64$ / 0.0004546 BTC

Purpose of coin: Decentralised network connecting real world businesses with blockchain.

Website: https://www.icon.foundation/

ICON http://www.icon.foundation ICON은 다양한 Blockchain Community가 연결된 탈중앙화 네트워크입니다.

Maid Safe Coin (MAID)

Market Cap: 220.1$ million

Price:  0.48$ / 0.0000484 BTC

Purpose of coin: Data Storage network.

Website: http://maidsafe.net/

Expanse.tech | Blockchain for everyone http://www.expanse.tech Expanse is an Ethereum based blockchain platform for smart contracts.

Two other coins with high potential are Cardano and NEO. There is a lot of information online about both of these projects. As these two projects are major coins they are more sound but offer longer hold positions.

• Information presented here, including any ideas, opinions, views, predictions, forecasts or crypto picks, expressed or implied are for informational and educational purposes only. The coins posted should not be construed as personal investment advice.

Investor’s Guide

Everybody likes something; cats, green lights, pillows, music, sports, flowers, baby animals, free wifi…

Notice money did not make the list?

It is unusual to run into a bag of money while taking a stroll down the street.

However, the inevitable question was asked, ‘what is the best crypto to buy’? Id est, which crypto is gonna give me a boat load of free money?

That question, is, difficult to answer on its own.

As an investor, there are many factors to consider before putting any money down. The major and initial things to consider are:

1. Creating a portfolio. Decide where you want to be involved e.g.  existing cryptocurrencies, crowd funding and ICOs, public/private blockchains, mining/cloud mining, arbitrage between markets, day trading or other areas.
2. The amount of risk you are willing to take on. A good idea is to find their Sharpe ratio. Here is an excellent site to find all the comparative data you may need on big coins: https://www.sifrdata.com/
3. Time frame. Are you going to invest and forget it for 6 months? Or will you open you portfolio everyday hoping to make money after a week?
4. Expectations from investment. Ripple made 42,000% growth this year. It cannot continue to grow at the same speed. It is a solid investment, but it will bring modest returns. Remember, if you want to earn massive returns, you will have to find a coin that has a small market cap, preferably under 100$ million with lots of potential for growth.

Once you have a handle on those aspects, you will be better prepared to put some money in a more specific area.

Since the question was about which crypto is best, it would be assumed that the investor is looking at existing cryptocurrencies on public blockchains.

Now, there is just a little more information to wade through and of course, more considerations.

1. Discovering the purpose of the coin. With so many coins in existence, this is a crucial question to be able to answer. You can buy dogecoin because it has made big gains over the last year. However, when you find out the coin was invented as a joke and has no functionality, investing in it seems unwise.
2. People involved on the team. This too, will help you weed out some more riff raff. The team should have members who have extensive experience in coding, developing and marketing. That would also bring with it, some solid partnerships and financial backers (VCs). Google is a good friend here.
3. Having a look at their website. A simple check of a crypto’s website can reveal a lot about what their vision is, where they are on their time line, and what their plans are for the future.

So, let’s give it a go.

Here is a list of the top 16 cryptocurrencies listed by Sharpe ratio. If we choose one coin with a medium Sharpe ratio, we can do a quick peek under the hood.

Example #1: Litecoin (LTC)

Market Cap and Price: 9.3$ billion – 169.74$

Purpose of coin: Litecoin is considered like a little brother to bitcoin. It is also set up as P2P digital currency. It runs on the same code as Bitcoin, but has a much larger coin supply. Litecoin’s supply is maximum of 84 million coins. Therefore, it can make more and cheaper transactions than bitcoin. Another interesting fact is that its creator wanted it to be minable by many, so it runs on the Scrypt algorithm.

Website: https://litecoin.com/  excellent design, very clear, lots of information, usable on a variety devices and has its own wallet.

Who are the people involved on the team: Charlie Lee, former Google employee, solid reputation as coder.

• Side note, Charlie Lee has shown interest in merging Litecoin with Monero. It will create a huge opportunity if the two coins merge. http://bitcoinist.com/possible-litecoin-monero-merger-steps-closer-reality/

Example #2: WaBi

Market Cap and Price: 105$ million – 2.33$

Purpose of coin: WaBi – places anti-counterfeit labels on consumer goods in China. Used to buy authentic goods, receive discounts and loyalty points.

Website: https://www.wacoin.io/ Perfectly laid out, very clear and seems to have transparency and solid time line.

Who are the people involved on the team: Listed on the website – each member can be googled individually.

• Side note, ICO has just ended, baby food product sales began and alcohol sales will begin soon. There is big room for big valuation.

As each investor has different objectives, market preferences and time lines, there is no ‘one’ ideal coin to meet everyone’s needs.

I strongly encourage you to do some research into coins that fit your investment portfolio. Having said that, these two examples are only opinions, but not investment advice. It is always good to remember that past performance is no indication of future returns.

Below are the top 20 cryptocurrencies as of today. Google searches for coins with market caps under 100$ million will give you a wealth of other coins to start looking at.

 

 

It’s up, no it’s down… wait it’s up, no, no it’s down

Yesterday and today, bitcoin prices have been bouncing up and down like a yo-yo. Cruising at 11,800$, everything seems alright then for no reason, the price drops to 10,000$. A few hours later it is back over 11,000$.

At the time of writing this blog bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, Litecoin, Stellar, NEM, EOS and NEO are all in green (increase). However, by the time you read this they will probably all be in the red (decrease).

When you look at the market with a very short or narrow view, things are not so good. But, when you take a look at the market with some perspective, things seem pretty astonishing.

Let’s say you bought a house last year for 100,000$. Suddenly, a land developer wanted to buy all the land to make a shopping center and they offered you 2$ million for your house. Say you thought, you could get 2.5$ million and held on to sell. But, instead the offer went down to 1$ million. Although you might feel bad about not taking the 2$ million, you wouldn’t feel bad about still having the 1$ million dollar offer on the table.

Bitcoin has done pretty much the same thing in the past year; going from 1,000$ to 20,0000$ then back to its present 10/11,000$ valuation.

While this is all happening, some cryptocurrencies have faired better than others. Ripple, Cardano and Stellar have all had spectacular runs.

 But why have some coins faired better than others?

There are several reasons, but the main reason is core development. While networks like Ethereum have a bright future ahead of them, they and other networks are outperforming Bitcoin because their infrastructure is growing faster. Innovations are driving them to higher functionality and in turn, giving them more value.

Unfortunately, bitcoin is the Belle of the ball by which all other coins are judged. If bitcoin rises, investors will feel safer and will be more willing to invest in other alt coins. On the other hand, when bitcoin falters, everyone takes a hit.

Over the next few weeks, while I wait on my Antminer S9s and L3s to all come online, I will try and take a look around and start to chime in on some upcoming coins. Along the way, there should be some discussion of other coins you should know about.

All coins were not created equal… Of course coins fail, but it is not for a lack of trying.  Some obscure coins that have gone down in flames have been:

Beercoin, Conspiracy coin, Failcoin, Internet Peso, QuebecCoin, Scamcoin, Klingon Empire Darsek, Obama_bin_lottery coin, Rastacoin, Skynet coin, Starving Artist coin, TheSmurfscoin, Tomato coin, Vodkacoin and who couldn’t forget Zombie coin.

To end on an upbeat note, who doesn’t need a little extra love in their life?

Just this past week a new token was on the move. Viola, the world’s first AI&Blockchain based dating and relationship project started to spread its love to fill 70% of its presale hard cap… alt you need is love.

 

 

 

https://jiomobilephone1500.com/stellar-vs-ripple-vs-cardano-vs-bitcoin-comparison-price-prediction-2018.html

Visa, Aldous Huxley, and Lightening??

As we ride the rollercoaster, the (M)ass media continues to shower us with pepperings of gloom and doom. Those forecasts are sprinkled with flakes of hope.

Since our latest Buffalo Jump, the headlines have been ripe with new and very interesting, behind the scenes sorts of developments.

VISA – (Very Important Scam Association) 

One of the largest credit card companies in the world has made a rare statement about bitcoin and cryptos.

On Thursday, Alfred Kelly, the CEO of Visa said, “We at Visa won’t process transactions that are cryptocurrency-based. We will only process fiat currency-based transactions.”

https://news.bitcoin.com/visa-ceo-bitcoin-not-payment-system/?utm_source=OneSignal%20Push&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=Push%20Notifications

So, Visa will stand staunchly behind fiat/Government backed currencies… I think I have heard this before…

Personally, I do not agree with Visa and major so called ‘credit card’ companies.

Last year, I bought a plane ticket for 268$ CDN. As the company was US based, I ended up paying 214 US$. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the ticket the same day, as the friend I was going to visit had an emergency in the family.

When I went to cancel the ticket, I saw that my credit card was credited in the amount of 235$ CDN. What??? Did the Canadian dollar fall by 14% in a matter of hours?

At the end of the day, I discovered that Visa had charged me 4% over market value to buy my ticket and charged my 10% over market value to refund the same money I gave them. Oh and by the way, if I did not pay my bill at the end of the month they would have charged my 20% interest on my purchase. V.I.S.A.

B.N.W.

Moving on… I believe in the statement, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

In bigger news, blockchain giants like Dash and Bitcoin are finding the biggest brains in their future markets. And I, for one am very interested, excited and have hope for my children to become pioneers in this Brave New World.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/arizona-state-university-partners-with-dash-to-fund-research-scholarships

Lightening… again??

There are more rumblings about the Lightening Network.

As a crypto/asset/currency/coin advocate, I see how the lightening network will add a much needed layer of scalability to bitcoin.

It almost seems like as if we are using floppy disks when USBs were just around the corner. Upgrade!

Get ready for a BIG change in the next 2-3 months.

https://www.wired.com/story/the-lightning-network-could-make-bitcoin-faster-and-cheaper/

FUD- Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt

Today, I watched the price of bitcoin plummet, as many of you probably have seen. Double digits dropped across all cryptocurrencies. The charts of three of the exchanges I am following were covered in a Stephen King red.

We all hear about the ‘bulls’ pushing the markets up. They are always in struggles with the ‘bears’ who wish to push the market down. Today, I think I witnessed the ‘buffaloes’ run the market for a little while.

“A Buffalo Jump” is best described here: http://www.prairieedge.com/tribe-scribe/buffalo-hunting/

News

Yes, there have been warnings of regulations in Korea, but that is nothing new. Plus, it seems like Korean regulation is more or less a good thing. It is trying to prevent all sorts of “scammy” coins and ICOs from trying to cash in on the lesser educated investors.

China has put a ban on exchanges, ICOs it has pushed mining into a corner. But, let’s face it, their trade in cryptocurrencies is extremely limited and is not counted in the overall market.

Then, what made the market fall so far so fast???

 

As far as we can see into the past, bitcoin has let the buffaloes push the market several times. And once they are headed to the cliff, there is no stopping them as they pile up on the canyon floor.

It is fear that push them, just like the Cassandra effect; they are afraid the market will crash and so they sell and it becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There is no other real reason for the quick drop in the price. And it is not the first time that this has happened.

For those of you new to bitcoin, read up on some of it’s greatest Buffalo Jumps through its history: http://fortune.com/2017/09/18/bitcoin-crash-history/

When I arrived back home after my short trip to Lebanon, a few friends asked if it was safe, and if I felt scared or if I saw open violence?

I answered that it was a very nice trip; people seemed helpful and the food was good.

However, thinking back, I do remember seeing several checkpoints along the way. But, I thought that was just normal for the country.

In summary, regulation at some point is good, just as lifeguards or checkpoints make us feel better and provide a certain level safety. We just need to learn how to hodl (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HODL) when the Buffaloes head for the cliff.

 

 

 

Build-a-Coin

 

Forks, mining, exchanges, legalization, hash rates, ICOs… where does the madness of the cryptosphere begin and end?

Today, a friend and I sat down and thought about what it would take to create our own crypto currency.

It’s not as easy as making a build-a-bear with your child.

We joked about making a “beer” coin or a “Bob Marley” coin. So, I sat down and did some research about what the limit to weirdness there was out there.

Some of my searches ended up in some very odd results.

First off, for a short period of time at KFC in Canada,  you could buy some finger licking goodness with bitcoin. Yes, the Bitcoin Bucket was on sale for .0010102 btc. It is interesting because for that short period of time, bitcoin was actually equal to real money.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/bitcoin-becomes-legal-tenders-kfc-canadas-new-bitcoin-bucket-3371344

In the news over the past few days, Venezuela is reportedly going all in on crypto. Though it’s legality is questionable, president Maduro’s has planned to introduce the world to the ‘Petro’. A supply of 100 million Petros will be tentatively released to the market backed by the country’s oil industry.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/venezuela-parliament-calls-presidents-59-bln-petro-cryptocurrency-new-fraud

One coin that I have seen on the market, but many people do not know about is Potcoin. As you would imagine, Potcoin is trying to become the first digital currency to facilitate legalized pot sales. Go check it out: it is a real coin.

http://www.potcoin.com/

Politics and cryptocurrencies know the no limits. I am sure there are many more coins out there like these, but the Putincoin and the Trumpcoin were the two that caught my eye. Help make cryptos great again!

https://putincoin.org/about.html

https://www.trumpcoin.com/

A loud chuckle was heard when I found this next coin. Fuckcoin, yes the world is running out of people who don’t give a “F_ _ k”. A quick look at their video tells it all.

There are a slew of othe crude coins. You will just have to take my word for it that they exist.

One coin that I was tempted to buy in the summer was 42 coin. It is probably weird because of it’s insane pricing. At the time of writing 42 coin is trading for 57,000$!

What is it? Well, nothing. How many are there? Here is a shocker, there will only ever be 42 of them. It is based on the answer given to the ‘ultimate question’ in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

After all this research, my friend and I are no closer to an idea of what our coin may be, but we had a good laugh learning about some of the madness out there.

“What is Blockchain?”- road to anti-corruption

Being on vacation for two days now, we have inevitably run into LIT (lost in translation) situations.

I ordered two taxis through a friend on WhatsApp. One group would tour Beirut and the other group would go directly to the Cedars of God. I confirmed the pick time, date and prices with the driver. All was good. However, an hour before pick up time the driver texted me and said that ‘there was a computer virus’ that infected his computer and all prices were wrong.

The 55$ taxi to take the group to the mountains would now cost 135$.

However, the taxi to tour Beirut and eventually go to the mountains was still the same price.

Odd, no? It was an obvious lie. We eventually, sussed out another taxi for the mountain group and all went well.

However, it made me shake my head and I said to the group, “If we only had the blockchain, this would never have happened.”

Of course, someone asked… “What is the blockchain?”

Piggybacking on yesterday’s blog about ‘What is bitcoin?’, I will go one step further.

The Blockchain

The Blockchain, in the simplest terms could be considered a new type of internet.

It was so funny to watch Richard Hendricks shoot his ideas at Russ Hanneman in the TV program Silicon Valley last year. But, he did hit the nail on the head.

https://www.wired.com/2017/06/pied-pipers-new-internet-isnt-just-possible-almost/

With a blockchain application, things would be so much easier.

We would have entered into an agreement with the driver, whereby the price, time and service were agreed upon in advance. If the driver tried to change price location or time we could make a non-confirmation for his service. That would result in his business receiving a lower score on the blockchain application.

Sounds a bit like Uber right?

It is and it is not. Blockchain has the potential to reach into every corner of our lives.

Because blockchain is visible to everyone on the network at all times, everyone could see how this person or company acted.

 

Below is a simplification of how blockchain technology works.

Imagine if you wanted to buy a house and used a blockchain application for it. What about going to the dentist, ordering a pizza, buying a new phone, etc.

In your job, you wouldn’t need a manager and your work reviews would be based on your level of confirmations. The better the employee you are, the more confirmations you would have. More confirmations would be connected to your salary and bonuses.

Suddenly, governments, banks, centralized institutions of finance would all have transparency.

This represents a huge potential to eradicate corruption and a whole slew of other unsavory things that go along with it.

This is what the blockchain really is .

 

 

 

 

 

 

“What is Bitcoin?”- The Beginning

 

Sitting on the plane en route to Beirut, I have some time to think of the hundreds of questions I have been asked about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

One of the questions I am constantly asked is, ‘What is bitcoin?’

I often start by talking about the financial crisis in 2008.

That crisis played a central role in showing how fragile the present day monetary system is. It exposed how governments are willing to cover the biggest gamblers when they lose. It pointed at the elephant in the room: debt. It displayed how there is a need to fix that problem.

I talk about Satoshi Nakamoto and how his nine page white paper outlined his vision of a decentralized, peer to peer electronic cash system, whereby every transaction is recorded on a public ledger visible to everyone on the network.

I continue on and talk about how it is mined and how there will only ever be 21 million coins….

And about that time, a lot of people say, ‘but what is bitcoin?’

Then, I say something, that does zero justice to bitcoin. I say something like, it is the internet for money.

And then, many people say, ‘oh I get it’, ‘It is like facebook or apple’.

Well, I guess if I have to start there,  I will.

If, we think bitcoin is to apple, then we should look at one of its’ most successful products; the iPhone.

Ok, so what was before the iPhone? Tha

nk goodness most people who ask me the bitcoin question were born when pay phones were in use.

I ask, do you remember rotary phones and how you hated anyone or any taxi company that had a 9 or a 0 in their phone number? Yeah.

Then, I query, do you remember the first time you saw a portable phone? It had a big battery bag, a clunky appearance an

 

d a huge antenna? Yep. Whoever had one, could talk for a very short amount of time for a hefty price.

Well, think a little bit after that. Soon enough, there were those cheap Nokia phones with grey screens and the pull out antenna. Battery power improved, the number of contacts you could store on the phone increased and you could talk for extended periods of time the calling time extended.

Then suddenly, there was this explosion of developments. The flip top, texting options, the orange, blue or green screen…. and games!

I still remember the first time I saw a phone that could capture a photo. Although grainy, it was a miracle. It ranked amongst human achievements like the creation of fire, the wheel, the number zero, landing on the moon or mayonnaise.

After that, all stops were pulled. We got higher pixilation, memory, games, videos and the holy grail: the internet became available to our phones!

We are now heading into the iPhone 8, 9, 10 and on and on.

So, now I drop the bomb.

I explain that bitcoin is not like the iPhone 7, nor the 8 plus. No, bitcoin is that old rotary phone.

That’s how much development stands in front of us. We can’t see that far down the road. But, like any road,we know it is there.

One day, our grandchildren will probably sit around us like dinosaurs in a museum, in awe. They will probably say, “Grandpa, tell us again… did you really own one whole bitcoin?”

So what is a bitcoin? In essence, it is the financial leg of a much larger entity, which most people cannot fathom.

It is part of the Blockchain.

Now, most people ask me the real question… and you should too….

What is the Blockchain???

Oh Canada!!

 

As cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, blockchain technology and mining developments increase, there is a need for a more and more educated public.

We need to read. We need to connect the dots.

As an educator, it is my aim to teach friends and family that have questions about this newly emerging market.

Sometimes, I surprise myself, like with the recent rise of Ripple. My research on Ripple, projected a 1$ price by January 1st. Though a little lean, let’s see if my next predicted price for Ripple will be right by the end of 2018.

Mining Power

In a previous blog, mining and nation states was a topic.

Over the past few days, this topic has been very lightly covered in the news. However, it seems like there is a new developing trend.

In a world where we can ‘kill the environment’ and where ‘carbon tax’ could fix the earth, there seems to be some misinformation.

Did you know that over the Christmas holidays, German utilities companies had negative pricing on the cost of electricity?

Apparently in Germany, while companies, factories, offices and the government took seasonal holidays and shut down; renewable energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal and tidal do not stop.

Demand lowered, supply rose and price dropped.

https://www.sciencealert.com/germany-actually-paid-people-use-clean-renewable-electricity-over-holidays-christmas

So, if this happened in Germany, wouldn’t the same argument hold true for many other countries in the world? If we have an excess of ‘clean’ energy being produced, what should we do with it?

Personally, I would ask Elon Musk to build a super battery that would be able to store all this energy. Grrr, forgot his phone number.

Well, what if countries just started using that excess energy to say… start mining for cryptocurrencies?

Sounds like sci-fi to me…. but, as the words fell trope out of my mouth, I read an article that could connect some dots for a small potato like me.

https://news.bitcoin.com/canadians-harness-wind-to-mine-bitcoin-in-romania/

 

97% of the people I spoke to about Ripple, did not invest.

Of the 3% who invested, they have seen a ROI of 305%  or more.

Toronto Venture Exchange with the symbol BPWR.UN

Only trading at 64 cents right now.  Might put some money in that, couldn’t hurt right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Medium is the Mess Age

What a tumultuous week it has been for bitcoin.

After a rocket ship like ride in the beginning of December, bitcoin had a correction and entered the 16,000$ range. All normal.

Then it happened.

News, fake news, rumours, half truths, gossips, misconceptions, real news (unfortunately not reported), misunderstood governmental communications and more hit the mainstream media.

B2X

Bitcoin had a hint of insider trading with Coinbase and Bitcoin Cash. Not normal and kind of weird, but nothing has come of Coinbase’s investigation.

A hard fork was revived, with new, possibly dubious, members of the fork. B2X was not supported by the same team as it was with in November. Not normal, and kind of alarming. But, if unsuccessful, then it will not harm most people.

News around the world

Next, embellished news about the South Korean government shutting down exchanges. That was not true. In actuality, foreigners and minors were banned from trading or opening accounts. Was this intentional misinformation or just bad reporting?

In the Ukraine EXMO CEO, no, Manager, no, employee was kidnapped for 1,000,000$ worth of bitcoin. The ransom was not paid for from “financial assets” of the exchange, but was paid for from somewhere else.  Apparently, someone had 1 million dollars worth of bitcoin to pay for an ’employee’ of the exchange and paid it in a hurry. Really weird, and alarming. It almost feels like manipulation of mainstream media negatively focused on bitcoin.

India refreshed warnings about investors losing ALL their money. I will not rehash how India has pooched themselves in the denomination of older currency tender notes. More misinformation about bitcoin and blockchain technology.

Then there was the Facebook warning that a virus could takeover your computer to make it mine for bitcoin… really??? Please read my blog about mining, CPU<GPC<ASIC mining.

Today the Commonwealth Bank of Australia froze accounts that previously had been connected to fraud, attempted fraudulent transactions or facilitated payments to bitcoin or other virtual currencies.

Wait a second, attempted fraud or funding a speculative market are equal?  Well Hell’s bells! Is the stock market not a speculation?? Have there never been frauds committed by the stock market, its members or supporters? Didn’t the 2008 fiasco subjugate the American Constitution? AIG … I feel my Tourettes about to start again.

Welcome to the Brave New World of Pump and Dump.

Although this chart is a little outdated, the data is starting to show a pattern that we should all be watching.

The (m)ass media is covering bitcoin in a way that could be affecting small potato investors’ sentiment.

Now some real news…

One piece of news, that I had to search for, came out of Stockholm. The Lightening Network was tested by a phone payment provider. Alex Bosworth was able to immediately  top up his cell phone with zero transaction fee.

Now that is some real news. A possible solution to the scalability of bitcoin. The Lightening Network could be what www. was to email, for bitcoin. Keep an eye on that.

As a good friend of mine said recently, “I do not know if bitcoin will be the currency of the future, but the underlying technology of the blockchain has real world potential.”

My advice is to learn what is really important. What news is real and what is the big picture.

 

 

https://www.coindesk.com/payment-provider-bitrefill-runs-successful-lightning-transaction-test/

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/how-wall-streets-bankers-stayed-out-of-jail/399368/

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/897908/Facebook-Virus-Bitcoin-Mining-Cryptocurrency

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-kidnapping/ukraine-kidnappers-free-bitcoin-analyst-after-1-mln-ransom-paid-idUSKBN1EN1QB

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2658654.0

https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/2911542-bitcoin-cash-faq

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

http://blog.aylien.com/analyzing-the-media-coverage-of-bitcoin-november-monthly-media-review-with-the-aylien-news-api/

http://www.indianjobs4u.com/old-notes-exchange-last-date