Bitcoin has managed to stand out through several Initial Coin Offerings over the past year since it has been available for a broadening array of users for so long. There are also no widely preferred competitors yet. As compared to all other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is preferable because it has the best features, better uses, and the broadest base of users. To address this question, one must look at what makes bitcoin a sound monetary commodity. One must first analyze bitcoins value proposition. One of its main features is its primary elements, namely, primary elements, which have several positive qualities that are extremely appealing. Also, start trading with1G Profit System.

Scarcity:

The amount of bitcoin that will be in existence will never get to 21 million since that is well beyond the founders projections estimated lifespan. Future blocks would have all been mined, and only a small enough supply of bitcoin would be left for transaction fees. This money supply has already been determined and is always available in Bitcoin, which means no modification or addition to the original issuance can be made without the unanimous agreement of the network operators. Additionally, over time, there will be a fixed total of 21 million bitcoins in existence, even as demand grows. Bitcoin will be exhausted, oversupplied, even if more people want to use it.

As opposed to currency, sound money is something more closely associated with economics. This difference denotes how and to sound money is defined. This means that anybody who participates in the process of creating additional cryptocurrency would have an unlimited supply of bitcoins to contribute, regardless of whether or not the currency is ever created fair or regulated. Saifeadean Ammous, a highly popular author of The Bitcoin Standard, has helped us understand the concept of scarcity: A fiat currency that is easily produced makes a nation poorer, whereas an easily reproduced currency does not yield greater wealth.

Completely Decentralized:

A true decentralization, Bitcoin is the only kind of cryptocurrency. Therefore, the whole Bitcoin community would be entirely protected from malicious outside intervention. The anonymity of the foundation of the Bitcoin network is valuable to governments and powerful institutions. There are no single weak points in the protocol to attack, coerce, or exploit a person or community to manipulate some part of the overall value proposition. In Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum 2.0 will play an important role in shaping their respective platforms because of their popularity and leadership.

Proven Network Effects:

bitcoin is here to stay, whether you want it or not, to own a legal store of value with a 12-year bull run and growing to over $1 trillion in market capitalization in 12 years. Since the significant increase in both use and market capitalization, there has not been any cryptocurrency to compare to it. Often, that is to add, the importance of a network (the networks utility) increases steadily as the more users it has.

In the Bitcoin world, Jeff Booth noted to his audience that the young company has to have disrupted a significantly comparable business to be effective. To have more demand on the second-order value for the network: The current network has to have an enormous second-order impact on demand levels for us to succeed.

Bitcoin Wins:

The problem facing many new investors is getting over-focused on the sheer number of various cryptocurrencies when researching crypto. In other words, one might wonder whether or not to have a small amount of bitcoin in their investment portfolio or a more comprehensive selection of cryptocurrencies in their investment portfolio. Several people believe different cryptocurrencies may be useful in the future, but most believe they have little to no future. [Underlying security and value] things should not change when looking at the features of the SoV asset from cryptocurrencies point of view. Still, there is little relation to Bitcoins economic and technological values.

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Why Bitcoin Is The Only Cryptocurrency You Need - Florida Trend

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has an important opportunity to undo actions taken in the waning hours of the Trump administration that threaten cryptocurrency innovation.

Back in December, outgoing SEC Chair Jay Clayton brought an unprecedented enforcement action against the enterprise software company Ripple, creator of the digital currency XRPwhich was the worlds third most popular cryptocurrency, but not anymore.

The SECs lawsuit seeks billions in penalties from Ripple Labs Inc. and its executives. But the agency does not allege that any of its investors were defrauded.

Instead, the agency complains about Ripples alleged failure to register XRP as a security, characterizing its sales of the cryptocurrency as investment contracts covered by federal securities laws. The unprecedented move stretches the SECs reach too far and seriously threatens the developing cryptocurrency ecosystemand Americas vital leadership place within it.

Cryptocurrencies represent a dramatic leap forward in financial technology, because they solve the biggest challenge of electronic monetary transfers: When no physical transfer of paper money takes place, you need some way of recording transactions so that people cannot simply make transactions up, and create cash for themselves.

Normally, that central place is the Federal Reserve Bankwhich records and processes every credit card transaction. Cryptocurrencies eliminate that regulatory intermediary by providing a decentralized, computerized ledger, allowing for direct transfers between buyers and sellers with no regulatory intermediaries.

Cryptocurrencies like XRP are not securities. A security is a share of ownership in a companygiving the shareholder a stake in the business and an interest in its profits. But those who acquire or hold XRP are not granted any financial stake in Ripple.

The value of XRP is entirely independent from the value of Ripple, and Ripple possesses no unique proprietary information about XRP that it could use to harm potential holders of the cryptocurrency. Accordingly, it makes no sense to regulate cryptocurrencies like XRP as securities, as the SEC itself has recognized for XRPs leading competitors Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Yet the SEC claims otherwise for XRP, because of the very thing that makes XRP more appealing than its higher-market cap alternatives: XRPs superior method of issuance.

Just as the Treasury Department periodically issues new dollars, cryptocurrencies issue new electronic credits. BTC and ETH are issued through a Byzantine process tied to the maintenance of their electronic ledgers: Users who validate transactions are rewarded with newly created crypto units.

This has given rise to a cottage industry of crypto miners who profit by validating BTC and ETH transactions, and that arrangement has proven an environmental disaster, because the computational power needed for mining leaves an enormous carbon footprint, generating 48.5 billion pounds of CO2 annually.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently described Bitcoin as an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions. And the amount of energy thats consumed in processing those transactions is staggering. Ripple, by contrast, created a finite number of XRP units and sells them in batches according to a predetermined schedule.

But to a hammer, everything is a nail. And the SEC sees these batch releases as akin to issuances of securities simply because Ripple can take the money earned during each issuance to fund other aspects of its business.

All the major cryptocurrency issuers, however, benefit from issuing their cryptocurrencies, whether at the front end for Ripple, or by offsetting the verification costs essential for decentralized currencies, like BTC.

Ripples issuance of XRP therefore does not meet the legal definition of an investment contract. A holder of XRP is engaged in no more of a common enterprise with Ripple than a holder of a dollar is with the U.S. Treasury.

Fluctuation in the value of an XRP does not foster the expectation of profits solely from the efforts of the promoter Ripple, because that rise and fall is not tied to Ripple, but rather the health of the currency and the macroeconomic factors that influence it.

Requiring Ripple to register XRP as a security would impair its utility, which depends upon XRPs near instantaneous and seamless settlement of low-cost transactions. Registration would subject thousands of exchanges, market makers, and others to lengthy, complex, and costly requirements.

Therefore, XRP holders are not clamoring for SEC oversighttheyre asking for the case to be dismissed. In fact, on March 14, Rhode Island attorney John Deaton, an XRP holder, filed a motion to intervene in the SECs case against Ripple on behalf of other XRP holders whove been harmed by the SECs importune action. On March 29, the court ordered that it would consider the motion and proposed intervention, despite the SECs attempt to block it outright.

Though misguided, the SEC attack on Ripple presents a promising opportunity for the Biden administration. Under new leadership, the SEC could course-correct back to its mission to protect investors, while fostering fair and efficient markets, rather than interfering with currencies outside its jurisdiction.

Gensler has a solid understanding of blockchain technology, and he could usher in fresh start on cryptocurrency by dismissing the case against Ripple. Rather than fight the cryptocurrency industry, Gensler should collaborate with them, and work toward the shared goal to safeguard the future of crypto, and Americas place within it.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. or its owners.

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J. Carl Cecere is the owner of Cecere P.C., a law firm devoted to Supreme Court and Appellate practice. The author says he has no interest or stake in Ripple and doesnt own XRP.

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Cryptocurrency's Future in the U.S. Is Threatened By SEC Action Against Ripple - Bloomberg Law

OK, you probably think Im a crypto bear, and that this is the start of a long-winded rant against all-things altcoins

Far from it.

Im a big believer in innovation, and cryptocurrencies blockchain in particular represent some of the most promising innovations of our times.

Just like the internet before it, the blockchain will fundamentally reshape the world.

This wont happen overnight, but long-term, I am very, very bullish on cryptocurrencies.

That said, were in the midst of an unsubstantiated cryptocurrency bubble.

This bubble likely will persist for another few months. And, to bring the internet comparison to its natural conclusion, it will end the same way the dot-com bubble of 2000 ended with an enormous cryptocurrency crash.

Heres the story

I love cryptos. More broadly, I love the beneficial disintermediation that is made possible across all industries by blockchain technology.

I wont bore you with the details in this issue. But, in the big picture, blockchain is arguably the most disruptive technology since the internet, with the core of this disruption being blockchains centralized and immutable ledger.

This thoughtfully constructed ledger enables innately untrustworthy individuals and entities to collectively create trustworthy systems, without the need for any central authority hence the term disintermediation.

Blockchain enables humans to remove the middleman from legacy systems and replace them with a collective ledger.

Now why would we do that?

Because middlemen are often unnecessary profit-takers.

Further, theyre sometimes subject to corruption (see: the financial crisis of 08).

By removing and replacing them with an automated and incorruptible technology (which doesnt need a paycheck), we can make todays systems and processes more trustworthy, faster, and cheaper.

The applications here are theoretically infinite.

One application of blockchain technology that Wall Street is currently drooling over is the creation of blockchain-enabled currencies or cryptocurrencies to create a new era of decentralized finance (DeFi) that doesnt involve big banks as profit-taking intermediaries.

And DeFi is the future.

DeFi, however, is not where I see the most upside in the blockchain/cryptocurrency megatrend.

After all, DeFi is intended to disintermediate banks, like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo. Those are multi-hundred-billion-dollar companies. The disruption opportunity is huge.

But there are other cryptos I feel very strongly could deliver massive long-term returns. Ive shared details on one of my favorites through the Daily 10X Stock Report, where I write about a new megatrend-backed opportunity each and every day. Click here to get all the info on how to join, and start learning about where I see the most opportunity in this rarely talked about crypto opportunity and beyond.

And, right now, theres a much, much bigger opportunity in disintermediating technology titans, like Alphabet and Amazon, who are trillion-dollar companies.

Which is why I love the idea of dApps, or decentralized applications.

DApps are software applications built on the blockchain. This can be any application. A video media application, like YouTube. A driver-rider app, like Uber. A music stream app, like Spotify.

The central link is that these apps are coded on the blockchain and therefore, there is no central authority that runs the app and makes money from the app, either via subscription sales or digital ads. By removing that central authority, dApps create a new generation of truly free software applications.

Often times, these dApps have underlying cryptocurrencies which are used as a form of in-app currency in the dApps, or incentive token for the app developers and blockchain participants.

The appreciating value for these cryptos represents the economic value of the dApp, i.e. instead of the app makers making money from digital ad sales, they make money by owning the dApps cryptocurrency, which rises in value as more folks use the dApp.

I firmly believe that dApps will disrupt everything. The future YouTube will be a dApp. The future Uber will be a dApp. The future Spotify will be a dApp.

Most, if not all, apps in the future will be dApps.

That means its time to go out and buy a bunch of dApp-linked cryptocurrencies right?

Not so fast.

Cryptocurrencies are where internet startups were about 22 years ago: In a big bubble, that will pop, leaving most inflated cryptos today with zero value.

Just consider back in 2000, the Nasdaq had 5,000 technology companies in the index by 2003, around 1,000 of them had filed for bankruptcy, while most of the rest had been acquired at a fraction of their peak valuations.

Sure, the internet did end up turning into the future, and out of the dot-com bubble emerged trillion-dollar internet titans like Amazon and Alphabet. But the point here is that all the rewards of the internet were hogged by a handful of companies, and that most internet startups in 1999 lost investors their shirts.

Youll see the same rodeo play out with cryptos.

Cryptos are the future. But all the rewards of that future will be hogged by a few strong cryptos. Ninety percent of the coins out there today will be worthless in a few years and yet all of them are being valued for world domination.

Dont believe me? Just look at Dogecoin. It was created in 2013 as a joke. Now, it has a market cap of $40 billion. Thats unsustainable.

The crypto market today is filled with reckless speculation. Not once in the history of capitalism has unchecked speculation proven to be sustainable. A crash is coming. Most cryptocurrencies will plunge in value.

And yet out of the rubble a few super strong cryptocurrencies will emerge that will fundamentally change the world over the next two decades and turn early investors into Crypto Millionaires.

The key to striking it rich in the crypto market, then, is to buy the right cryptocurrencies the most technologically-advanced cryptocurrencies with the most value-additive applications.

Which ones make the cut?

Lucky for you, I just started highlighting some of the highest-quality yet still under-the-radar cryptocurrencies in the market in my Daily 10X Stock Report, which gives readers a potential 10X stock pick (or, in this case, crypto pick) every single day the market is open.

I believe the cryptos my team and I are highlighting over there represent the best in this industry has to offer the cryptos that will weather the coming cryptocurrency crash and emerge from it ready to soar 10X, 100X, or 1,000X over the next two decades.

Those cryptos represent the future.

To gain access to them, click here.

On the date of publication, Luke Lango did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

By uncovering early investments in hypergrowth industries, Luke Lango puts you on the ground-floor of world-changing megatrends. Its how his Daily 10X Report has averaged up to a ridiculous 100% return across all recommendations since launching last May. Click here to see how he does it.

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The Coming Cryptocurrency Crash (And the One Crypto You Should Buy) - InvestorPlace

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If you asked 10 random people if they ever used cryptocurrency, youd likely get 10 nos, but it seems like the digital alt-money is trending more every day. Its easy to understand why. Bitcoin, the first and most famous cryptocurrency, is the investment story of the decade and perhaps of all time. Bitcoin was worth a fraction of a cent when it first emerged in 2009. In March 2021, it peaked above $60,000. When a penny turns into a Porsche in a little more than a decade, it tends to draw attention. Heres what you need to know about cryptocurrency.

Read: Dogecoins Major Price Increase: Is It a Worthwhile Investment?

Cryptocurrency is often described as a digital asset, but dont mistake it for a digitized version of cash like the kind you spend with PayPal. You can pay for things with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, just like dollars, yen and euros, but the difference is that those and all other traditional currencies are issued and backed by central authorities like governments or banks.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not. Instead, theyre awarded as digital tokens to miners for their work in maintaining blockchains, the encrypted ledgers where cryptocurrency ownership is recorded, stored and validated.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH): Hows It Differ From Bitcoin and Whats It Worth?

Cryptocurrency is:

Decentralized, traded on a peer-to-peer basis and exchanged with neither the scrutiny nor the security that comes with a central authority like a bank or government

Anonymous privacy is one of cryptos primary selling points

Secured in a special digital wallet, not a bank account

Cryptocurrency is not yet a realistic day-to-day alternative to money as the world knows it for the average person, but it has certainly come a long way from its early days in the online underground. Most recently, Visa announced it would accept cryptocurrency. Before that, PayPal added crypto capabilities to its own platform. Everyone from Burger King to Overstock.com accepts it as payment and several big, publicly traded companies most notably Tesla have added large crypto positions to their portfolios.

Story continues

But its not just big corporations. A 2020 HSB study found that more than one-third of small- and medium-sized businesses accept cryptocurrency, too.

More: India Proposes Ban on Bitcoin and the US Could Be Next

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and its still the most widely known and widely used by far. Its success has spawned thousands of crypto spinoffs. Among the best-known challengers are Ethereum and Binance Coin, but Bitcoin is still the king of the hill. In fact, all cryptocurrencies that arent Bitcoin are known collectively as altcoin.

Bitcoins first decade was a story of fairytale gains spun out of pinball-machine volatility that would send the average investor scrambling for cover. Along with wild price swings, the first years of cryptocurrency were riddled with headline-grabbing cases of fraud, theft, hacking and other scandals.

Get Started: How To Invest In Cryptocurrency

Not only is crypto investing a highly speculative and turbulent undertaking, but the actual process of investing is unfamiliar and outside the mainstream. Unlike the stock market, which is heavily regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, there is no central authority that oversees the exchange of cryptocurrency. Some crypto exchanges are regulated, some are not. Big ones like Coinbase and Kraken are located in the U.S. Many others are scattered across the globe.

Since the SEC doesnt recognize the exchanges where cryptocurrency is traded, there are no ETFs that track cryptocurrency directly the way there are for gold and traditional currency. So-called crypto ETFs only track companies that are indirectly connected to cryptocurrency.

Read: The Hype Around NFTs: What Are They? And How Pricey Do They Get?

In short, crypto is still fast-lane investing that constitutes a minority position, if any, in most portfolios. What can be said today that could not in years past, however, is that its now clear that cryptocurrency is here to stay.

More From GOBankingRates

Last updated: March 31, 2021

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Breaking Down the Basics of Cryptocurrency

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Breaking Down the Basics of Cryptocurrency - Yahoo Finance

As the use of cryptocurrency increases, so does the risk of being a target for scammers. Tom Merritt offers five tips for defending against cryptocurrency scams.

Cryptocurrency is hot. You can buy a car with it... Heck, you can buy a tweet with it. When anything is hot, it becomes a target for scammers. So, it's time to defend yourself. Here are five ways to protect yourself against cryptocurrency scams.

SEE: Cryptocurrency: An insider's guide (free PDF)

These tips are similar to most security practices. Cryptocurrency is just the latest vector in which fraudsters and malicious actors will try to get at you. Get more information on how to protect yourself in Lance Whitney's TechRepublic article, How to protect your organization and yourself from cryptocurrency scams.

Subscribe to TechRepublic Top 5 on YouTubefor all the latest tech advice for business pros from Tom Merritt.

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Top 5 ways to protect against cryptocurrency scams - TechRepublic