Category Archives: Cryptocurrency
Could Cryptocurrencies Replace Cash? – Investopedia
At the beginning of the cryptocurrency boom, Bitcoin seemed to be the unquestioned leader. Up until early this year, Bitcoin accounted for the vast majority of the industrys market capitalization; then, in a span of just weeks, Ethereum, Ripple, and other currencies rushed to catch up. While Bitcoin is still in the lead, the rapid turnover in the industry has some analysts predicting that even bigger changes could be ahead. Among them? The idea that cryptocurrencies could come to replace cash entirely.
A report by Futurism highlights some of the possible outcomes, should cryptocurrencies surpass fiat currencies at some point in the future. One important consideration is that cryptocurrencies cannot be manipulated quite as easily as fiat currency, largely due to their decentralized and unregulated status. Beyond that, cryptocurrencies could better support the concept of a universal basic income than fiat currencies would. As a matter of fact, some programs have already experimented with the use of cryptocurrencies as means of distributing a universal basic income.
Further, cryptocurrencies could help to get rid of intermediaries in everyday transactions. This could cut costs for businesses and help out consumers.
Of course, there are also some huge challenges and concerns with this scenario. If cryptocurrencies outpace cash in terms of usage, traditional currencies will lose value without any means of recourse. Should cryptocurrencies take over entirely, new infrastructure would have to be developed in order to allow the world to adapt. There would inevitably be difficulties with the transition, as cash could become incompatible quite quickly, leaving some people with lost assets. Established financial institutions would likely have to scramble to change their ways.
Beyond the impact of a cryptocurrency future on individual consumers and on financial institutions, governments themselves would suffer. Governmental control over central currencies is key to regulation in many ways, and cryptocurrencies would operate with much less government purview. Governments could no longer, for example, determine how much of a currency to print in response to external and internal pressures. Rather, the generation of new coins or tokens would be dependent upon independent mining operations.
Regardless of how individual investors may feel about the prospect of a switch from standard cash to cryptocurrencies, it is likely out of anyones hands. Of course, with ample speculation abounding that the cryptocurrency industry is a bubble that is destined to pop, its also possible that predictions of a crypto future could be overblown. What is difficult for investors is that, as with all things crypto-related, changes happen incredibly quickly, and predicting them is always tough.
Read more:
Could Cryptocurrencies Replace Cash? - Investopedia
Substratum Launches Substrate Cryptocurrency to Power the New Decentralized Web – The Merkle
Aug 18, 2017 Substratum is proud to announce development of the decentralized web fueled by a new cryptocurrency currently in ICO, Substrate.
The Substratum Network is built around the concepts of simplicity and freedom, offering open-source tools anyone can use to participate in the decentralized web. Users run one-click software to set up nodes that serve content. Anyone running a node is paid in Substrate microtransactions each time a request is fulfilled, letting them earn passive income while contributing to an open web experience.
Powering this decentralized web is Substrate (SUB), a new cryptocurrency designed to be user friendly from the ground up. Substrate is divided into Atoms extending only to the second decimal place, creating a fiat-like notation familiar to the general public. This aids in adoption and makes Substrate a friendlier alternative to other cryptocurrencies.
The Substratum Network leverages blockchain technology, advanced cryptography, artificial intelligence, and custom compression algorithms to ensure fast, safe, and efficient operation of the network. Best of all, end-users can view content hosted on Substratum directly in their default browser with no special software needed.
Substrate entered ICO in mid-August. The pre-ICO phase ran for one week prior and closed over $1 million in contributions, far exceeding the minimum funding goal. Substrate is expected to hit exchanges September 2017.
The Substratum Network comes at a time when people are increasingly concerned with online privacy, censorship, and net neutrality. Substratums decentralized nature allows it to break free from those constrictions and empower users to take back the web. With its user-focused design, Substratum makes it easy for anyone to earn cryptocurrency and change the world.
For more information about the Substratum Network or to participate in the Substratum ICO, visit https://substratum.net
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of any The Merkle employees. This is not investment or trading advice, always do your own independent research.
More:
Substratum Launches Substrate Cryptocurrency to Power the New Decentralized Web - The Merkle
More Evidence that Cryptocurrencies Are a Bubble? – Investopedia
Given the flurry of news about cryptocurrencies over the past several months, it's difficult not to get excited at the prospect of quick profits. The industry has grown exponentially, topping $120 billion in total market cap after many of the leading tokens have catapulted to record high price levels since the start of the year. And yet, there are analysts who caution that such meteoric gains can not be sustainable over the long term. While there is ample talk of cryptocurrencies taking over in a major way, including speculation that crypto space may outpace cash over the long term, there are many voices suggesting that the digital currency world is also representative of a bubble. Forbes analyst Clem Chambers has argued this for several months, and suggests new reasons for his opinion in a recent piece.
Chambers argues that the cryptocurrency world is a bubble over the short term. Still, he suggests that the industry will go up, overall, in the medium-to-long term. Regardless, Chambers argues, investors should get involved in the crypto world, even if they feel that the ultimate direction of the market is down. The reason? "Because cryptocurrencies have so many decimal points some of the coins out there are effectively toy tokens," Chambers says. Investing even $100 in them will help even the most skeptical investor to have a better understanding of the new technology and the way it will change the investment world. And that is the key: regardless of when and how a cryptocurrency bubble bursts, it will impact the broader investment world for the long term.
Chambers points to companies that have become some of the largest in the world and which first gained prominence in the dotcom boom. Although the dotcom bubble burst, those major companies are still in existence, and many are thriving.
One of the reasons that Chambers believes investors should spend their time looking at cryptocurrencies, even if they feel that the bubble will pop, is that cryptocurrencies hold the key to understanding how blockchain works. Blockchain, the technology which supports the crypto space, has many broad applications, both within and outside of that field. Chambers believes that "this thrilling madness will at some point spill into the old highly regulated world of equities. Anyone who 'gets it' when this happens will be set to make fine returns."
Of course, Chambers' view is just one of many. With extreme volatility plaguing the cryptocurrency market even now, fortunes can be made or lost in a short period of time. If there is a bubble, when it bursts and the market crashes there will be many who suffer the consequences. And yet, there may still be reasons to consider investing in cryptocurrencies, nonetheless.
See the rest here:
More Evidence that Cryptocurrencies Are a Bubble? - Investopedia
Will the Bitcoin Fork Continue to Boost the Cryptocurrency’s Value? – TheStreet.com
It is now just over two weeks the Bitcoin split happened creating a new currency - Bitcoin Cash. To make intelligent decisions on where Bitcoin may be headed, it's imperative to take a look at how this historic fork has impacted the cryptocurrency landscape.
Trace Schmeltz at Barnes & Thornburg LLP explains what is crystal clear: the Bitcoin market has become more valuable than ever.
"By all accounts, this new currency is now the third most valuable cryptocurrency in the world, despite a slow start out of the gate," Schmeltz says. "The Bitcoin market both BTC and BCC - is more valuable than ever before. It would appear that the market has reacted favorably to this early test of currency run by the masses -- what appears to be democracy in action."
Schmeltz explains the recent fork demonstrates that a currency without a central governing body can survive controversy. "Here, of course, a large number of BTC community-members firmly believed that the 'segregated witness' methodology some members wanted to adopt to expand Bitcoin violated core principles of the first cryptocurrency," Schmeltz says. "So, they 'split off,' or created a fork in the distributed ledger, to form BCC -- Bitcoin Cash."
Ryan Radloff, head of investor relations at XBT Provider, explains there have been multiple forks in Bitcoin's history. "In a funny way, it's a feedback mechanism or voting system by the community to choose which version of a protocol upgrade they believe is best for the coin," Radloff says. "The strongest and most fit will survive, just like anything in life."
But the reasons for the fork, of course, are complex. Radloff explains it happens when a suggested protocol upgrade (code-base update) is not supported by the entire network and thus, the entire network does not upgrade or implement the change.
"At this point, there are two versions of the codebase, with a shared history that diverges at a specific point in time --at which point all future transactions are unique to each codebase and recorded on a different blockchain," Radloff says. "With respect to the recent Bitcoin fork which resulted in Bitcoin Cash: a rule in the original protocol limited the number of transactions per second."
This has created drawbacks as the scale of the network has grown larger. As a result, a group of developers who maintain the network, alongside the core Bitcoin developers, created a rival token known as Bitcoin Cash, designed to allow more transactions per second.
"The core development team also implemented a solution which makes it easier to build protocol on top of the Bitcoin network which allows faster transactions," Radloff says. "This approach has seen widespread adoption and is allowing the network to scale up - likely a partial driver of the most recent rally."
All is not hunky-dory in the Bitcoin world and we must acknowledge prepare for further problems.
Are you investing in cryptocurrency? Don't miss TheStreet's coverage:
Aaron Lasher, co-founder and CMO of Breadwallet, noted thatBitcoin has a scaling problem and can only clear about three transactions per second.
"Due to its popularity, it's operating at max capacity," Lasher says. "The fork was the culmination of almost three years of heated debate about how to scale bitcoin so that it can process transactions more quickly. Two sides had very different solutions, each with trade-offs that require deep knowledge in computer science, technology, and economics to fully comprehend."
Lasher explains that, ideally, the community of developers, miners and users would have come to a consensus and preserved the network as one Bitcoin, but that didn't happen and the network split in two. The landscape has changed, because now neither scaling solution is hypothetical; they are both in the wild, where they will compete for dominance in the marketplace.
This is what a top bitcoin player is doing right now.
Is another Bitcoin fork for possible?
"Regarding another split or fork for Bitcoin - generally speaking spin-off's are good for both entities - old one and newly created," says Krzysztof Kolaczynski, the founder of STABLE, a company which aims to reduce the inefficiencies existing in cryptocurrency markets and stabilize them. "But inthe nearest future, I don't think that another fork would be good for Bitcoin."
"The worst possibility for me at this moment is arranging in the near term another fork - that could put the trust under the danger and I am afraid that it would trigger a cascade reaction of new forks and we don't know what would be the consequences,"Kolaczynski adds.
Kolaczynski explains we should wait at least couple of months in order to see if Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash benefited both entities arranged into this deal.
Read more:
Will the Bitcoin Fork Continue to Boost the Cryptocurrency's Value? - TheStreet.com
From UFC To Fighting Fake News With Cryptocurrency – SportTechie
A new social network is paying users to post as long as their content is verified.
OnG.Social, the social media platform of parent company OneName Global, Inc., allows users to create posts using a centralized dashboard that can then distribute those posts on a users other social networks Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. These posts are then authenticated by professionals.
In return for posting verified information, users will earnonG-Coins, an original cryptocurrency that rewards truth and seeks to block the spread of fake news. That idea caught on with Adrian Rosenbusch, a former UFC cutman who signed a sponsorship deal withonG.Social after meeting Chris Kramer, the CEO of OneName Global. After seeing what Kramer put into the company, Rosenbusch joined full-time in 2014 as Chief Visionary Officer.
Its a real passion project, which is really what drew me to it in the first place, Rosenbusch told SportTechie. Were having people evangelize our messages because they really believe in it. One such evangelist is Kenny Florian, a former UFC fighter.
On Monday, onG.Social offered its first shares ofonG-Coin in an initial coin offering that was pre-valued at $25 million, according to the onG-Coin website. The ability of users to make money off their posts was intriguing to many in the professional fighting industry, Rosenbusch said, because it allows them to share content about their lives and monetize it. It also gives a platform to fighters who want to start businesses but dont necessarily know where to start.
OnG.Social is backed by IBM after participating in the tech giants Global Entrepreneur program, Rosenbusch said. He added that IBMs pursuit of blockchain technologies goes hand-in-hand with onG.Socials mission. OnG.Social was live as a social platform before it entered the blockchain, but now uses the Ethereum and Waves blockchain platforms, which promotes extra security and reliability, according to a press release.
IBM, theyre busy right now with their own projects in blockchain, so were all doing our thing together. We all see in the same direction, Rosenbusch said.
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
In its move to the blockchain, onG.Social will also include the APIs to decentralized social networks such as Steemit, Akasha, Golem, and MaidSafe, among others.
The key to onG.Socials core mission is the Gravity algorithm, which takes into account the validity and social impact of posts and awards cryptocurrency, according to the press release. Posts are validated by community experts for example, apost on a medical procedure would be deemed true or not by a doctor, Rosenbusch said and assigned a Gravity score that would make the post more or less visible.
The users whose posts have low or negative Gravity scores would not be silenced or shut down, as a low-performing channel might be by its corporate parent, but rather ignored by a majority of users.
That alone takes away so many of the problems you have with status-quo networks, where if youre just arguing for the sake of arguing, or posting negative content youll get a low Gravity score, you wont get shut down, Rosenbusch explained. Its all up to the user. Nobodys silencing your voice, but also nobodys paying attention to you.
Instead, Rosenbusch said, the companys goal is to bring people together, allow for the largest multitude of voices, and to protect users content.
The initial coin offering is open until mid-September, and investors who buy onG-Coin can vote, in Reddit fashion, on posts made on onG.Social. The social network is entirely free to use.
Originally posted here:
From UFC To Fighting Fake News With Cryptocurrency - SportTechie
Canada Approves First Cryptocurrency Sale in Property Rights Shake-Up – Voice of America
TORONTO
Canadian financial regulators have approved the public sale of a new digital currency in the country's first official endorsement of money created independently of the government or central banks, company officials said on Wednesday.
Produced with digital encryption techniques, cryptocurrencies like Montreal-based impak Coin allow users to create their own money supply - with potentially significant impacts for how wealth and property rights are controlled.
Impak Coin has already raised more than C$1.5 million ($1.18 million) for the new currency and plans to launch an Initial Coin Offering - or a public sale of the digital money - this month.
By allowing people to create a new currency, the project aims to reduce the power of big banks in determining how property rights are managed and money is created, said Paul Allard, chief executive of impak Finance, the social enterprise behind the project.
"It is up to communities to decide how to manage a currency, it is not only for the government to decide," Allard told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
'No need for government'
Throughout modern history governments have had control over how money is created and the power to enforce contracts and determine how goods and services are transferred.
Cryptocurrencies - through blockchain, the information storage and database system they use - have challenged that power, said Simon Trimborn, a professor at the Free University of Berlin who studies digital networks.
"The link between cryptocurrencies and individual property rights is the information storage and transaction system behind cryptocurrencies, the blockchain," Trimborn told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"It is a database which can guarantee property rights while there is no need for relying on a company or government."
Contracts are made digitally between peers and transactions are often conducted without government oversight, reducing the state's power over the market.
The move by financial authorities to approve the sale of the digital money means "confidence and trust for investors", said Jean-Philippe Vergne, a professor at the Ivey Business School in Ontario, Canada, who studies cryptocurrencies.
"We are observing a profound change in the nature of capitalism," Vergne told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "For the first time we have a technology that allows us to remove intermediaries such as government or central banks."
Digital impact
Impak Finance hopes to raise up to C$10 million from its first sale of coins. Users who buy the new currency will be able to spend it via a mobile wallet connected to their phones.
More than 500 businesses have signed up to accept the new currency when it launches, Allard said.
He expects that will grow into the thousands as the project develops a "critical mass" of users, leading to more buyers and sellers making transactions.
Users will be able to exchange impak coins for traditional money which will be credited to their accounts after an initial waiting period in order to stop speculators from causing volatility in the currency's value, Allard said.
Impak Finance will initially keep 40 percent of the money invested in the new currency as reserves in order to have cash on hand if users want to exchange it for traditional money.
Only businesses adhering to social and environmental standards are able to use the currency, said Allard, who hopes consumers interested in ethical purchasing will be attracted to the plan.
The "impact economy" - a small but growing sector that seeks to put the achievement of social good at the center of business - is expected to grow by more than 15 percent next year in North America, Allard said.
New type of property
Impak Finance will be entering a crowded market of new digital currencies, analysts said.
Following the growth of bitcoin, the most well known cryptocurrency, there are now more than 1,000 similar digital currencies being traded over the internet, said Arvind Narayanan, a computer science professor at Princeton University in the United States.
Most of these new digital offerings, however, are used for speculation - investors hoping the currency will gain popularity and then rise in value - rather than buying and selling tangible goods and services, Narayanan said.
"People are trying to get the state out of money and various forms of property," Narayanan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "regulators and law enforcement are trying to adapt to a new technological development."
($1 = 1.2707 Canadian dollars)
Read the original:
Canada Approves First Cryptocurrency Sale in Property Rights Shake-Up - Voice of America
Cryptocurrency Exchange ShapeShift Acquires Bitcoin Wallet Startup – CoinDesk
Cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift has acquired the bitcoin hardware wallet startup KeepKey, the two firms announced today.
ShapeShift will continue to use the KeepKey brand and its staff will stay on to continue working on the hardware product line, according to today's announcement. KeepKey had originally integrated with ShapeShift by way of its API last summer.
The deal the terms of which were not disclosed represents the first acquisition of a startup specifically focused on hardware products.
"This partnership will not only guarantee the future success of the KeepKey brand and product line, but joining the ShapeShift team will enable us to focus on continuing to work on developing better technology and security for crypto-holders,"Ken Hodler, KeepKey's chief technology officer, said in a statement.
The deal comes months after ShapeShift closeda $10.4 million funding round. At the time, the exchange drew on a list of backers that includedEarlybird Venture Capital, which led the round.
It also follows a move by KeepKey toend its supportlate last month for the long-running MultiBit bitcoin wallet. KeepKey first acquired MultiBitin May 2016.
Disclosure:CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in ShapeShift.
Image via Shutterstock
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].
Original post:
Cryptocurrency Exchange ShapeShift Acquires Bitcoin Wallet Startup - CoinDesk
How Exactly Do You Get Rich Off The Hot New Cryptocurrency? – Gizmodo Australia
Image: Getty
With the meteoric rise in popularity of Ethereum, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are back in the news again. Graphics card prices have soared with the promise that those who have the computers and know-how to do some serious mining can take home huge sums in a Bitcoin-like gold rush to snatch up as much virtual currency as possible. But how easy is it to make your fortune in cryptocurrency? And is it worth your while getting started?
Weve all had tech related regrets. Betamax, backing the Zune against the iPod, letting that precious vinyl collection go. No one likes living with regrets, so dont add what you drive to that list. Stop thinking about it and just book a Mustang test drive already.
For the uninitiated, mining for currencies like Bitcoin and Ether means devoting a huge amount of computer processing power to doing accounting sums for the platforms behind them, helping to verify the accuracy of the public blockchain ledgers.
You're essentially getting rewarded for keeping the books for these platforms, which we've explained in more detail here, and the rise of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and others has led to a flood of amateur enthusiasts jumping into the mining business the idea of having your computer whirring away making you free money sounds almost too good to be true.
Image: Peter Miller/Flickr
And in reality, it almost is you can get rich from cryptocurrencies, but you need to put in plenty of work, and have luck on your side. You're more likely to get a windfall due to market pressures than the quality of your mining rig, which is why it's only worth a shot for the most committed and the most adventurous.
Mining for cryptocoin requires some free software tools and a dedicated rig. Turn the clock back several years and you could get away with a powerful home PC and make a few bucks. These days you can waste a weekend and a month's wages on building a machine with four graphics cards purring away in a row and still not make a profit.
GPUs are now established as the mining processors of choice in most situations graphics cards are even built for and marketed towards miners now basically because they're better at doing lots of laborious, repetitive tasks, whereas CPUs are better suited to switching between many tasks quickly.
Image: Screenshot
The trouble is, the serious players have got whole farms of these computers, and unless you've got a warehouse and some life savings to spare, you're going to be lagging a long way behind. You're up against huge foreign operations running off cheap electricity and hardware bought wholesale.
Even if you do get yourself a rig set up and find a currency with a bit of a profit margin, you're still putting yourself at the whims of the cryptocurrency markets mining can start or stop becoming profitably depending on a currency's current value.
There are several profit calculators on the web that will tell you how much computing power and electricity you need to make a certain amount of cash, so you can see exactly how much (or more likely, how little) you could make. Take Bitcoin, for example, which is now just about impossible to mine profitably for average users at home you'd need thousands of GPUs running before you'd get close to getting more back in Bitcoin than you'd be paying for electricity.
Market fluctuations in cryptocurrencies. Image: Screenshot
You can fork out thousands of dollars on specialised kit, if you want to, but even then you're only going to be raking in a handful of dollars a day with Bitcoin. That of course can go up or down as the currency value fluctuates, and what's profitable one day might not be the next if your chosen cryptocurrency dips in value, or gets some bad media coverage that's where the slice of luck we mentioned earlier comes in.
Other options, like Feathercoin and Ether, have a better profit potential than Bitcoin right now, with the caveats we've already mentioned: If you're serious about your mining then you need to keep a very close eye on the market trends, because the situation can change on a weekly or even daily basis. A single Litecoin, another cryptocurrency, has swung from costing you between $US10 ($13) and $US55 ($72) this year alone.
For instance, a huge $US64m Ether heist carried out last year was severe enough to cause a fork in the Ethereum platform it runs on top of, and a halving in price of Ether itself if you've got a powerful, expensive, cryptocurrency mining operation going on in your basement then that's a serious hit on your profits through factors completely out of your control. Sure, a swing the other way can make you relatively rich, but it's a risk, and the upward trend won't necessarily continue.
Image: The Ethereum Project
Many modern-day miners join a mining pool, combining resources with other users and getting a share of the profits, but the same risks remain. Fork out a few thousand on a mining rig, take the time to study the market trends, go through the process of setting up the programs, join up with a mining pool, and yes you can if the prices stay buoyant and you've picked your cryptocurrency wisely make a few thousand dollars a year. Whether or not it's worth the risk and investment is up to you.
And if your investment isn't already precarious enough, remember the scene is constantly changing: In the near future Ethereum is set to switch from its existing Proof of Work (PoW) system for extending the blockchain to a new Proof of State (PoS) system which is easier to scale and less energy intensive.
Without going too far into the technical details, it essentially makes the mining process more like earning interest on money you've already got: Racks of graphics cards won't be able to generate wealth as they did in the past, which is bad news for miners looking for a profit even if it's good news for your electricity bill. Instead, earning money will rely on staking (investing) rather than mining.
Image: Asus
In other words, if you're already halfway through building your Ethereum mining machine you might want to pick a new cryptocurrency... at least until the ground rules change on that one too. (Remember what we said about the constant state of flux?) And that's really the only way to squeeze any profit out of cryptocurrency mining operations keep moving as fast as the market does, and switch up the currencies you target as conditions change.
As soon as one cryptocurrency becomes profitable to mine, as we've seen with Bitcoin and Ethereum, everyone wants a piece of the action and making money gradually gets harder. It's then time to get in early on another currency. In short, if you want to get rich (or at least make a profit), you need to pick and keep picking the right cryptocurrencies, have a serious amount of graphics processing power in hand, hope that your chosen currencies stay secure and keep increasing in value, and put in a lot of time and effort.
It's not impossible, but we can think of easier ways to make a buck. If you're determined to jump in and get involved in cryptocurrency mining, if only for the educational and geek appeal rather than to make any money, your best bet is to immerse yourself in one of the many mining forums out there, which will give you the inside track on the latest news and market trends.
Visit link:
How Exactly Do You Get Rich Off The Hot New Cryptocurrency? - Gizmodo Australia
‘Father of Financial Futures’ Seeks Cryptocurrency Hardware Patent – CoinDesk
A U.S. economist and businessman known for his work in spearheading the early development offutures contracts is seeking a cryptocurrency patent.
Richard Sandor, a former Chicago Board of Trade chief economist and vice president, advanced the utilization of financial futures back in the 1970s, earning him the moniker "the father of financial futures" and, later, "the father of carbon trading," according to Time.
Notably, perhaps, Sandoris now listed as the first of three inventors for the "Secure Electronic Storage Devices for Physical Delivery of Digital Currencies When Trading" patent application, released on August 10 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Sandor is currently the chairman and CEO of Environmental Financial Products LLC, which is listed as the applicant for the patent.The application itself details a hardware concept for the storage of digital currencies tied to derivatives contracts.
It explains:
"The invention relates to a method to facilitate trading of digital currencies, which comprises electronically storing an amount of a digital currency on an electronic storage device or electronic registry; and physically storing the storage device or electronic registry in a secure, physical repository that is not publicly accessible with the storage device or electronic registry available for use in subsequent delivery of the digital currency."
It's the latest submission to focus on cryptocurrency-related derivatives, coming on the heels of news that options exchange CBOE is planning to launch products in this area later this year.
Firms like CME have also moved to obtain intellectual property tied to cryptocurrencies. As CoinDesk previously reported, CME's patent applications reveal an interest in bitcoin mining derivatives.
Richard Sandor image viaJon Lothian News/YouTube
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].
Read the original:
'Father of Financial Futures' Seeks Cryptocurrency Hardware Patent - CoinDesk
Ripple Price Forecast: Factors Suggest XRP Cryptocurrency …
By Gaurav S. Iyer, IFC Published : August 9, 2017
While most headlines in the cryptocurrency space involve Bitcoin or Ethereum, an increasing number of investors are thinking about investing in Ripple, the bank-focused blockchain company that is taking the crypto world by storm. With that in mind, Ive put together this report with a complete Ripple price prediction in 2018.
I know the names, tokens, and details can become overwhelming. Blockchain technology is widely misunderstood in part because the industry is so young; so the articles explaining it are still technical and full of jargon. Ill do my best to fix that.
But theres another reason that blockchain is so hard to understandit is radically different from anything thats come before it.
Ripple is certainly part of this story, and not just as a Bitcoin-imitator. It is much more than that.
There are fundamental differences between Ripple and Bitcoin, Bitcoin and Ethereum, and Ethereum and Ripple. Its not enough to say Ah! Forget these crypto coins or whatever they are called! Theyre more trouble than theyre worth!
Ripple is up 3,868% from its opening price in 2013. Even in its current lull, Ethereum prices are up 5,460% in the last two years. Can you really afford to pass up these gains?
I write about investments for a living and I rarely see four-digit growth in two or three years. Those are like shooting stars on the stock market, yet they happen on a monthly basis in the crypto world.
I think the risk is potentially worth the reward, hence this investigation.
Exclusive Free Report:
The first thing to know is that Bitcoin was viewed with hostility by many banks. Bitcoin wants to eradicate them as the middlemen of transactions, which obviously represents a ton of money for the banks. They like making money every time we use a piece of plastic.
Bitcoin is fundamentally opposed to that kind of top-down control, in which the banks are at the top and we are at the bottom. Its idea is to decentralize the payments process.
Bitcoin also wants to increase transparency, which as we all know is contrary to the modus operandi of many banks. Secrecy is, and perhaps always has been, closely tied to banking.
Also Read:Bitcoin Price Prediction 2018: Should You Invest in Bitcoin?
Thats why it was so shocking to see Ripple raise $55.0 million in venture capital from a bunch of banks and other financial firms. These were the exact middlemen that looked down their nose at Bitcoinso why did they love Ripple so much?
Its about control.
In Bitcoin transactions, a record of the transaction is recorded on the public distributed ledger, which is just a fancy way of saying a universal list that is shared across the network of Bitcoin computers. Since no one person owns all the computers involved, power is distributed.
This shattering of power is essential to Bitcoin. Its an open secret that the core community of developers got on board because they lost trust in the global financial system, so the success or failure of Bitcoin is tied to a political objective.
They need to get rid of central banks. They need to remove middlemen from transactions. They need to draw on a critical mass of vendors through popular support.
That is an awfully high bar for success. Ive always said that Bitcoin hurt its own potential by aiming so high.
Ripples aims are, by comparison, much more modest, which is why my Ripple price prediction for 2018 might seem overly generous.
The company is working to smooth out the settlement process between existing banks and financial institutions (using their XRP token, of course). Plus, their system doesnt allow for the kind of anonymity that made Bitcoin popular on the black market.
In other words, there is an added measure of control in Ripple. But I dont care about the purity of the technology as much as I care about its potential to succeed in the real world.
Banks from China, Japan, India, Switzerland, Australia, America, and Canada are already working with Ripple. There are literally dozens of partners lining up to take the best parts of blockchain technology and integrate them into their firms.
To me, that looks like a successful business model. Dont throw a Molotov cocktail through someones window. Just figure out what they need, how to work with them, and then go laughing to the bank.
Like all cryptocurrencies, Ripple experienced a fierce tailwind in May. It lifted straight off the ground and took flight, reaching $0.414795 at one point. I realize that the Ripple XRP price doesnt have an impressive four-digit price like Bitcoin, but dont let that fool you.
Investing is about the percentage gain. It is a lot easier to double the Ripple price from $0.41 to $0.82 than the Bitcoin price from $1,900 to $3,800.
So dont let size confuse you. Or if you must, look to market capitalization. Its a more honest reflection of where each currency stands.
Bitcoin has the largest market cap, at $31.29 billion; Ethereum is next, at $14.03 billion; and Ripple gets the bronze, at $6.82 billion. But dont forget that Ripple has raised about $100.0 million worth of actual money from its venture capital (VC) backers.
Now, lets get to the meaty questions like Is Ripple better than Bitcoin?
Heres my take on it.
Im extremely bullish on blockchain, not Bitcoin. There is still room to the upside for BTC prices, but the incessant Bitcoin volatility suggests that it can never become a global currency. Money needs to be stable and Bitcoin is anything but stable.
So Bitcoin has a low likelihood of succeeding.
Meanwhile, Ripple is not trying to become a global currency. It is working with existing powerbrokers to become a modern blockchain-based settlement system. It has a high likelihood of succeeding, hence the high Ripple price prediction for 2018.
Faced with those two options, Im almost always going to pick the likelier outcome. Its just a matter of odds for me, not a philosophical battle about good versus evil, us versus the central banks. I have no interest in that kind of political fight.
I just want to make money. Right now the XRP price looks deliciously favorable to that objective.
Read this article:
Ripple Price Forecast: Factors Suggest XRP Cryptocurrency ...