Year: 2018

What is Blockchain or Blockchain Technology?
2 min read
- The blockchain is the mathematical structure for storing data in a way that is nearly impossible to fake.
- Blockchain technology is an important element of cryptocurrencies. Without it, digital currencies like Bitcoin would not exist.
If you are new to blockchain technology or you are already a trader, this article is for you. So, what is the blockchain? The blockchain is an absolutely brilliant invention. The idea of a person or group of people known by the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto. By the time, it has developed into something greater, but still, there is a question: What is Blockchain?

Every day you can hear about Blockchain technology, Bitcoin, ICO, Ethereum. But do you understand what blockchain is?

How does it work? Can blockchain be used in business? Will blockchain change the world? This article is aimed to answer all these questions.

What blockchain is, the best explanation is through the game.

Imagine you and your friends are on a vacation. Its night, you are sitting around the pit-fire and playing storytelling. One has begun the story with a sentence, you are repeating the sentence and adding up your part, then the other player, etc. The main goal is the chain of sentences which are producing a story. If someone is not able to repeat and add his own sentence, the chain will fall down, it would end. New sentences are nothing without the initiation of old sentences. That exactly what the blockchain is. You added a sentence on your friend sentence, that was a ‘block’. Everyone approved your phrase because it referred to the old sentences, that is a shared ledger.

From the beginning

Common people started mistrusting the banks. There lies the birth of blockchain. A mysterious person named Satoshi Nakamoto created a whole new currency. He built the whole system on the principle of decentralization. He created a public ledger, which is synchronizing continuously and everyone is able to witness the process.

“I’ve been working on a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.”

These are the words of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, in a message sent to a cryptography-focused mailing list in October 2008. Included was a link to a nine-page white paper describing a technology that some are now convinced will disrupt the financial system.

Transform this into real life.

Let me ask you something. What happens when you send money from your bank account to someone else’s bank account? Your bank acts as a middleman, it verifies and approves the details of sender and receiver through its ledger (a book or other collection of financial accounts. In this case, you must trust your bank to have such transaction. Imagine, when banks are collapsing, will you send your money through banks? Will you be able to trust the middleman?

How does Blockchain work?

Suppose, you want to transfer some money to your friend in the other country. You will initiate a transaction, each online transaction will be a reference to ‘Block’. Because it is a public ledger, there will be broadcast to everyone in the network about the block. Constant synchronization of the ledger will be going on. If the people in the network would approve the transaction, then the ‘block’ would be added to the ‘chain’ which is a transparent record of transactions. Hence the name ‘blockchain’. This is how the money would be transferred. Satoshi Nakamoto carefully designed it to prevent the double spending of money.

What does it mean?

This problem exclusively belongs to digital currency. We can copy songs and movies from our laptops and paste them in other devices. That file will carry information. And can be copied and reproduced regarding our digital transaction. This will generate new fake currency, which is not part of our original monetary system. We can call it double spending of money.

Satoshi Nakamoto handled this problem extremely well. He introduced public ledger and an immutable chain of blocks. Every transaction is bundled into a block, every block is processed, authenticated, time-stamped and linked to the previous block.

This creates an immutable chain

When you want to send some money from your bank account, your bank will verify and confirm the transaction. Problem is that you have only one confirmation in the banking system. But, in the blockchain, at least 6 confirmations are required for a block to be added to the chain. Contrary, it is rejected. Can you see how blockchain is more secure and transparent?

Why use blockchain?

Transparency is one of the reasons why should use this technology. It is about its open source structure. It means that other users of the network can read and confirm or not confirm the information. The essential thing of being open source is that it can’t save logged data without majority blockchain network users.

Decentralization is other. Next main blockchain reason is the lack of a central data hub. Instead of running a massive data center you save your information in decentralized net, where any user can read, check and authorize any of your actions.

User controlled networks are also advantaged, a consequence of the decentralization of the network. Instead of holding a third party for data processing, stakeholders decided to control each other and decide what to do next. For instance, the inability to achieve 80% consensus on the update, tied to the bitcoin block, lies in the fact that it was necessary to develop a plug into two separate currencies, bitcoin, and bitcoin cash.

Faster transaction settlements is another advantage. Blockchain technology works 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That means the blockchain based transaction process is faster.

When you send the transaction to traditional banks, it will take days to be completely settled. This is due to protocols in bank transferring software, and working time. You also have financial institutions located in various time zones, which delays processing times, but it’s not about blockchain.

Reduced transaction costs are characteristic. Blockchain allows you to execute transactions without a third party, which is often a bank or a central server. Since the intermediary is absent, this allows you to get rid of imposing expense items.

Where to use the blockchain

There are a lot of uses of blockchain technology. Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies is just one application of blockchain. We have Ethereum, which is a platform where different applications can be built, it is more like an Operating System. And other altcoins too, are based on the blockchain. And many other fields. The blockchain is not only about cryptocurrencies.

In healthcare, the use of digital signatures based on blockchain data allows access only with the permission of several people and full compliance with keys, also allows to regulate the availability and maintain the confidentiality of medical records.

As a protection, the blockchain technology is creating an impregnable network with the impossibility to get access from the outside. The blockchain technology can improve transparency, speed up work and check corruption in governments all around the world. Probably one of the most popular uses of blockchain technology in the modern world is energy. In order to maximize the rational use of the generated energy, blockchain technology provides to see how much energy we use, at what hours, etc. There are lots of opportunities with blockchain technology and its immeasurable potential for improving the quality of service provision improving the confidentiality and integrity of data at the same time.

Bottom line:

So, what is blockchain? Maybe the best answer is this quotation: ‘The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.’ said Don & Alex Tapscott, authors Blockchain Revolution (2016).

The blockchain technology is extremely powerful and can disrupt many existing organizations. No matter what happens with Bitcoin, Blockchain technology is here to stay, in a more refined and sophisticated manner.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)
23rd October 2018
Who are the most successful investors in India?

2 min read

All those who enter the stock market in India has the same dreams. They all want to become absurdly wealthy like few of the known richest investors in the world. These guys made a success! It is never easy to make money by investing or trading in stock markets. The stock markets are highly volatile and your investments can be at high risks. Many people have lost all their savings in this market. Yes, the rules are the same for all, but the story is not the same for all. Many have gathered good wealth. In India too. We found some beautiful stories about successful investors in Indian stock market.

We want to introduce some of the most successful investors in India. How was their journey, what principles they follow, how long they have been investing? Who knows, maybe these examples could be an inspiration to all of us. For you too!

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala – Stock market investor

He is one of the most successful investors in India. His portfolio is worth over Rs. 20,000 crores / 3.2 billion dollars. His top holding is CRILIS but he holds stocks of Titan and Lupin too. He is known as Indian Warren Buffet.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala entered the Indian market in 1985. His father was interested in the stock market and boy-Rakesh was very carefully listener during the long conversations among his father and his friends. He attended the Chartered Accountancy course to gain a professional degree and completed in 1985.

After that, he joined the Stock Market and started trading. His first biggest bet was 5000 shares of Tata Tea which he got for Rs 43 and sold for Rs143 in just 3 months. This gave him Rs. 5 Lakh which was a big deal at that time. His next big hit was Sesa Goa. He bought 4 lakh shares and gathered huge profits on it. After that first successes, a lot of stocks made large sums of money for him like Lupin, Crisil, etc.

Porinju Veliyath – CEO of Equity Intelligence

He is one of the most well-known investors and fund manager. Equity Intelligence stock picks like Emkay Global Financial Services and BCL Industries has raised by 200% in their share prices and IZMO and Vista Pharma raised by 100% at their share prices under his hand. But it wasn’t so easy in the beginning.

The story of his life isn’t exactly ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ but he had a lot of struggles in his early days. Porinju Veliyath was born in the lower-middle-class family in Kochi. During his student days, he had to work many different and hard jobs to support his family.

When he moved to Mumbai in 1990 in search of a job, he became a floor trader at Kotak Securities there. He was clever, learned quickly and he became an expert trader. He worked for 4 years there and got a lot of knowledge. In 1994, he joined Parag Parikh Securities as a Research Analyst and fund manager. In 1999, he returned to his hometown Kochi and decided to make money on his own from the stock market. He made his first major investment in ‘Geojit Financial Services’. The stock was trading at a very low value at that time. Proving everybody wrong, this investment gave him multiple returns. In 2002, he started his own portfolio management service firm in the name of ‘Equity Intelligence’.

Vijay Kedia – a successful investor with the origin

He describes success on the stock market: ‘knowledge to find out quality stocks which one can acquire only by reading. If one doesn’t have reading habits, he can’t be a good investor.’

Vijay Kedia was born in the family of stock-brokers. He started his career in the stock market in 1978 not by his own choice but by force after his father died.

He joined the family business of trading and stock-broking. At the start, he was not doing well. But, he did not lose hope. He realized that trading didn’t suit him well and decided to start with investing. But learned a lot about the fundamentals of companies. In the beginning, he owned Rs 35,000 and by his own study, he invested the entire amount in a stock named Punjab Tractor. In 3 years, the stock multiplied 6 times and his Rs 35,000 grew into Rs. 2.1 Lakhs. Then, he invested in ACC at the rate of Rs. 300. After a year, the stock multiplied 10 times and moved to Rs. 3,000 in the second year. He continued to make successful investments in various stocks to create a wealth of 500 crores.

Vijay Kedia is betting now on Everest Industries and Vaibhav Global as multi-bagger stocks for 2018. And still is one of the most successful investors in India.

Nemish Shah – top 10 retail investor

His net worth is Rs 1,300 crore.

Nemish Shah is the co-founder of ENAM, one of the most reputed and respectable investment houses. He keeps himself away from media and publicity. His investment ideas are most sought after. He invested in Asahi India and multiplied his funds to 3.4 times in 3 years. He does not invest in too many stocks. His focus is on limited stocks and highly sector-driven.

Ramesh Damani – well-known investor

Ramesh Dhamani is well-known as Warren Buffet follower as much as because of his investments in listed and unlisted companies. He is picking high-quality stocks and retaining them for a long time. He follows the model for investing that favors companies with strong management credentials and processes. And it is Warren Buffet’s model. That affords him millions of rupee. Also, one of the most successful investors in India.

Raamdeo Agrawal – Founder of Motilal Oswal Group

Raamdeo Agrawal is one of the founder members of Motilal Oswal Group and MD and co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services. He started buying stocks in 1980 and till 1994; he made a portfolio of about Rs. 10 crores. Then, he read Warren Buffet’s tips and worked upon his portfolio to pick quality stocks instead of accumulating bad sticks. In a span of one year time, his portfolio doubled. He has amassed a net worth of over Rs. 6,500 Crore /1 Bn dollars.

Dolly Khanna – the Value investor

Women in the top 7 the most successful investors in India. Value investor Dolly Khanna has been investing in the Indian stock market since 1996. Her portfolio is managed by her husband Rajiv Khanna. She made debut through the fertilizer sector by homing in on a top-quality small-cap stock which enjoys a monopoly position. She has a knack of spotting multi-bagger stocks and knows exactly when to book profits. Emkay Global Financials, PPAP Automotives, IFB Industries, Thirumalai Chemicals are some of the picks form her portfolio.

Bottom line:

If you want to become successful in the stock market, then you should learn from the lives of these iconic stock market investors. How was their journey, what principles they follow, how long they have been investing?

Everyone who enters the stock market world knows about Warren Buffet. The greatest investor of all time and one of the richest person in this world who made his fortune by investing in stocks. But you have to know these guys and their life path.

Both you and they deserve this to know.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

22nd October 2018
BITCOIN MINING EXPLAINED: HOW IT WORKS, HOW MUCH ENERGY IT USES AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED

The cryptocurrency has staged a meteoric rise in 2017 that has attracted new investors, but, for many, question marks still surround bitcoin and the technology behind it. With recent reports pointing to the high energy cost associated with mining, the process used to create bitcoin, is there any way to fix it? Here are all your questions answered.

WHAT IS BITCOIN MINING?

Just as gold miners produce the world’s supply of gold, so do bitcoin miners produce all the digital currency available to the market – but, naturally, it is a bit more complicated than that. Mining is the process of adding transaction records to Bitcoin’s public ledger, or the blockchain.

HOW DOES MINING PHYSICALLY WORK?

First of all, the blockchain is, simply, a chain of blocks. Miners use special software to solve mathematical problems that both confirm legitimate transactions or blocks and create new bitcoins, adding new transactions to the blockchain about every 10 minutes. The hash rate is the number of calculations a piece of hardware can make every second as it works to solve that math problem, and the higher the hash rate, the more likely a miner is to solve a transaction and thus be rewarded with a set amount of bitcoin.

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT?

The difficulty of mining bitcoin is part of its design. The ideal average mining time is 10 minutes per block, and if that falls, the process becomes more difficult with the aim of keeping the block creation rate stable. There are a total of 21m bitcoins that can be mined, at which point the miners will close shop unless bitcoin’s protocol – the rules that secure the system – is changed to allow for a larger supply.

IS IT PROFITABLE?

Mining can be profitable, as miners are rewarded with a fixed amount of coins and transaction fees for their hard work, but the computers and hardware necessary for powering through blocks can eat up a lot of electricity and end up running huge costs.

HOW MUCH ENERGY IS USED AND WHAT IS THE COST?

The massive computer network behind bitcoin uses quite a bit of energy – as much as Serbia, to be exact.

A recent report by Accounts & Legal said the aggregate computing power of the bitcoin network is nearly 100,000 times larger than the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers combined, and miners are constantly installing upgrades to make their computers faster.

Digiconomist has created a bitcoin energy consumption index in order to understand how much electricity is consumed by the cryptocurrency. As of 5 December, bitcoin’s estimated annual electricity consumption was 31.96 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 0.14 percent of the world’s total electricity consumption. That’s about the same as Serbia and more than Morocco, Oman, and the Slovak Republic. Annualized estimated global mining costs were $1.6bn (£1.2bn), while annualized global mining revenues were $10.2bn. The index says 250-kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity are consumed per transaction.

WHAT’S THE NEXT BIG CHALLENGE FOR BITCOIN?

Greenspan said working out how to scale the network is next on the agenda. “Energy consumption is only a small part of that. If bitcoin is to replace cash, in the long run, it will need to be fitted to process more than 100,000 transactions per second. At the moment it can do about 10. Many proposals are on the table but as the currency is decentralized it’s difficult to get everybody to agree on one,” he said.

Read more HERE

This article was originally posted on markemlickprivateequity.com/

22nd October 2018
Crypto cannabis is very hot now!

The cannabis industry is hotter than ever, cryptocurrencies got high

3 min read

Crypto cannabis is very hot now. PotCoins are digital coins you can send via the internet, which allow cannabis enthusiasts to interact, transact, communicate and grow together.

Cannabis cryptocurrencies or weed coins are tokens by the marijuana industry. Pot is now completely legal in Canada and Uruguay, and several states in the United States. Consumption of marijuana for medical use is legal in some other states, and also in countries like Israel and the Czech Republic.

Crypto cannabis market

The cannabis market is one of the quickest growing markets but is held back in some countries by states laws that still consider it an illegal drug. That makes problems for the industry to raise money, which is where cannabis cryptocurrencies enter the scene. Weed coins intend to change the nature of the medium of payments for the legalized cannabis industry since traditional banking systems make obstructions for the business.

The booming marijuana industry and cryptocurrencies could present an investment opportunity.

There are several ways to invest in crypto cannabis and it becomes easier to buy legal weed with cryptocurrency. Hence, like any other investment, comes with its own risks. In case you are interested, here is the list of 10 weed coins in the market.

1. PotCoin (POT) – This decentralized crypto became the first of many cannabis cryptocurrencies in 2014. Since then PotCoin is the gold standard. POT’s max supply is 420 million.PotCoin’s market cap peaked at $90,097,520 on January 1, 2018. In June, PotCoin spiked again when basketball player Dennis Rodman wore a PotCoin.com t-shirt to the US-North Korea summit. PotCoin’s valuation was up for 20% on that day. You can buy PotCoin on Bittrex, Changelly, PotcoinTrade, and PotWallet. With a market cap of well over $10 million, PotCoin is the highest valued weed cryptocurrency.

2. HempCoin (THC) – HempCoin (THC) isn’t designed just for cannabis. THC coin is designed for the entire agriculture industry, from tobacco to cannabis and hemp, came into being to facilitate buying farming supplies. Today, you can trade THC on Bittrex and qTrade, it hit a record high market cap of almost $160 million in early 2018.HempCoin is expanding. By 2019, HempCoin will introduce HempPay, a payment platform for buying weed. HempPay will be an app, website and cryptocurrency credit card.

3. Paragon (PRG) – Paragon isn’t for buying weed, it isn’t like other cannabis cryptocurrencies. Paragon’s PRG token is focused on helping weed businesses grow. Paragon developed ParagonCoin (PRG) in order to provide cannabis businesses to pay rent. What is it about? ParagonSpace is a brand-new cannabis coworking space in Los Angeles and PRG is the only currency that ParagonSpace accepts, whether you’re buying coffee or renting an office.ParagonSpace hopes that their Ethereum-based cryptocurrency will work for business to business and business to customer interactions.ParagonCoin is still in its early days. They’re still building an all-encompassing cannabis business ecosystem with smart contracts, a coworking space, and cryptocurrency, all on the blockchain. Paragon’s total supply is of 164,936,584.

More participants in the crypto cannabis market

4. CannabisCoin (CANN) – CannabisCoin is another cryptocurrency designed to making buying medical marijuana easier. It came into 2014 a few months after PotCoin was CannabisCoin. It is peer-to-peer open source currency and like PotCoin, was created to make transactions for medical marijuana dispensaries easier. Initially, it was very popular but it has generally failed to deliver much for investors. This cannabis crypto made waves back in 2014 when dispensaries sold 1 gram of cannabis for one CannabisCoin.The total supply of CannabisCoin is set at 91,859,176, with over 77 million currently in circulation. The currency has a market cap of $5.2 million.

5. CannaCoin (CCN) – Cannacoin is a cannabis altcoin that runs on its own decentralized blockchain and has its own Cannacoin wallet. Forked off Litecoin, Cannacoin uses Proof of Stake-Velocity. Cannacoin is open-source and developers can use it to create other applications. For example, CannaPay a website committed to cannabis credit cards and goes through its own ICO is connected to Cannacoin’s protocol. Cannasight, another Cannacoin project, provides developers to create a multiplicity of open-source applications. Cannacoin has been around since 2014, most of its projects are in early stages of development. CannaCoin has a market cap of $272,000. There’s a circulating supply of 4.7 million CannaCoins.

6. DopeCoin (DOPE) – DopeCoin, was launched in 2014, was remodeled as DopeCoinGold in early 2017. DopeCoin aim is to give people a way to buy weed anonymously without paying transaction fees. Their consideration doesn’t cover legal matters. They don’t care if someone is getting weed from a licensed dispensary or an online black market. Merchants in both the U.S. and in Europe accept DopeCoin payments.DopeCoin also has its own cryptocurrency wallet. This dissenter cannabis cryptocurrency is capped at 200 million.

7. Tokes (TKS) – This cannabis currency aims to move the entire weed supply chain and customer transactions away from cash. Unlike other cannabis cryptocurrencies which operate in a legal gray area, the Tokes platform follows anti-money laundering rules and Know Your Customer financial guidelines to detect money laundering. Tokes provides the security of a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority compliant financial institution. You can buy TKS, keep it in a Waves Wallet and spend it as currency at certain dispensaries. There is a supply of 50 million TKS.

8. GanjaCoin (MRJA) – GanjaCoin is weed cryptocurrency for buying weed both from dispensaries and online. On GanjaCoin’s website, you can buy CBD products and smoking accessories. GanjaCoin is a privately created cryptocurrency but is working on dispensary partnerships.GanjaCoin offers the comfort of virtual payment. For weed producers, cannabis cryptocurrency is even more favorable. With GanjaCoin, they pay low fees via blockchain.GanjaCoin is unique because it’s the first one backed by feminized cannabis seeds. In the future, GanjaCoin will back each coin with a whole gram of weed. The benefit of using this model, in addition to offering a value guarantee, is that it keeps supply low. There will only ever be 42,000,000 GanjaCoins, which is lower than other cannabis cryptocurrencies. GanjaCoin is currently listed on MasternodeXchange and Stocks. Exchange and provides their own cryptocurrency wallet.

9. Growers International (GRWI) – Growers International dates back to 2015. They wanted to meet the particular needs of weed producers. As a member of Growers International’s decentralized platform, marijuana growers can chart seed-to-sale data and keep a record of their plants’ genetic makeup. The immutability of the decentralized ledger lets growers prove a strain’s authenticity. Their partners are already buying supplies using the GRWI token. Growers International plans on offering smart contracts for cannabis farmers, they can use their smart contracts to complete supply costs, electric, labor, etc. Growers International has a cryptocurrency wallet. GRWI is trading on Cryptopia and CCEX.

10. KushCoin (KUSH) – KushCoin is based on blockchain technology to the medical marijuana supply chain. This cannabis cryptocurrency seeks to connect the process of growing and selling weed, staying in compliance with federal, state and local laws. The point is to have different levels of the supply chain so, consumers to avoid high fees and inconvenience by paying with a cryptocurrency. In 2014, KushCoin started with the goal of addressing all these issues. Their plan was to create a KushCoin wallet, a seed bank for KushCoin users and a crypto credit card. According to Bitcoin Forum, someone hacked KushCoin. But the developer recently got back control.
There are also GreenMed (GRMD), Sativacoin (STV), Cannation (CNNC), Bongger (BGR), Marijuanacoin (MAR), BlazerCoin (BLAZR), Budbo (BUBO).

Bottom line: The most important aspect of starting your own cannabis-related business is actually the most important aspect of starting any kind of business: picking the angle you’re most happy with.

Investing in a cannabis company comes with a number of risks that could negatively affect investment at any time. There remains a large amount of uncertainty in this emerging sector, especially as laws and business models continue to evolve.
Some investors may see others flocking toward an emerging sector and can be compelled to follow out of fear of missing out on an opportunity.

However, behavioral insights shed light into the way that people make decisions about money and has shown that investors who follow other investors’ behavior are more likely to invest in speculative bubbles that could burst. If that happens, investors could stand to lose some or all of their investment. But isn’t every investment potentially risky?

The risks in crypto cannabis

Many cannabis companies are promising investors the opportunity to capitalize on the potential for considerable future growth. A number of companies are looking to expand.

The cannabis industry is hotter than ever, with new deals announced almost every day, and merger and acquisition activity at an all-time high.

As per Viridian Capital Advisors estimates, investments in the marijuana industry reached $6.6 billion in the first 10 months of 2018. According to New Frontier Data, sales are expected to surpass $9.5 billion in 2018, some forecasts say to $12 billion.
Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

21st October 2018
Cannabis VS Bitcoin Both Are the Two “Sexiest” Plays.

Cannabis stocks just like bitcoin stock can be hot investment choice these days

By Guy Avtalyon

If you have a dilemma in selecting the stocks, cannabis vs bitcoin, this exactly you have to read. Cannabis shares are a temporary hum. Wait! Didn’t they say exactly the same about Bitcoin?

Traditional Wall Street and media gatekeepers are late.

The fact is that Bitcoin lacks a time-tested business model and fundamental backing, and it pays no dividend. The other fact, marijuana is illegal in almost every country, putting the business model in jeopardy.

Pot stocks are more tangible speculative investments, traded and regulated on recognized stock exchanges, but still subject to a variety of market and regulatory risks. We know that advisors can caution their clients on the risks of investing in cannabis stocks, and the risks are there at current merits. It was the same in the case of Bitcoin.

Cannabis industry

But the cannabis industry may offer trace to the future of Bitcoin. Because despite their different paths, the crypto and cannabis are siblings. Why? Just spend a few minutes on Reddit pages committed to trading, Bitcoin, and cannabis and you will see similarities of the group. According to TD Ameritrade Inc., trading in pot stocks is superiorly done by millennial-aged males. The stats for crypto look almost the same.

We are witnessing an explosion of interest in cryptocurrencies, cannabis stocks, and ETFs. And particularly from millennials. What do younger clients need? They love technology. They want to be educated investors, that’s why they are in need of education. They’re younger in their investing and trading careers. But they know what they want. They want to trade 100 shares of stocks at the table in the restaurant using some bot. They don’t want to miss the boat.

Cannabis vs Bitcoin

If you’re a long-term investor type who’s not at all interested in trading, then you’re on the right track to becoming a wealthy investor over the long term. Sticking with such a reasonable investment strategy can be tough, however, especially if you constantly hear about how a friend of a friend of yours got rich overnight by investing in Bitcoin or Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED) (NYSE:CGC) stock.

You can ignore the hype, as it has nothing to do with you. It’s difficult to tell the difference between a bubble and an actual paradigm shift that could lead to massive riches over the near term.

Today, cannabis stocks and Bitcoin are the two “sexiest” plays.

While the word “bubble” has been thrown by some experts, other equally qualified, are on the other side and are thinking “opportunity of a lifetime.” Being on the right side isn’t a matter of how clever you are. You can find a lot of examples of how some very smart guy has fallen as a victim on the wrong side of the “sexy play” of his time.

When it comes to subjects like the rapidly emerging rising cannabis market or blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, it’s hard to know what you’re dealing with as an investor. Nobody really knows how much new entities will act in the public markets over a long period. Attempts to make comparisons to events that happened in the past can make some sense but can’t help a lot.

Neither cryptocurrencies nor cannabis are suitable for conservative investors. It is for visionaries, for those who can perceive the future and recognize the chances. Set a limit and stay within it.

There are many people in the crypto industry believing in a bright future. As well as there are supporters of the legalization of cannabis. Technology companies, for example, SinglePoint and POSaBIT, are working to create a payment method for dispensaries and consumers using bitcoin. Recently, some cryptos emerge specifically for cannabis transactions.
This isn’t the first time that stocks in a hot niche have risen. We all know what happened with bitcoin stock a year ago. The companies specializing in the crypto have had fantastic gains.

Some investors never look back at overhyped fields once they aren’t trending, but investors who invested hard-earned money into most popular stocks usually learn the harder way what results can be.

Currently, a limited number of marijuana stocks is accessible to most investors. We’ve seen some massive moves in marijuana stocks. Those gains stem from the fact that investors who want to invest in marijuana have limited options available to them.

Why cannabis vs bitcoin?

The same case we already saw with many Bitcoin stocks.

In 2017, the top-performing Bitcoin stocks have less liquidity than many others. They stood very low on that list. But it reversed. In 2018, bitcoin declined in its volatility.
Of course, speaking about cannabis stocks we can expect winners, but we can’t be sure where to expect. Maybe cannabis investors could learn something from the bitcoin incredible boost in the past. Perhaps the same could occur. Sometimes, success may occur in unexpected places. As an investor in cannabis stocks, just be ready to see the secondary effects. Try to recognize how they can influence the companies that are not always obviously related.

Investors want to get rich from cannabis stocks, but past investing crazes and experience with cryptos have often left people wishing they hadn’t fallen for the allure of these markets. You can avoid repeating those mistakes and improve your chances of being successful with your investments in the long run. Just get more knowledge, learn permanent, test, and measure everything twice.

21st October 2018
Should You Leave Crypto, Get into Cannabis and ‘ Buy high’?

This topic is a small semantic game with words. But it seems to be a serious business.

By Guy Avtalyon

I want to be a clear, cannabis business is serious business.

Marijuana is a commodity, and commodities markets are subject to boom and bust, amazing and caught.

Canadian marijuana company Aurora Cannabis Inc.’s shares rose about 4% Thursday, October 18, after it said shares have been approved for trading on the New York Stock Exchange starting October 23. Even earlier, the hype around cannabis stocks was catching up to the crypto craze.

There’s a huge new trend that is sweeping the investment world. The rise in the legalization of marijuana caused the development of a new investment opportunity. Cannabis Shares, for example, allows investors to buy shares in many legal cannabis-based projects, including the sale of cannabis itself, or products of cannabis.

Merida Captial Partners, a New York investment firm, said its cannabis fund had been approached by around 50 cryptocurrency investors. “They are looking at cannabis and crypto as an emerging sector,” said Merida managing partner Mitch Baruchowitz, “they might not be connected as industries but they are seen as outside the traditional investment field. High risk and high reward.”

On the market, the stock ACB ( Aurora Cannabis Inc.), +1.40% ACB, +1.40%, will trade under the ticker symbol “ACB”. The shares are also traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. This news came one day after Canada fully legalized cannabis for adult recreational use, the first G-7 country to do so, and only the second in the world to do so after Uruguay.

Canada changes the world following the passage of the Cannabis Act on June 19.

Which country first legalize recreational marijuana?

Canada became the first industrialized country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana.

In the process, it opens the door to possibly $5 billion in added annual sales. This industry is already generating from domestic medical weed and exports to foreign countries where medicinal cannabis has been given the green light.

Finance barons like to turn any commodity into an investment opportunity. This move was inevitable with the international changes in cannabis legislation. But, many are willing to see similarities between cannabis shares and cryptocurrencies. And they starting to worry that the cannabis industry could wipe out the need for crypto-investment.

Within the stock market, no asset class has been hotter than pot stocks over the past few years. Many of the largest marijuana stocks by market cap have doubled or tripled in value over the past year, and are up by more than 1,000% over the trailing two-year period.

Why cannabis stocks are so interesting?

The fundamental lure of marijuana stocks is its impressive sales growth potential. ArcView, a leading cannabis research firm, suggests that North American legal weed sales could grow by 28% between 2018 and 2021. That would lead to almost $25 billion in annual legal cannabis sales.

And the public all over the world is in favor of marijuana legalization. All major marijuana polls demonstrate strong favorability toward legalization.

All six-pot stocks have enjoyed outsized gains in the last few months as Canada legalization appears. These pot stocks generate quarterly and annual profit: Aurora Cannabis Inc. ACB, +1.40% , Cronos Group Inc. CRON, +0.66% was up 3.8%, Canopy Growth Corp. CGC, -3.51% WEED, -2.77% was up 2.1% and Tilray Inc. TLRY, +2.89% was up 3.2%. GW Pharmaceuticals Plc GWPH, -1.30% was down 0.7% and Aphria Health Inc. APH, +0.26% was up about 2%.

Why people love cannabis stocks?

Tilray is a Canadian cannabis firm, one that announced in September that they traded around $6.5 billion worth of shares on United States exchanges, at the same period Amazon, traded around $7.6 billion on the same exchanges. Amazon has a stock 47 times the size of Tilray, therefore, we can truly appreciate the full scale of this as an investment opportunity.

Some skepticists are suggesting that the crypto craze is coming to an end, but we know that this isn’t the case. Markets are stagnant because of a transition period. Frankly, they should know that the crypto craze hasn’t yet begun. Cannabis shares are more like traditional commodities and traditional stocks, therefore they are more attractive to a high level and institutional investors. Because institutions are investing in them, the level of cash flowing into Cannabis shares is such. Cryptocurrency has not yet penetrated the mainstream and therefore, there can’t be a threat from Cannabis Shares.

Investment advice website. Proactive Investors has started a dedicated Telegram channel for investors interested in cryptocurrency, the blockchain, and cannabis. The SEC stated: “Fraudsters may try to use media coverage about the legalization of marijuana to promote an investment scam.”

On the social messaging app Telegram, some cryptocurrency forums, where users trade investing tips and advice on the anonymous network, have now turned their attention to shares in cannabis growers.

Cannabis Stocks vs Bitcoin

Why should anybody go to think that individual and personal Cannabis Shares investors, couldn’t also invest in cryptocurrencies as both are new and exciting ventures? Overall, it’s not fair to compare the two. They aren’t a threat to each other. A lot of investments can exist side by side. Because Cannabis Shares are big and popular for many reasons, it doesn’t mean people will stop investing in Bitcoin. Yes, their attention may be rerouted, but this will constantly change.

“Crypto traders I know are getting into pot stocks,” Jeffrey Van de Leemput, founder of investing-education platform Cryptocampus, said in a message, reported Bloomberg. “But I don’t know if that’s a pattern or just coincidence.”

Who’s been behind the buying of pot stocks? I have a hunch that its investors tend to be young. It’s the millennials.
There is the potential for marijuana to be traded as a commodity, similar to how corn and other agricultural products are now bought and sold, or as asset-based security, similar to the way mortgages have long been bundled and sold to investors. Who knows, the cannabis futures market might be the largest futures market in the world.

But Bitcoin has no plan to become mainstream on the market, it isn’t in its nature.

Going in bitcoin’s favor, retail investors predominantly control the show. The most bitcoin trading occurs on decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, and institutional investors usually want nothing to do with these decentralized exchanges, bitcoin is driven by the emotions of retail investors, rather than by fundamental reason. And emotions can be the most powerful tool in pushing Bitcoin’s valuations higher.

Which investment should you buy with your last $50? Cryptocurrency or marijuana stock? Both of these investment opportunities are like a plane, they are getting everyone on board and they are ready to fly with or without you.

19th October 2018
India Could Treat Unregulated Crypto Assets as Illegal

2 min read

According to Moneycontrol, a report which is being prepared by a committee headed by India’s Economic Affairs Secretary, Subhash Chandra Garg, may propose amendments to the existing laws with a view of making it illegal to hold crypto assets that are not approved by the government.

Does it mean that could soon be illegal to hold cryptocurrencies that lack the government’s seal of approval in the world’s largest democracy?

The panel will propose legislative amendments and recommending punishment for those holding unapproved crypto assets and also will penalties for those who flout the law.

This move is the result of the government’s attitude that crypto assets which are unregulated should be kept out of the Indian financial system to prevent them from being used to aid illegalities. Under this formulation, they mean evading taxes as well as in Ponzi and multi-level marketing schemes.

According to the same source, holding unregulated crypto assets like bitcoin in India could attract punishment.

India treats crypto as illegal.

Why this isn’t surprising?

The Subhash Garg-committee was placed last year and have to submit its report in December. Besides the Economic Affairs Secretary, the other members of the committee come from India’s central bank and the country’s securities markets regulator.

It is expected the Subhash Garg-panel report be adopted. Having in mind their previous attitude, there will not be a surprise.

Anti-Cryptocurrency opinions have various government agencies in India. This spring, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred banks and financial companies dealing with virtual currencies and banned these financial institutions from allowing their clients to buy cryptocurrencies. They were given three months’ time (ending June 2018) to exit from any such services if they were offering.

“…with immediate effect, entities regulated by RBI shall not deal with or provide services to any individual or business entities dealing with or settling VCs [Virtual Currencies],” read part of a statement issued by the RBI as reported by CCN. “Regulated entities which already provide such services shall exit the relationship within a specified time.”

The consequences after the ban are still felt today.

In September one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in India, Zebpay, announced that it was shutting down after it found itself unable to operate without access to banking services. That is the indicator that India treats crypto as illegal.

The negative consequences of the ban have not been limited to cryptocurrency exchanges, however, and have spread to the wider blockchain ecosystem. As CCN reported in September, this was leading to a ‘blockchain brain drain’ as well as ‘blockchain capital flight’ to jurisdictions with more conducive environments such as Malta, Estonia, Switzerland, and Thailand.

What can be expected from these last stages of deliberation?

The government view is that unregulated crypto assets should not be allowed to move into the financial system. In short, India treats crypto as illegal. So, it is expectable that the Garg-panel is likely to recommend appropriate amendments in existing laws, defining the punitive measures for those found holding illegal crypto assets.

In his budget speech for 2018-19, finance minister Arun Jaitley had pointed that cryptocurrency was not legal tender in India, but hinted that the government was open to adopting the underlying technology, called blockchain, to bring in more efficiencies in India’s digital payment systems because it allows keeping a record of a chain of transactions, eliminating the need of intermediaries.

According to Moneycontrol, officials of the capital markets watchdog, the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) have also organized tours to Japan’s Financial Services Agency; the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, and Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority,

The study tours “help engage with the international regulators and gain a deeper understanding of the systems and mechanisms,” SEBI said in it’s in the annual report for 2017-18.

And December is near. The trail of the devastation of cryptocurrency exchanges is visible.

But despite these moves of various governments, which are understandable in some sense because they have no control over the crypto, cryptocurrency will survive. We will be witnesses.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

18th October 2018
Bitcoin experienced a distinct decline in its volatility!

1 min read

Bitcoin experienced a distinct decline in its volatility during a period in which the volume of the largest cryptocurrency achieved a new yearly low. The volume of Bitcoin dropped from $4.2 billion to $3.2 billion on October 7, by more than 23 percent. Since then, the volume of BTC has recovered substantially, back to $4.2 billion, but it still remains substantially lower than previous weeks. The overall decline in trading activity in the cryptocurrency exchange market due to the uncertainty in the short-term price trend of Bitcoin is said Bitcoin experienced a decline in volatility.

Mike McGlone, a commodity strategist, stated that as the cryptocurrency market matures, the rate of Bitcoin volatility will continue to rapidly decline. He explained that an emerging asset class often sees a large discrepancy in its daily price movements and volatility in volume until it finds strong infrastructure to support and solidify its market.

“This is a maturing market, so volatility should continue to decline. When you have a new market, it will be highly volatile until it establishes itself. There are more participants, more derivatives, more ways of trading, hedging, and arbitraging.”

Since August 9, the price of Bitcoin has remained relatively stable in the range between $6,400 and $6,800. In the middle of September, BTC surpassed the $7,000 mark, but the asset has shown no signs of solid momentum, mostly due to the lack of volume in the cryptocurrency exchange market. After that, on October 6, the cryptocurrency exchange market recorded its lowest daily volume in over 12 months. That occasion made traders be concerned regarding the short-term trend of the market.

Stability of bitcoin

The stability of BTC allowed investors in the market to initiate an accumulation phase in a low price range, enabling more investors to enter the market and acquire BTC. That’s why is so important for Bitcoin to experience a decline in volatility.

The eminent venture capital investor Garry Tan, said, a low price range helps investors enter a new market or an asset class with significantly less risk:

“The crypto winter generally makes it safer for super-long-term oriented Yale-model institutions to enter at a price that isn’t dangerous. You know what is scary? Investing and then immediately seeing an 80% drop. That is hard to recover from.”

It is surprising that the cryptocurrency market is not reacting to many of the positive developments that have emerged in the sector over the past few months.

The Reaction of the market

It is possible, that the market will begin to respond to most of the progress that has been made in the sector over the last three months. Bitcoin has not shown a high level of stability in a long period of time. Considering that Bitcoin has recovered beyond its previous high point, it is more likely for it to move to the upside.

Many analysts and traders in the cryptocurrency market stated that extended periods of stability and consolidation often lead to a strong upside movement.

Generally speaking, when you’re analyzing charts, higher highs and higher lows are the indicators of a positive move up. Lower highs are not pointed where you can expect a rally. However, we are speaking about Bitcoin and it is so unpredictable.

Investor Mike Novogratz has emphasized $6,800 as a major resistance level for Bitcoin throughout the past month, and if it comfortably surpasses that level, then it will be able to eye resistance levels in span $7,000 and $8,000.

If Bitcoin breaks out of the $6,800 mark relatively quickly, Novogratz said it is possible for Bitcoin to demonstrate a 30 percent increase in price by the end of the year.

The question is if this the right time to start accumulating Bitcoin?

On the end of August, when the price of BTC was around $6,600, we all can read expert’s statements that the bear market is not over yet but it is a viable period for new investors in the space to start accumulating Bitcoin.

Following that opinion, it is highly unlikely for Bitcoin to decline far below its current price range and we may conclude that it is an appropriate time to start accumulating BTC.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

17th October 2018
Ways to Earn Bitcoin

2 min read

After Bitcoin become one of the hottest new investment assets it has surprised many who once believed the blockchain-driven cryptocurrency would never have real-world value. It has also produced huge interest. This interest, as the nature of this digital currency as well, cause great opportunities for making extra money.

Traders Paradise wants to present you several ways how to make money with Bitcoin and several different ways to earn Bitcoin.

How to earn bitcoin?

There is a huge amount of money to be made in this market, and many of the ways of earning with Bitcoin may result in small amounts. It shouldn’t dishearten you. Even small amounts of Bitcoin can be useful assets.

How?

The rapid growth of the value of the cryptocurrency gives possibility. If you want to accumulate larger sums of Bitcoin, that’s also entirely possible. It requires some initial investment of course.

Let’s begin exploring the different ways in which you can start making money and earn Bitcoin.

Selling Bitcoin-related products

It is the fact that there are ways to make money from Bitcoin without actually owning any. For instance, you can sell products and services and be paid in Bitcoin.

The easiest way to get into being an affiliate marketer for Bitcoin products is to promote Bitcoin mining devices through some affiliate program. Point is that you can send visitors from your website and receive a small commission on any products they buy there. For that, you’ll need a website on which to post your affiliate links. The good news is that, since Bitcoin miners are generally priced at $100+, you don’t need to sell too many of them to start making some decent money from your marketing efforts.

The same concept can also be applied to Bitcoin services. Many services surrounding Bitcoin offer generous commissions to marketers who refer customers to them. If you’re going to create a website, integrating promotions for services can be helpful to your readers and profitable to you. This is one way to earn bitcoin.

Do freelance jobs and get paid and earn Bitcoin

A huge online marketplace for freelance services exists to connect freelance workers with customers. A new twist has come in the form sites that send payments to freelancers in Bitcoin. If you are freelancer already or have a skill that businesses would be willing to pay you for, you may be able to render services in exchange for fairly significant amounts of Bitcoin.

Freelancing in exchange for Bitcoin has two advantages: first, unlike mining or investing, there is little or no initial cost for most forms of freelance work and the second, some freelance jobs can pay amounts of Bitcoin worth dozens or even hundreds of dollars. If you want to earn Bitcoin at a reasonably fast rate without investing a large amount of money at the outset, freelancing can be your best option.

You’ll just need to sign up for a freelance marketplace that pays in Bitcoin.

Invest in Bitcoin and Bitcoin derivatives

Investing in Bitcoin, indeed still not as common as investing in stocks and bonds, but is fast moving into the financial mainstream. To be honest, investment is one of the profitable ways of making money with Bitcoin.

Basic Bitcoin investment is the simple buying and holding Bitcoin until its price goes up enough to gain a profit. Bitcoin has produced some incredible gains for investors in past years. If you had invested just $200 into Bitcoin when it was worth $1 in early 2011, your investment would be worth millions today. This is an ultra example, which demonstrates how profitable Bitcoin investment has been for some traders who have been willing to hold their investments for long periods of time.

High-risk investment

In the past Bitcoin exchange was easy to hack, like Mt. Gox exchange which was hacked 2014. But now the new generation of more secure exchanges come onto the market to supply Bitcoin services.

A less known way of investing in Bitcoin is to trade it as a CFD, or contract for difference. In core, a CFD is a derivative instrument that is based on the price of an asset, in the case of Bitcoin.

Unlike standard investment, however, CFDs don’t involve actually buying the asset they mirror. Instead, traders open positions on the movement of an asset’s price with a CFD broker. CFDs typically have high leverage rates. Meaning that both gains and losses are higher than they would be in a more traditional investment environment.

Used properly, Bitcoin CFDs can be fairly profitable. If you’re too careless with them, they can be high-risk investments. It depends on your personal level of risk tolerance.

Bitcoin mining

Mining refers to the use of computer hardware to automatically perform a set of mathematical operations. That, in turn, creates new Bitcoin. Bitcoin is set up that only 21 million can ever be produced. At this moment, more than four million are on the table for Bitcoin miners.

You have to know one important fact about Bitcoin mining before getting into the difficulty increases over time, which means, it will take more time and more computing power to generate each following Bitcoin.

At the beginning of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency enthusiasts were able to use graphics processing units on regular computers for mining. But nowadays the difficulty has gone up so much that much more specialized equipment is needed.

To start Bitcoin mining, you’ll need to invest in external devices called a Bitcoin miner. That provides the necessary computing power to produce Bitcoin. The price of a Bitcoin miner will vary based on its processing ability.

Small USB miners start at under $100, while larger, more powerful mining devices can cost thousands of dollars. Although the initial investment of buying a Bitcoin miner can be fairly large, it allows you to produce your own permanent flow of new Bitcoin until the full 21 million has been reached.

Start mining

If you decide to start mining yourself, you will have the peripheral costs too, like electricity costs, for example. If you have a large miner that produces a large amount of heat, you may have to install a cooling system.

These costs can eat up much of the profit margin in Bitcoin mining. Fortunately, if Bitcoin continues to grow in value, these costs will be compensated later.

But there is another way you can get in on the action. It is known as contract mining. In contract mining, you’ll pay a fee in exchange for a company to employ its Bitcoin mining equipment on your behalf. This contract will last for some period of time. And all Bitcoin mined during that time on the equipment you’ve contracted will be sent to your Bitcoin wallet. Contract mining is an easy and passive way for you to accumulate Bitcoin. But it will cost more over the long period than having your own Bitcoin mining equipment.

What else you can do to earn Bitcoin?

For example, you can do micro-tasks small, simple actions, such as viewing an advertisement or engaging with a post on social media. Though the pay is usually very low, micro-tasks are the simplest way to get into Bitcoin.

Bitcoin faucets are a bit like micro-tasks in the sense that they pay very small amounts of Bitcoin in exchange for a small amount of your time – often around 1 Satoshi, which is a hundredth of a millionth BTC. In the case of faucets, though, Bitcoin is usually available to be claimed by users at a set interval, such as every five minutes.

Or you can create content to be monetized with Bitcoin-based ads. Maybe you can lend out the Bitcoin you already have and generate passive income. But if you have respectable knowledge you can make a decent amount of money form helping other people learn about cryptocurrencies.

Bottom line

The easiest and fastest way to have Bitcoin is to buy instantly with a credit card or debit card. You can acquire $50 or less for Bitcoin, fast and usually within 10 minutes. However, you may be new to the entire cryptocurrency concept and for that we recommend you learn these few things above.

Bitcoin is extremely empowering but also different than the currency you know and use every day.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

17th October 2018
Why now Bitcoin (end of 2018, after major drops)?

The simplest answer is why not, but here is a more complex one.

By Guy Avtalyon

Why now Bitcoin? Honestly, I did not meet statistics and exact figures on this topic. But in 2017 the number of searches in the Google search engine on the topic bitcoin – increased by 450%, compared with the previous year.

The last time such a large survey was conducted in the USA, back in 2013 by the firm On Device in preparation for a London conference. At that time bitcoin awareness by Americans was about 25%.

By 2018 bitcoin awareness has jumped by more than twice that number according to Survey Monkey and Global Blockchain Business Council. And though bitcoin acknowledgment is growing, actual participation seems somewhat low.

Nearly six in ten respondents revealed they’d at heard of bitcoin. That up some 33 points from 2013’s measure. The two surveys are not linked. More than 5,000 people participated in the current questionnaire.

More about survey

According to the same survey, only 5% hold a digital asset. But 21 percent of that number claim to be “considering adding it to their portfolios.” The majority of holders are male, under 34 years of age (58%), white.

The results basically show ten percent of millennials own bitcoin while older Americans barely break one percent. Bitcoin holders’ politics are politically independent by half. Less than 20% trust their government more than the Bitcoin network (almost a quarter).

That’s the reason why now bitcoin!

Asked about possible 2018 asset crashes, 38 percent of all Americans (and 41% of owners) see BTC as a bubble poised to pop this year. Still, the survey did note that almost 70 percent expect BTC to increase in value over the coming half of a decade.

A little more than 10 percent believe it will die out.

According to data compiled by Bitinfocharts.com, there are almost 22 million bitcoin wallets. However, most bitcoin users have several BTC wallets and use multiple wallet addresses to increase their financial privacy when transacting in bitcoin. Therefore, the number of bitcoin users is likely less than 22 million.

Anonymity

A 2017 study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance suggests that the “current number of unique active users of cryptocurrency wallets is estimated to be between 2.9 and 5.8 million.”

It is important to note that this study focuses on active users as opposed to bitcoin holders or ‘hodlers’. This gives us insight into how many individuals are actual users as opposed to buy-and-hold investors.

This surveys also show that the end of 2018 is the right time is the time to get to know BTC. So, let start!

What is Bitcoin?

For the majority, it is still an open question. The first step to understanding Bitcoin is admitting you don’t understand Bitcoin.

Let’s say, Bitcoin is a protocol. But, honestly, the protocol itself is just our best try to describe what BTC actually is. No one can be sure of the protocol’s final form.

Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009 by a mysterious figure using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. You can use it to buy or sell from people and companies that accept bitcoin as payment. But it differs in several key ways from traditional currencies.

Most obviously, bitcoin doesn’t exist as a physical currency. There are no actual coins or notes. It exists only online.

Interesting explanations about what Bitcoin:

Mental construct – Because value is subjective and we feel value for Bitcoin units.
Social construct – people feel value for Bitcoin units. And they become an intermediate commodity suitable for exchange, accounting, and store of value.
Legal construct – As an intermediate commodity it serves to cancel formal agreements such as debts, purchases, and pay taxes.
Economic construct – As it may be used to cancel debts and pay taxes it may be used as money facilitating commerce between untrusting strangers in different incompatible jurisdictions.
Technical construct – It is just software that enables a network. But that network organically emerges as a useful system or technical tool for the other constructs.

More…

Protocol construct – The technical system is actually the system of rules imagined and designed to maintain a highly secure Nash Equilibrium between node operators and users.
Mechanical construct – Although many see Bitcoin as a social construct only, it is as much of an objective mechanical system as it is subjective. Although people design and run it, it is immutable, just like the laws of physics in nature.
Physical construct – Bitcoin is designed to mimic gold in nature, but in a computer system and transferable thru communication channels. This is why we call it “digital commodity”.
Natural construct – All of the above emerge from nature. They are not imaginary or magical things, they are as natural as energy, matter, or living organisms.

We can play with semantics here, you can say that it’s a protocol. And also the open-source project that implements the software needed to fit the protocol. Or you can try to call Bitcoin as a kid in the adults’ world.

Bitcoin has no central bank and isn’t linked to or regulated by any state. The supply of the cryptocurrency is decentralized. And can only be increased by a process known as “mining”. For each BTC transaction, a computer owned by a bitcoin “miner” must solve a difficult mathematical problem.

The miner then receives a fraction of a bitcoin as a reward. At present, the mining power of Bitcoin’s network is 300 times more powerful than the world’s top 5 supercomputers combined

Anonymity matters

A record of each transaction, using anonymized strings of numbers to identify it, is stored on a huge public ledger – blockchain. This is necessary to ensure the integrity of the currency.

For most people, it is strange that bitcoin doesn’t exist as a physical currency. There are no actual coins or notes. It exists only online. And it is hard for the majority to imagine such a thing.

But can you imagine the internet?

We all use the internet in every segment of our lives but we can’t point out the finger and say “Here! This is the internet!”

Or how some understand the universe is infinite and how they understand the meaning of infinite, you would be surprised by the answers.

Do you exactly know how your mobile device works? Maybe some of you, but the majority don’t.

Frankly, for me is a total mystery how my dishwasher works but it will not stop me to use it.

“Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard. There’s nothing to relate it to.” wrote Satoshi, July 5, 2010.

Fiat money is managed by a central bank, which manages the money supply to keep prices steady. They can print more money or withdraw some from circulation. Yes, if they think it’s needed, as well as using other monetary policy controls such as adjusting interest rates.

My teachers taught me how interest was compounded. The reasons may not be so clear. If we would learn banking history and monetary theory in schools, no one would use the fiat system. It is so obvious.

On the other hand, BTC is a lot simpler than the fiat system. And people are legally compelled to adopt fiat.

The people teaching youngsters these days have grown up under Keynesian economic theory. Also called Keynesianism. So, they strongly believe that money is defined as money only if you can touch it, smell it or hear the sound of counting money.

Number of users

The most popular BTC wallet and exchange provider, Coinbase, reportedly has over 13 million users. This would suggest that the number of bitcoin users is between 13 million and 22 million.

We can assume that the number of bitcoin users outside of the 32 countries that Coinbase services, will be several million. But this data doesn’t include major bitcoin economies in Asia.

So we can conclude that around 20 million bitcoin users globally can be considered as a fair estimate.

Why use bitcoin?

With Bitcoin people get the liberty to exchange value. Without intermediaries which translate to greater control of funds and lower fees. It’s faster, cheaper, more secure, and immutable.

The banks control the cash while bitcoin has owners.

Bitcoin is very useful as a service for fast remittances for an international system of payments, for example. It can help us do online shopping. It’s like an e-wallet which makes blockchain technology to store, track, and spend digital money.

BTC has a global acceptance and is less volatile than cash / local currency.

Due to this feature, it becomes easier to conduct transactions across boundaries and online. You can use this crypto all over the world without going through a conversion process. It is par with Gold and combines the best of cash and gold.

By providing an open market and no restrictions imposed by banks or governments. Bitcoin is peer-to-peer and open, but secure.

Bitcoin is making the biggest revolution in the finance industry in the last 200 years. Leading all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is at the forefront of the bleeding edge of blockchain innovation. I think it is necessary to stay patient and witness history first hand.

Nothing can stop that!

16th October 2018