Tag: Cryptocurrency market

All cryptocurrency market related articles are found here. Educative, informative and written clearly.

  • Bitcoin rose and hit One-Year High

    Bitcoin rose and hit One-Year High

    2 min read

    Bitcoin rose and hit over $9,000.  This is its highest since May 2018.

    This new high is perhaps caused by Facebook’s reveals to launch its crypto. Such an event added more optimism and confidence about the future of cryptocurrencies in general because it showed that digital money is going to be adopted by big companies.

    The biggest cryptocurrency climbed as much as 9.4%. Other crypto coins also rose: Litecoin for 4.4% and Ethereum for 4%.

    Cryptocurrencies price chart

    Let’s stay with Bitcoin.

    Bitcoin rose more than 130% in 2019  and has almost doubled in value. How did it happen?

    The big companies like Facebook expanded or revealed that have plans, to their offering of cryptocurrency services.

    It seems that Facebook’s plan to launch a digital currency is pushing people toward Bitcoin.

    June 18th is tomorrow ( the date that Facebook planned to reveal more details about new digital asset) and we will have full public information. Previously, Facebook announced the plan to release a white paper for “Libra” or “Globalcoin”. This should be on June 18th as they said.

    FOMO effect

    Jeremy Allaire, the chief executive of Circle, tweeted the launch of Libra (whitepaper) will be a “massive inflection point in the global adoption of cryptocurrency.”

    This entrepreneur said that by June 21st, he  expects for Bitcoin to be valued at $10,000, “marking [the] start of Crypto Summer.”

    Yes, $10,000 is a fine number, but many see it as a pivotal level for the Bitcoin price.

    When Bitcoin rose to this level, and that time isn’t so far, FOMO will favor the crypto market.

    Bitcoin chart

    If you can recall the time when BTC went over $4,500 you know what we are talking about. This means that the price of Bitcoin and other cryptos will go higher, more above $10,000 and they will do it very fast.

    For proponents, this is great news and event worth waiting for. There are so many emotions in the game. Just try to read everything on Twitter. Bitcoiners will be glad to see the opponents frustrated and to see FOMO from those who celebrated when BTC dropped about 90 %.

    What will they feel about those who believed that Bitcoin is dead forever?

    The Wall Street analysts stated that once $10,000 is broken trough, there will be a “fast and furious” progress to $20,000. Taking that new value as the new position, it looks more obvious that Bitcoin can double the price in the following several months.

    The price of $40,000 sounds pretty good, don’t you think?

    Some have a different opinion

    However, there are some that deny this pleasant emotion about Libra and bright influence on Bitcoin.

    Peter Schiff, investor, and libertarian-leaning economist speculated that Facebook’s Libra project will be “bad news” for Bitcoin.

    This famous cryptocurrency critic, who claims that BTC has no intrinsic value and thus is not better than hard gold (Schiff is a prominent gold investor), calculates that Libra will be much stabler, cheaper, and more easy-to-use than Bitcoin.

    And yes, that is exactly what Facebook promised about Libra,

    low fees, fast transfer and a level of stability not seen with Bitcoin.

    Behind this promise is the idea that the new cryptocurrency will be secured with traditional currencies and other ‘steady’ assets.

    The bottom line

    All is math. Bitcoin was $2,634 on June 16, 2017. Say you bought some BTC at that time. Now, you have an almost tripled return after 2 years. Bad investment? Never dare to say that. Sudden and fast ups and downs, yes. That’s the nature of Bitcoin and any other cryptocurrency.

    And speaking about Bitcoin’s future, as Nelson Mandela said: “It always seems impossible until is done.”

    risk disclosure

  • Cryptocurrency Market – How It Works

    Cryptocurrency Market – How It Works

    Cryptocurrency Market
    This market is in permanent growth, its volatility and unpredictable liquidity are a reality.

    By Guy Avtalyon

    The cryptocurrency market has been segmented into mining and transaction, based on the process. In the mining process, there is a greater necessity for hardware than it is a case in the transaction process. Therefore, the market for hardware for the mining process is larger than that for software. Furthermore, a miner can take part in this process with a small investment.

    Cryptocurrency is used for various applications, such as trading, remittance, and payment. These applications drive the market for cryptocurrencies.

    Trading the cryptocurrency market

    Cryptocurrency trading cover exchanging fiat currency with crypto. Also, it refers to exchanging, buying, and selling of cryptocurrencies. It meets some similarities of foreign exchange or forex wherein fiat currencies we can trade 24 hours a day. The number of cryptocurrencies has increased exponentially; currently, there are more than 1,500 cryptocurrencies available. Some of these coins can only be vested using major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. To contribute to initial coin offerings (ICOs), one needs to perform trades or use a blockchain company’s services.

    A large number of players are investing in developing payment gateways and platforms for the payment process of their currencies. When a customer makes a purchase using a cryptocurrency as payment, the transaction often goes through the payment gateway at a fixed exchange rate. It automatically converts to traditionally recognized fiat currency so the merchant can avoid the volatility of the cryptocurrency markets. The payment through cryptocurrency has several advantages. Enhanced transactional security, protection from fraud, decentralized system, low fees, quick international transfers.

    Why invest in the cryptocurrency market?

    Volatility and unpredictable liquidity are a reality of the cryptocurrencies market. You could have made tons of money if you had invested in bitcoin earlier but you would’ve lost a lot of money if you had started investing in the last few months. Because when investing in cryptocurrencies, many traditional assumptions fall flat. Managing risk in financial markets is a well-established discipline. Whether investing in equities, bonds, or currencies usually practices protect market practitioners when they are buying, selling, or intimidating. Risks are typically aligned into different categories. Market risk, credit risk, and operational risk, and complex formula are used to determine how much capital should be kept in reserve to absorb losses. The historical progress in bitcoin has increased risk appetite both for existing and newer traders. It comes with the realization that even a small exposure to cryptocurrencies could turn out to be lucrative.

     

    The cryptocurrencies market is still developing. There are concerns about the potential for fraud and market manipulation. So, investors must take the necessary precautions. These individual risks are much more difficult to measure and manage when investing in cryptocurrencies.

    Institutional demand for digital currencies 

    So far, most institutional investors, including banks, insurance companies, pensions, and hedge funds, have avoided cryptocurrencies. But, that attitude is beginning to change and institutional investors will soon be entering the market in a major way.

    This year (2018) has been challenging for crypto investors. Global market capitalization fell amidst worries over fraud risk, escalating token issuance, and ever-shifting cyber-security threats. Accusations of market manipulation and concerns around potential naked short selling are also doing little to lessen institutional investors’ concerns about cryptocurrencies.

    The effect in the market

    Every big trader can exploit market illiquidity and shifting margin rules and contract limits at inexperienced cryptocurrencies exchanges. This causes a domino effect in the market and institutional investors rather stay away. The complexities and shy institutional uptake for the new cash-settled bitcoin futures products demonstrate that. But the industry must move towards a futures contract that is settled with proper warehousing standards.

    Counterparty risk and custody provisions are even bigger worries for institutional investors. Although cryptocurrency exchanges are significant new platforms, they have been largely designed by the younger generation of developers. Financial institutions care more about the return of capital rather than return on capital. They are wary of the professional indemnity behind these platforms. We believe that now’s the right time for institutional investors to look seriously at making investments into cryptocurrencies. They should take part in the cryptocurrencies market.

    Cryptocurrency market – potentially unlimited upside

    The unpredictability of risk and the potential for high returns is the main characteristic of cryptocurrencies market. The most intelligent approach for new investors might be to hold a very small proportion of their portfolio in cryptocurrencies. This would give some exposure without excessive risk as the market continues to mature.

    By the end of 2017, a lot of portfolio managers had to explain to their clients why they had only achieved single-digit returns in traditional asset classes. At the same time, some crypto funds had earned up to 2,000 percent from volatility. This shows, there is a little downside from investing 1% of the portfolio in cryptocurrencies, but the potential upside is almost unlimited.

    The cryptocurrency market continues to attract new participants and liquidity should improve. This will take the time that’s the truth. Within a couple of years, cryptocurrencies will become a standard part of a diversified portfolio.

    The stock market has a rich and mature history. It has seen many bubbles, market crashes, and economic recoveries. The growth of the cryptocurrencies market continues. If traditional stock exchanges continue to keep away from cryptocurrencies, they’ll miss out on a growing and profitable market.

    Finally, the financial crisis of 2008  actually gave birth to Bitcoin.

  • Why now Bitcoin (end of 2018, after major drops)?

    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!

     

  • What causes cryptocurrencies to plunge these two days? Is it temporary?

    What causes cryptocurrencies to plunge these two days? Is it temporary?

    2 min read

    What causes cryptocurrencies to plunge these two days? Is it temporary?

    Cryptocurrencies plunge in the past two days. Financial markets around the world saw big declines over Thursday and Friday. Over $6 billion of value was wiped off global cryptocurrency markets in 24 hours led by XRP and ethereum as prices of digital coins continued to fall.

    According to Coinmarketcap.com, the entire market capitalization or value of cryptocurrencies had plunged $6.72 billion in 24 hours as of about 11:32 a.m. HK/SIN time on Friday.

    On Thursday it was noticed that something is happening. A sharp sell-off across the board erased billions of dollars of value in a matter of hours.

    The cryptocurrencies plunge was led by XRP, which was trading at around 39.13 cents at 11.32 a.m. HK/SIN time, marking a 7.9 percent drop from the day before. It fell as low as 37.89 cents. Ethereum also fell to around $191.07, dropping 7.4 percent from the day before.

    But, bitcoin largely stabilized at around $6,278.61, falling just under 0.8 percent on the day.

    What happened?

    Bithumb, currently the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea by trading volume, confirmed it has sold more than 38 percent of its total ownership to a blockchain consortium based in Singapore, for 400 billion won, or $350 million.

    According to CoinDesk Korea, Bithumb confirmed the deal was signed on Oct. 11 with BK Global Consortium. It is a blockchain investment firm formed by BK Global, a plastic surgery medical group in Singapore.

    Could it jeopardize the value of other cryptos?

    Well, we should consider other reasons for cryptocurrencies plunge too.

    Regulators across the world have been looking at how to deal with the growth of crypto assets with diverging views emerging. Countries like Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates are looking to become hubs for cryptocurrency businesses. While other nations like China have come down hard on the industry.

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expanded its crackdown on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), putting “hundreds” of projects at risk. This is according to a recent joint investigation by Yahoo Finance and Decrypt Media published Oct. 10. 

    The authors of the report, as the example, stressed that hundreds of crypto and blockchain startups that conducted token sales. They have eventually found that they had violated securities laws despite their endeavors to comply with regulations. 

    In response to SEC pressure, dozens of firms have reportedly “quietly agreed” to refund investors’ money and pay fines. Rather than attempt to reach legal compliance.

    A hearing before the US Senate Banking Committee is expected to feature heavy criticism of the crypto sector.

    For optimistic novices, those pitfalls and flaws were often glossed over. But with the bear market, the hearing may further sour retail sentiment. Two different viewpoints on the topic of cryptocurrency collided before a group of U.S senators on Thursday.

    Economist Nouriel Roubini: “Crypto is the mother and father of all scams …blockchain is the most overhyped technology ever and is no better than a glorified database,” Roubini said in his opening statement.

    But Van Valkenburgh said the committee that while blockchain and cryptocurrencies are not perfect or even fully complete at present. But they are a significant step in improving the financial situation for many.:

    “Bitcoin is the world’s first globally accessible public money. Is it perfect? No. Neither was email when it was invented in 1972. Bitcoin’s not the best money on every margin. It’s not yet accepted everywhere. It’s not used often to quote prices and it’s not a stable store of value. But it is working, and the fact that it works without intermediaries is amazing.” said Van Valkenburgh.

    The relationship between Tether and Bitfinex has come out with some interesting developments over the past few days.

    After showing signs of trouble, Noble Bank halted its services for Bitfinex and Tether. This led to a potential loss of trust in the exchange and a stablecoin leading to funding withdrawals. The past month saw a half of the Bitcoin deposited in the Bitfinex cold wallet flowing out.  And an additional 100 million USDT leaving circulation. Someone tried to sell millions of USDT for dollars on Kraken, depressing the price to $0.98.

    The Bitcoin mining economy is also at a crossroads.

    Competition and farm building peaked in the first half of 2018. It is possible that miners will attempt to sell BTC to recoup costs. In the past days, peak hashing power has coincided with falling rewards for existing miners.

    One possible reason is that Bitmain has activated ASIC Boost for its mining rigs, making it more difficult for other miners to obtain rewards.

    Philip Nunn said on Twitter:

    “As of June 2018, over 80% of #Bitcoin mining is performed by six mining pools and five of those six pools are managed by individuals or organizations located in China.So this is really worrying. And $BTC maximalists must look at this as a huge threat. China controlling BTC”

    But there are some optimistic words:

    “I’m surprised people think bitcoin can never reach its old highs. We have to remember today that not even 50 million wallets that use crypto today, but there are four and a half billion Visa cards, so you know this is the early stage for crypto, I don’t think $12,000 will be a problem in the future,” Fundstrat’s Tom Lee told CNBC last week.

    It is true the top three cryptocurrencies by market capitalization: bitcoin, ethereum, and XRP are all notably off their record high prices. They were hit at the end of last year and the beginning of 2018.

    Bottom line

    Many people in the cryptosphere love to speculate on just how high the prices of their favorite cryptocurrencies may rise. We have to say that does not matter because the cryptocurrency market is incredibly volatile, so cryptocurrencies can plunge.

    Only time will tell us who predicted correctly if anyone!

    The most important value of cryptocurrencies and assets are the future of transactions and value storage. And Bitcoin is leading this revolution. But this doesn’t make it easy to guarantee a specific price down the road.

    Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

  • Investing in Cryptocurrency – The Pros and Cons

    Investing in Cryptocurrency – The Pros and Cons

    2 min read

    The Pros and Cons of Investing in Cryptocurrencies 2

    Investing in cryptocurrencies is generally a risky investment. Investing in cryptocurrency could be a good investment, or it could not. It depends on you and your attitude. In crypto’s early days there is no yes or no answer about the wisdom of investing in cryptocurrency. With this in mind, we will cover some pros and cons and give friendly advice. Remember, this isn’t professional advice, we don’t offer professional legal, investment, or tax advice.

    If you don’t just want to buy, sell, or invest in cryptocurrency. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency, you have several options.

    First comes first: You need to start investing in cryptocurrency with some flexibility. You have to be prepared to lose everything you invest in cryptocurrency. It probably won’t happen, but be careful. The least risky coins are the coins that are present the longest time and have the highest market cap and highest volume. Anything other than Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum is riskier. Bitcoin is the current top coin for resilience, market cap, and volume. Also the most expensive.

    There are several pros and cons to review before investing in cryptocurrency.

    CONS:

    The cryptocurrency market has been very volatile since its beginning. The price of Bitcoin can swing up or down hundreds of dollars in one day. We have already seen a few bubbles and busts in the past. There is a risk of the venture on a given coin even if cryptocurrency is prosperous. Even if cryptocurrency is a good long-term bet, we don’t know if any coin will be the one that sticks around. Even more true for the countless less popular coins with smaller market caps.

    The Pros and Cons of Investing in Cryptocurrencies 1Those with low-risk tolerance have a difficulty; they are inclined to getting weakness and pulling out at a loss while the market is fixing up or going down. An investor needs to be prepared to take a loss or sit on a loss for a while if the market goes down. That requires a certain type of mindset and expendable funds. There are some psychological factors to consider along with economic ones.

    The only way to trade cryptocurrency on the stock market is to buy GBTC (Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust), which trades at a premium. The simplest way to buy a cryptocurrency for a novice aside the stock market is via some company. They charge some fees for that, but the lowest fees are on the open exchanges of the internet. Between premiums and fees and finding a broker, all options for trading have costs and it isn’t easy to calculate.

    Spirit level of crypto investors is changeable. Like the Moon. Bad news in term of regulations can send crypto value to drown in one day. But the same news another day may have no effect. If you join some cryptocurrency group on social media, and you’ll note it goes from hot-to-cold with the weather. The market is a bit fussy, I think.

    PROS

    The cryptocurrency market is still young, and the most optimistic investors are predicting future prices, some of them claim that it can be for e.g. Bitcoin, $220,000 by 2020. Cryptocurrency is a very risky but potentially rewarding bet. More, if cryptocurrency is in a bubble, the trend could very well be toward cryptocurrency being an important medium of exchange and store of value in the future if the current price is lower than the highest price we will ever see. That makes it a good long-term bet. You can often buy high low and sell high. There is money to be made.

    The Pros and Cons of Investing in Cryptocurrencies 4
    Despite all its risks, crypto is possible the most exciting asset 21st century. It is decentralized, works on blockchain technology which is here-to-stay. You can find billions of motives about why everyone has to be excited about crypto. As much as reasons to be conservative in your investment.

    Don’t dump your whole saving into crypto, but don’t hesitate to put a small investment you are ready to lose, just to learn and have fun on your beginning. Later you will have the know-how.

    TIP

    If it is the bubble, then pop it!

    One of the reasons for taking extreme caution is the current potentially high price. If the price goes back down to 2015 levels, then the number of PROS will increase. The unknowns and high price and volatile market make it risky, but there are plenty of reasons to be excited despite all that especially long-term.

    Investing in cryptocurrencies is very risky, markets are volatile and the technologies are still quite young.

    But, they are still a great opportunity for anyone interested in investing.

    Treat them as you would any investment and do your own research.

    Step into this new world while is time.

    Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

  • Which Altcoins Look Good in The Near Future?

    Which Altcoins Look Good in The Near Future?


    Altcoins are cryptocurrencies also like Bitcoin. But most of them are forks of Bitcoin with small changes.

    By Guy Avtalyon

    Altcoins represent all coins that are not Bitcoin. Altcoins are usually under the radar. Still, altcoins can generate fantastic gains if you are lucky enough to find the particular one that skyrockets soon.

    But be aware. The risk involved is really high.

    You may end up holding a bunch of useless projects that never go anywhere.

    The current cryptocurrency market is very hot. And everyone wants to make a lot of money there. Well, as first, count on the risk because here it is very big.

    When you want to invest but you don’t know which crypto to purchase, you should find more and more information about cryptocurrencies. And look at their white papers.

    What altcoins to choose?

    It would be arrogant of us to think that we can predict exactly which altcoin will be the best. And take this piece of advice. Never listen to anyone who pretends to know everything for sure in crypto.

    We are not saying only these altcoins are good or they’re the best. They’re just altcoins that we can imagine are going to be worth looking at in more detail.

    We have to tell you this is not financial advice to invest in any crypto and please do your own homework and make the decision by yourself.

    To do our homework, we followed 3 criteria for coins:

    *  Isn’t related to a Ponzi scheme or multi-level marketing
    * can’t be in the current top ten
    * must be tradable on a trusted market or exchange

    Find answers before choose altcoin

    Do they have a solid team? How is about their technology? Is it solid enough already or, maybe, their future technology could be unique? Also, is this company going to work 5 years or more?

    We know that many of you may disagree with our choice, but feel free to express your opinion in comments.
    The order on this list is random.

    What altcoins to look at?

    1) Ethereum – This list of the best altcoins must begin with Ethereum, which is the second most valuable cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. Ethereum was launched in July 2015 by the now-famous prodigy of the cryptocurrency world and it was done by Vitalik Buterin. This altcoin provides a platform to the developer on which they can build blockchain-based smart contracts and decentralized apps.

    It was the first cryptocurrency to introduce smart contracts, which are now considered as the next big thing.

    One of the biggest challenges being faced by Ethereum has been scalability. Ethereum’s network currently supports roughly 15 transactions per second.

    This isn’t that great but we expect they will solve that in the near future.

    2) Litecoin – One of the oldest altcoins, was created in 2011 by Charlie Lee. Like Bitcoin, Litecoin is also a digital currency but with improvements. In fact, the reason for launching Litecoin was to overcome some of the shortcomings of Bitcoin, especially its slow transaction speed.

    The reason that it is called Litecoin is that it is 4 times faster than Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s transaction takes about 10 minutes to complete but a Litecoin transaction is completed in 2.5 minutes.

    3) ICON – It is a project that has experienced huge gains. Currently, it’s not even traded on Korean exchanges, which is insane. Their vision is to allow many different blockchains ( private and public) to work together, like universities, banks, hospitals, schools and they can all share information together via Icon and other partners.

    Further

    4) Neo – It’s one of the best long-term altcoins. Neo has the potential to reach Ethereum’s market cap. Many people invest in Neo because they have confidence that sooner or later the Chinese government is going to legalize ICOs again. But only if Neo is the blockchain is used.

    Neo’s CoFounder Da HongFei himself has denied this theory several times. The Neo project is much more than trying to be Chinese Ethereum. And it’s going to succeed anyway, without depending on what China does with ICO’s. Neo is going to help create the future of blockchain. You don’t need ICOs to be legalized in China for this to happen.5) DASH – Altcoin launched in 2014 by Evan Duffield. At the time of launch, it was called Xcoin and was then renamed to Darkcoin. In 2015 that it was rebranded to Dash. Dash has been forked from Litecoin, which is itself built on Bitcoin’s technology but it offers significant advantages over Bitcoin like better privacy and a higher transaction speed than Bitcoin.

    6) Cardano (ADA) – Cardano is one of the newest cryptocurrencies and it not only offers a platform for Dapps and smart contracts but also offers many technological improvements over Ethereum and other blockchains.

    This altcoin has not given as high returns as other top coins but it is still popular among investors because of its promise of building a highly robust blockchain that offers advantages over Ethereum. We will see!

    More

    7) EOS – Relatively new altcoin whose Initial Coin Offering (ICO) was launched in June 2017. EOS and created by Dan Larimer. It is both a digital currency and a blockchain platform for DApps and smart contracts, more like Ethereum than like Bitcoin. This coin is much more scalable than Ethereum and EOS support multiple languages, including C++. This is a very convenient feature if you are the developer.

    8) Wanchain – It is possibly even more hyped up cousin of Wanchain. The two projects are in the same category of projects but are complementary to one another.

    Wanchain works on the ability of different chains to work together, like Icon. This is going to be of huge value as blockchain develops.

    9) Filecoin – Filecoin is a decentralized storage solution. Filecoin allows for anyone, anywhere to get paid for storage and it is built on top of IPFS. It is a new peer-to-peer protocol. Filecoin broke a record while raising $257 million dollars at their ICO. It has all of the right things with worldwide implications.

    These are just some of my thoughts that I share with you and you should not take them as the only and undeniable truth.

    Should you be cautious about altcoins?

    People are being very cautious with all these new forks and new versions of Bitcoin. There are alts that are booming right now it is just when new people join the market. They generally know only about BTC and once they do due diligence and learn about the market and with all the great alts that are out there, the money will shift.

    What do you think? Which alts look good in the near future?

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