cryptonomics

The philosophical thought process behind currency has been around for centuries, and has continually evolved. Aristotle gave three functions of money: a means of exchange, measure of value, and a store of value for future transactions. Cryptocurrencies meet Aristotle's three functions of money, but there is still a link missing from this cryptocurrency chain. Averroes added a fourth: a reserve of purchasing power. Not only does money serve as a store of value, but money could be spent at any time without having the need to be sold. This is where cryptocurrencies fall short, and it seems that this could be one of the reasons that we see such sell offs in the cryptoverse. Cryptocurrencies have come a long way since their conception, and have done well (so far) under the 2017 lime light. In order for cryptocurrencies to reach the end goal of a being a true form of money, we will need to see adoption for payments receivable (such as retail) sector. Until then we will continue to ...

In my unprofessional opinion, an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) will replace the IPO (Initial Public Offering) just like the Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) will replace current exchanges, and Atomic Swaps will be fluid in our daily transactions. This will take time, as regulation will be made, and our understanding of blockchain deepens. However, we already have had many ICOs, and we already have a few DEXs. An ICO should be looked at as an unregulated way for a firm in the crypto-space to raise money, and fund their project(s). It is a way for crypto-firms to bypass regulation and raise funds quickly, while jumping onto the cryptocurrency hype, so caution must be taken as most crypto-enthusiasts see ~90% of ICOs failing. In the ICO's current state, when you purchase a coin/token, you don't own a share of that firm. The firm isn't required to disclose information as they would after an IPO. However, if there is a lot of buzz around said firm, their token value theoreti...

Most of us are familiar with our country's currency (insert your countries form of currency: USD CAD, JPY, GBP, CNY) wether it is physical or digital we are willing to exchange goods and services for it. For centuries, people of earth have relied, and trusted a third party to hold, and transfer, their currency. From the ancient templars escorting precious metals across the globe on behalf of others, or exchanging them for ancient bank notes; to bankers as we know them today holding our money. As society has advanced, so has the banking system. In the digital world, we have become use to instant access. Instant access to whatever news organization happened to get their hands on a story first followed by a flood of other sources, even if the original is incorrect. Instant access to photos, and status updates. Technology is wild. Hell, last year I was watching kids enter the augmented reality of Pokemon Go on their phone as my girlfriend and I walked the streets of Burlingame, C...

For over the last year, Wall Street has been on the verbal attack of Bitcoin. They claim it is a bubble, even as far as saying that it is worse than the tulip bubble, or Enron. "Buy gold, not Bitcoin" they say... Gold suuuuuucks. Bitcoin being somewhat of a decentralized currency has bankers shaking. It removes bankers from the equations. As more and more people adopt Bitcoin and altcoins, bankers edge closer to losing all that they have built. Viewing Bitcoin as more of a commodity, they have tried ushering people into gold instead. It is 2017, why buy gold? If I need to cash my gold it, I have to find someone who buys gold, haul my gold to the person, and probably get ripped off by the guy. If I am holding Bitcoin, I can sell it on an exchange from the comfort of my own home. Regulation. Nobody feels that Bitcoin needs regulation, except Morgan Stanley and other banks lol. Bitcoin doesn't need a central bank, and it doesn't need governmental regulation. China...

As we all know, Bitcoin has had a glorious 2017 despite receiving heavy criticism from Jamie Dimon  ( cnbc ),  Warren Buffet  ( fox biz ), and even Saudi Prince Alwaleed  ( fortune ). Its most recent tailwinds: CME Group. First to the scene of Bitcoin Derivatives trading was  LedgerX , and now CME Group start  Bitcoin derivatives  ( bloomberg ) by the end of year. The entrance of CME Group pushed the price of BTC (Bitcoin) from ~$6,000  to ~$7,400. follow me on twitter   @postmattern  and   @bitfuturist

Bitcoin has become more than a currency. Not only will the value continue to increase (or drop to zero, who knows...) but it also continue to pay out dividends. You might be thinking, "a dividend? But, sir? I understand how a currency can fluctuate in value... but how can a currency also pay you a dividend?" Forks. When Bitcoin goes through a "fork" a group of developers take Bitcoin's Blockchain and tweak it to make a Blockchain that they feel will be better suite the general populace. In order to do so, they must use the exact blockchain up until the time they choose to fork at. Once they choose a block to fork at, and once Bitcoin's Blockchain reaches that block, a snapshot is taken. of the blockchain. Both Bitcoin's blockchain, and the forking blockchain will have an identical blockchain up until the time of the fork. So, if you are holding 10 Bitcoin when the snapshot is taken, you receive an additional 10 coins of the forked currency. Simil...

Many people have argued against Cryptocurrencies. Some have gone as far to say that it is the next Enron, or the next ' tulip bulbs ' bubble.  They say that it is just market euphoria. IMHO: Market euphoria hasn't hit digital currencies or even the stock market's incredible bull run (at least not yet, I see a little too many bears out there, and crashes happen when you don't expect them... just. like. Enron). 2017 has seen Bitcoin's value launch to the moon, and one reason I see behind it is as follows. The election of  Donald Trump  saw a boom in most asset classes. Equity sectors from Tech to Finance to Industrials received bumps. Why? One reason is the promise of deregulation. The prior eight years our economy has been crippled by regulation as we the people of the United States of America sat back and assumed that there was no way out of this global economic downturn. Central banks across the globe were cutting interest rates to try and inject life int...

Hello again. It has been a while. Cryptocurrencies dealt blow with Ban in China in September sparking a sell off. However, Bitcoin quickly rebounded from a low of ~2,800 shortly after. Ethereum undergoes Byzantium hard fork, but struggles to advance against USD. Continues to trade ~$300. Bitcoin owners received a nice forking dividend from Bitcoin Cash  (BCC) (soon to have Bitcoin Gold and two others coming later this year). Don't worry about BTC Forks, just sit back and enjoy the dividend, but not with Coinbase .  It is true that Coinbase simplifies owning digital currencies, but Bitcoin forks, they hold the forking Currency. If you have any questions about BTC Forks, you may tweet me  @bitfuturist IBM teams up with Stellar. AMD crushes Q2 ER (earnings report), continues to stay humble on its GPU sales (despite the cryptocurrency mining boom), and moderately lowers guidance. When asked about AMD's reasoning behind lowing guidance, AMD's response was ...

When first looking in to buying Bitcoin, it can seem quite daunting. There are so many places to buy and sell. From my experience, I have found that the easiest way to buy and hold Bitcoin is to use Coinbase , even if our opinions don't align... The reason I have selected Coinbase is mainly because it is easy to use, and has a simplistic set up that doesn't require you to divulge, and verify, too much personal information. To set up, simply go to coinbase.com ,  or download the Coinbase app. Enter your First name, Last name, email, password, select your state, verify that you are not a robot, and agree to the 'terms and conditions'. Bam, that simple. *Update: they require more information including a photo ID Setting up a method of payment is quite easy, especially on the app. Once you add the card, and the card has been validated (which can take up to a few hours), then you can be a happy/unhappy Bitcoiner. I like coinbase for the simplicity, sleek design, a...

Advanced Micro Devices released Vega (not Frontier edition) today. It is sold out across the board on New Egg . Meanwhile, Ethereum's network hashrate has jumped up by 6 TH/s overnight. Currently at 86.7 TH/s Zcash's network hashrate seems to be climbing higher, but there is no way to be certain just yet. This is the second time this year that AMD has released a new GPU that has sold out the days of launch. The first was AMD's RX 570/580 which sold out very quickly at a price of ~$300. The new Vega GPUs have a starting price of $400 (Vega 56) and higher end of $699 (Vega 64). From what I have seen, these cards will do a great job mining for what you pay for them (around 35-45 MH/s). So if you are looking to buy, good luck. They will be sold out for a while. The RX 570/580, which was released around April 2017, is still impossible to get unless you are willing to pay double. Nvidia's GPUs are good for mining, but are generally too expensive. Miners have comp...

Bitcoin was highlighted on CNBC where the Bitcoin enthusiast set a target of 25,000 to 50,000 USD per coin, see it here BTC is trading around 3,575 USD and has had a steady ascent over the past week of 26% *BTC chart here BCH (Bitcoin Cash) seems to be continuing its wild ride, investers/traders still are uncertain of its future, as it has become another spinoff of Bitcoin. Current price is around .09 BTC. It is down 5% on the week, but up 12.8% on the day. It's intraday high peaked at .1 BTC *BCH chart here ETH (Ethereum) had a boost with other altcoins, which saw it peak at .094 BTC, since then it has had a pull back and is currently trading around .084 BTC or 300 USD. On the day it is down about 5% *ETH chart here ZEC (Zcash) had a nice little bump from ~.062 BTC ON 08.07, surged up to .075 BTC (08.08), but has erased almost all of its gains leaving it at a current level of .064 BTC *ZEC chart here LTC (Litecoin) although a one week chart has LTC down 13% against B...

Market analysts seem to be seeing only what they want to see when it comes to cryptocurrency mining and GPU demand. When the GPU mining craze started to boom in May, causing a shortage in AMD and NVDA GPUs, analysts were quick to say that it is just a short term craze. When the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum started to fall, they said that there would be a mass selling of GPUs on the second hand market. Ethereum fell about 50% in a few months from a high of .14 BTC ($400) to a low of .069 BTC ($163). Since May, there has been and continues to be a shortage of AMD Radeon RX 470/480/570/580. Even RX 460s and 560s are some what hard to find. The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the best for mining Ethereum. The higher end GPUs (of AMD, since they are better for Ethereum) can work at 25-35 MH/s 1,000 MH/s equals 1 GH/s 1,000 GH/s equals 1 TH/s On June 16, 2017, Ethereum's network was 45.7 TH/s. Today, its network hashrate is 81.9 TH/s One analyst mentioned that trans...

Digital currencies see a light rally. At the time of writing this (08.08.17 3:45 pm PDT): ETH + 11% ZEC + 22% LTC + 6% BCH - 2.8% (Bitcoin Cash has had quite the roller coaster ride, trading between .06-.24 BTC) BTC surpassed its previous ATH of 3,000 USD on Aug 03, currently hovering around 3,400 USD and currently has a market cap of 56 Billion USD the real question is wether the bullish sentiment will hold. Also, there has been chatter of CBOE launching Bitcoin Derivatives (I'm rather psyched about this one) A question for the equities market is will this help boost AMD and NVDA shares since they produce GPUs that are great for mining. Also, I started using Kraken , and I love it. Data pulled from cryptowat.ch  and coinmarketcap.com

As I was skimming twitter  the other day, I came across an opinion (via  marketwatch ) piece that was critical of Bitcoin. The author pointed out some minor flaws; mainly with people's knowledge on bitcoin, especially among its fanboys/fangirls. I recently had the opportunity to meet with a fine gentleman, Jim Clawson, who has been involved with the idea behind cryptocurrencies for decades. In 1997 he was issued a patent that deals with the fundamental aspects of blockchain tech. With the knowledge I have attained on bitcoin's subject matter, it seem's that it is my obligation to respond to some things that opinion piece mentioned. 1. What is the purpose of Bitcoin? According to Bitcoin's White Pages , the purpose of Bitcoin is to provide peer-to-peer electronic cash or digital currency. This true digital currency would allow users to send payments directly from one party to the next with out being boggled down by the financial institutions, and their lengthly tr...

Cryptocurrencies will provide a missing piece in the global economy by providing a borderless currency. There is no currency that is accepted globally. If you take a US dollar to a different country, it is hard to use it at any given location. Instead, you need to swap them out for the local currency. As an individual, this can make traveling abroad a little painful; especially after paying currency exchange fees (not to mention having to carry around cash). This is also painful for global business as well. If a firm wants to send a payment outside their home market they need to go through a bank. Which then takes their home market's currency, exchanges it for the accepted currency in the other market, and then lets the payment process. This process can take days, and this is the most painless method of transferring payments. Payments through cryptocurrencies break the barrier, and remove the middle man. Firms can easily find where they need to send the payment, select how ...

There are copious amounts of websites that offer ways to exchange cryptos. A few that will be discussed are Coinbase, Bitstamp, Poloniex, Bittrex, Gatehub, and Bitfinex. These exchanges never close; so you can buy/sell anytime/any day. I also added Circle, just cause. *refer to end for abbreviation Coinbase Simple and clean user interface Buy and Sell BTC/ETH/LTC with local currency Instant credit card purchases, bank accounts take 3-5 days high fees Bitstamp.net Exchange BTC, XRP, USD or EUR 98% of digital funds stored offline If you want to try trading cryptos: Poloniex Exchange/Lending 2.5x leverage Chatbox (trollbox) which can be entertaining Two Factore Id *Sometimes Poloniex has issues, and their customer service seems inexistent  Kraken Offers 5x leverage trading tools *seems sluggish at times Bittrex Offers 190+ cryptos US Based (if you are into that, deals with US regulations Gatehub.net Trade multiple currencies...

If Bitcoin's destination is the moon, it hasn't started its launch sequence. Cryptocurrencies are not in a bubble. There are just over 16 million bitcoins in circulation today with a market cap of just under $40 billion (Crypto Currency Market Capitalizations). The US currently has over $1.2 trillion dollars in circulation today (How Currency...). Bitcoin can be used in the global market, while USD is mainly used in the US. 16 million bitcoins to help assist a global economy. Supply is there, and demand is slowly ticking up. Retailers and Banks haven't decided to accept cryptocurrencies yet. As cryptocurrencies assimilate into the global economy, the value for Bitcoins will continue to all time highs. Image from coinbase *You do not need to buy a full bitcoin/alt-coin. Exchanges let you buy less that .01 of a crypto.

If you haven't exchanged a form of fiat currency for bitcoin/alt-coin, then you basically have managed to sit on the sidelines during the coolest innovation of our times. The altcoin movement will be bigger than the change from horse pulled carriages to automobiles, mail to e-mail, dial-up to broadband... you get the point. Altcoins are a fabulous innovation that can cut transaction time from days to seconds.  These future currencies don't come without problems, the biggest being how unstable they can be, but that will change as people have less and less reasons to sell. Until then, this is true. At times, altcoins can seem to be driven by pump-and-dump traders; not investors or users. The volatility of these markets could make the strongest human bipolar. For now, take a long position  Diversify Then only throw as much money as you are willing to lose