cryptonomics

If you think cryptos are worthless the scary reality is that your dollar is also worthless. You should become a gold bug. The reason for your dollar being worthless is because it isn’t backed by anything aside from a government that is set on devaluing your dollar by setting an inflation target of two percent. Does anyone remember when you could pick up a candy bar for ~$0.50? Better days, right? Now a candy bar is ~$0.89. Prices are increasing while quality is flatlining. Shouldn't the cost of a candy bar decrease over time as innovation/competition enters the market? @chriscanno The answer is: yes. Innovation and competition should lower prices, but the central bank is set the hold the cost of goods at a certain price with their inflation target. What is happening is that The Federal Reserve is digitally pumping money into the system to keep prices lower. What gives precious metals value is scarcity. If we all have ten ounces of gold because someone can just 3D pri...

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...

I have been coming across some interesting readings; from the recent way to breed digital kitties on Ethereum to a pretty interesting piece from Hackernoon, " Bitcoin's Final Boss ". So, the Ethereum network has been congested again. This time it isn't being congested by ICOs, instead, Digital Kittens ( Cryptokitties ) that look... nice(?). Cryptokitties made up 11% of Ethereums traffic (12/05/2017). This is seen as problematic as new users continure to pile into the cryptocurrency space, and the problems of a congested network persist. This is problematic because this isn't just oddly adorable kittens unable to breed, this is people's money on the line. Forgive me of my inability to adequately tell this next story, but know that I tried. The last time that I had an experience with congestion (aside from all the times the coinbase app has crashed on me) I had a margin position open on Poloniex . In which I had gone long Ethereum, as it was ascending ...

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 ...

Bitcoin Lets go over some of the basics about bitcoin. Cryptocurrency vs Altcoins . The only difference is that cryptocurrency covers all digital currency (Bitcoin and altcoins), while altcoins are alternatives to Bitcoin. Blockchain is a digital ledger where transactions for cryptocurrencies are publicly recorded. The blockchain is stored on nodes, that verify transactions. Bitcoin Mining  sounds intense, but only for the computer. When a computer is "mining" it is racing against other miners on the network to solve a mathematical equation and seal the current block. Cryptocurrencies are digital assets that can be bought, sold, traded, transferred (etc) digitally. The network for cryptocurrencies is virtually impossible to hack/manipulate since a dishonest group would have to take control of 51% of the network. The network is huge. Bitoin's network is in exohash sphere. Similar to precious metals, cryptocurrencies can be broken down into smalle...

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