cryptonomics

We live in a day of globalization. Technology has delivered ways to communicate with one another through miles of under water internet cables. Transportation is slowly becoming cheaper and more innovative; from captain-less cargo ships transporting goods across the globe, to the possibility of hyperloops from Dubai to Abu Dhabi or LA to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes.  30 minutes to travel 380 miles which is 6 hours in a car. In this fourth industrial revolution, why are we still allowing banks to take days to complete a transaction? Cryptocurrencies are the next step to globalization for consumers and businesses alike. These digital currencies will break down currency barriers, and allow everyone to exchange goods and services with little to no fees. There will be no need to exchange currencies through a third party, as you have millions of super computers hashing away for you. Hackers? pfff, not really something to worry about as they would have to take over 51% of thos...

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 ...