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It was the beginning of 2021 when a group of private investors through a Reddit community called WallStreetBets turned against multi-billion dollar hedge funds who were short-selling (betting on the downside) a few brick and mortar stocks. The symbol of this “digital revolution” started with GameStop. As the community-driven trade was unraveling, traditional investing wasn’t looking at it with a good eye. In a few words, starting from the WallStreetBets board, private investors all agreed to buy GameStop on what they later called a “diamond hand” (those private investors were ready to hold their position even though that meant losing all the money). They started from GameStop, which was rumored to be shorted by large hedge funds taking advantage of how the pandemic affected the business. In a few days, some of these hedge funds, who until now were the market makers, had to close their own positions, burning billions of dollars of their portfolio. As the trade further unraveled and the loss for these hedge funds widened, platforms like Robinhood restricted trades on the GameStop stocks, claiming liquidity issues. From there, meme investments also helped expose the conflict of interests existing in the business models of some of the stock brokerage firms. How do stockbrokers make their money? This situation opened up discussions on whether platforms like on fees coming from these same Wall Street institutions – to sell the retail investors trades are legitimate, what’s known as “payment for order flow.” Robinhood making money *A quick side note on how payments for order flow or “PFOF” work: apps like Robinhood or other stock brokerage firms make money by selling trades of their customers. In short, a market is made when ask and bid offers are fulfilled. Indeed that is what provides liquidity to the market. Therefore brokerage firms that like Robinhood pass along their customers’ trades to other market makers are compensated on top of the spread between the bid and ask price with a fee for each trade as a “market maker fee” (the largest market maker for options in the US is called Citadel Securities – owned by Citadel LLC, which during the short squeeze from Redditors bailed out the hedge fund Melvin Capital). Robinhood is an app that helps to invest in stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies, all commission-free. Robinhood earns money by offering: Robinhood Gold, a margin trading service, which starts at $6 a month, it earns interest from customer cash and stocks and rebates from market makers and trading venues. So to recap, Redditors took over Game Stop by making its price shoot over $400 per share, thus “squeezing” hedge funds like Melvin Capital, who had massive short bets on the company (thus creating a lack of liquidity as those short-sales determined millions of losses for the hedge fund). In turn, one of the primary platform used by those Redditors, Robinhood (which claimed mission is “to democratize finance”) restricted the trades on Game Stop, de facto making it harder for those retail investors to squeeze further hedge funds involved in the trade. At the same time, Robinhood claimed liquidity issues as the reason for restricting these trades. Redditors also questioned to democratize investing. When faced with the dilemma, Robinhood favored market makers rather than retail investors. Robinhood’s mission Thus, while we can believe that the high volatility created a difficult situation for Robinhood to handle, we can also leave it open here whether it still makes sense for a company that stands on democratizing investing, to have among its largest clients a market maker, which can retaliate the platform against retail investors in these scenarios. Therefore, even though this is a legal practice, is it still legitimate? The role of Reddit and Twitter While it fits a narrative to give the birth of the meme investing phenomenon to a single event, this “digital revolution” has been building up for decades, and even though the web has become much more centralized starting in the 2010s, the crowd’s potential is still a built-in feature of the Internet. The pandemic has just amplified something that started over two decades ago, for better or worse. At the same time, many talks about speculations, bubbles, and excess (no doubt we’ll remember this period also for some of these things). Indeed, already months before through the Reddit group was pushing for a rise of Game Stop as a digital revolt against hedge funds. How did this phenomenon develop? While traditional investing moves along the lines of traditional media (be it TV, Radio, or also online publications with a top-down approach), meme investing instead has developed as a result of “user-generated” investment strategies. The platforms to communicate have been Reddit and Twitter: Reddit is a social news and discussion website that also rates web content. The platform was created in 2005 after founders Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman met venture capitalist Paul Graham and pitched the company as the “front page of the internet.” Reddit makes money primarily via advertising. It also offers premium membership plans. The most incredible thing about Reddit is that it managed to be a popular platform for user-generated content for a decade. And indeed, those who have tried to build user-generated platforms over the years know how a feat that is. As angel investor Paul Graham has highlighted about Hacker News: In short, among the ventures, he had built over the years, Hacker News, the social news website launched in 2007 by startup-incubator Y Combinator, turned out to be the most difficult product. On the other hand, Twitter has been renamed by many as “Crypto Twitter” as in 2020, going forward, it became the primary platform for those interested in crypto investing. Crypto investing would become unbeknownst to many the next major platform for meme investments, with the rise of Doge. Dogecoin’s conception was in 2013 as a satire on the flourishing altcoin sector. No one expected that the small community built around a coin inscribed with the famous Shiba Inu “doge” meme would grow as it did. Presently, eight years later, the satirical comment of a coin has and is still pumping in value, aggressively thriving in the ever-competitive altcoin world. And things only got even more interesting when Elon Musk started to tweet more and more frequently about that. To understand how this was unexpected, also smart people like venture capitalist Fred Wilson : highlighted I remember when a friend of mine told me five or six years ago that he had bought some Dogecoin. I thought “what is he doing?” and dismissed it as something silly and or crazy. How did that happen? In part, through the PR stunts of Elon Musk, also renamed the “King of Doge.” What made things even more interesting is that something that started as a joke became sort of serious. In fact, as a quick timeline: Elon Musk had announced that Tesla would start accepting payments in Bitcoin, and at the same time to enable that, back in February 2021, it had bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoins. Over the months, Elon Musk had tweeted more and more frequently about Bitcoin first; then, he started to tweet about crypto meme coins (Dogecoin), gathering more and more interest around the coin that was born as a joke. By May 2021, Elon Musk suddenly came out with a statement announcing that Tesla would not accept Bitcoin payments anymore due to the high coal energy consumption due to the Bitcoin mining process. That opened Pandora’s box that also showed the fanaticism around the Bitcoin community. At the same time, Elon Musk announced that he would be working with the Doge developer’s community instead of making the former meme coin a potential medium to purchase Tesla in the future. As the debate got heated, though, some fundamental points came up about the evolution of Bitcoin’s blockchain. And as the discussion around the inefficiency and electric consumption of Bitcoin, Elon Musk turned to Doge even more: This proved to be an incredible meme machine that turned a joke into an over $50 billion market cap protocol at its peak! Understanding meme stocks Image Source: reddit Giving a precise definition of a meme stock is difficult. But in general, a meme stock has seen an increase in volume because of social media hype and not superior company performance. Or at least an investment opportunity that a crowd of people across the various social communities find appealing for some reason. Indeed in the case of GameStop, various reasons drove the hype. First, from a brand that has been iconic for many years, hit further by the pandemic. To the fact, that was easier to take over as shorter in liquidity. And the fact yet that given the many short-selling bets placed on the order, a quick uptake would have liquidated those short bets, thus driving a further increase of the price. In the case of Dogecoin instead, the primary reasons behind the meme take over stood in entertainment, speculation, a new “asset class,” and a life-changing opportunity for many young people to become rich quickly. Fuelled by hype, and while in a highly liquid market, these stocks become overvalued in a short period of time and experience rapid share price appreciation. They also tend to depreciate just as quickly as the hype dies down and investors look for the next opportunity. Since the share price is not based on company fundamentals, meme stocks are highly volatile. Meme stocks are becoming increasingly relevant because of the rising popularity of retail investing. For one, services like Robinhood have made it very easy for the average investor to purchase securities in general. Significant stimulus money in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has also been invested in the stock market as retail players seek to maximize their returns. As we saw, most meme stocks are born on social media sites such as Twitter and Reddit. To describe how a meme stock is formed, consider the following steps which echo a similar mechanism for the uptake of a new product or technology by consumers. Early adopter phase Initially, a small number of investors believe a particular stock is undervalued and purchase it in large quantities. As a result, the share price gradually begins to increase. Middle phase The increase in volume is noticed by observant investors who buy-in and cause the share price to appreciate more significantly. Through the virality of social media, more and more investors join the party, so to speak. FOMO phase In the FOMO phase, the stock becomes a meme stock as it gains traction across multiple social media channels or forums. Less savvy investors purchase shares in the meme stock for no other reason than a fear of missing out on potential gains. Profit-taking phase At some point, the early adopters sell part or all of their holding and take profit. This sets off a chain reaction causing more investors to sell and lock in profits as the share price begins to decrease. New buyers in the profit-taking phase become bag holders. In other words, they have left holding shares in the now worthless stock and will incur large losses once they sell. Examples of meme stocks Here are some of the more notable meme stocks in recent times: GameStop (GME) – when Reddit investors noted that GameStop was heavily shorted by hedge funds, they began mass purchasing the stock causing the price to increase by hundreds of dollars in a matter of days. AMC Entertainment (AMC) – after the GameStop short squeeze died down, investors turned their attention toward a similarly shorted stock in AMC. The share price peaked at $63.97, representing a 570% increase in value. BlackBerry (BB) – Canadian enterprise and security software company BlackBerry was also targeted. Before the meme stocks boom, the share price was around $9 – but this . more than tripled to a 52-week high of $28.77 in January 2021 Will 'meme investing' become an accepted investment style? As Fred Wilson from AVC has noted: Memes are fun and memes are also something to come together around. Speculating on the popularity of memes and their staying power is no different than any other form of speculation.But more than that, and this is where my head has been going on this topic, the market caps of these memes are also economically powerful. If the board and management teams of the companies with meme stocks choose to issue more shares at these prices, they can raise a lot of capital to transform these companies. Similar opportunities could exist with meme tokens. AMC recently did this with their “meme stock.”I’ve decided that I am going to stop ignoring and dismissing meme investing and start trying to understand it better. I think it is not something that is going away anytime soon and may turn into something even more interesting. So while meme investing might have become popular in recent times, thanks also to the speculative bubbles formed in the market, there are some fundamental reasons to believe this phenomenon might survive and some aspects that make it worth analyzing: Retail investors now have platforms that can be used to generate short-term buzz, thus acting as a sort of “liquidity pumps” toward assets that might be, for some reason, undervalued by main players on Wall Street. Investing in memes might actually help some companies turn around beyond what Wall Street thinks of them and give them a chance. So as a form of crowd-investing where capital can be allocated to restructure an organization. They can also be used to involve younger generations in the decision-making process that determines the future of organizations that will lead the economic establishment. At the same time, such investments can be deceiving and leave unprepared retail investors holding the “bag,” thus never recovering their losses. The question whether the current pay-for-order flow model is still legitimate. Also published on https://fourweekmba.com/meme-investing .

Understanding Meme Economy

I always find it troublesome for me to deploy and interact with Tezos’s Smart Contract at my job as a Software Engineer in my company. So, I decided to build a tool (web app) to solve my problem. Ideation The idea to solve my problem is to build a web app so that I can access it anywhere easily and allow me to securely deploy and interact with my Tezos‘s Smart Contract. As I don't want to spend too much time, effort or $$ building a full fledged solution, I decided to just build the features that I need. Therefore, my solution will be a minimum viable product (MVP). Market Research Before I even start building my solution, I decided to perform some market research to find out if there are any existing solutions to my problem. It turns out, there are a few solutions available. There are - A web app that only allows me to interact with Tezos' Smart Contract SmartPy Contract Explorer - A desktop app that allows me to deploy and interact with Tezos's Smart Contract Tezsure-GUI Feature Table A feature table is a comparison table that I use to compare my product to my competitor's product on a list of dimensions that I care about. (Based on total points' count of 10 with 10 being the best and 1 being the worst). is the name that I have given to my product. There are a total of 4 dimensions that I'm concern about my product. TezosKT Security I gave my product a score of 8 as my Tezos's account is handled by , a Tezos's DApp wallet. The score is lower than Tezsure-GUI as I think that my Tezos's account locally on my PC is more secure as compared to storing it on my browser. TezBridge As of SmartPy Contract Explorer, it requires me to paste my Tezoz's account private key into their explorer, which is totally not secure. It also does not support interaction with a mainnet Smart Contract. I gave my product a score of 7, which is slightly lower than SmartPy Contract Explorer as my product will not be providing auto generating of Smart Contract operation code. Ease Of Use This feature will require more time and effort for me to build. I feel that is not worth it for me to do that as I can rely on , a Tezos's Smart Contract Explorer to generate it for me. Better Call Dev As for Tezsure-GUI, I am required to install and build the desktop application locally myself which I think is troublesome. Contract Origination and Operation Both TezosKT and Tezsure-GUI supports these two types of transaction. SmartPy Smart Contract Explorer doesn't support deployment of external Smart Contract Code. Findings and Conclusion So based on the analysis above, I think that my product achieve the best of both worlds in terms of security and ease of use. It also supports my needs which are being able to easily and securely deploy and interact with Tezos's Smart Contract. Development These are the key features for my MVP. Origination of Tezos's Smart Contract Interaction with Tezos's Smart Contract Perform Smart Contract Operation on both mainnet and testnet TezBridge DApp wallet integration There will be a landing page that explains what my product does to my users as well. These are the technology that I used to develop my product. (Website) ReactJS (Tezos's DApp Wallet) TezBridge (Web Hosting) Netlify Results The information below are screenshots and explanation to my solution. (1) Landing Page (2) Dashboard (Select Host) This feature allows me to select the Tezos's network host that I would like to use. (3) Dashboard (Origination) The feature allows me to originate (deploy) my Smart Contract. I am able to set the amount of tez (Tezos coin), and storage's Micheline code of my Smart Contract Micheline Code (4) Dashboard (Transaction) The feature allows me to make a transaction to (interact with) my Smart Contract. I am able to set the amount of tez (Tezos coin), Smart Contract address and Micheline parameters of my transaction. (5) TezBridge This feature allows me to manage my Tezos's network host, perform origination and transaction to my Smart Contract. Learn more about it . here Try TezosKT (1) | (2) 👉 Website GitHub

Building A Tezos's Smart Contract Dashboard Using ReactJS, TezBridge and Netlify [A How-To Guide]

Comparative Review of Privacy Token and Token Economics Contributed by @ Dennis_Z This article encompasses pretty much everything you need to know about the . It is a bit long and feel free to use Table of Contents to jump to specific sections. If you think the article is helpful, please and [yes, you can clap multiple times]. Landscape of Privacy Tokens Follow Me Clap 50 Times Table of Contents: 1. Why Privacy Token? 2. Review of Privacy Tokens 3. Privacy Token Economics 4. Dilemma — Regulatory Surveillance vs. Privacy 1. Why Privacy Token? Blockchain is a network allowing peer-2-peer transactions without authorities while keeping transaction counter-parties anonymous. is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves, or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. However, every transaction is broadcasted and viewable to all on a public ledger. Based on transaction pattern of certain wallet with known identity, the account owner can be profiled using social engineering. Just like in movie , “no one tells his real name in the Oasis!” Privacy Ready One Player For Privacy, it means several things as follows and in blockchain. The following table summarizes major privacy token functionality. PRIVACY MATTERS Sender Privacy [Wallet/Address Privacy] Cryptographic Privacy [Transaction Privacy] Balance Visibility [Data/Content Privacy] 2. Review of Privacy Tokens There have been a few privacy tokens using different technology to address privacy issues mentioned above, including Dash, Monera, Zcash. There have been a few others, including PIVX, Grin, Verge, NavCoin. Also, traditional tokens, such as LTC, contemplate adding privacy features to the token to gain some comparative advantage as key player for transaction and payment. This section will discuss each privacy token individually. 2.1 Dash (DASH) was founded after a Bitcoin fork in 2014 and is not cryptographically private. Dash guarantees security through Mixing, using an adjusted variant of CoinJoin — a strategy at first made to “anonymize” Bitcoins. Dash is a Proof-of-Work framework that has two kinds of hubs on the system; masternodes and diggers. Masternodes give moment send and private send capacities. DASH is a technique to anonymize exchanges proposed by Gregory Maxwell. CoinJoin depends on the standard of collection together exchanges to make joint installments. CoinJoin-based blending techniques increment security for all clients since it is never again likely that all contributions to an exchange originate from a solitary wallet, and henceforth can never again be dependably connected with a solitary client. CoinJoin 2.2 Monero (XMR) is considered one of the best in the cryptocurrency space. Created from a in 2014, Monero uses encoded transactions that hide both the addresses and the quantities transferred, also adding fraudulent transactions that make it impossible to know the contents of the operations. Monero privacy cryptocurrencies hard fork by Bytecoin The coding has used to maintain an anonymous transaction and wallet. The team also integrated an operating system passing transactions through the TOR network, to further protect privacy. Ring CT Tails, In addition, Monero also uses a network of to allow users to hide their wallet address. A stealth address is a one-time use address that is created for every transaction. Monero users also have a public address that is published on the blockchain, but most (if not all) of their transactions will be passed through unique stealth addresses. stealth addresses Basically, Dash groups up small transactions while Monero breaks down into small transactions for privacy. Therefore, Monero heavily relies on network resources. They are different from Bitcoin in that regular PC can run Monero’s node service. 2.3 Zcash (ZEC) is another Bitcoin-forked privacy coin with privacy features using zk-SNARKs. , aka Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge, is a technology to allow miners to verify transactions without knowing who sent/received the coins. The protocol team has implemented zk-Snarks on Quorum for JP Morgan, which is an enterprise-focused version of Ethereum. The team has worked with other teams to add the privacy feature to their project/platforms. Zcash zk-Snarks 2.4 PIVX (PIVX) is a re-brand of the Darknet Coin, and stands for private instant verified transaction. PIVX is a fork from Dash, implementing Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIP), and utilizing PoS to secure the network. PIVX PIVX users are allowed to run master nodes with at least a stake of 10,000 tokens (while Dash only requires 1,000 DASH). 2.5 GRIN (GRN) is a new privacy-focused blockchain project that is based on Bitcoin’s design. On July 19, 2016, “Tom Elvis Jedusor” dropped the into a Bitcoin research channel and disappeared. Later, “Ignotus Peverell” started a Github project called and began turning the Mimblewimble paper into a real implementation. Mimblewimble whitepaper Grin Mimblewimble refers to the tongue-tying curse in Harry Potter. Tom Elvis Jedusor is Lord Voldemort’s French name and Ignotus Peverell is the original owner of the invisibility cloak. Mimblewimble/Grin is an improvement upon confidential transactions and CoinJoin from Bitcoin. Key features include no public addresses, complete privacy, and a compact blockchain. There has been a lot of excitement around Grin mining lately since Grin coins, like Bitcoin, can only be created through PoW mining. Grin uses the PoW algorithm, which was originally designed to be ASIC-resistant but is now considered to be ASIC-friendly. Cuckoo Cycle Key Features of Grin: Complete privacy as its default Scalable transactions Tried and tested cryptography Easy design for person to person transaction Community-driven — aimed at decentralized advancement and mining Other interesting privacy coins that are relatively early in their development include and . MobileCoin BEAM 2.6 Verge (XVG) Verge Coin started its journey as DogeCoinDark in 2014, named after the world’s most popular meme cryptocurrency. In 2016, the coin was rebranded to Verge Cryptocurrency, and has since been gaining enormous traction in technology and investment communities. But Verge miners can choose one of three mining methods to get their Verge, rather than the expensive and limited options afforded to Bitcoin miners. Verge coin is mineable. But where Bitcoin payments are not anonymous, Verge coin transactions are masked with TOR and i2P, for fully private transaction. Verge allows for everyday payments. But Verge is also in the process of adding smart contract functionality, allowing it to develop for the needs of the world better than Bitcoin. Verge is decentralized money. , including porn industry giant MindGeek, whose subsidiaries include Pornhub and Brazzers. Verge has several key partnerships 2.7 Litecoin (LTC) Litecoin is getting tired of standing in Bitcoin’s shadow. After many years as Bitcoin’s second fiddle, Litecoin core developers are getting more interested in following the likes of privacy coins such as Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC). Charlie Lee opened a discussion on fungibility and hinted at the addition of Confidential Transactions in a in 2019. This will let LTC gain more comparative advantage as media of transaction and payment. “future release of the full-node implementation” 2.8 NavCoin (NAV) is a decentralized cryptocurrency that was forked from Bitcoin. It aims to solve 2 problems that are typically found in blockchain platforms: NavCoin Data is made public on the blockchain, leaving it vulnerable to malicious attacks by illicit users. Most blockchains use “roll backs” as the solution to data vulnerability. They reset the blockchain to a backed-up point after a data breach, meaning transactions made leading up to the roll back are erased. The NavTech system is a combination of the traditional Bitcoin blockchain and a NAV subchain. Using two chains allows users to send transactions with complete anonymity. 2.9 CloakCoin Cloak is a veteran privacy coin that is growing slowly, although it has been active in the privacy niche for approximately 4 years. The blockchain is operated using a Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol. It has relatively short blocktimes and quickly processes transactions. The platform also offers 2 different methods of making your transactions untraceable. First is their onion-routing privacy protocol. Onion routing involves encrypting messages with many layers (similar to an onion). It also offers the Enigma process to provide additional privacy cloaking on transactions. Enigma cloaking is applied when a user requests a cloaked enigma transaction. 2.10 Enigma (ENG) The Enigma project is entirely separate from the Enigma cloaking process used in CloakCoin transactions. Enigma is not a cryptocurrency nor a blockchain; instead, it is a privacy protocol that can be deployed on blockchains and decentralized applications. Therefore its token, ENG, is a distinct addition to the list of top privacy coins. The Enigma network provides privacy by making nodes unable to see the data that they compute. Although they are unable to clearly see exactly what they are working on, these nodes are still capable of verifying that their computations have been run correctly. With the data masked like this, Enigma hopes to open the door for what they call a new type of smart contracts — “secret contracts” — wherein the underlying data processed in a smart contract remains encrypted at all times. 2.11 DeepOnion is a new privacy coin project that is generating some interest in the community. Like a few of the other coins in this list, DeepOnion uses TOR to send untraceable transactions. It also uses a mix of Proof-of-Stake and Proof-of-Work protocols to offer fast confirmation times. DeepOnion DeepOnion also employs stealth addresses to keep transactions private. The DeepOnion team is currently working on DeepSend and DeepVault. DeepSend will use a multi-signature method to prevent payments from being traced. DeepVault is an information storage service that allows users to store data in the blockchain forever. In order to verify the integrity of a file, a user only needs to compare their current version of the file with the backup. This can be beneficial for the purpose of verifying the integrity of important documents. 2.12 ZenCash is more than a because it also contains a messaging platform, a Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO). Users can send tokens anonymously (“Z” address) or pseudonym (“T” address). Even Zencash, a hard fork by Zcoin, wants to make an exchange with the same degree of privacy. Zencash privacy cryptocurrency 2.13 Zcoin also uses the Zerocoin protocol. Zcoin is burned in a Zcoin transaction and Zerocoin are created and transferred, but since they have no history, they are not traceable. This costs a 0.01 Zcoin fee. Those who receive money only know that they have received them. Zcoin 2.14 Bytecoin (BCN) is probably the oldest cryptocurrency to deal with privacy problem, given that its birth dates back to 2012, but has recently had a flashback. As a security system, it combines a Stealth system for addresses joined to the Ring CT, with a protocol called Cryptonote. This privacy token is the father of Monero. Bytecoin 2.15 Bitcoin Private comes from a hard fork and a fusion, i.e. a hard fork of Bitcoin and then a merger with Zclassic, in turn, hard fork of Zcash in which the prize for creators was canceled. Bitcoin Private also implements the zk- Snarks. Bitcoin Private 2.16 SpectreCoin (XSPEC) (XSPEC) was created in December 2016 as a fork of ShadowCash (SDC), with its initial difference being that it ran over the tor network for added privacy. Since then, it has continued to make strides, developing into an even more user-friendly and anonymous cryptocurrency. These advancements include OBFS4 Bridges, Wallet UI improvements, improved stealth addresses, updated tor, and better syncing. At just over a year old, the project has come a long way and has big plans for the future, such as stealth staking (a first for any crypto) and the implementation of Android and iOS mobile wallets. Spectrecoin Key Features: Tor to hide the location and make tracking more difficult Stealth addresses to keep the receiver anonymous Ring Signatures to keep the sender hidden 3. Privacy Token Economics Due to different technology stacks to realize the privacy features, the token economics designs can be different to incentivize various ecosystem stakeholders. In this section, we will discuss the different token economics design for DASH, and Enigma Protocol. First, let’s summarize some techniques used by Privacy Token. — Join multiple transactions a group so that the transaction cannot be linked to a single wallet/address. It is a Mixing-based privacy solution. CoinJoin — TOR make the transaction untraceable. Another way to understand TOR is VPN. It transacts using multiple layers of proxy to hide the identity behind the transaction counter-parties. [ ] TOR Network check the 2-min video here — The ( ) is an anonymous network layer (implemented as a ) that allows for , communication. Anonymous connections are achieved by encrypting the user’s traffic (by using end-to-end encryption), and sending it through a volunteer-run network of roughly 55,000 computers distributed around the world. i2P Invisible Internet Project I2P Mix Network censorship-resistant peer to peer — RingCT stands for Ring Confidential Transactions, makes transactions harder to trace by obscuring the output of the true sender in a set of other outputs on the blockchain, indistinguishable with respect to their amounts. It is a Mixing-based privacy solution. RingCT n — Stealth Address means that the created stealth address will be used only once for the transaction. That being said, each transaction corresponds to one stealth address, which makes it impossible to link the transactions to single wallet/address. Stealth Address — zk-SNARKS stands for Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge. It is a cryptography algorithm to verify the transaction without revealing the address and balance. zk-SNARKS — Mimblewimble uses elliptic-curve cryptography that requires smaller keys than other cryptography types. In a network that is using the Mimblewimble protocol, there are no addresses on the blockchain, and the network’s data storage is highly efficient.[ ] Mimblewimble a quick example 3.1 DASH Dash works a little differently from Bitcoin, however, because it has a two-tier network. The second tier is powered by masternodes (Full Nodes), which enable financial privacy (PrivateSend), instant transactions (InstantSend), and the decentralized governance and budget system. Because this second tier is so important, masternodes are also rewarded when miners discover new blocks. The breakdown is as follows: 45% of the block reward goes to the miner, 45% goes to masternodes, and 10% is reserved for the budget system (created by superblocks every month). As of February 2019, the holders of DASH that run a masternode receive ~ . is a great resource for real-time DASH network metrics. 7% annual block rewards https://masternodes.online/currencies/DASH/ The current block reward is 3.35 DASH, or 1.5075 for miners, 1.5075 for masternodes, and .335 DASH for the DAO per block. Dash features a block interval of ~ 2.5 minutes and ~ 550 blocks per day. Each masternode requires 1,000 DASH as collateral. The 1,000 DASH are used as bonded collateral and required to earn the inflation funded block rewards. The collateral is always safe and never forfeited during masternode operation. Since masternode rewards are fixed at 45% of the block reward, or 1.5075 DASH per block, and the number of active masternodes on the network is dynamic, expected masternode rewards will vary according to current total count of active masternodes. Masternodes are currently yielding ~ 7.01%. The average Dash masternode reward frequency is just shy of nine days. 3.2 Enigma Enigma is a protocol related to process information securely. Its token must be purchased in order to run a node on their network. After buying the Enigma token, you can receive rewards for processing data. But in order to process data, each node must make a security deposit. If the data is tampered during the verification process, the deposit will be split between any nodes that processed the data without error. In effect, owning ENG allows people to get started using the network. ENG also serves as a reward for participation in the network. Other factors affecting the Token Economics include: randomness of miner/node selection, front-cost of providing mining service (e.g., ASIC vs. PC) and also coin reward number and coin prices. 4. Dilemma — Regulatory Surveillance vs. Privacy Recently, there have been different voices on SEC approving BTC ETF proposals. For people who don’t think it will come soon [ ]. Brian Kelly Over 2018, the SEC has received multiple Bitcoin ETF applications from various players, such as the , but is yet to approve any one of them. Expanding on his point of view, Kelly said that the agency is unlikely to change its opinion in the near future, as “there is too much that is unresolved.” Winklevoss twins SEC officials have demanded better cryptocurrency surveillance and custody before approving BTC ETF applications for multiple reasons: Concerns about hacking events and market manipulation Concerns of money laundering without transaction traceability Concerns of linking transaction with wallet/address for taxation reasons. Here is the dilemma between regulatory surveillance vs. privacy. Until a balance/compromise is reached, the next bull market might be delayed as long as possible. Disclaimer: All of the information of projects are sourced from online materials and do not necessarily reflect the current state of the projects. The information here does not constitute any advice on investment or consequence of any investment. Reference https://hackernoon.com/an-overview-of-privacy-tokens-19f6af8077b7 https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@develop.unicorns/privacy-tokens https://thecontrol.co/an-overview-of-privacy-in-cryptocurrencies-893dc078d0d7 https://masterthecrypto.com/privacy-coins-anonymous-cryptocurrencies/ https://www.investinblockchain.com/top-privacy-coins/ https://coinsavage.com/content/2018/08/privacy-coins-comparison-review/ https://cryptonomist.ch/en/2018/06/04/privacy-tokens-2/ https://www.bitstarz.com/blog/introduction-to-grin-coin https://zcoin.io/zcoins-privacy-technology-compares-competition/ https://coinlist.me/altcoins/verge/ https://medium.com/@staked/dash-staking-guide-e8d671d0ce03 https://dashpay.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DOC/pages/56655887/Mining+vs.+Masternode

2019 Privacy Token Review

On the 29th of November, 2018 TRON issued a public statement regarding the establishment of a blockchain games’ fund called TRON Arcade. According to the fund, there will be $100M invested in the development of the cryptogames market. The $100M in funding will be distributed over the next 3 years. TRON Arcade is a part of TRON’s long-termed commitment to accelerating the decentralization of the Internet through blockchain technology and revolutionary applications. TRON’s founder and CEO Justin Sun commented: “TRON Arcade will play a crucial role in encouraging developers to join in our mission and provide the best blockchain gaming experience to users around the world”. TRON is an indispensable blockchain for crypto games and especially for crypto collectibles as it operates with NTFs (non-fungible tokens). A non-fungible token is a unique asset people get to play and improve that in the future they can sell or exchange. It’s fair to say that the majority of players decide to keep their unique assets due to the special status of each NTF. Every crypto collectible, aka non-fungible token, is an irreplicable piece of digital art. The number of games which will appear on TRON Arcade is limited The market now is filled with crypto games but the goal is to select the games with the biggest potential. Unfortunately, the quality of crypto games is generally very poor. This may be due to crazy demand which makes game developers of all skill ranges jump in and try their hand without the requisite ability to create a good gaming experience. TRON will filter out games with lame graphics and games that lack good back story to ensure that users are getting good quality. TRON and Blockchain Cuties together are forming a prototype for the future of all decentralized games An official launch for the Blockchain Cuties game on TRON Arcade is going to happen by the end of December 2018. Blockchain Cuties will be the first crypto collectible game to launch on TRON. Blockchain Cuties is a crypto collectible game with significant strategic elements. As a cryptocollectible game, it’s based on NFT technology. Non-fungible Tokens, appropriately named Cuties in the game, are shaped as puppies, lizards, bear cubs, cats, hedgehogs and other real and fantasy creatures. Each Cutie has a unique genome which is basically an analog for human DNA. It’s a Top Dapp game in terms of traffic, rich gameplay mechanics and transaction volume. At the moment Blockchain Cuties is the only game which utilizes NFTs and has a cross-blockchain functionality. Thus a variety of assets can be mapped onto the blockchain, making it possible to create multi-coin smart contracts so users from different blockchains can interact with each other on a verifiable basis. Placing Blockchain Cuties on TRON means a higher transaction speed which leads to more gameplay options. TRON players will notice a variety of exclusive Cuties and the chance to get rarer Cuties while breeding. This iconic collaboration not only creates a better, decentralized user experience but facilitates the adoption of crypto through gaming on the blockchain. 3 basic rules of crypto gaming according to TRON High paying. Users invest in buying Cuties for a chance to earn big. The players are able to sell their collectibles in whichever way they want, for whatever price someone else is willing to pay for it. All collectibles have Token status. You get yourself a crypto pet and that is where your investing journey starts. If you wanted to withdraw all your assets, you could sell your blockchain Cuties in the marketplace available directly in the game, or you could use third-party marketplaces like OpenSea. Fast growing. TRON is surging crypto adoption, bringing explosive user growth. TRON users also receive exclusive Cuties with brand new attributes which make the game experience more exciting. Content void. Only high functional games. Cuties go on different adventures, collectively fight against the powerful Raid Boss, celebrate Halloween, Christmas, and pick rare items as awards. By the end of December 2018, Blockchain Cuties will be the first cryptocollectible game listed on TRON Arcade.

TRON blockchain announced 3 basic rules of crypto gaming within TRON Arcade.

Foreword: My intent for this article is to review recent events in the crypto market, starting with two data points that we encountered in the past week, and then reviewing the past year to understand what began and ended 2017’s parabolic bull run. We’ll then look at what happened to the last wave of crypto speculators, and who — if anyone — will replace them. Lastly, and most importantly, we’ll seek to understand what will need to happen before they enter. ======================================== Two events came to our attention this past week — one that we judge to be very good/bullish, and one that is most assuredly not. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. First, the Bad News Barring an unexpected and unlikely move, this week is going to mark an occasion that has only two precedents over the past six years, and has not happened since November 2015. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to keep the champagne locked up in the cellar for now as this will be an event we would all just as soon forget. Why? A Halloween horror show, indeed. Assuming that its price remains in the current range, then on November 1st 2018, for the first time in three years, Bitcoin’s 12-month trailing return will move from positive into negative territory. I’ll follow that up with this little gem of a table. I don’t think there’s a better way to illustrate the wild ride that has been crypto for the past five years, than this: As you can see, anyone who bought their first in January 2013 had a very merry Christmas that year. Conversely, those who entered the market in January 2014 ended the year with a big lump of coal (or a lump of something else entirely) in their stockings. Bitcoin You may ask, why am I bringing this up? It’s not because I enjoy dwelling on the negatives. After all, my parents always encouraged me to seek out the positives in any setbacks or disappointments. Maybe that’s because I was raised in the upper Midwest, where the weather is consistently terrible. Nonetheless, the fact remains that we arrived at this milestone amidst a remarkably stagnant period. I didn’t start actively trading crypto because I expected it to be boring. Quite the contrary. After all, one of my favorite crypto quotes comes from Arthur Hayes, founder of BitMex, who recently argued that . Yet, as the charts below demonstrate, here we are. “for crypto, a decline in volume and volatility is deadlier than white wine and painkillers” In fact, Bitcoin’s annualized volatility is now below or on par with that of many of the largest US tech stocks, including Apple (AAPL) and Netflix (NFLX). Source: Kosmos Research, Coinbase, NASDAQ Not surprisingly, this has coincided with: (1) Bitcoin trading in an ever-narrower range over recent months. In fact, when I last checked the price an hour ago, the 24-hour change was precisely 0.0%. We try not to stare at the ticker all day, but that was a first for me. (2) Exchange-traded volumes are falling off a cliff. To take BTC as but one example, see below a table showing the lowest 10 daily volumes of 2018: Yes, you are reading the table correctly: four of the ten slowest days year-to-date occurred last week and nine of the ten came this month. To put this in perspective, over US$ 11 billion traded on January 1 of this year. Great — so the market is stuck in an almighty rut. How does that help us as investors? Hold that thought for a moment. First, let me tell you about a conversation that we had last week that brightened our mood considerably. Now, The Good News Amidst all the crypto doom and gloom (but definitely no boom, sorry Marc Faber) my partner recently caught up with one of his friends, a macro hedge fund manager based in London. The crypto market loves to obsess over when that “institutional wall of money” is going to arrive. Well, this guy is an integral part of that wall. So we’re always interested in hearing his thoughts on crypto, to the extent that he has any. After all, like most macro fund managers he doesn’t have much time for an asset class where the capitalization isn’t measured in trillions of dollars. As recently as the fall of 2017 he had admitted to knowing ‘next to nothing’ about crypto, and lacked the bandwidth or incentives to spend time learning more. But this time the conversation went differently. He told us that he has begun reading up on the space and had questions. And if he is working his way up the learning curve, we strongly suspect that he is not alone. Our friend is not the type to waste time or energy on a topic unless he has identified a compelling opportunity. To us, more than anything we have read on Crypto Twitter, this was a bullish market signal. Most importantly, we found it interesting that this conversation took place just as Bitcoin’s one-year trailing return was about to descend into negative territory. However it’s important to consider these two data points — one good, the other not so much — in the context of what has transpired in the past year. Let’s briefly recap what happened to the crypto market in 2017, and why. Past Is (Not) Prologue Like most greed-driven bubbles, Bitcoin’s historic 2017 move started slowly. BTC traded at less than $1,000 on January 1st, and was worth only a few dollars more at the end of March. But something happened in the second quarter — by the end of June BTC’s value had increased by over 250%. Three months later, it had doubled in value again. And December, of course, is when the frenzy went into full swing. Prices doubled in less than three weeks, and nearly touched $20,000 before finally collapsing. Now, some might argue that initial coin offerings (ICOs) are what sparked the market frenzy. To an extent, we agree with this position. After all, the ICO mania is what initially shone the spotlight on crypto and forced the mainstream investing public to take notice. Looking more closely though, we would argue that a more consequential trend emerged in the second half of 2017. Rumors of — and seeming steps toward — institutional market entry were what ultimately drove Bitcoin into its parabolic end-game. An Annotated (Recent) History of Bitcoin Source: Coinbase/Coinigy Simultaneously, announcements of Bitcoin futures contracts, paired with headlines regarding Wall Street interest and breathless predictions of imminent change, conspired to fuel a self-fulfilling narrative of ever-higher asset prices. CNBC, December 2017. Boo-yah! The hysteria peaked on December 18th, 2017. Bitcoin had just hit an all-time high of $19,783 on Coinbase the day before. Two weeks earlier the Chicago futures exchanges, CME and CBOE, had announced launch dates for their Bitcoin futures contracts. Predictably, the cryptoasset market went ballistic as new entrants flooded in ahead of the ‘wall of institutional capital’ that was widely rumored to be imminent and was going to propel Bitcoin to new heights. The price of Bitcoin doubled in the first two weeks of that month. CBOE futures debuted on December 10th and traded 19% higher on their first day. Trading was halted twice due to exchange ‘circuit breaker’ rules. The market continued to buy, waiting with bated breath for the CME launch a week later. The CME contract opened to much fanfare, and then…traded 2% lower. It was the embodiment of failed expectations. . And this was only the beginning of the pain. The institutional money never arrived in earnest and did not drive this bubble In short, 2017 was almost exclusively a retail-driven train, and the late-arriving punters got crushed in the derailment. The institutional capital has not yet joined the party. Where Is The Proverbial ‘Wall of Money’? Go to any crypto meetup or convention today and the same question will be asked. It will be repeated like a mantra — in the panels, during the keynote, and in the furtive conversations backstage: “When are the institutions coming in???” We’re like teenagers waiting by the phone, staring at it like Luke Skywalker stared at that X-Wing Fighter on Dagobah…just it to ring. willing Come on, Blackrock, show us some love! There are an abundance of different but credible theories to explain what might push Bitcoin below the well-defended price floor of 5,800 that has been maintained since late June. On the other hand, the smart people we talk to in the space as well as the “crypto media” are fairly unanimous in their view that the next bull run will be driven by widespread institutional adoption — the “wall of money” — that in most permutations of this vision arrives on the back of a long-awaited Bitcoin ETF. While we love being contrarians, on this point we wholeheartedly concur. For your average long-term retail HODLer, the initial reaction to this question is likely an eye-roll. Why? For a concrete example, take a guess at the dates when these headlines were published. The first article, from the Financial Times, was written on 12 August 2018. The WSJ story was published a little over a year ago. You see, we’ve been here before and we’re still waiting for the institutions to arrive. We all know what the reaction was to the Journal article — see chart above. And how did the market respond to the more recent FT piece? Source: Coinbase/Coinigy Ironically, the conviction that institutional capital is the rocket fuel needed to ignite another crypto moonshot is, if anything, stronger now than last year. So why did the possibility of institutional entry drive such mania in 2017, and why has it failed to move the needle this year? Really it all comes back to the specific inquiry we received from our friendly British hedge fund mogul: “who is buying Bitcoin here and now?” The Importance of Market Psychology Some of the smartest people I have ever met are working day and night to develop effective valuation approaches for cryptoassets. This is a monumental task, since crypto is unlike any other asset in human history. Market capitalization (sorry, CoinMarketCap) is generally useless. Certain equations that we learned in Economics 101, such as MV=PQ, are better but also have their limitations. So crypto doesn’t yet have a universally accepted valuation metric. But we do have quite a few proxies. One of them is the measurement of how many active users are in a blockchain’s ecosystem at a given point in time. We refer to this as Daily Active Addresses (DAAs), which records the number of Bitcoin (or other token) wallets that engaged in transactions on a given day. DAAs are easy to track on the Bitcoin . blockchain Source: Coinmetrics.io Take a hard look at this chart. Let it sink in. The number of active wallets is — literally — half of what it was just ten months ago. Now, if you’re reading this in late October 2018, you have most likely been in the crypto market for awhile. You probably enjoyed some — maybe even all — of the 2017 bull run and you’re still sitting on top of significant gains, even after this year’s drawdown. You’re in this for the long haul. But now, imagine you’re one of those poor souls who decided to join the Great Crypto Buying Frenzy of December 2017 — right at the top of that chart. Maybe you were smart and just invested a small percentage of your net worth. Or maybe you weren’t so smart, and you mortgaged your house to go ‘all-in’. If you decided to #HODL, like all of those other amateurs on Twitter, you’re staring at an unrealized loss of 61%. What do you suppose your feelings toward crypto are by now? Are you buying more? Averaging down your cost basis? Most likely not. You’re probably cursing the friend who told you to open a Coinbase account, and wondering how you will ever make that money back. And you’re definitely telling anyone who will listen to your rants that they should stay away, too. While we acknowledge this is an imperfect measure, let’s assume that each of those new December 2017 DAAs equates to one late entrant. If so, then over 600,000 people were burned in the latest crypto crash, and have left the market with their portfolio in a smoking ruin. For an asset class with a market cap below $250 billion, that is a LOT of people. And it’s going to take a lot of good news to bring them back — if ever. If anything, we believe this wallet count understates end users as many on-exchange transactions get netted before they are ever recorded on-blockchain. The damage was compounded by the fact that these people could have served as crypto ambassadors to the next tier of risk takers. That misery is now being further exacerbated in real time because, starting this week, people who bought 12 months ago — even before the last parabolic push higher — are now underwater too. In many ways this is an age-old story: an asset collapsed, people lost money and therefore are more cautious this time around. However the scale of the carnage, given the proportion of investors who have been burned, is nearly unprecedented. “ ” we were asked. The answer was immediate and obvious: . Who is buying Bitcoin here? No one The marginal retail buyer — the people who were trying to front-run “big institutional money” in Q4 2017 — do not exist. So who does that leave? The Wall of Money… yet again Are you as tired of this metaphor as we are yet? We’re not talking about Chicago high-frequency traders here, or ‘Mrs Watanabe’ in Japan. This refers to the real allocators. Pension funds. Sovereign wealth funds. Endowments. Powerhouses with asset pools that run to twelve digits, or more. These organizations are managed by inherently risk-averse people who know that investing into new and untested markets implies significant career risk. Portfolio managers rarely get fired for buying German Bunds or T-bills. Any fund managers who went long crypto in December 2017 are probably dusting off their CVs now. With no retail investors and no genuine prospect of them returning again before a big-time upside breakout that reinvigorates the FOMO on which crypto has historically thrived, it is these institutions who will have to carry the water to get things started. There is no crystal ball on my desk, and I won’t pretend to know when this will happen. The timing of this evolution depends on a host of factors that are both endogenous and exogenous to the crypto market. However, we do feel confident in saying that no other spark exists for the next crypto bull run. Are we there yet? Two conditions must be met before that spark can be lit: (1) Institutions must have the to participate in the crypto markets ability (2) Institutions must have the to participate in the crypto markets desire Here’s the irony: in 2017, the desire was certainly there. Having worked on Wall Street, I can confirm that bankers and traders were watching this market intensely, and in many cases they personally participated. But they had no ability to participate professionally because the key building blocks — qualified custodians, trusted trading counterparties, and (in some cases) leverage — were simply not there. (Remember, career risk is one of the most powerful forces in nature.) And now, less than a year later, the conditions have been reversed. Over the past ten months the crypto community has improved its infrastructure by leaps and bounds. From actual, live people answering customer queries ( to fully licensed custody solutions, this market is evolving more rapidly than ever. thanks, Coinbase! and what’s taking you so long, Binance?!?) And yet, even though institutions now have the ability to enter — desire has left the building as volatility, volumes and returns have all evaporated. It’s a sad day when Apple stock carries more vol than crypto… So where does that leave us? We’ve already established that the retail investor will not rescue the crypto market from its current plateau, and that institutional capital will eventually provide that needed boost. However, something needs to get them off the sidelines and into this asset class. And while it’s safe to say that a Bitcoin ETF certainly can help to increase market adoption, we don’t believe this is the that the crypto market really wants — or needs. deus ex machina According to the World Bank, institutional investors in developed economies currently manage over $100 trillion of assets. Think about what just fifty basis points of that capital would do to the crypto market. That capital won’t be allocated overnight — each institution needs to arrive at its own decision to do so. And in order to allocate, an institution must believe that cryptoassets have finally arrived as an asset class that is worthy of investment. But other things are happening out there, far beyond the reach of crypto exchanges. Dark clouds are forming over equity and fixed income markets, for the first time since Satoshi’s white paper was released to the world. What happens if Wall Street loses its appetite for equities or corporate debt? Where does that capital go? In the right circumstances, could Bitcoin even be considered a safe haven? I think it’s very possible, and in our next article we’ll take a close look at how that just might happen. ======================================== I work at Kosmos Capital Management , which actively trades the emergent class of digital assets. Follow me on Twitter @kvirgil ======================================== DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this column is intended as investment advice and you definitely should not interpret it as such. Don’t rely on my advice, or for that matter anyone else’s advice, when making investment decisions. Doing your own research is the key to success in any market. ========================================

As Bitcoin Hits A Major Milestone, What Happens Now?

Smart Resources for your Crypto journey — The Foundation Also fee free to use this Sign Up referall link to receive $10 free crypto on Coinbase with the purchase of $100 or more https://www.coinbase.com/join/59da6d8a6cbf29011559841e ) In we discussed the need to build a strong foundation of understanding before diving head first into the space and that we can do this through literature, classes, and following the latest news and industry leaders. Again, this is not the only way or necessarily the best way, but you’ll want to understand the origins and the fundamentals around blockchain technology before you invest time, energy and money into or any other alt-coins. In we will be discussing where to acquire cryptocurrency, where to store it and how to do so safely, as well as a summary of the top exchanges and how they function. For anyone new in this space, if you haven’t had a chance to read through , I recommend you do so. Part 1 cryptocurrency Bitcoin Part 2 Part 1 First things first, what are digital wallets and how do we use them? Wallets are either hot or cold. Hot meaning they are in some shape or form connected to the internet. Although this doesn’t necessarily make them unsafe, it does not make them as safe as cold wallets, wallets that are kept offline. There are different types of digital wallets: Mobile Wallets, Desktop Wallets, Online Web Wallets, and Hardware Wallets. Your digital wallet is where you will store all of your cryptocurrencies. Think of this as your bank account minus some big financial institution being the creator of that storage with the ability to freeze or access your account at any given time. When creating a digital wallet, the majority will provide you with a private key, or 12-word phrase, and also your public keys. Your private key, 12-word phrase, or KEYSTORE / JSON file are . Don’t keep them on a stored note inside of your iPhone, or text yourself a reminder in case you forget. Just write them down or print them out and lock them away in a safety deposit box or somewhere of equal security. I cannot stress to you enough to the importance of taking this part seriously. What happens with fiat currency when we lose our login information? Let’s say we bank with J.P. Morgan Chase since cryptocurrency. We try to log in and completely forget what our credentials are, so we click the And shortly after have a new one emailed to us. This scenario doesn’t happen in the crypto world. There are no features for this, and if you lose your private keys or phrases, then you lose your wallet and anything that is inside of it. You will need that private key or those exact 12 words in the correct order to recover any lost wallets. Your public, and private, addresses will look strange to you at first if you have never opened a digital wallet. I will insert one of my public Bitcoin addresses as an example (Or in case you want to send me some Bitcoin, either way) . Think of this almost as a bank account number accept it will change everytime a transaction takes place. If you are going to send money to someone else, or transfer your Bitcoin from one wallet to another, you will need the public address. I will touch on the four types of wallets mentioned above but specifically the most user-friendly wallets for beginners. Let’s start with mobile wallets since almost everyone has a smartphone these days. NEVER TO BE SHARED WITH ANYONE Jamie Dimon is a massive fan of Forgot Password? 1KoVaU4T71D2J7R8DgcMX9tj6omQr3Wbpr Mobile Wallets Screenshots from the Apple iOS App Store Coinbase If you are new to cryptocurrency, this is probably the first place to visit in my opinion. Coinbase is a great place to start, and although Coinbase wasn’t always considered a wallet and many advised against holding currencies there, this is slowly changing as Coinbse has implemented new features and improved upon their original foundations. It is beyond user-friendly inside of the app as well as the website. As of June 2016, Coinbase has even to integrate features for more comfortable purchasing and selling. When setting up an account, they will want to verify your debit/credit card, or bank account, by charging a small amount and asking you to specify the exact amount. This charge is usually around a dollar or two which later falls off and gets refunded. Upon starting you will be able to buy instantly with your debit or credit card in exchange for higher fees, or through a bank account ACH withdraws that takes a few days but lessens the fee percentage. For anyone new to cryptocurrency, uploading your bank account information is highly sacrilegious, but I can assure you this is one of the safest exchanges out there. Coinbase even should someone hack into your account and steal your currency. As with most products these days, the more you purchase digital currency through Coinbase the higher your card and bank limits will be. Something to consider when buying bitcoin and alt-coins is your wallets compatibility. Some wallets store Bitcoin only and other store Bitcoin and ERC20 tokens (Tokens built on the Ethereum Network). Don’t assume that just because you are interested in that particular cryptocurrency that any wallet you are using can store that token. For instance, Coinbase only has wallets for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC). partnered with PayPal insures your wallets (Follow the Link to receive $10.00 worth of free crypto when signing up with the Following Link ) Bread Bread was the first mobile wallet I downloaded, and it is also where I made one of my first bitcoin transactions. Bread is exceptionally user-friendly and if you are attracted to beautifully simplistic applications than this one if for you. Bread is partnered with a Bitcoin exchange called Glidera where Bitcoin can be purchased inside of the app. Glidera offers one of the lowest fees I have seen for Bitcoin exchanges at 1% + 0.50 for each transaction. Similar to Coinbase, Glidera will ask for some of your information and may even require a photo of your driver’s license upon transacting more substantial amounts. Also similar to Coinbase, weekly limits and purchase amounts will increase the more you use Bread. When it comes to options for purchasing cryptocurrencies though, Bread only lets you buy and store Bitcoin, not Ethereum or any other cryptocurrency. Also, when it comes time for the actual transaction, Bread only accepts bank account information for ACH withdraws as oppose to instant debit or credit transactions offered at Coinbase. If you are looking to stick with Bitcoin, want a simple eye-catching app, as well as low fees than Bread is a fantastic option. (Update 11/12/17 Bread plans for future Ethereum management as well as their token, article ) here Blockchain Like Coinbase, Blockchain offers a mobile wallet, as well as a web wallet via their website. As of recently, Blockchain has officially updated their platform to carry Ethereum as well as Bitcoin. The blockchain is known as one of the safest mobile wallets because of their vast experience being leading pioneers in the industry of working with digital assets and the blockchain. You cannot go wrong downloading and using the Blockchain app as it will provide a safe and straightforward way to store Bitcoin and Ethereum, however, digital currencies cannot be purchased from within the app or website, only stored. If you are looking to purchase Bitcoin somewhere and keep it on a separate wallet without moving it for a while, Blockchain may be the place for you. HODL, do it. Desktop Wallets Screenshots from the Exodus Website Exodus Exodus is highly touted as one of the best wallets around and for many reasons but let’s start with the user interface. The overall design screams simplistic minimalism, and this makes it an oasis for beginners. Upon opening Exodus, you will see your portfolio with each asset you own a colorful ring displaying your diversification and account value. Not only is this wallet easy to navigate but you can exchange currencies within the wallet itself for any of the supported coins. This feature makes it easy to swap currencies without sending currencies to an online exchange only to occur more fees. Lastly, Exodus has killer customer service. Every time I have emailed their support I receive a prompt and thorough response, another necessity for anyone starting at ground zero. From customer service to their support videos, Exodus is a highly recommended desktop wallet for beginners. Below are the current currencies that you can hold on Exodus as of writing this article (11/05/17). You can download Exodus . here Exodus is currently compatible with the following tokens: Aragon (ANT), Augur (REP), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Civic (CVC), Dash, Decred (DCR), DistrictOx (DNT), EOS, ETH Classic (ETC), Ethereum (ETH), FunFair (FUN), Gnosis (GNO), Golem (GNT), Litecoin (LTC), OmiseGo (OMG), and Salt. This list will only be expanded upon as Exodus has released a promising roadmap for their platform which can be found . here Mist Example: Mist Wallet Dashboard Example: Sending Ether / Tokens on Mist Mist is another desktop wallet with a clean user interface, as well as other functionalities built in such as writing and using smart contracts. Mist is the official Etherum wallet that can be downloaded on their page at ethereum.org. Similar to some of the online Web Wallets Mist will also have you back up and secure Keystore files that can be taken offline at any time. For beginners, you will not be overloaded with the programming language or rocket science looking platforms for creating and using your wallet. You will be able to add different accounts at any time and sending Ether, or any ethereum based token is secure and straightforward. A note for beginners, Mist does not allow you to store Bitcoin. This wallet will be for ether, or ethereum based tokens, only. Web Wallets MyEtherWallet Screenshot of Wallet Info My Ether Wallet is a popular choice for web wallets and simple enough for the average beginner. A new wallet can be created by clicking the New Wallet tab on the websites landing page. This only takes a minute or two, and you will be given your private key, with an option to print it out, as well as the Keystore File that we mentioned above when discussing Mist. A Keystore File is essentially your key in a file form. When logging in you will need to upload that file, as well as type in a password that you have created. A nice feature to keep your wallet safe and secure so long as you keep your files and your computer secure. Sending tokens via My Ether Wallet will require but is simple and straightforward as well. GAS Something else that I found helpful in my crypto adolescence before I fully understood ERC20 Tokens and the Ethereum network, and the difference between them and Bitcoin, was where to store which currency. My Ether Wallet helps with any uncertainty or doubt by listing the tokens and balances which they allow in their wallet. I took three screenshots, but the list extends far beyond the ones shown in these photos. MetaMask I have enjoyed MetaMask as well for another straightforward wallet. Meta Mask partnered with the web browser, as well as Google Chrome, and released a shortcut extension in the browser for easy wallet access. In the top right corner, you will see the MetaMask fox where you can click the icon and enter your wallet for quick functionality. If you have never heard of the Brave web browser, this may also be an opportunity for you to check that project out. It was created by the BAT team, specifically Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript. As with Mist, MetaMask can be used as a wallet but it is also so much more, and I don’t want to take that away from them. They provide a video and more information on their , but in summary ”. Brave Basic Attention Token website “MetaMask is a bridge that allows you to visit the distributed web of tomorrow in your browser today. It allows you to run Ethereum dApps right in your browser without running a full Ethereum node. Mobile Tickers and Exchanges As with all of my reviews and recommendations from personal experience, they are not the all governing decisions on which wallets or applications are the best. I have listed the three currency monitors that I use because of their simple features which are a big deal for me if you have not already picked up on that fact. and allow you to build portfolios and add in the tokens you currently have which are an added feature I enjoy. Coin Ticker also offers additional value by providing monthly or yearly subscriptions for an upgraded portfolio. These can be checked at any time to see what the current value is as the market fluctuates. This is a plus for anyone using a desktop wallet or a hardware wallet who cannot check the current values while out having coffee with a colleague or in the middle of a meeting at work. does not offer much flexibility at the moment for listing your preferred coins or building a portfolio but over-delivers in its simplistic approach to telling you what the current prices are in a appealing manner. I have seen a handful of other tickers, some of which I have used, that are fantastic and may offer different value to you than they did to me, and with Godspeed, I suggest you check them out and let me know what you think down below. Coin Ticker Coin Market Cap Crypton Online Exchanges Aside from Coinbase which we discussed above, I will provide three popular options for online exchanges where you can acquire and sell other alt-coins apart from Bitcoin. , , and are my go-to for exchanges, as well as looking at current prices and dissecting price analysis on a more in-depth scale. Although I don’t recommend starting here, you will eventually end up on exchanges if you continue forward and knowing your way around them is extremely important. In the future, I may dissect these exchanges in detail so that beginners can feel comfortable knowing how to upload and exchange currencies. In summary, you will need to create accounts at each of these exchanges in which you will have access to accepting any alt-coin which the exchange recognizes. You can even buy or sell at bid prices or just do so at the current market price or last exchanged price. Bittrex Bitfinex Poloniex Update as of 01/01/218, Blockfolio, and Ether Delta are hands down the best mobile app portfolio’s In Conclusion As always, I hope that I have provided some direction for the cryptocurrency beginner. My goal is to help newcomers understand the bare minimum in an understandable light. As for myself and everyone else who jumps into this space you will inevitably learn more about your journey and connect all of the dots along the way. I cannot advise you where to buy your cryptocurrency or where to store it, but hopefully, after this article, you’ll have a good idea or at least know where to start. Although some people who are OCD like myself choose to keep all of their cryptocurrency in one space, there are a ton of benefits to doing the opposite. With most things in life personal experience will need to be a big sliver of the pie for growth and from here I hope you continue to do so. Thank you for reading and of this cryptocurrency journey for beginners. Please leave your comments and opinions down below and let me know what you thought. If yourself or anyone you know may be thinking about jumping into this space send them to these articles for the fundamentals 101 and where to acquire and store their cryptocurrency! Part 1 Part 2 Also, make sure to give me a clap and a follow if you enjoyed this content! Also fee free to use this Sign Up referall link to receive $10 free crypto on Coinbase with the purchase of $100 or more ) https://www.coinbase.com/join/59da6d8a6cbf29011559841e

Cryptocurrencies for beginners: Part 2

Ripple is the name of a blockchain network striving to transform the banking industry into a more internationally connected system. The company has launched the , which promises to be “One frictionless experience to send money globally.” Basically, by partnering with Ripple for cross-border payment settlements, banks and merchants are able to send money anywhere in the world with less wait times, significantly lower fees and more transparency on a network that’s extremely robust against hacking attempts. RippleNet As far as cross-border payments are concerned, let’s see if Ripple is making a ripple. The current state of cross border payments Everyday the world becomes more interconnected. As a consequence, the high cost and opacity of sending money across borders is becoming a growing problem for merchants globally. released a report in June 2016 outlining the high transactional revenues generated from fulfilling cross border payments. According to the McKinsey Global Payments map, 20% of the transactional volume is across the border, yet the fees generate 50% of the revenues. If cross-border transaction fees were brought down to domestic rates, the banking industry would experience a loss of $230 billion globally. Which is to say, there is not much incentive for innovation. McKinsey However, there is growing pressure being put on the banking industry. With the rise of e-commerce not slowing down any time soon, more consumers are experiencing the inconveniences of sending money around the world. It used to be assumed that when you send money to another country, there are going to be long wait times and incredibly high fees. These expectations are now being challenged by competitors like SWIFT and Ripple. Why Ripple is one hell of a solution In the world of fintech, there are two upcoming players as far as business to business cross border payments are concerned; SWIFT and Ripple. SWIFT uses a traditional messaging software to promise its clients full transparency and same day fulfillment. This software is becoming industry standard as more than 10% of business to business transactions in 2017 were completed through SWIFT. Not to mention, more than 150 banks have already signed up. Welcome xCurrent, a product launched by Ripple as an alternative solution for banks and payment providers to process cross border payments. The benefits of xCurrent include full transparency, a real time financial messaging system, transactions completed within seconds, seamless integration with banking software, and perhaps the most transformational aspect being the ability to process payments in any currency. So where exactly does this leave Ripple? To drive the point home, for a merchant to process a payment through a bank, the bank has the ability to instantly relay the fees and foreign exchange charges applied, which can then be relayed instantly to the consumer. This is in sharp contrast to the uncertainty of fees when it comes to traditional cross-border payments. Streamlining this process could potentially raise the ceiling for e-commerce in the future. Imagine a world where you can securely purchase anything from anywhere… The Hype Train Ripple has already been championed by several banks around the world. One notable name from the list is Santander, which in October 2018, became the first major UK bank to facilitate cross-border payments using the Ripple network. Santander has actually launched an app that runs on Ripple and allows clients to make cross-border payments. This sets a big precedent for the future of cross border banking and legitimizes the Ripple as a competitor to SWIFT. American Express is another giant that has shown interest in Ripple. Amex released citing McKinsey’s warning to banks and the need to innovate the current cross-border payment infrastructure. They even compare the two current solutions available; SWIFT and Ripple. It is clear from this report that SWIFT, although promising in terms of a convenient and transparent solution, is still second to the immediacy and foreign exchange conversion technology backing Ripple. Which is why Amex has thrown a bone to Ripple by recently employing xCurrent to facilitate their cross-border payments. an article All in all, promises of blockchain tech ushering in a new age of international banking have long been on the minds of crypto enthusiasts. It is clear that cross-border payments are a major hurdle in this increasingly connected global economy. There is already pressure on banks to transform the financial world to better cater to the needs of a monolithic, on-demand international economy. Consequently, the rise of Ripple in the cryptocurrency markets is a direct result. Ripple now ranks as the coin with the second largest market cap, which in part is due to the extremely comprehensive, and easily accessible solution they can provide merchants and payment providers around the world. From lower fees to no more backlogs exchanging currencies at various rates, Ripple and the products it offers are paving the way for the next generation of international banking. Originally published at . GetSmart Hub

Ripple: the little banking solution that could

The Current State of the Ethereum Blockchain In the cryptoasset space, Ethereum is always the flavour du jour. There is never a shortage of excitement and/or drama in and around it. Whether it is its governance woes, the delivery of Ethereum 2.0, or Vitalik’s t-shirts, there’s always something to grab the imagination of contributors and pundits alike. body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;} , Ethereum's Theon Greyjoy. He means well, but feels bitter about being overlooked and the injustice of his overlords. He tries to take power, but acts stupidly and selfishly, and eventually gets his dick chopped off. @lrettig https://t.co/bjjtekPo60 — @ameensol function notifyResize(height) {height = height ? height : document.documentElement.offsetHeight; var resized = false; if (window.donkey && donkey.resize) {donkey.resize(height); resized = true;}if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var obj = {iframe: window.frameElement, height: height}; parent._resizeIframe(obj); resized = true;}if (window.location && window.location.hash === "#amp=1" && window.parent && window.parent.postMessage) {window.parent.postMessage({sentinel: "amp", type: "embed-size", height: height}, "*");}if (window.webkit && window.webkit.messageHandlers && window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize) {window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize.postMessage(height); resized = true;}return resized;}twttr.events.bind('rendered', function (event) {notifyResize();}); twttr.events.bind('resize', function (event) {notifyResize();});if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var maxWidth = parseInt(window.frameElement.getAttribute("width")); if ( 500 < maxWidth) {window.frameElement.setAttribute("width", "500");}} Fundamentally, the mere fact that Ethereum commands so much attention is beyond warranted; it is the undisputed #2 in crypto, single handedly ushered the concept of Smart Contracts into production, and gave birth to (at least) three fascinating phenomena — the ICO, NFTs and DeFi. Yet, as we are slowly emerging from crypto winter, it seems as if Ethereum has been left somewhat bruised, with many question marks around its future. In the following sections I will attempt to uncover the current state of Ethereum by looking at various key on- and off-chain metrics. On-chain data We dive head-in by taking a look at the state of the Ethereum blockchain via key on-chain metrics. Active addresses Active addresses are defined as those that have engaged in cryptocurrency transactions at any point during the last 24-hours. Mirroring the activity in Bitcoin, it appears that the trend in active addresses has changed to the upside, after about 9 months of consistent decline (along with ETH’s price). Also, since late 2018, we are observing a divergence between the trends in price and active addresses. Will price trail back to active addresses? Not unlikely given the historical trend. Velocity of tokens & transaction volume Source: Santiment Velocity points to the average number of times that a token changes wallets each day. Simply put, a higher token velocity means that a token is used in transactions more often within a set time frame. Discounting for activity attributable to the notorious Ethereum mixer, both velocity and transaction volume seem to be growing linearly, on a trend that dates back to early 2016 — what is arguably a positive sign, nodding to increased utilisation of the network. Source: Bloxy What this might additionally imply, is that an exponential phase (S-curve) in transaction volumes is still a possibility in the future — though hard to imagine given the current performance limitations of Ethereum. Median transaction value (USD) Source: Coinmetrics If the data actually reflects reality, the fact that as the network matures, the median transaction value goes down, might strike one as a surprise . However, on second thoughts, this is really not at all surprising. Remember Ethereum =! Bitcoin; it has actually been built and used with different purposes in mind. And given that ~50% of the transactions on the network are currently machine to machine transactions (as per the ), it might just make sense that the median value decreases — particularly as the # of ERC-20 tokens exploded from a few dozen in 2017 to over 4000 . Overall, we can interpret this as a sign of a maturing network and a nod the type of transactions that ETH is used increasingly for. Speaking of which… Token Analyst today DeFi adoption Source: Mike McDonnald Source: DeFi Pulse DeFi (shorthand for decentralized finance) is the second big use case (after fundraising via private money) currently being explored on Ethereum and finding product-market fit. While the growth recorded so far has been impressive, the explosive part seems to have stalled for now. How much of this is due to the DAI’s peg woes and the stability fee hike from 0.5% to 7.5% in Maker (making it less attractive to own CDPs), and how much is due to the space having reached a structural ceiling for now, remains to be seen. My guess — a bit of both! After all, we need easier access to this ecosystem for the next batch of users to come on board. Number of tokens by ERC type Source: Bloxy On to the first major use case that ushered Ethereum into the cryptoasset pantheon, we take a look at what happens in the world of tokens under the “world computer”. At present, the majority of the Ethereum network is overrun by ERC-20 type tokens; for all their promise, ERC-721’s (NFTs) and other emerging standards, still represent a marginal amount of activity on the network. Further, ~4k seems to be the equilibrium number of active tokens on the network — tentatively driven by both lack of further demand AND lack of network capacity. Aggregate network Utilization Source: Etherscan This metric expresses the Average Gas Used/Gas Limit at any given point in time and acts as proxy to comparing utilisation with capacity. Interestingly, the picture here seems to verify the assumption laid out above, with respect to network capacity, and points to the fact that this particular S-curve has plateaued. Smart contract dynamics Source: Bloxy The three charts above, together describe the state of smart contracts on the Ethereum network — at a high level. From February until present day, the aggregate smart contract calls (interactions with smart contracts) have picked up, and are verging towards all time high territory. Given that we are post speculative mania, and ICO activity is in multi-year low, at the very least, this implies that the utility to speculative value ratio in Ethereum is improving — indication of such activity correlates nicely with the rise of DeFi. Now as far as Gas cost is concerned, the levels have been stable throughout 2018 — with an exception in July 2018, when F-coin spammed the Ethereum network (hence “call with token transfer” and “token transfer” costs exploded). Once again, stability here might imply that we’re operating close to network capacity. Finally, things get a little more curious when considering Daily Gas cost in USD, as it appears that for the past 12 moths, all 4 types of smart contract calls cost the same in USD terms, a phenomenon not observed before April 2018. One more sign of maturity, and/or the fact that the network is at capacity? Likely! Market data On-chain is only half the story. In this section we phase into market data, by looking at the most relevant to market, on-chain metrics, and subsequently transition to purely market focused metrics. Price vs Inflation Source: Coinmetrics Source: Eric Conner As with Bitcoin, reductions in inflation seems to have a similar effect on price (upwards push). Looking ahead to 2020 and 2022, there are two more big inflation adjustments coming, with the steeper one being the one in 2020. Combined with Bitcoin’s halving, this is a structurally bullish development — assuming that demand for the asset remains constant, at the least. Token age consumed Source: Santiment This metric shows the amount of tokens changing addresses on a certain date, multiplied by the number of blocks created on the blockchain since they last moved. One way we can interpret this, is as a proxy to long time HODLer coins moving, potentially to liquidate. The activity here mirrors that in Bitcoin — once again, with the most tokens moving after November’s dump, pointing to capitulating long term holders, among which tentatively a bunch of early ICO treasuries and a slew of unprofitable miners. Relative market shares in the smart contracts cluster Source: Coinmartketcap Source: Coinmartketcap While Ethereum pretty much created the category, its dominance has gone down from ~90% in mid-2017, to ~58% in the Smart Contracts cluster. Further, since April 2017 it has underperformed the cluster consistently in bull-market conditions, and has tracked the cluster’s performance (or more likely, the other way around) in bear market conditions, while the correlations of returns between Index and ETH standing at over 90%! With competitors like Cosmos, Dfinity, Polkadot and Hashgraph (among others) having launched recently or launching soon, and Ethereum 2.0 being a long way off still, it’s hard to see this trend reversing or even stabilizing. 60-day volatility (stdev of daily returns) Source: Coinmarketcap Source: Delphi Digital Given the high correlation of ETH with Bitcoin, returning volatility in Bitcoin, implies that volatility returns in ETH too — and by the looks of the 60-day volatility chart this is already materializing. Considering that this has been a resounding move towards leaving the bear trend behind — a view held by many and based on many different data points — there might be significant room for short-medium term upwards movement. The recent analysis from Delphi digital on ETH/BTC and its relation to upside-downside beta, implies that this might indeed be the case. Miner data Mind you, Ethereum is still a Proof-of-Work coin… Hashrate Source: Etherscan Contrary to Bitcoin, the Hashrate in the Ethereum network seems to be following a negative trend and has yet to pick back up. What this implies, is that the network is not yet at equilibrium, with the current prices making ETH mining unprofitable for many. Reports have it that the break even for ETH miners stands at about $150-$200 per ETH. There are a few reasons as to why this might be the case, among which are (i) the fact that Ethereum is planning to migrate to PoS, (ii) the fact that Ethereum mining utilizes GPU chip sets and (iii) the fact that compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum’s inflation rate is still high. Miner distribution Source: Santiment Source: Etherscan One thing that was relatively positive for the Ethereum ecosystem, that resulted directly from the downfall of prices from a top of ~$1.4k to current levels, was the fact that relative space occupied by smaller miners grew — at the expense of the Top3 to Top10 mining pools, such that now more smaller miners are represented at the table. At the same time, the Top 3 pools grew their share, as they are likely the only ones with the required operational excellence (cheap electricity, low overheads otherwise) to be able to adequately withstand the price drop. Development data In this section, I look at a couple of proxies to the development activity in the Ethereum ecosystem. Github repository Source: Cryptomiso A quick scroll down paints a very positive picture. Off the Top-100 projects ranked by Github activity, while Ethereum might rank around the middle, it’s one of the projects with the most consistent activity pattern. If slow and steady wins the race, and given the mindshare that Ethereum has captured, then this should count as a net positive for the underlying asset. cryptomiso Truffle framework downloads Source: truffleframework.com Ethereum’s popularity as a Web 3 development platform is beyond doubt, and part of the reason why is the availability of tooling in building on the platform. There are some interesting notes to take here; (i) Ethereum’s price rise in H1 2017 was the biggest ad for Ethereum as a development platform, (ii) there is a low positive correlation between ETH’s price swings and downloads in the Truffle framework and (iii) the exponential growth rate in downloads observed until January, is showing signs of slowing down. Maybe a sign that Ethereum is reaching developer bandwidth capacity (re: SAM)? Perhaps. On the other hand though, it would also appear that the reducing volatility in Ethereum is coinciding with the reduction in the growth of downloads. Could it be that less volatility, leads to less headlines, that in turn leads to less people reached? And what would happen to downloads in case we saw an uptick in ETH’s price? Loose-ends No particular category they slot under, but still important to consider. Node dispersion Source: Etherscan The plots above show (i) the geographical dispersion of nodes and (ii) the segregation of nodes across client and OS. The large majority of the Ethereum network’s nodes are found in the US — and it appears so by some difference from the second highest concentration (China), while Geth is by far the most popular client type (over 75% of nodes), with Web 3’s Parity coming in second (~12% of nodes). Also worth noting that there are over , which is ~18% more than in Ethereum. 9600 nodes running Bitcoin Staking yield comparison Source: stakingrewards.com The transition from PoW to PoS, implies that ETH holders will be able to stake their ETH (min requirement: 32 ETH) and earn validator’s rewards — which should make the network more decentralized and robust. That said however, Ethereum will arrive to the staking party quite late, AND with below average staking yield. Even yet, some money is always better than no money, and for long term ETH believers and would-be believers, this is an interesting incentive that could sway parties to increase their allocations. Parting thoughts Mixed feelings here. On the one hand, the technical indicators point to room for short-to-medium term upwards price mobility, while development activity stands in support of that. On the other hand however, various on-chain metrics highlight that the scalability issue is a very real one and that the network is currently operating very close to capacity. There are two opposing dynamics at play here; (i) a substitution of speculative value with fundamental value (price positive) that is, however, taking place at (ii) a network capacity constraint (price negative via gas fees etc).Here are the key takewaways from the preceding analysis: Taking the rise of DeFi as well as the rise in active addresses and reduction in median transaction value of ETH as indicators for fundamental value, along with the drastic reduction in new issuances (ICOs), one can argue for a substitution effect between low quality, speculative value, with high-quality fundamental value. Combined with the recent reduction in the inflation schedule and the upcoming one in 2020, along with recent long time holding liquidations, implies that we likely found a bottom and this gives Ethereum some nice headway for price appreciation. The reshuffling of hash-power towards a more balanced distribution, along with the upcoming PoS incentives, points to a more secure network long-term. Developer activity is as healthy as ever. That said, in the last couple of months we are seeing signs of the activity slowing down. Perhaps a sharp(ish) rise in price, will create the necessary uptick here (cc: reflexivity). There are strong indications that the network is operating at capacity and demand/supply for network resources is at equilibrium. Should more demand hit the Ethereum network, we will then likely be in an excess demand condition; , this is should be a price positive, but , considering the existing and emergent competition, operating at the current level of capacity is a net negative — as developers pack up for greener pastures, with lower fees and more clarity over the roadmap. short-medium term long term But also, there is this… body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;} Tired of wading through incessant arguments about governance? Check out GSpot, a simple Chrome extension that replaces the word "governance" with the word "assplay." I recommend checking out 's Twitter profile with this extension enabled. @VladZamfir https://t.co/WITMGocmmq — @0xzak function notifyResize(height) {height = height ? height : document.documentElement.offsetHeight; var resized = false; if (window.donkey && donkey.resize) {donkey.resize(height); resized = true;}if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var obj = {iframe: window.frameElement, height: height}; parent._resizeIframe(obj); resized = true;}if (window.location && window.location.hash === "#amp=1" && window.parent && window.parent.postMessage) {window.parent.postMessage({sentinel: "amp", type: "embed-size", height: height}, "*");}if (window.webkit && window.webkit.messageHandlers && window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize) {window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize.postMessage(height); resized = true;}return resized;}twttr.events.bind('rendered', function (event) {notifyResize();}); twttr.events.bind('resize', function (event) {notifyResize();});if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var maxWidth = parseInt(window.frameElement.getAttribute("width")); if ( 500 < maxWidth) {window.frameElement.setAttribute("width", "500");}}

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