Dahlia Financeis in the Cryptocurrencies Industry

Dahlia Finance

Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . INTERESTING WORDS here INTERESTING WORDS Business English is the expression of our commercial life in English. It is not synonymous with letter writing. To be sure, business letters are important, but they form only a part of one of the two large divisions into which the subject naturally falls. First, there is , important because so many of our business transactions are conducted personally. Thousands of salesmen daily move from place to place over the entire country, earning their salaries by talking convincingly of the goods that they have to sell. A still greater number of clerks, salesmen, managers, and officials orally transact business in our shops, stores, offices, and banks. Complaints are adjusted; difficulties are disentangled; and affairs of magnitude are consummated in personal interviews, the matter under discussion often being thought too important to be entrusted to correspondence. In every business oral English is essential. oral expression Second, there is . This takes account of the writing of advertisements, circulars, booklets, and prospectuses, as well as of letters. And in the preparation of these oral English is fundamental. It precedes and practically includes the written expression. For example, we say colloquially that a good advertisement "talks." We mean that the writer has so fully realized the buyer's point of view that the words of the advertisement seem to speak directly to the reader, arousing his interest or perhaps answering his objection. Oral English is fundamental, too, in the writing of letters, for most letters are dictated and not written. The correspondent dictates them to his stenographer or to a recording machine in the same tone, probably, that he would use if the customer were sitting before him. written expression But in taking this point of view, we should not minimize the importance of written business English. In a way, it is more difficult to write well than it is to talk well. In talking we are not troubled with the problems of correct spelling, proper punctuation, and good paragraphing. We may even repeat somewhat, if only we are persuasive. But in writing we are confronted with the necessity of putting the best thoughts into the clearest, most concise language, at the same time obeying all the rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. The business man must be sure of these details in order to know that his letters and advertising matter are correct. The stenographer, especially, must be thoroughly familiar with them, so that she may correctly transcribe what has been dictated. Business English is much the same as any other English. It consists in expression by means of words, sentences, and paragraphs. Moreover, they are much the same kind of words, sentences, and paragraphs that appear in any book that is written in what is commonly called the literary style. In a business letter the words are largely those of every day use, and but few are technical. It is the manner in which the words are put together, the idea back of the sentence, that makes the only difference. We shall begin the study of business English with a study of words, for in all expression, whether oral or written, a knowledge of words, of their meaning and suggestive power, is fundamental. On the choice of words depends not only the correctness but also the effectiveness of expression—the courtesy of a letter, the appeal of an advertisement, the persuasiveness of a salesman's talk. A mastery of words cannot be gained at once. Every time one speaks, he must consider what words will best convey his idea. In this chapter only the barest beginning of such study can be made. The exercises show the value of the subject. The study of words is interesting because words themselves are interesting. Sometimes the interest consists in the story of the derivation. As an example, consider the word . Many words in this book are written in italic to draw attention to them. Literally the word means "relating to Italy or its people." It is now applied to a kind of type in which the letters slope toward the right. The type was called italic because it was dedicated to the states of Italy by the inventor, Manutius, about the year 1500. An unabridged dictionary will tell all about the word. italic The word tells a curious story. It is derived from a Latin word, , meaning "salt money." It was the name of the money that was given to the Roman soldiers for salt, which was a part of their pay. Finally, instead of signifying only the salt money, it came to mean the total pay. salary salarium Practically all of this information a good dictionary gives. In other words, a dictionary is a story book containing not one, but hundreds of thousands of stories. Whenever possible it tells what language a word came from, how it got its different meanings, and how those meanings have changed in the course of time. For it is natural that words should change just as styles change, names of ancient things being lost and names for new things being made. As the objects themselves have gone out of use, their names have also gone. When a word has gone entirely out of use, it is marked in the dictionary. On the other hand, new inventions must be named. Thus new words are constantly being added to the language and the dictionary because they are needed. obsolete There is a large class of words that we shall not have time to consider. They are called . Every profession, business, or trade has its distinctive words. The technical words that a printer would use are entirely different from those which a dentist, a bookkeeper, or a lawyer would use. You will learn the technical terms of your business most thoroughly after you enter it and see the use for such terms. technical None of the words, therefore, that you will be asked to search out in the dictionary are, strictly speaking, technical. It is evident that it will do you no good to search out the words in the dictionary, unless you learn them—unless you use them correctly in speaking and writing. There is pleasure in thus employing new material, as everybody knows. Use your eyes and ears. When you hear a new word, or read one, focus the mind upon it for a moment until you can retain a mental picture of its spelling and of its pronunciation. Then as soon as possible look it up in the dictionary to fix its spelling, pronunciation, and definition. Do this regularly, and you will have reason to be proud of your vocabulary. An excellent way to increase the number of words that you know is to read the right kind of books. The careful study of the words used in the speeches and addresses of noted men is good practice. The conditions that called forth the speech were probably important, and the speech itself interesting, or it would not be preserved. When a man has an interesting or important message to give, he usually gives it in clear, exact, simple language. Therefore the vocabulary that he uses is worth copying. As for stories, there is a kind that furnishes a wealth of material that modern authors are constantly using or referring to, and this is found in stories of the Bible, stories of Greek and Northern gods and goddesses, stories of the , the , the , stories of chivalry—all old stories. Every one should know them well, because they are the basis of many allusions in which a single word oftentimes suggests a whole story. The meaning of the word , for instance, is missed if you do not know the story of Hercules and know that he was famous for his strength. Iliad Odyssey Æneid herculean Exercise 1 is an interesting word. Originally it was the name of a Greek god, who carried the world on his shoulders. Then it is supposed that in the sixteenth century the famous geographer Mercator prefixed his collection of maps with the picture of Atlas supporting the world. Thus a collection of maps in a volume came to be called an . Consult an unabridged dictionary for the origin of each of the following: Atlas atlas rival fortune cereal boycott dollar finance china derrick bankrupt milliner java mercury cash pullman cashmere colossal mint grocer macadam turbine Exercise 2 The days of the week and the months of the year are interesting in their derivation. Monday, for example, represents the day sacred to the Moon as a deity. Explain the origin of each of the following: Sunday Saturday May October Tuesday January June November Wednesday February July December Thursday March August Friday April September Exercise 3 Look up the derivation of the following: cancel bead ambition hospital pecuniary paper influence pavilion cheat book virtue mackintosh speculation bayonet peevish chapel phaëton tawdry disaster omnibus Exercise 4 Explain the origin of each of the following: curfew tulip turquoise good-bye pompadour aster amethyst dismal hyacinth dunce tantalize titanic dandelion humor umbrella volcano dahlia villain sandwich tangle begonia echo lunatic babble Exercise 5 Name the image that each of the following suggests to you: howl sputter rasping munch skim prance clatter trickle squeal click wheeze shuffle moan thud trudge bulge squeak patter chuckle gobble squawk spatter toddling swish Exercise 6 Bring to class a list of words which, because they are the names of modern inventions, have come into the language in modern time. Exercise 7 How many words can you name which might be called the technical terms of school life, words which always carry with them a suggestion of the school room? Bring in a list of twenty such words. Exercise 8 How many words can you name which are used only in the business world? Bring in a list of twenty such words. Exercise 9 How many words can you name which apply particularly to money and the payment or non-payment of money? Bring in a list of twenty or more such words. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Rose Buhlig (2011). Business English: A Practice Book. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/38046/pg38046-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

INTERESTING WORDS

ld Lady Lloyd

These days, Bitcoin ETFs are the talk of the town. The market is in dire need of a rally, and investors believe institutional money flowing in from ETFs will do just that. Many speculators blame the most recent rout in the market on the SEC once again postponing Bitcoin ETFs. Needless to say, there is a lot of uncertainty and buzz surrounding Bitcoin ETFs right now. To unpack what’s going on, I’m going to first explain how ETFs work. Then we’re going to examine the two main types of Bitcoin ETFs being proposed and look at why the SEC has chosen to reject all proposals thus far. Finally we’ll look at the implications of how ETFs will affect the market. Let’s begin. What is an ETF? An is simply a security that tracks some underlying assets, whether that be equities, bonds, commodities, or cryptocurrency. exchange traded fund (ETF) An ETF takes custody of the underlying assets it tracks. Then it issues a large number of shares that represent the ownership of those assets. An ETF’s shares are as easy to trade as a stock and therefore can knock down a lot of barriers an investor would face if they tried to purchase the underlying assets themselves. In the case of Bitcoin, barriers like verification, high transaction fees, and delays come to mind. How are ETFs created? What I imagine APs look like When an ETF wants to create new shares of its fund, it turns to someone called an authorized participant (AP) for help. An AP is just a fancy name for someone who is responsible for purchasing the underlying assets an ETF wants to hold. APs require a license from the ETF provider and are typically financial institutions with a lot of purchasing power. Here are the basic steps: An AP starts the process by buying up the underlying assets. For example, if an ETF wants to track the S&P500, an AP will buy an appropriate amount of each security based on the index weighting. The AP sends the assets over to the ETF provider. In return, the ETF provider sends back shares of the fund back to the AP. The value of these shares are equal to the assets the ETF provider just received. How are ETFs redeemed? The redemption process works in the reverse direction. The AP sends over ETF shares it wants to redeem to the ETF provider. The ETF provider returns the underlying assets back to the AP. How does an ETF Keep its Price the Same as its Underlying Assets? Because an ETF trades like a stock, its price will fluctuate during the trading day due to changes in supply and demand. Sometimes the price can become higher than its underlying assets, or net asset value (NAV). When this happens, an ETF is said to be trading at a premium. The opposite is called trading at a discount. The AP arbitrages premiums and discounts to keep the market price tightly coupled to the NAV. Let’s explore how this works. If the price of an ETF goes above NAV An AP will go out and buy up a bunch of the underlying assets and send it over to the ETF provider. The ETF provider will issue new shares of the fund to the AP. The AP will then sell these new ETF shares on the market. Assuming demand stays the same, a higher supply will lower the price of the ETF and bring it back towards NAV. ECON 101 If the price of an ETF goes below NAV An AP will buy up a bunch of ETF shares and redeem them for the underlying assets. The AP then sells the underlying assets at the NAV price in order to make a profit. Profits can be used to buy and redeem even more overpriced ETF shares. An decrease in supply, assuming demand stays constant, will increase the price of the ETF and push it towards NAV. ECON 101 How do Bitcoin ETFs Work? Now that we understand how normal ETFs work, we can turn our attention to Bitcoin ETFs. 1. ETFs that Physically Hold Bitcoin This type of ETF is almost identical compared to the ETF model we’ve described. The only difference is that APs have the option of sending over baskets of cash instead of Bitcoin. This is simply for convenience as many APs don’t want to purchase Bitcoin and hold on to it themselves. So when the AP sends over a basket of cash, the ETF provider trades the cash for Bitcoin. Then the provider returns ETF shares that are of equal value, less transaction fees, to the AP. The most recently proposed ETF, submitted by VanEck and SolidX, follow this model. You can read more about this fund from their SEC filing here. Pros: It’s generally very cheap to trade ETFs on the market especially when compared to the high fees exchanges charge to trade between fiat and Bitcoin. Low transaction costs — Since the ETF holds Bitcoin, it should track the performance of Bitcoin well. APs can arbitrage price differences between the ETF price and NAV for a profit and this should remove large discounts and premiums. Tracks Performance of Bitcoin — The daily trading volume for Bitcoin is in the billions. The risk of illiquid markets having an impact on redemption is not too high. Liquid markets — Risks & Concerns: — The ETF provider remains in custody of the Bitcoin and has to take security precautions to avoid theft. Counterparty risk — It’s highly likely that the first wave of ETFs will be unavailable to retail investors. In order to placate the SEC’s concerns about protecting retail investors, a minimum purchase of VanEck’s proposed Bitcoin ETF is valued at 25 BTC. High cost per share — Bitcoin ETF will likely have higher fees than traditional ETFs due to the high transaction costs APs have to pay in the creation and redemption of ETF shares when they choose to submit, or redeem, baskets of cash. So far VanEck is planning to charge $1,000 for every creation & redemption transaction, plus some TBD variable transaction fee on top. Higher expense ratio — Redemptions are made based on NAV so an inaccurate NAV will break the arbitrage mechanism. Most ETF NAVs are calculated once per day. But since the Bitcoin market is so volatile, intra-day NAV measures are required. For instance, the VanEck ETF plans to use the which is updated every 15 seconds. Still, determining NAV can be difficult since prices can be different across multiple exchanges. Inaccurate NAV MVIS Bitcoin Index The market for trading ETFs can be closed while cryptocurrency exchanges are open. Prices may fall significantly in the meantime and investors will not be able to mitigate losses in a closed market. Non-concurrent trading hours also may increase the gap between the ETF price and NAV. Markets closed for ETF but open for Bitcoin — 2. ETFs that Purchase Bitcoin Derivatives The second kind of ETF does not actually hold any Bitcoin. Instead the ETF tries to mimic the performance of Bitcoin by trading Bitcoin futures, options, swaps, money market instruments, and investing in other pooled vehicles. The Direxion ETFs are examples of this. The VanEck Vectors Bitcoin ETF is another example. Pros: The fund doesn’t have to worry about the security risks of holding Bitcoin since it does not take custody of any Bitcoin. Risks & Concerns: — Since the fund only approximates the performance of Bitcoin, there could be scenarios where the returns of the fund are significantly divorced from the performance of Bitcoin. Approximating the performance of Bitcoin — The holdings of an actively managed fund are completely under the discretion of the money manager. In an attempt to track the performance of Bitcoin, an active manager may significantly underperform Bitcoin. Active management risk — Actively managed funds charge higher fees than their passive counterparts. This is often known as the . Active management cost management expense ratio (MER) **Margin call risk —**Futures contracts require some amount of capital on hand called a maintenance margin. If the deposit margin does not meet the requirements of the maintenance margin, the exchange will attempt a . If there are not sufficient cash or cash equivalents, the futures contract will be liquidated and result in immediate and substantial losses to the fund. Both market volatility and leveraged trading makes this more likely to happen. Even a relatively small price movement under leveraged conditions can cause massive liquidations to happen. Given the volatility of Bitcoin, this can be a big risk if not handled correctly. margin call To make matters worse, prominent futures exchanges like Bitmex have been accused for manipulating Bitcoin prices in order to trigger margin calls. The significant use of leveraged financial instruments means that even short-term price movements can adversely impact the performance of the fund. Leveraged Trading Risk — — Many futures contracts are switched for ones that expire further into the future in a process called . This is done so the contracts do not expire and go to settlement. If the contract’s future price is higher than the , the investor loses money by rolling the same quantity of the asset at a higher price.This is usually referred as . Rollover Risk rollover spot price contango Why has the SEC Continued to Delay ETFs? The SEC has either forced withdrawals or delayed the approval of every Bitcoin ETF. In a letter penned by Dalia Blass on January 2018, the SEC outlined the reasons for their apprehension. The letter is quite long, so we’ll be summarizing the main points below. Valuation Pricing NAV correctly is important because it determines the amount an AP sends or receives during the creation and redemption process. The SEC is concerned that because cryptocurrency is volatile and exchange prices can be disjoint, NAV measures will be inaccurate. Arbitrage (for ETFs) Since NAV measures can be imprecise and the markets are very volatile, the SEC is concerned that arbitrage mechanisms, that are essential for keeping the price of ETFs aligned with NAV, may be disrupted. Liquidity The SEC is concerned that unusually large daily redemptions will be the norm in such a volatile market, and that there may not be enough market liquidity to honour redemptions without a massive amount of . slippage The SEC is also concerned that a futures based ETF could grow to represent too much of the entire Bitcoin futures market, such that it affects fund performance and liquidity. Custody The SEC is concerned that an ETF may not be able to protect against cybersecurity threats when taking custody of Bitcoin. The SEC is also concerned with ETFs taking custody of any physically-settled Bitcoin derivatives. Potential Manipulation and Other Risks The SEC is concerned that the cryptocurrency market is unregulated and rife with market manipulation. Looking Forward into the Future ETFs that Hold Physical Bitcoin > ETFs Trading Bitcoin Derivatives After reading SEC filings for most of the proposed Bitcoin ETFs, I quite prefer ETFs that physically hold Bitcoin. Obviously the biggest worry surrounding ETFs that hold Bitcoin is custody risk. But I am inclined to believe that mitigating custody risk is easier than mitigating the risks of improperly tracking Bitcoin by trading derivatives. Like we mentioned before, investors need to place a great amount of trust in the active manager to approximate the performance of Bitcoin using derivatives. It will be less transparent, cost more, and a small price change can have a big impact on performance because of leveraged trading. Bitcoin ETFs Need to Stabilize around NAV before They Can Attract Institutional Investors We are greatly overestimating the amount of fiat inflow that will come in from Bitcoin ETFs. , use some incredibly suspicious math to estimate how ETFs will add 24 million investors and $420 billion in fiat inflow, as if seemingly overnight. Articles like this one In reality, a lot of institutional investors are still dipping their toes when it comes to investing into cryptocurrency. They will not recklessly invest into a Bitcoin ETF if its trading at a massive premium. traded at about a 50% premium to its NAV in July. Expect similar challenges in the beginning. It will take some time for APs to stabilize the ETFs price around NAV. Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust Bitcoin ETFs will Likely Have High Expense Ratios Someone has the shoulder the cost of trading from fiat into Bitcoin. Someone also has to pay for the cost of secure custody. The SPDR S&P 500 charges 0.09% per year. Expect Bitcoin ETFs to charge in the range of 1–3%. High expense ratios may also turn institutional investors away. A Cryptocurrency ETF Index is Far, Far Away The SEC is already worried about the liquidity, valuation, custody of just Bitcoin. Imagine how difficult it would be to build an ETF around the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap. This actually renders one of the main benefits of ETFs useless: the ability to take fractional ownership of a large and diverse base of underlying assets. If you want to diversify your cryptocurrency portfolio across the top 20 coins, you’ll have to hold on to the underlying assets yourself. I think there are a lot of benefits to holding onto the underlying assets yourself. I will describe this in a future article. I’m working on a project that enables you to do just that. Effect on Bitcoin Price Fiat in-flow isn’t 1:1 to market cap. . JP Morgan estimates a 1:50 ratio between fiat-inflow and market cap ETFs that hold Bitcoin instead of cash settled Bitcoin derivatives will have a much larger impact on Bitcoin price. Retail Investors Will Have to Wait In order to satisfy the SEC’s concerns, many ETFs are pricing themselves beyond what retail investors can afford. A minimum purchase of VanEck’s proposed Bitcoin ETF is set at 25 BTC. The SEC will likely look at how Bitcoin ETFs for institutional investors plays out before making Bitcoin ETFs available to retail investors. About the Author I’m the founder of . HodlBot We automatically diversify and rebalance your cryptocurrency portfolio into the top 20 coins by market cap.Think of it as a long-term crypto-index that you can DIY on your own exchange account. Combine with dollar-cost averaging, to kick ass even in a bear market. HodlBot To get started all you need is a Binance Account $200 in any cryptocurrency You can check it out . here If you want to know how indexes the market and completes rebalancing, check out the blog I wrote . HodlBot here

The Ultimate Guide on Bitcoin ETFs

A Day with the Popes

But history proves it will get easier as we approach massive adoption Let’s get this straight from the outset. Most people in America are not like us reading posts on Medium, they’ve probably never heard of it. They’re not your early adopters of technology, they didn’t get the iPhone when it first came out, they probably still need help with their computers, and I’m positive there are dozens of other cases we can bring up to prove the different layers and difficulty of humans adopting technology. Humans, in general, are slow in adopting new technologies. Going back to 1876, when the telephone was invented, we can see it took almost a century for every household in America to adopt one. Similarly, the trend has happened with the automobile, dishwasher, dryer, and many more innovations (as shown in the graph below), all of which are considered essential nowadays. These “essential” technological advances have all gone through their own set of problems, criticisms, moments of doubt and uncertainty —forging their own unique, but . similar adoption paths Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies are following a similar path to previous technological innovations. I’m no expert in cryptography or blockchain technology. What we’re looking here is not their highly complex cryptographic systems and development, but technology through the eyes of humans, the different stages they go through, and their rate of adoption — in particular with the US population. The first Personal Computer was released around 1975 in the US, but it wasn’t until the late 1980’s after companies like and were started, that the general public had access to them. At that point, they still weren’t considered a massive success. However, in the late 1990’s they made huge progress among early adopters and certain industries when PC’s became cheaper and processing power got faster. Dell Gateway For a long time, they were considered a temporary fad. But then in the early 2000’s, after the Internet had been around for a few years and computers became more powerful, consumers were able to stream music, play games, chat with others online, create communities, and much more — making PC’s the essential and “cool” thing to own at home. The statistic shows the percentage of U.S. households that have a computer from 1984 to 2015 As we can see, it took almost 25 years, after its introduction, for PC’s to be massively adopted by consumers here in the US. In hindsight, as with every innovation that matures rapidly enough, a period of adoption was essential for both the technology to evolve and, likewise, for humans to integrate them into their routines. Technology goes from being exclusively in use by professionals and the tech-savvy, to mainstream and used by almost every person. This is what’s happening with Cryptocurrencies right now What history and those who study major shifts in technological movements show us is that if an innovation is successfully diffused (read about the ), or distributed correctly, then the cumulative rate of adoption over an almost infinite period of time (let’s say 100 years) typically exhibits an S-shaped function. But what does this have to do with Cryptocurrency? Bass diffusion model Well, how something propagates depends widely on what is known as “cognitive advantage”, or the ability of a particular community to accept a new innovation. By determining what this cognitive advantage is for a certain group, we could estimate the potential for this innovation to be established within that group, as well as how fast it spreads amongst it. The cumulative number of people in a group with the same thought process and pre-existing ideas can determine the fate of an innovation, simply by accelerating the rate in which they share their knowledge with other communities. And similarly, how those other communities share with new communities, and so on. Current adoption numbers for Cryptocurrency are proof (see further below) that the technology is following the same path of adoption as other previous technologies fueled by a particular set of pre-existing beliefs. Moreover, in order to understand who the people are in an initial group, we’d have to deconstruct their pre-existing beliefs and values that got them there in the first place. In terms of Cryptocurrencies, there are a few pre-existing ideas/issues that I’ve noticed were shared by those who were interested in the technology in its early years. The first group of users believed or were (and probably still are) influenced by the following issues: Increased distrust of Governments and Central Banks An uncertain Geopolitical Climate Increased interest in Financial Independence (i.e. independence from banks holding your wealth) Interest in creating highly Trustable (immutable and irreplaceable) Transactions — “math at its finest” Interest in Privacy There are probably a few more I’m not mentioning here (feel free to comment and I’ll update the list), but these 5 meet the criteria to argue in favor of Cryptocurrencies. The first group of people that shared these 5 basic beliefs was, and still is, the most important group in introducing and Cryptocurrencies to other communities. Bitcoin As such, it’s natural that in order for Cryptocurrencies to be adopted in the US, and other countries, that these beliefs still hold true at any point in time and that newer groups create and adjust them in their own unique ways. The narrative for has begun to evolve from this is “just an Internet fad that is weird, stupid, and obscure” and into the hands of new groups with new interests and incentives to understand this phenomenon and participate in it. Cryptocurrency What follows from here is highly dependent on creating platforms that are easy to use and to understand. The better the shared narrative and distribution of this technology through new products and other events, the faster the adoption rate will be as the beliefs are transferred from one community to another, and mature over time. Network Trends , the Romanian physicist better known for his work on network theory, said: “Network thinking is poised to invade all domains of human activity and most fields of human inquiry. It is more than another useful perspective or tool. Networks are by their very nature the fabric of most complex systems, and nodes and links deeply infuse all strategies aimed at approaching our interlocked universe.” Albert-László Barabási In addition to pre-existing beliefs of a community, we have the rate in which these communities share their information. That’s where humans play a larger role in disseminating information as a result of their . Sharing is part of the complex system of our social fabric and it’s how we socialize, how we communicate with each other, and how we show affection. We tend to grow a certain internal “positive” karma and acceptance when we share. intrinsic willingness to share Humans as Nodes and The Disaster Phenomena as idea proliferation Humans are the centerpiece of any network — the main node — since we are where it all begins. We could go deep into human connectivity and , but the concept behind this idea is that “adoption” is pretty abstract and subjective, but rather simple. Often times adoption rates are simply a product of a distribution phenomena, like a disaster or a world event that takes place (sometimes referred to as “The Disaster Phenomena”) or also, potentially, a specific feeling of oppression that triggers such reaction, with a product that is an outlet or vehicle of . network theory usefulness An example of “The Disaster Phenomena” is the train crash that happened in Tarriffville, Connecticut in 1978 — the disaster that made the telephone famous. The story goes as follows: After the train crash, forward-looking doctors in the nearby city of Hartford had had Bell’s “speaking telephone” installed. An alert local druggist was able to telephone an entire community of local doctors, who rushed to the site to give aid. The disaster, as disasters do, aroused intense press coverage. The phone had proven its usefulness in the real world. Excerpt from “The Hacker Crackdown.” (Another example could be Social Media’s influence in the , and its later proliferation, which has brought immense growth to Facebook, Twitter, and other Megacorps) Arab Spring Cryptocurrency in the US hasn’t gone through anything similar to what the Telephone experienced with the crash in Tarriffville, but disasters are certainly triggering the popularity of Cryptocurrencies in other parts of the world, like in , where the ! Venezuelans are turning their remaining into Bitcoin, the most accessible currency available to them that doesn’t need a bank, as fast as they can. Venezuela annual inflation rate has soared to almost 27,000% Bolivares I hope no group of people has to suffer or go through a disaster to boost Cryptocurrency’ s popularity, but history has made it clear that it’s helped before. What does this mean for Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies? In my opinion, as far as Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies goes, I believe we’re in the first few years of the “Cash Cow” period where fast consumer adoption begins. , a Berlin-based firm specialized in understanding global audiences did an in 8 of the largest Cryptocurrency markets (US, UK, Brazil, Germany, Japan, South Korea, India, and China) in an attempt to understand how many people actually own any cryptocurrency. Dalia Research extensive survey Their findings are interesting. This is huge, but not surprising given the media coverage of Cryptocurrencies worldwide. If we put that into numbers, we’re talking about roughly 29 million US citizens who own at least one Cryptocurrency. Most of which came in the latter part of 2017 as Bitcoin price reached sky-high levels. In the US about 74% of people are at least aware of cryptocurrencies. However, according to their research, only about 9% of the population in the US actually own any cryptocurrency. In the US about 74% of people are aware of cryptocurrencies, but only 9% own any. Now, if we make a comparison with the Personal Computer adoption (in my opinion the closest technological shift as life went from physical to digital) around 1984 (the first few years of personal computing) we see that about 8.2% of households had a personal computer, that translates to around 3% of the population (see the graph below). Let’s assume that 1984 is ground zero for PC’s in this analysis. If we then take that number and add the next data point available on PC adoption, we see the graph states around 36.6% of households owned a PC, when converted into population numbers we’re looking at roughly . 14% of the population owned a PC in 1997 If we then compare ground zero for Bitcoin, 2009 when there was ~0% adoption, until now in 2018, we see the population adoption in just 9 years vs. 13 from PC’s as , vs. the 14% for PC. We could argue that with 4 more years we’d see the same adoption rate of Cryptocurrencies than in that same time span for PCs, 14% or close. very close at 9% for Bitcoin Now, if we try to compare the adoption rate in the span of 17 years for the PC from 1984 to 2001, we get that around For Cryptocurrency, US market adoption in the next 8 years, that would mean that 70 million people will own some form of Cryptocurrency by 2026. 20% of the population owned a PC at the end of that period. at its worst growth rate of 20% That’s about 41 million people more from this day on. I personally believe Cryptocurrency ownership will grow twice as much in the same period as the right use-cases become available. US Household Personal Computer Adoption Rates from 1984–2015 Comparison of Personal Computer Adoption vs. Cryptocurrency Owners Cryptocurrency is Moving Fast The main difference between Personal Computer’s and Cryptocurrency is that Cryptocurrency’s adoption rate is moving at the same rate, or faster, in other countries around the world. The US is the leader in many ways in the Crypto space but it’s not the leader in its adoption. This is positive as it suggests . it’s still early in the life of Cryptocurrencies in the US and we can see a future path of inevitable growth .” “it’s still early in the life of Cryptocurrencies in the US and we can see a future path of inevitable growth The Different Stages of Technology Adoption Golden Vaporware The first stage, according to Bruce Sterling author of (a great book!), is called the “ ” stage. And I quote: “ ” He also states that “ ” True, but not a fact. The Hacker Crackdown Golden Vaporware At this early point, the technology is only a phantom, a mere gleam in the inventor’s eye. One such inventor was a speech teacher and electrical tinkerer named Alexander Graham Bell. Most Golden Vaporware technologies go nowhere. You could say Bitcoin went through this stage in its early days when Satoshi Nakamoto published the and when the pizza was purchased with (insane in hindsight). Bitcoin White Paper 10,000 BTC in 2010 Rising Star The second stage is called “ ”, Mr. Sterling states, “ .” Rising Star or Goofy Prototype Technologies in their Goofy Prototype stage rarely work very well. They’re experimental…The prototype may be attractive and novel, and it does look as if it ought to be good for something or other. But nobody, including the inventor, is quite sure what. Inventors, and speculators, and pundits may have very firm ideas about its potential use, but those ideas are often very wrong This stage could be compared to when came out for the first time. Or a few years later when went from meme to a tradable collectible on the blockchain. Dogecoin Pepe Cash Cash Cow The third stage of technology is known as “ ” stage. In this stage, a technology finds its place in the world, matures, and becomes settled and productive. Sterling expands, “ ” And he adds, Cash Cow The telephone was about speech-individual, personal speech, the human voice, human conversation, and human interaction. “ When you picked up a telephone, you were not absorbing the cold output of a machine– you were speaking to another human being…A telephone call was not a call from a telephone itself, but a call from another human being.” What Bruce is trying to tell us is that, technology is built on a set of beliefs (like previously discussed), it’s played with and battered with, criticized, until it goes through a process of early adoption through the human network (mostly as a game or toy), and then it becomes to humans. It adapts to human needs as it evolves and consumers find new ways to use it. essential Right now, in 2018, Bitcoin has served as the “ ”, and Dogecoin as the “ ”. These have brought the third stage and have allowed for other technologies to emerge like . Ethereum in turn has provided a new opportunity for the technology to evolve with its ability to create new projects on top of its blockchain. Ethereum is potentially the “ .” Golden Vaporware Litecoin Rising Star / Goofy Prototype Ethereum Cash Cow Projects Helping Adoption of Cryptocurrency in the US There are many projects and companies working towards developing the technology and in getting Cryptocurrencies in the hands of consumers in the US and other parts of the world. I’m listing below some companies that are doing well to help with Cryptocurrency adoption, or that are set to do so in the next year or two. I’ve added a “difficulty score” from easy, normal, to hard. As such there are no products that require coding to get started. The difficulty score takes into account my subjective views on how easy it is for non-tech people get set up and use each product/platform. Here they are: (ps: remember, imagine non-tech savvy people trying to use these products.) Wallets, exchanges, and financial products: : (easy) bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallet app Abra : (easy) buy, sell, transfer, and store digital currency Coinbase : (normal) buy, sell, and store digital assets Gemini : (hard) digital assets exchange Binance / : (easy) accept credit cards anywhere pos / accept cash anywhere app Square Cash : (tbd, not yet launched) ethereum wallet that supports all tokens Balance.io ERC-20 Over the counter products: (easy) buy a cryptocurrency starter kit with a credit card (they went from mystery box to actual cold storage wallet starter kit) CBlocks.io : (easy) buy bitcoin and ethereum with credit card Coinmama Hardware: : (medium) hardware wallet for your bitcoins Ledger : (medium) the original and most secure bitcoin wallet Trezor Leisure: : (easy) similar to airbnb, but you can pay with crypto CryptoCribs : (easy) for coffee aficionados in Silicon Valley Coupa Café in SV Shopping: : (easy) a place to discover and buy amazing things curated by their global community Fancy.com : (easy) like amazon, one of the first retailers to accept bitcoin Overstock.com Games: : (easy) collect and breed digital cats CryptoKitties Creative space: : (easy) buy, sell, and discover unique crypto assets RareBits Media: : (easy) bitcoin and ethereum blockchain news CoinTelegraph (easy) leader in blockchain news Coindesk.com These are just some examples of current platforms or products that come to mind. If you have more you’d like to add, please let me know in the comments and I’ll happily add them if they’re useful for Cryptocurrency beginners. If you’d like to use your Bitcoin or Cryptocurrency for buying stuff, check out some of the merchants who already accept them: . here Where is Cryptocurrency in the US going? No matter how you see, it’s still quite hard to understand how will the technology be used. But the Internet is a great example of what to expect from Cryptocurrency, as it’s transformed many times over the last 30 years. This phenomena is worldwide and moving fast, probably faster than any other technology before it. Some barriers to entry also exist, like regulations. But those have always been in existence, as new governments and institution start integrating this new technology within their organizations. A similar shift happened when work PC’s became a thing and, likewise, when the Internet helped fuel access to information and distributed communication in the workspace and at home. What’s clear to me is that’s still complicated for the US to buy and use Cryptocurrencies in general, but we’re almost approaching massive adoption in the next 2–3 years. In fact, 41 million people, at the minimum, will join the technology in the next 8 years in the US alone. There is a great collective push from different communities and a range of different companies working on driving awareness and creating the next innovative products to fuel adoption of the technology. and the US is almost ready for massive adoption. I’m excited for a future that involves Cryptocurrencies! If you think this article has been helpful, please share it. Additionally, if you have suggestions on how to improve it, please feel free to comment below. I’m Ramón, an entrepreneur and growth marketer interested in networks, marketplaces, design, and of course, crypto. Say hi on twitter ! This article is for informational purpose and in no way serves as investment or legal advice. All views are my own.

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