Digital Currencies incl NFT etc. 01; (Feb 14 - Apr 21)

[behappyalways]

New kids on the blockchain

A surge in the value of crypto-currencies provokes alarm

Bitcoin is far from the only game in town


IT IS hard to predict when bubbles will pop, in particular when they are nested within each other. It helps to keep this image in mind when considering one of the biggest surges in asset values of recent years: the market value of all the world’s crypto-currencies has trebled since the beginning of the year, and is now worth more than $60bn (see chart).

Bitcoin is the best known of these currencies, especially after hackers this month instructed victims to pay ransoms in the anonymous digital cash in order to get their computer files decrypted.

Not that many bitcoins exist: there are about 16.3m of them, with only 1,800 new ones minted every day. But growing demand has pushed bitcoin’s price to a record recent high of about $1,830, up from $450 a year ago.

Problems abide. Earlier this year some of the biggest exchanges, such as Bitfinex, experienced problems with their correspondent banks and were unable to pay out real-world currencies to account-holders. To get their money out, they had to buy bitcoin and exchange them elsewhere.

Yet the market is becoming more mature: institutional investors, from family offices to hedge funds, have become more comfortable with crypto-currencies, says Mike Komaransky of Cumberland Mining, which arranges over-the-counter trades.

Other factors driving demand include fluctuations of China’s yuan, the French elections and, in a small way, the ransomware attack (when The Economist went to press, only about $80,000 had been sent to the bitcoin accounts held by the hackers).

Counter-intuitively, bitcoin’s biggest weakness—the system’s limited capacity—has also increased demand for crypto-currencies. Its developers have argued for years about how to expand the system, which can only handle seven transactions per second, compared with thousands on conventional payment services.

Even before worries surfaced that the currency could split in two over the disagreement, bitcoin holders started to diversify into some of the many other crypto-currencies, or “alt.coins”, to emerge in recent years. CoinMarketCap, a website, lists more than 800, from ArcticCoin, an obscure Russian currency, to ZCoin, which boasts added privacy. The latest beneficiary is Ripple, which saw its market value explode from $2bn early this month to over $13bn. Ethereum, which issues “ether”, has jumped from $700m in January to $8.6bn.

Ethereum’s surge in turn helped inflate another bubble. Feeling richer, holders of ether started investing in what have come to be called initial coin offerings. Startups sell “tokens”, sub-currencies of sorts, which exist on top of Ethereum. A total of 38 such ICOs have already been launched this year, raising more than $150m, according to Smith+Crown, a research firm. This has lured even more money into crypto-currencies.

Some of the gains have found their way back into bitcoin and alt.coins. Trading between crypto-currencies has grown tenfold to $2bn on average a day, says Erik Voorhees, the founder of ShapeShift, a crypto-to-crypto exchange.

The question is not if but when the market will turn. Even crypto-aficionados may run for the exits should bitcoin bifurcate or if one of the ICOs, which are completely unregulated, goes badly wrong—if issuers, for example, abscond with the money. Prices will also suffer should regulators start clamping down on such offerings.

On the other hand, although it is now easy to buy crypto-currencies for real cash, selling big amounts can be hard—as the woes of Bitfinex and others show. This makes sudden outflows unlikely. And the price surges have shown how the crypto-currency system is no longer just about bitcoin.

Although it is still the biggest kid on the blockchain and functions, in effect, as a crypto-reserve currency, it now makes up under half the combined market capitalisation of all crypto-currencies. Come a crash, they may not all fall.

Source: The Economist

[winston]

not vested

Should You Buy Bitcoin? 3 Pros, 3 Cons

Bitcoin is hot, and it's a hedge, but its value can collapse as fast as it rises

By Dana Blankenhorn

Source: Investor Place

http://investorplace.com/2017/05/should ... ST1tGh96M8

[winston]

This little-known digital currency could soon overtake bitcoin

by Greg Wilson

It’s been a breakout year for Dash…

In February, Dash partnered with BlockPay.

BlockPay allows point-of-sale purchases. That means you can spend Dash at select brick-and-mortar stores. BlockPay is available around the world and in 44 languages.

In March, Dash partnered with Wall of Coins.

Wall of Coins allows you to buy Dash through major financial institutions such as Chase Bank and Western Union. That makes it easier for Dash users to exchange cryptocurrency for their local currency.

That same month, Dash partnered with Coinapult. Coinapult allows you to buy Dash with 20 different fiat currencies.

And in May, Dash teamed up with BlockCypher. This is even bigger news…

BlockCypher provides technologies that allow businesses to work with cryptocurrency blockchains.

BlockCypher already works with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and financial consulting firm Deloitte. Cryptocurrency services Abra and Xapo are also clients.

The partnership with BlockCypher is a significant step toward mainstream adoption of Dash.

Source: The Palm Beach Letter

http://thecrux.com/this-little-known-cr ... ital-cash/

[winston]

Don’t Fall For The Hype: Bitcoin Isn’t A Safe Haven Asset

By Mac Slavo

Source: SHTFplan.com

http://www.thetradingreport.com/2017/05 ... ven-asset/

[behappyalways]

Bitcoin surges to record above $2,500, bringing 2017 gain to more than 150%
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/24/bitcoin- ... -2400.html

[winston]

Coinbase suffers outages amid bitcoin surge

(Reuters) - Coinbase said on Thursday it suffered outages this week as the bitcoin exchange saw "unprecedented traffic and trading," with the digital currency hitting record levels.

Bitcoin fell as much as 6.5 percent to $2,263.72 at around 1730 GMT on Thursday, but rebounded shortly after to hit a fresh all-time high of $2,760.10.

Bitcoin hit a record on the BitStamp platform on Wednesday, driven by an uptick in demand for crypto-assets, with the creation of new tokens to raise funding for start-ups using blockchain, the underlying technology behind bitcoin.

So far this year, the price of bitcoin has more than doubled.

Coinbase, the world's largest bitcoin company with operations in 32 countries, said the heavy traffic had caused outages at its website as well. The exchange said it was working to resolve the issues.

Problems that Coinbase's platform experienced earlier this week, including card verification failures and slow load times, were resolved, its status page showed.

Source: Reuters

[winston]

Here are the ways to buy bitcoin, according to a real investor in the digital currency

Brian Kelly bought his first bitcoin in 2013.

He is the author of the book "The Bitcoin Big Bang: How Alternative Currencies are About to Change the World."

Investors can buy bitcoin directly through a digital exchange like Coinbase or indirectly via the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC).

The Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) is a publicly traded trust offered by Grayscale that holds only bitcoin. This is a good solution for those looking to make a long-term tax efficient purchase of bitcoin. However there is a caveat, the Bitcoin Investment Trust is thinly traded and often trades at a premium to the price of bitcoin.

Source: CNBC

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/25/here-are ... CKW,RMMW,1

[winston]

Japan, South Korea drive global bitcoin prices as retail investor pile in

Bitcoins are created through a computing process known as "mining" but the total number of bitcoins that can ever be created is capped at 21 million globally meaning an inflow of new investors is able to dramatically inflate prices.

Source: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-bitco ... y%20Report

[winston]

Global chat platform Kik to launch digital currency

Kik Interactive, which created the chat platform Kik, said on Thursday it was launching a crypto-currency or token called Kin that would enable customers to use a whole range of digital services.

Kik is a free chat and messaging application founded in 2009 and built for teenagers, with about 300 million registered users.

The Kin token will be created on the Ethereum blockchain, another online public ledger much like that of bitcoin, the original digital currency.

Source: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-kik-b ... y%20Report

[behappyalways]

2017.05.27台灣大搜索／勒索病毒大爆發　揭贖金「比特幣」神秘面紗
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4lV01FATQk