Why I value my crypto altcoin portfolio in BTC and ETH and you should too
This is one of the top questions I get regarding cryptocurrency trading.
How do you know if you’re losing money? Won’t you lose money focusing on BTC value if (insert hypothetical scenario here)?
There are two issues here. The first is that some people don’t understand trading pairs and gaining value relative to trading pairs. The second is that other people don’t trust bitcoin to hold or gain value.
What are trading pairs?
Trading pairs are two currencies, traded against each other. If you were trading GBP and AUD, you wouldn’t be worried about the value in JPY, you’d be focused on growing value within the trading pair.
Example 1:
Trade 1: GBP > AUD
You’d patiently wait for AUD to rise or GBP to drop relative to each other then make a trade back to GBP.
Trade 2: AUD > GBP
You’d now be waiting patiently for AUD to drop or GBP to rise relative to each other.
JPY had no bearing on you gaining value in the trading pair.
They say, “But Ash, I bought my bitcoin with USD! I need to end up back in USD!”
That’s fine. It’s just two trading pairs.
Example 2:
We’ll use numbers for USD/BTC, letters for BTC/ANS (any alt and fiat are the same, just picked one of each).
Trade 1: USD to 1 BTC
Trade A: 1 BTC to 1k ANS ( then wait for gain in BTC value)
Trade B: 1k ANS to 1.2 BTC (then wait for gain in ANS value)
Trade C: 1.2 BTC to 1.2k ANS ( then wait for gain in BTC value)
Trade D: 1.2k ANS to 1.4 BTC
Trade 2: 1.4 BTC to USD (wait for higher USD value if necessary)
This is simplified, but it makes it easy to see that by focusing on using alts to increase your BTC value, you focus on increasing your BTC at cash out. The fiat value of ANS doesn’t matter for your trades, because it’s going to hugely fluctuate; it is going through two trading pairs after all.
Trusting BTC to gain/hold value
You understand the concept of gaining BTC, after all 1.4 BTC is better than 1.0 BTC, yet you’re still asking what about my fiat.
The issue here is your trust in BTC (or ETH if you’ve got ETH-based trading pairs) not you missing the concept of valuing alts in BTC.
You get the idea of aiming for more BTC, but you worry that the BTC won’t be worth USD or as much USD when you get it.
This is the most common issue I encounter, thought they voice it as “what happens if (insert 74 hypothetical situations here)”.
Your uncertainty is not in the soundness of the idea of trading to gain more BTC, but in not knowing if BTC will be worth fiat when you want to cash out to fiat. I trust that it will.
I can’t make you trust BTC.
I can tell you:
BTC has been around since 2009 BTC, while volatile, has an overall strong uptrend. BTC has crashed due to outside issues but has always recovered nicely. If a downtrend is a concern, it will be because of major news that you will be aware of. BTC is not your only exit option, you can also exit the crypto market through ETH, LTC, and Tether.
By delineating trading pairs and focusing on gaining value relative to your trading pair, you maximize your growth. Focus on building BTC/ETH (and potentially LTC) value while monitoring for major news impacting the viability of your primary in your trading pair.
Happy HODLing!
Ash
Original article and pictures take steemit.com site
Imagine that tomorrow you wake up and discover that you've been taken for all you're worth by an anonymous hacker. The thief has managed to steal everything that belonged to you and a good deal of others—$56 million worth of a new virtual currency that you've invested in, to be exact. You have a month to decide what to do.
This might seem like an impossible situation, the kind of pressure cooker that breeds hasty decisions, but it's exactly the dilemma that faced the developers and users of a new cryptocurrency and coding platform called Ethereum.
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In June, millions of dollars were stolen from a crowd-directed investment fund called the DAO and siphoned into a smaller version referred to as a "child DAO." The only way to get it back was with a hard fork that slipped a refund mechanism into the DAO and all its offshoots. This meant a change to Ethereum's code that split the currency into two versions, which users had to choose between by either updating their software or not. It was a risky proposal that threatened to permanently cleave Ethereum, and it had its share of vocal dissenters who saw the change as manipulating the system to "bail out" the DAO.
Mere hours after the fork began, however, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin called it: the fork was a success, with 85 percent of users moving over to the new version.
Users of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that inspired large portions of how Ethereum works, were watching the fork closely and tweeting with a heady mix of respect for the Ethereum community and perhaps just a bit of jealousy. You see, Bitcoin has been gripped with indecision amid a year-long debate over whether or not to fork the currency's software just like Ethereum did.
"When there's cash on the line even the most all-encompassing nerd becomes deeply conservative"
How did Ethereum manage to do in a month what Bitcoin seems utterly incapable of even coming close to pulling off?
The main factors may be Ethereum's relatively small community compared to Bitcoin, making it easier to come to a consensus, and how hard forks are built into the platform in a way that Bitcoin has never seen.
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"Politics are very much a part of Ethereum, just like with Bitcoin, but I think Bitcoin is just basically rotten with politics," said Stephan Tual, the French developer who designed the DAO alongside German brothers Simon and Christoph Jentzsch.
"The reason they can't coordinate," he added, "is because they hate each other."
While hate may be a strong word, the debate about whether to hard fork Bitcoin's software has reached critical levels of acrimony and ideological rhetoric about the virtues of decentralization. The furor led core developer Mike Hearn to slam the door on Bitcoin and brand the whole experiment a failure.
The bitcoin ecosystem is also extremely varied and everybody is trying to protect their interests without blowing the whole thing up, from the miners who make thousands of dollars for every block of bitcoin data they compute to the services that allow people to send money overseas or buy groceries with bitcoin. The system is entrenched, and changing anything at all elicits fears of a shake-up.
"A hard fork for Bitcoin would be like travelling on a train going 200 miles per hour going over a bridge," Tual said. "Someone says, to make it go faster we're going to send a bunch of nerds to go change the engine at the front. Who would volunteer?"
"Bitcoin will never evolve, and it will die, because what doesn't evolve dies"
In contrast, Ethereum is still a very young platform with only a few thousand users and one killer app: the DAO. Forking the system to save the one thing that Ethereum really had going for it, and that many people had invested in, was a no-brainer for most and easy to agree upon. In contrast, changes to Bitcoin are likely to advantage one group while having potentially dire economic consequences for many others.
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"For Bitcoin, the community is essentially riven and I'm surprised any changes get through at all," John Biggs, founder of Freemit, a Bitcoin service to send money abroad. "The ultimate problem is that you have to gain consensus and when there's cash on the line even the most all-encompassing nerd becomes deeply conservative."
Vitalik Buterin, the inventor of Ethereum, agreed that the largest difference between bitcoin and Ethereum when it comes to forking is "the differences between the two protocols' communities."
However, he also suggested after the hard fork on Wednesday that if Ethereum ever needs to fork again in order to solve a major problem, it may not be so easy. "Forks will only get more and more difficult to implement over time as the community grows," he wrote Motherboard in an email at the time.
The second reason for Ethereum's apparent ease in pulling off a hard fork compared to bitcoin, Tual said, is that hard forks are par for the course at this nascent stage of the platform's development.
The hard fork to refund the DAO's money was actually Ethereum's third—there's been one every time the software has been upgraded to a more powerful version—and there is even one on the horizon, since Ethereum is getting set to upgrade to a version called Metropolis.
In contrast, Bitcoin has only ever experienced one event that could be described as a hard fork, and it was basically an accident that occurred not because of a planned software upgrade, but a faulty block of bitcoin data.
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Ethereum is still a big experiment that can afford to have a few eggs broken at the moment, Tual said. "We haven't seen what Ethereum can do yet and it's just in alpha," he said.
The deadlock between competing corners of the Bitcoin community when it comes to hard forking, in contrast, spells doom for the currency, according to Tual. "As long as that's true, Bitcoin will never evolve, and it will die, because what doesn't evolve dies."
According to Biggs, Bitcoin's failure to evolve thanks to an inability to agree on a way forward means that centralized organizations—say, banks or credit payment processing companies—will be the ones to benefit from the technology simply because they're able to move faster when it comes to changing the system.
"I'm betting that true decentralized cryptocurrencies will eventually become a sideshow in a corporate blockchain circus," Biggs said.
For Ethereum, riding on the high of a successful fork, a similar fate might seem like a distant possibility right now—but proponents of the platform would do well to heed Buterin's warning and wonder: for how long?
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that Stephan Tual is German and designed the DAO with his two brothers. In fact, Tual is French and designed the DAO with two German brothers, to whom he is not related.
Original article and pictures take vice-web-statics-cdn.vice.com site
There is a slight difference between how to buy bitcoins and where to buy them. How to is all about the wallet and exchanges and the typical sources. Where to buy bitcoins digs a little deeper into some of the alternatives to exchanges and setting up your own shop that takes bitcoins.
Some larger areas have bitcoin ATMs. The prices are comparable to exchanges. This is a convenient process. Looking at the prices for the middle of November 2017, these are the prices at a bitcoin ATM in the United States. The dollars are US dollars. 0.01 costs $90.80. 0.001 costs $9.08.
Another source for bitcoins is eBay. A typical posting reads something like this, “0.001 bitcoin to your wallet. Pay with Paypal.” The seller wants a selfie of you holding your passport or driver’s license so they can compare your face to the ID and your name with the Paypal account. This 0.01 bitcoin costs $19.99. This is on a day when a bitcoin is selling for $8.
Another eBay seller is offering 0.01 bitcoin for $95. This seller has the same rule about the selfie with ID and matching the name with the Paypal account. On the market, 0.01 bitcoin is selling for $80.
If you are at the beginning of understanding bitcoins, be careful. Another seller is selling a gold plated physical bitcoin in a protective acrylic case for $11. The seller makes it clear that it is a commemorative coin. That’s a good thing because there is no such thing as a real physical bitcoin. However, someone not very knowledgeable about bitcoins might think that they are actual coins.
If you start accepting bitcoin for a service you offer or when you sell your car, you will become part of the movement toward having people become more familiar with using bitcoin.
When it comes to spending bitcoin, more stores are accepting them. Overstock, Intuit, Microsoft, and DISH network accept bitcoin as a payment method. eGifter sells more than 200 different gift cards accepting bitcoin as payment for the card. There is no additional fee for paying with bitcoin.
One of the reasons for brick and mortar store to be slow in adopting bitcoin as a payment type is the volatility of bitcoin. There were fears of selling an item one day and having bitcoin plummet the next day. This could cut into the store’s profit margin. Another factor is that every transaction requires verification and this can take up to 30 minutes.
If you purchase bitcoin and keep it in your wallet, it is very easy to convert it into cash or withdraw it to your bank account. An exchange such as coinbase is connected to your bank account and that is one way to withdraw money into your bank account. This is a way of using your bitcoin currency while you wait for more businesses to accept it as payment.
Original article and pictures take the-bitcoin.info site
Are you the person who moving forward to get interested more on the online networking braches and also have some business tricks in the online community? Are you the one who are stronger business activates in the online communities and have to maintain a profit gaining business that leads you to the certain successful most profitable path? This page will clearly explain something new about the word money and what its need and also why it is to be keep safe, more over the alternate way to produce safety for your money with the help of virtual money.
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Easy way available:
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Verdict:
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Original article and pictures take bitcoinis.fun site
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The cryptocurrency scene is filled with start-ups and companies that are looking to get a portion of Bitcoin’s market share. Few have ever gone head-to-head with Ethereum, and with good reason: creating a platform capable of developing decentralised applications (DApps) and smart contracts takes time and lots of sustained effort—it is not an easy proposition. Yet, Cardano is not only aiming to emulate the second biggest cryptocurrency platform in the world but surpass it.
Here is everything you need to know about the platform;
The Problem
Since its inception, Ethereum has been the foremost platform for smart contracts and decentralised applications (DApps). As with most, the platform has some disadvantages, but because there has been no real competitor in the space, Ethereum’s flaws have mostly been overlooked.
For one, the Ethereum network is quite slow, and there are some questions about its overall security. Secondly, Ethereum uses the proof-of-work protocol, and it is notoriously energy-inefficient, expensive to maintain, and transactions are not as fast as they can be.
The Solution
Cardano aims to launch a platform that addresses all the flaws that plague Ethereum. Smart contracts and decentralised applications (DApps) can be built on Cardano, but at lower cost, with more security and with better scalability than Ethereum. This is quite impressive if you consider the fact that Ethereum is the fastest growing cryptocurrency platform of 2017.
Also, Cardano uses the superior proof-of-stake mechanism, meaning better energy efficiency and faster transactions.
The Team
Cardano was launched by IOHK, a blockchain development firm under the leadership of early founder and former Ethereum CEO, Charles Hoskinson.
The company is being managed by The Cardano Foundation, led by Chairman, Michael Parsons (FCA). Parsons has over 25 years’ management and consulting experience in the banking industry. He is one of the leading experts in blockchain-technology (and how they can be applied to financial solutions) in the U.K.
He is joined on the foundation by other equally qualified and experienced professionals.
The Market
The current cryptocurrency market cap exceeds $500 billion, meaning new entrants into the market have ample room for growth. Furthermore, by positioning itself as a direct competitor to Ethereum, the world’s second biggest crypto company with a market cap of over $68 billion, Cardano is targeting a segment that holds over 13% (and growing) of the total cryptocurrency market share.
If they can deliver everything they are promising and successfully pull users off the Ethereum platform, then Cardano may be the next big thing in the cryptocurrency sphere.
The Competition
As mentioned above, Cardano is going after one of the biggest boys in the market, and they believe they have the personnel and the technology to compete favourably. The biggest challenge they are likely to face is: Ethereum is in the process of converting from Proof-of-work (PoW) to Proof-of-stake (PoS), removing a chunk of the advantages that Cardano’s platform has over it.
However, Cardano still has enough extra functionality that it stands as a notable alternative to Ethereum, and in a market segment worth ~$70 billion, that is not a bad thing at all.
The Business
With its platform, Cardano is creating a “stage” for even more blockchain-based applications. While their main focus is building a decentralised economy that will modify the finances of developing markets, the platform has the potential for much more.
Cardano was also built with regulatory oversight, along with sufficient protection for the privacy of their users. By doing this, they are attracting a portion of the world population that are wary of how regulations may affect their crypto investments.
Furthermore, Cardano is one of the first cryptocurrency platforms whose wallet has an in-built cryptocurrency-to-fiat exchanger, making its use very convenient for customers.
The Return
Cardano’s token, ADA, was released for trading in October 2017, and since then, the cryptocurrency has grown by over 1600%. Early investors have undoubtedly made back their original investments, and prospective investors will be encouraged by how fast and steadily the company is growing.
Transparency
Cardano has a very public foundation with well-known members, they have a community on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Slack, to mention a few). Their code is also open-source, and they have a GitHub page where their codes and smart contracts are available for scrutiny and contribution.
For now, their computation layer is still in the works, so DApps cannot be developed on the platform yet, however, their settlement layer is fully-functional, meaning you can buy, sell, and trade ADA.
Likelihood of Critical Mass
Cardano was launched in September 2017, and they’ve scheduled the completion of their computation layer for 2018. As a result, the platform is far from achieving critical mass. However, Cardano was built with a democratic governing system that will allow the project evolve independently over time, using a revolutionary treasury system to fund itself and ensure sustainability.
How long the platform will take before amassing enough users to achieve self-sustainable growth is unknown at this time, but given how fast Cardano has been growing, and how well it was designed, attainment of critical mass is a matter of when not if.
In Conclusion, Cardano is an interesting investment option. To be regarded as a notable rival to Ethereum is no easy feat, but to come out with a—arguably—better platform shows a well-run and well-executed operation. All these, combined with ADA’s current growth points to a promising cryptocurrency platform and (token).
Disclaimer: The information contained herein is not intended to be a source of advice and the information and/or documents contained in this website do not constitute investment advice.
Original article and pictures take blog.digitalassetdb.com site
Bitcoin mining is the method through which each and every transaction is validated and added to the blockchain or the public ledger. It is also the process by which new Bitcoin tokens are released. Those having internet access and appropriate hardware can take part in the mining process. Bitcoin mining includes consolidating latest transactions into specific blocks and attempting to resolve a computationally challenging equation. The miner who solves the equation first gets to save the subsequent blocks on the blockchain and eventually claim mining rewards. In fact, these rewards that incentivize mining, continue to serve as the processing fees linked with the transactions arranged in a block as well as the freshly released BTC or Bitcoin tokens. During Bitcoin mining, the mining hardware runs a hashing function (that is, two rounds of SHA256) on a block header. For every new hash that is worked on, the Bitcoin mining software will make use of a completely different number (known as the nonce) as one random component of the block header.
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Original article and pictures take slotsnmore.com site
A bitcoin wallet is software that connects you to the bitcoin network. This is the first step in acquiring bitcoin. You know how it is when you send someone an email. You have to have an email address, a password, and a way of connecting to the network. It can be webmail or a program such as Thunderbird or Outlook.
You open up your email program and send an email to someone, using the email address that they gave you. The email is sent using your email address. If someone gets your password, they can log into your email account and send out messages pretending they are you.
With bitcoin, you also need software to connect to the network. Your wallet is the software that allows you to connect to the bitcoin network. You have a public key and a private key instead of an email address and a password. You have to protect your private key because if anyone gets access to your wallet, they can clean it out. Think of it as leaving a tangible wallet stuffed with cash out where anyone can pick it up and empty it.
You can have a hot wallet or a cold wallet. A hot wallet is connected to the internet. It can be sitting on your computer, tablet, or phone. A cold wallet is kept offline. It gives a whole new meaning to cold storage. All it means is that it cannot be accessed on the internet.
Your wallet is a node on the bitcoin network. It can be a full node or a lightweight node. A full node loads every bitcoin transaction to your wallet. At bitcoin.org, the latest bitcoin core information is available. This is the entire history of all bitcoin transactions to date. As of November 2017, it is big – 145 gigabytes. Some people have reported that it took several days to download the full node. It also takes up a lot of space on your computer. It would not fit on a phone.
A lightweight node is also referred to as an SPV wallet or node. SPV stands for simplified payment verification. In this mode, you download only a part of the bitcoin core. It is still connected to the full node but it receives just the transactions that are necessary and that are relevant to your node.
You can also have an online wallet, a wallet in the cloud. Often bitcoin exchanges, those places where you can set up an account and buy or sell bitcoins, have wallets where you can store your bitcoins as you accumulate them. When you buy bitcoin on an exchange, you may want to leave some bitcoin cash in the wallet on the exchange and transfer some to another one of your wallets.
Paper wallets are also popular. You can print out your public and private keys and a QR code and store that piece of paper as if it were cash. With the QR code, it is easy to scan in and use online. The security depends on how well you store this valuable piece of paper.
If you have several wallets, it is easy to transfer your bitcoin from one to the other. Some users keep a lightweight wallet on their phone for easy and quick transactions. Typically, they keep it like pocket change, keeping just enough to have walking around funds.
They may keep some in a hot wallet on their home computer as well. They store the majority of their bitcoins in a cold wallet. When it comes to a cold wallet, it is possible to store your wallet on a USB stick. If you have a lot of bitcoin, you might want to consider a hardware wallet that encrypts the information. If someone gets your USB stick, it is possible that they can take your bitcoins. With a secure encrypted hardware cold wallet, that is not so easy.
Original article and pictures take the-bitcoin.info site
US Sheriffs Welcome $1.7 Million Windfall After Students Plead Guilty to Stealing 5,400 BTC – Bitcoin News
10:25 PM
US Sheriffs Welcome $1.7 Million Windfall After Students Plead Guilty to Stealing 5,400 BTC
News
Two Jacksonville students are facing up to two decades behind bars after pleading guilty to stealing $4 million worth of bitcoin. The pair hacked darknet site Sheep Marketplace in 2013 and made off with 5,400 BTC. Under forfeiture laws, Nassau County Sheriff’s Office will share in a $1.7 million windfall.
Bitcoin thefts end badly for hackers who don’t cover their tracks, but spell great news for law enforcement. Across the US, federal and state agencies have been treating themselves to new computers and other equipment, all paid for with confiscated digital assets. It’s common practice for law enforcement to keep a portion of the proceeds from major crimes, but bitcoin’s rising value, coupled with the glacial pace at which criminal trials move, has caused payouts to balloon.
This week, Sean Harrison Mackert and Nathan Gibson pled guilty to wire fraud for hacking drug marketplace Sheep in late 2013. The pair, who are in their mid twenties, face a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, in a case that news.Bitcoin.com first reported on last year. But one legal official believes they deserve to walk free.
“These young men, yes, they stole this money but there aren’t victims in the traditional sense,” said Jacksonville defense attorney Richard Landes. “If there were victims, the federal government would be returning this money to the victims; instead, the federal government is not returning this money. The federal government is keeping this money.”
Officials toast their latest proceeds of crime award, for $1.7 million.
Officials Divvy Up the Spoils
At a press conference, officials smugly congratulated one another on their stellar work and the multi-million dollar windfall it had brought about. The first major cash boost US agencies received from bitcoin was after auctioning off the 144,000 BTC seized from Silk Road admin Ross Ulbricht. Since then there have been scores of similar cases, including a pending auction of $52 million worth of BTC by US Marshals. The proceeds from this week’s Jacksonville case will be divvied up between the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, JSO, and the Florida National Guard, who will put the the money towards “equipment upgrades”.
While law enforcement are duty bound to go after crime wherever it occurs, be it on the dark web or in the hood, they seem to reserve particular fondness for bitcoin seizures. It helps to portray agencies as being on the cutting-edge of technology and attuned to emerging cyber threats. The reality is often more prosaic: Mackert and Gibson got caught after cashing out their bitcoins into five banks including Jacksonville Federal Credit Union, Bancorp Bank, and Bank of America. They then blew the profits on luxury goods including jewelry. They may have been capable hackers, but master criminals they were not.
How do you feel about law enforcement getting rich off bitcoin seizures? What do you think should be done with the proceeds of cyber crime in cases like this? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of myBTCcoin and Firstcoastnews.
Tired of those other forums on the subject of Bitcoin? Checkforum.Bitcoin.com.
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Get ready for Bitcoin at $10,000 and more, KAKAO launches UPBIT.com the biggest to be, working with the current leading exchange bittrex.com. This is big news for crypto, and a change that will bring China's constant negative influence on Bitcoin and altcoin ...
Original article and pictures take www.google.ru site
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Just one new bookmark – http://bitcoinvideospro.com/likes/bes… – and a link to the exchanger monitoring service published on your forum or in your blog and you get one more way to make some extra money.
Here are my top 7 cryptocurrencies to invest in for 2018. I do own most of these, so I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Also, this is not your standard Top X Crypto Coins video, I try to dive deeper into each one by filling out a SWOT analysis table which may help you better think about various advantages and disadvantages! Let me know what you think and what crypto coins or altcoins you'd rather invest in!
Hey everyone, thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this video please give me a Upvote and Follow me to catch all my future content. If you have any questions definitely leave me a comment below and I’ll try my best to get back to you!
Disclaimer: I am not an official investment advisor - everything I say is purely my opinion. Some of my videos are sponsored, those will be clearly marked by YouTube. If you’re dealing with a new process it’s always RECOMMENDED to try out the whole process end-to-end with a smaller amount before you move the bulk of it.
While bitcoin is getting most media attention, other cryptocurrencies are also riding the wave. Sure, many of these other cryptocurrencies won’t come even close to bitcoin’s valuation, but some may get traction. In fact, Ethereum is already on the roll, Litecoin aims to be the “silver to Bitcoin’s gold” and Ripple is being used by major banks for its payment protocol.
As of June 2017, there were more than 900 cryptocurrencies available over the internet, many of which won’t live for another week or so. Here, we present you with the top 5 other-than-Bitcoin cryptocurrencies we think have the best perspective. Let’s roll…
1. Ethereum (ETH)
Arguably the most promising of “other cryptocurrencies,” the Ethereum platform goes beyond peer-to-peer money transfers to also include support for the so called “smart contracts.” These in turn enable developers to create apps that run on top of Ethereum, and potentially expand its use cases to other industries. Speaking of which, many major corporations have expressed their support to the platform through the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, which gathers the likes of Microsoft, Samsung, ING, National Bank of Canada, Accenture, Deloitte, J.P. Morgan, Merck and others.
2. Litecoin (LTC)
Launched in 2011, Litecoin was among the initial cryptocurrencies following bitcoin, and was often referred to as “silver to Bitcoin’s gold.” Created by Charlie Lee, a MIT graduate and former Google engineer, Litecoin got a relatively big following though nothing anywhere close to that of Bitcoin, even though it has some technical improvements (over Bitcoin) as well as most other major cryptocurrencies. Also compared to Bitcoin, Litecoin has a faster block generation rate which enables a faster transaction confirmation.
3. Ripple (XRP)
Ripple is a technology that acts as both a cryptocurrency and a digital payment network for financial transactions. In fact, experts are more excited about its payment protocol, which allows for a seamless transfer of money in any form, whether USD, litecoin, or bitcoin. Said protocol is already being used by banks like UniCredit, UBS and Santander as settlement infrastructure technology. Compared to most other cryptocurrencies, Ripple doesn’t require mining, hence it doesn’t need all that much computing power. This in turn minimizes network latency and enables fast money transfers.
4. Dash
Formerly known as Darkcoin and XCoin, Dash offers all the same features as Bitcoin plus a few advanced capabilities such as instant transactions (InstantSend), private transactions (PrivateSend), and decentralized governance (DGBB). The platform uses a two-tier architecture to power its network: the first tier consists of miners who secure the network and write transactions to the blockchain; and the second tier which includes masternodes that enable the advanced features of Dash.
5. Zcash (ZEC)
Although a newcomer — it was launched in September 2016 — Zcash looks like a promising alternative to Bitcoin. “If Bitcoin is like http for money, Zcash is https,” is how Zcash defines itself, offering privacy and selective transparency of transactions. While Zcash payments are published on a public blockchain — information about the sender, recipient, and amount of a transaction may remain private. Similarly to Bitcoin, Zcash has a fixed total supply of 21 million units.
Final word
You may be thinking that you have missed the Bitcoin ride — we, BTW, think there is still time to join the game — and now want to try your chances with an alternative cryptocurrency. Well, you can put this list to work and benefit from making an early investment.
While we can’t offer you a “direct investment advice,” we do advise you to check out the first few cryptocurrencies on the list. They hold a huge promise, but I said too much…
Original article and pictures take www.walletweekly.com site
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Top 10 Blogs and Websites on Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology
Whether you’re entering into the Bitcoin community for the first time, or are a long-time stan of the digital currency, you’ll identify there are several platforms that tend to stand out and provide the best information on the digital world.
Below is a list of top bitcoin blogs that we found incredibly composed and sufficiently detailed.
CryptoCoins News
The CryptoCoins News covers all cryptocurrency related or particularly, Bitcoin related topics. They produce well-composed articles explaining the trends, price movements, version updates regarding Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
Coindesk
CoinDesk is one of the best platforms for news, prices, and information on Bitcoin, blockchain technology, and other digital currencies. In my opinion, this site has got everything. They’re known to cover all trends, price movements, technologies, companies and people in the bitcoin and digital currency world.
Cointelegraph
The Cointelegraph brings you the latest news, analysis, and predictions of Bitcoin and the blockchain technology. CoinTelegraph stands out from all its competitors, with custom art attached with every article they post. Be sure to bookmark this page.
NEWSBTC – Bitcoin News, Price, Analysis
NewsBTC is a Bitcoin news service that deals with cryptocurrency news, technical analysis and forecasts for Bitcoin and many other digital currencies. Users looking for daily price analysis and latest Bitcoin headlines should definitely have this site in their favorites.
Reddit – Bitcoin
It’s a community on the Reddit platform that is dedicated to Bitcoin. Users from around the world come together to have discussions on the “internet of money” and help educate newbies as well.
Bitcoin.org Blog
This is the official blog of Bitcoin. The site perfectly outlines all one needs to know about Bitcoin and its functionalities. It’s even got a list of words essential in the Bitcoin vocabulary. Fresh content is added every single day, the blog part of the website continues to attract a lot of eyeballs.
99 Bitcoins
99 Bitcoins is a site for all things Bitcoin, from guides on buying bitcoins to mining and wallet reviews, it’s one of the best. They deliver well-detailed and researched articles and news, proving their dedication to the
Blockchain.info
Blockchain.info is both a Bitcoin wallet and blog. How great is that? Not only do you get to secure your bitcoins but you can browse through news as well every time you log in to check your balance.
The Coinbase Blog
Coinbase is an exchange platform as well as a blog. It provides data on the most recently mined blocks in the Bitcoin blockchain. A great site to get bitcoins with a debit card, and multiple online wallets for your digital currency.
Bitcoinist.net
Bitcoinist provides up-to-date news and insightful analysis on everything Bitcoin. It’s a highly trusted and well-known source dedicated to providing legit content for the Bitcoin technology.
Original article and pictures take btcwonder.com site
Token und Kryptowährungen – ein fundamentaler Unterschied
ETH, XRP, EOS… mit jedem Tag werden es mehr Kryptowährungen und mit jeder davon kommt ein weiterer Kandidat für den “neuen Bitcoin”. Aber wollen wirklich alle Kryptowährungen dasselbe? Eine kurze Einführung in die Welt der Coins und Token.
Kryptowährungen sind im Mainstream angekommen. Die Chance, durch ein Investment reich zu werden, wurde inzwischen Stoff eines Rapsongs und auch die sozialen Medien sind voll von Fragen “welcher Coin sich jetzt am meisten lohnt”. Diese Stimmung am Markt führt dazu, dass Kryptowährungen primär basierend auf dem Marktkapital bewertet werden. Entsprechend fragen sich Neueinsteiger, ob Ethereum/Ripple/IOTA/EOS/TRON nicht bald Bitcoin ersetzen könnten.
In diesem Artikel geht es weniger um eine Verteidigung Bitcoins als um eine Sensibilisierung bezüglich der betrachteten Kryptowährung. Schließlich geht es bei einzelnen Kryptowährungen, verschiedenen durch ICOs geförderten Projekten und neuen Hard Forks nicht einfach darum, einen Token für Zockerei zu schaffen. Wäre dem so, würden wir uns in der vielzitierten Blase befinden, denn schließlich würden dann alle Projekte nichts wert sein.
Von Taschenmessern und Sägen – Koexistenz verschiedener Use-Cases
Die aktuelle Situation erinnert an das letzte Jahr, als im Zuge des signifikanten Kursanstieges von Ethereum das Schlagwort “Flippening” aufkam: Leute waren davon überzeugt, dass Ethereum bald höheres Marktkapital als Bitcoin haben würde. Einige Kreise verstiegen sich auch zu der Aussage, dass Ethereum “der bessere Bitcoin” wäre. Dabei wird gerne vergessen, dass verschiedenen Kryptowährungen oft auf verschiedene Use-Cases ausgelegt sind.
Ethereum besticht durch die Möglichkeiten der Smart Contracts: Mithilfe von Smart Contracts auf einer Blockchain sind nicht einfach automatisierte Prozesse möglich, sondern dezentrale Anwendungen, die während der Laufzeit in ihrer Prozessierung beobachtet werden können. Der klassische Open-Source-Gedanke wurde um den Gedanken der Open Execution erweitert.
Man kann sich vorstellen, dass Smart Contracts den Gedanken der klassischen Blockchain-Technologie, wie man sie im Fall von Bitcoin kennt, stark erweiterte. Entsprechend sind deutlich mehr Anwendungsfälle als der einer Peer-To-Peer-Währung denkbar. Mit weiter unten beschriebenen Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) hat ein solcher Anwendungsfall viel Resonanz erfahren.
Kurz gedacht könnte man also meinen, dass Ethereum besser als Bitcoin sei, schließlich ist mit Ethereum deutlich mehr möglich. Ist es jedoch immer besser, wenn viele Anwendungsfälle unterstützt werden?
Als Parabel ließe sich das Taschenmesser mit einer Säge vergleichen: In einem Schweizer Taschenmesser ist auch eine Säge enthalten. Ähnlich wie Leathermen sind diese Messer Werkzeuge, die in verschiedensten Situationen hilfreich sein können – und dabei häufig in die Hosentasche passen.
Doch auch wenn Taschenmesser die Funktionen von Schraubenziehern, Messern, Sägen, Flaschen- und Büchsenöffnern in sich vereinen, sind diese Werkzeuge nicht vom Markt verschwunden, da sie eine Ergänzung für besondere Anwendungsfälle und keinen Ersatz darstellen.
Dasselbe lässt sich über Ethereum sagen: Ethereum befindet sich nicht in einer Konkurrenzsituation zu Bitcoin, sondern ergänzt das Ökosystem der Blockchain-Technologie. Entsprechend können beide Währungen wunderbar nebeneinander existieren.
Währung und Token – ça fait deux
Sofern primär der monetäre Wert betrachtet wird und alles Investment auf Exchanges liegen bleibt, verschwimmt der Unterschied zwischen Kryptowährungen und Token. Auch auf Coinmarketcap werden in der Default-Darstellung Token gemeinsam mit Kryptowährungen dargestellt. Dennoch werden Token als solche auf Coinmarketcap benannt und es können separat “Coins” und “Tokens” betrachtet werden. Der Unterschied ist wichtig, kann er doch auch bei der fundamentalen Bewertung eines Investments und bei der technischen Einordnung eines Projekts helfen.
Von einer Kryptowährung wird gesprochen, wenn diese eine für sich alleinstehende Lösung ist, wenn es sich also um eine eigene Blockchain beziehungsweise einer blockchain-ähnlichen Datenstruktur handelt. Das diesen Kryptowährungen zugrundeliegende Protokoll mag zwar auf einer anderen Kryptowährung basieren, jedoch übt die zuvor existierende Kryptowährung nur eine Vorbildfunktion aus. Etwas konkreter ausgedrückt: Litecoin oder auch Bitcoin Cash können unabhängig von Bitcoin, auf dessen Code beide Protokolle basieren, existieren und benötigen Bitcoin nicht. Um einzelne Kryptowährungen bildet sich ein Ökosystem aus Nodes, Minern (sofern der Konsens auf der Basis von Proof-of-Work gefunden wird), Entwicklern und regulären Usern.
Token, im Gegensatz zu Kryptowährungen, können nicht ohne eine zugrundeliegende Kryptowährung existieren. Sie existieren beispielsweise auf der Ethereum-Blockchain und können unabhängig von dieser nicht existieren. Der große Vorteil von Token ist, dass es für diese keine neue Infrastruktur mit eigenen Nodes und Minern braucht. Außerdem sind sie deutlich einfacher zu generieren als Kryptowährungen.
Diese Einfachheit führte auch dazu, dass Token im Rahmen von ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) gegen Ether angeboten werden. Das Projekt kann so weltweit auf schnellem Weg finanzielle Unterstützung erhalten. Zum Teil sind die Token so implementiert, dass sie notwendige Funktionen für das anvisierte Projekt beinhalten, häufig erhofft sich der Investor lediglich einen Gewinn nach Verkauf an einer der vielen Krypto-Börsen.
Ob Kryptowährung oder Token – immer auf die Technologie dahinter schauen
Fragen, ob irgendwann Ethereum oder andere Kryptowährungen bzw. Token mehr wert als Bitcoin seien, reduzieren die technischen Möglichkeiten, die blockchain-basierte Kryptowährungen mit sich bringen, auf ein Minimum und lassen den Unterschied zwischen eigenen Kryptowährungen und Token verblassen.
Die vorherigen Absätze sind keineswegs als Vorwurf gemeint, sondern dienen als eine Absicherung: Wenn nur auf das Geld geschaut wird, wenn Kryptowährungen nur basierend auf einer technischen Analyse der Chartbewegungen bewertet werden, kann es sehr gut möglich sein, dass Projekte extrem falsche Bewertungen erhalten. Wenn das geschieht, würde man irgendwann lernen, dass der Kaiser nackt ist und es würde zu einer Blasenbildung kommen. Die gute Nachricht ist, dass die Investoren selbst, sofern sie kritisch bei der Wahl ihres Investments sind, es in der Hand haben, dass es nicht soweit kommt.
BTC-ECHO
Original article and pictures take www.btc-echo.de site
This is how BTC's Lightning Network is supposed to work - please learn from their mistake
It's unfortunate that the Bitcoin community/development is seen as ludist, while there are important innovations being done constantly
I mean, to be fair, I'm the one here in an Ethereum subreddit arguing that Lightning/Segwit are actually genuine innovations that people should stop hating on. But once political considerations become such a strong force in a technical community, it can only cause further deviation from a pure "adopt the best tech for the task" approach, and even on an interpersonal level I've witnessed many in the Bitcoin community become opposed to even understanding various types of technological consideration if it's not something Bitcoin already does. So I can't say the accusation is entirely unfair. The Bitcoin community is certainly more ludist than the Ethereum community.
I fail to see how the reduction of the block reward can increase the number of orphans.
I'm very familiar with that paper, and it does a great job of showing how much more secure Ethereum is per unit of time compared with Bitcoin. But it doesn't attempt to model the miner decision process that determines the block size distribution in the first place (or rather, in Ethereum, the gas total distributions). It just treats that distribution as a static thing measured empirically at one point in time. It also doesn't attempt to model dynamic gas limits, which are themselves a function of miner decisions on which way to vote. One practical consideration for many miners in determining their private tx inclusion algorithm is the balance between the overall uncle risk and the rewards to be made from collecting fees under a certain inclusion algorithm. Reducing the block reward can impact this analysis because:
a) Roughly speaking a given amount of gas included by a miner increases their uncle risk proportionately in the direction of time, while the total cost of being uncled remains roughly proportional to the block reward (assuming that the reward dwarfs the total amount of fees being collected).
b)This tends to reliably constrain the minimum gas price accepted in terms of ETH regardless of market value (an increase in which would otherwise drive fees down, given the reduced willingness of users to pay higher fees in real terms, and the increased protection provided against tx flooding by higher ETH costs). When average tx gas volume per block is lower than the gas limit, this effect has been quite dominant historically. Although different miners clearly use different inclusion criteria, I strongly suspect (and someone can probably even find announcements somewhere) that various miners and pools changed their tx acceptance parameters following the reduction in block rewards.
c) The effect on the distribution is not limited to the low congestion equilibrium. As average gas volume starts to exceed the gas limit, gas prices can leave the lower equilibrium and start to instead be dominated by transaction inclusion demand, increasing the reward for including more gas while the block reward cost of being uncled remains constant. In other words, miners will become more willing to risk uncles in order to capture fees. They also become more willing to vote up the gas limit. The exact equilibria here are surprisingly complex and depend, for example, on various real world factors related to the fee distribution. Miners are probably also using different weights of the long-term expected benefit of Ethereum throughput levels, effects on user experience of different fee policies, expected rewards from the emergence of a strong fee market, monopsonistic effects from highly inelastic exchange withdrawal fee policies, etc. etc. etc. But block rewards are definitely a part of the equation, even if it's hard to say how big.
Lots of the above is conjecture on my part, and I would happily defer to someone who can speak more precisely to the various uncle rate effects. I know it's something /u/vbuterin has thought about quite a bit. But TL;DR: Yes, there is reason to believe that block reward reduction has some kind of effect on uncle rates. So does market price. So does exchange fee policy. There are lots of things going on besides people just pressing miners to vote the gas limit up.
Original article and pictures take www.redditstatic.com site
In a present world technology has improved a lot and there are different kinds of the payment options are there but people shows interest to the digital payment. According to the Anthony Gallippi says that bitcoin is the more secure, affordable and secure options for the transferring funds. When it comes to the technical term of bitcoin that are finite, verifiable, open sourced, math based and decentralized virtual currency. This kind of the currency relies on the cryptography for security. If you use this bitcoin then you may acquire more numbers of the benefits. The first thing, it could helpful to the instant payment which could made to anyone and anywhere at the world. But keep in mind, for any kinds of reason your transaction might not be reversed. In fact supply of the bitcoin might not be manipulated by the any bank, individual, organization or government.
Outstanding advantages of using the bitcoin
One of the studies says that bitcoin is the amazing alternative to the existing electronic transaction system. If you use the bitcoin transaction then you might acquire the more numbers of the benefits such as
Defense from the payment fraud
Direct transfer for the instant settlement
Minimized the possibility of identity theft
Lower fees
Security and control
This kind of the bitcoin transaction is providing ability to send and get money. People no need to worry about the rescheduling for the bank holidays, crossing borders and other limitations. It allows the people to control their transaction which is helping to keep your bitcoin in safe. In a modern world more than 2.2 billion people are not showing interest to access the ancient exchange transaction system. These people are interested to follow the bitcoin transaction system and it is the mobile based money transfer system. Bitcoin is not involving in the transaction fees so that you can easily save your money and effort. It is fight against the identity theft and it is having secure encryption method to secure your money. Actually digital currency exchange is useful to the trade process transactions and this process is converting the bitcoin into the fiat currency. Fortunately this kind of the services is really having low fees when compared to the PayPal and credit cards.
To know about disadvantages of the bitcoin
A coin has both face like head and tail so bitcoin has also advantages and disadvantages. The first thing limited amount of bitcoin is available in online so that people struggle to obtain this coin. The next thing people might not aware of the bitcoin concept which is the major drawback of this bitcoin. People must be educated about the bitcoin so that you can obtain the advantages available in the bitcoin. It is still in the developing stage so before you choose the bitcoin you must know about the risk involve in the bitcoin transaction system. If you are in the business industry then you must know about the bitcoin advantages and risks.
Original article and pictures take fornina.club site
