Considering everything is currently going up, Cardano and Icon are looking a decent price. Might have a little dabble tonight.
I’ve got a chunk in Cardano, long term hold that one.
@kentaddick - Did have a look at Ark a while ago, it’s def a shit or bust project. Pull it off and it could be up there competing with the big boys. However, not sure if I see it happening. Potentially worth a small punt.
I have been following this thread with interest, not invested and dont really intend to. However what i agree with cafcfan, what is the main purpose of these Cryptocurrencies? I only really know what i have read on here, but i dont see what benefit it would add to the everyday person? Can @kentaddick@CAFCsayer enlighten me on the pros/cons for Bitcoin/Crypto over normal money?
This does quite interest me but more on how people have invested and hope you do well, also i do feel there will be a big crash at some point as there is no set value for any of this just what the market dictates.
Forget money. I highly doubt crypto will replace money.
There are hundreds of practical uses for crypto beyond money and banking. Think of everything you would need a server to do and crypto could (potentially) do it. It would be a hundred times more secure than using a server.
Where are you getting this hundred times more secure than a server? is there any facts to support that? Whats the main purpose still you haven't said, i get its not going to replace money but what circumstances would it be better to have bitcoin/whatever over money.
A single server you can hack/burn down the building. (A)
You can’t hack thousands of encrypted machines at once which makes up the blockchain. If one goes down, the entire network is fine. (B)
I took a bit of exception to your claim about cryptocurrency being some form of server killer, but now I've seen this response I can kinda see what you're getting at. But with two points to the above:
A This is very much a solved problem; and the solution is what we refer to as "High Availability"; that is you synchronise data and computing resources across multiple data centers (or "availability zones"), and ensure there's adequate failover systems in place.
An awesome example of this is how Netflix architect their systems; they have a tool called "Chaos Monkey" that will randomly disable production systems.. on their production network. Any system/node can go down and the resiliance is such that it has no effect on network throughput or data access.
In sectors like healthcare and finance they generally go beyond, and have pretty comprehensive business continuity plans; it's a fundamental tenet of information security/assurance. A decent BCP combined with the type of cloud tools that Microsoft/Google/Amazon provides - means that there's genuinely no excuse for downtime nowadays.
B Now we're getting closer, although you'd be barmy to utilise something blockchain based purely to avoid downtime or service outages, you would be quite wise to do so to ensure data integrity.. but not confidentiality.
This comes not from encryption, but from hashing; the same branch of mathematics (cryptology) but an entirely different use case.
Encryption is two-way - so if I have a secret I want to share with you, I'll encrypt it and provide you with a means of decryption; i.e in the form of a password.
Hashing is one way - and is a way of assigning a unique signature to something; I can't determine what that something is from the signature though. If we both get the same signature from a given something, then we can be sure we have the same something.
So although we may not be keeping secrets, we can be sure that we all have the same data and that it's intact.
Why do I make this point? Because it drums in the entire point about the concept of a blockchain, and that the entirety of its value is "merely" the open storage of records with assured data integrity.
In information security you look at what's referred to as the C-I-A triad, or Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. Blockchain is awesome for the I, and for the A (although simpler options are available).
The C however - Confidentiality - is an issue where I'd expect corporate adoption to involve private networks running their own private forks. And that's why I'm curious about how partnerships will translate in to mainnet adoption.
I have been following this thread with interest, not invested and dont really intend to. However what i agree with cafcfan, what is the main purpose of these Cryptocurrencies? I only really know what i have read on here, but i dont see what benefit it would add to the everyday person? Can @kentaddick@CAFCsayer enlighten me on the pros/cons for Bitcoin/Crypto over normal money?
This does quite interest me but more on how people have invested and hope you do well, also i do feel there will be a big crash at some point as there is no set value for any of this just what the market dictates.
Forget money. I highly doubt crypto will replace money.
There are hundreds of practical uses for crypto beyond money and banking. Think of everything you would need a server to do and crypto could (potentially) do it. It would be a hundred times more secure than using a server.
Where are you getting this hundred times more secure than a server? is there any facts to support that? Whats the main purpose still you haven't said, i get its not going to replace money but what circumstances would it be better to have bitcoin/whatever over money.
A single server you can hack/burn down the building. (A)
You can’t hack thousands of encrypted machines at once which makes up the blockchain. If one goes down, the entire network is fine. (B)
I took a bit of exception to your claim about cryptocurrency being some form of server killer, but now I've seen this response I can kinda see what you're getting at. But with two points to the above:
A This is very much a solved problem; and the solution is what we refer to as "High Availability"; that is you synchronise data and computing resources across multiple data centers (or "availability zones"), and ensure there's adequate failover systems in place.
An awesome example of this is how Netflix architect their systems; they have a tool called "Chaos Monkey" that will randomly disable production systems.. on their production network. Any system/node can go down and the resiliance is such that it has no effect on network throughput or data access.
In sectors like healthcare and finance they generally go beyond, and have pretty comprehensive business continuity plans; it's a fundamental tenet of information security/assurance. A decent BCP combined with the type of cloud tools that Microsoft/Google/Amazon provides - means that there's genuinely no excuse for downtime nowadays.
B Now we're getting closer, although you'd be barmy to utilise something blockchain based purely to avoid downtime or service outages, you would be quite wise to do so to ensure data integrity.. but not confidentiality.
This comes not from encryption, but from hashing; the same branch of mathematics (cryptology) but an entirely different use case.
Encryption is two-way - so if I have a secret I want to share with you, I'll encrypt it and provide you with a means of decryption; i.e in the form of a password.
Hashing is one way - and is a way of assigning a unique signature to something; I can't determine what that something is from the signature though. If we both get the same signature from a given something, then we can be sure we have the same something.
So although we may not be keeping secrets, we can be sure that we all have the same data and that it's intact.
Why do I make this point? Because it drums in the entire point about the concept of a blockchain, and that the entirety of its value is "merely" the open storage of records with assured data integrity.
In information security you look at what's referred to as the C-I-A triad, or Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. Blockchain is awesome for the I, and for the A (although simpler options are available).
The C however - Confidentiality - is an issue where I'd expect corporate adoption to involve private networks running their own private forks. And that's why I'm curious about how partnerships will translate in to mainnet adoption.
yup there are companies using private forks of cryptos, which is why you need to look at those that would need it to be on mainnet (tracking products from manufacturing to the consumer if you have vechain).
Anyone heard about robin hood releasing a fee-less crypto app? any competition to get coinbase to expand the cryptos available and drive down their fees can only be a good thing.
pretty keen on getting in on nano, iota and other instant fee-less transactions dont seem to have the same buzz or tech, also the wallet looks great and easy and fast to use:
And not a word on crypto currency. Perhaps that's because crypto currency is not a pre-condition to running blockchain and they sure don't need to buy anyone's Bitcoins or any other crypto to make it work when they can raise their own capital to fund it.
Being smart cookies they might issue crypto currency/tokens are a means of raising capital so as not to use their own capital, and at the same time retain ownership of the intellectual property embedded in the technology in return for worthless tokens. Second thoughts, they wouldn't fleece the unsuspecting public would they?
YGGDRASH registration opens next week... Seems to have slipped under the radar completely and the CTO is the former head of development at ICON @kentaddick ... Seems to have kept it's name out of Suppoman/Balina circles and hopefully will do before i can get in on March 12th
There is a political aspect to cryptos. Since the 1950s the dollar has been the main global currency, reflecting the global domination of the US. Now the US is in relative decline, the dominance of the dollar will decline slowly as well. The rising power, China, is not(yet) powerful enough for its currency to play that role. There is scope for cryptos to play a role during this interregnum (which could go in for a long time). The main weakness of cryptos is that there is no state or state bank to guarantee its value. It is likely to be very unstable as a result.
Vechain rebranding event, partnership with oxford university and BMW announced.
Greeted by a selloff down 10%. Not surprised, if anyone sat through all 37 minutes of that. First 11 minutes, WTF was that?
Oh well, it was a punt.
In the real world, Polar Capital Tech Trust has recovered well from the recent all market dip. I dived in then and am already seeing a 7% increase. I bought it on the basis that many of its key holdings, such as Microsoft, are believed to be heavily into blockchain.
Vechain rebranding event, partnership with oxford university and BMW announced.
Greeted by a selloff down 10%. Not surprised, if anyone sat through all 37 minutes of that. First 11 minutes, WTF was that?
Oh well, it was a punt.
In the real world, Polar Capital Tech Trust has recovered well from the recent all market dip. I dived in then and am already seeing a 7% increase. I bought it on the basis that many of its key holdings, such as Microsoft, are believed to be heavily into blockchain.
Buy the rumours sell the news. Selling before mainnet in June (the whitepaper still hasn’t even come out) is something you’d live to regret.
7% gains? That’s cute, but I’ll definitely look into that.
Vechain rebranding event, partnership with oxford university and BMW announced.
Greeted by a selloff down 10%. Not surprised, if anyone sat through all 37 minutes of that. First 11 minutes, WTF was that?
Oh well, it was a punt.
In the real world, Polar Capital Tech Trust has recovered well from the recent all market dip. I dived in then and am already seeing a 7% increase. I bought it on the basis that many of its key holdings, such as Microsoft, are believed to be heavily into blockchain.
Buy the rumours sell the news. Selling before mainnet in June (the whitepaper still hasn’t even come out) is something you’d live to regret.
7% gains? That’s cute, but I’ll definitely look into that.
Sure, I didn't intend to sell. It's still my live and learn experiment, and I appreciate your regular updates on it.
PCT is a simple enough thing to understand, but the kind of investment that crypto investors are now contemptuous of because they seem to expect 100% gains in weeks. It invests in tech stocks, mainly the big names in the US and China. You won't get rich quick, but depending on your timing you won't likely lose much either. in 2017 over the full year it grew over 30%, (but most market indices were up 20% or more).
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney: The only way to make money from bitcoin is to find a greater fool than you.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has launched a scathing attack on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and called for them to be held to the "same standards as the rest of the financial system".
In a speech delivered to the Inaugural Scottish Economics conference in Edinburgh, Carney branded cryptocurrencies a "failure", a lottery and said they exhibit the "classic hallmarks of bubbles" that attract "fools".
Talking about how well cyrptocurrencies perform the job of traditional money, Carney was far from complimentary.
The long, charitable answer is that cryptocurrencies act as money, at best, only for some people and to a limited extent, and even then only in parallel with the traditional currencies of the users. The short answer is they are failing," he said.
Carney added: "The prices of many cryptocurrencies have exhibited the classic hallmarks of bubbles including new paradigm justifications, broadening retail enthusiasm and extrapolative price expectations reliant in part on finding the greater fool.
"At present, crypto-assets raise a host of issues around consumer and investor protection, market integrity, money laundering, terrorism financing, tax evasion, and the circumvention of capital controls and international sanctions."
His comments come as bitcoin's value continues to gyrate wildly, having rocketed to nearly $20,000 late last year before plunging and settling at $10,890 on Friday.
The governor added: "A better path would be to regulate elements of the crypto-asset ecosystem to combat illicit activities, promote market integrity, and protect the safety and soundness of the financial system.
"The time has come to hold the crypto-asset ecosystem to the same standards as the rest of the financial system.
"Being part of the financial system brings enormous privileges, but with them great responsibilities."
Carney said that, in his view, crypto-assets do not "appear to pose material risks to financial stability".
The one good thing about it However, Carney conceded that the distribute ledger technology which underpins cryptocurrencies can act to help the way payments are made evolve.
"Even if the current generation is not the answer, it is throwing down the gauntlet to the existing payment systems. These must now evolve to meet the demands of fully reliable, real-time, distributed transactions.
"The Bank believes that distributed ledger technology could over time significantly improve the accuracy, efficiency and security of processes across payments, clearing and settlement."
I’m all good with increased regulation, it gives the market more legitimacy. I just know the hardcore bitcoin holders (the early adopters who are quite libertarian) will not like it one bit.
Article is blocked here, but if it relates to epayments in shops, it really is about time! Having such a strong, widely used epayment system here is fantastic.
I can use my phone to pay for literally ever I'd never need and it makes things so much simpler.
Article is blocked here, but if it relates to epayments in shops, it really is about time! Having such a strong, widely used epayment system here is fantastic.
I can use my phone to pay for literally ever I'd never need and it makes things so much simpler.
Nothing about payment systems. It explains that some Italian wine producers, like Ruffino, can now give customers the assurance that they are not being sold adulterated wine, (presumably unlike some unscrupulous Italian wine producers). This is because they can give 100% assurance of the source and nature of ingredients and place of manufacture validated by Vechain technology. The value is being created for the consumers of Ruffino in the form of quality assurance.
Presumably epayment system is the same as the card/iPhone readers most stores have introduced and nothing to do with crypto.
The drawback of the current epayment system is not the consumer experience or lack of availability, it's the fact that the banks charge suppliers a large percentage that you and I pay for within the price of items we buy. I am sure Blockchain will eventually remove banks and their central ledgers from the transaction process, but the only change in customer experience should be added value through lower costs of goods as suppliers' overheads are reduced. Crypto currency will still need to become a stable store of value before it itself is the currency of exchange for goods and services via epayments.
I've been full of admiration for Carole Cadwalladar, the Guardian journalist who has led the expose of Cambridge Analytica. They finally ran the whole thing on Sunday, and Channel 4 News have followed up with a big undercover film sting tonight, and tomorrow.
So? Well you may remember that I mentioned that my main investment in blockchain would come via the safer long term bet on Polar Capital Technology Fund, which invests in the big companies that are believed to be heavy into blockchain development. Pleased, I was, it was already showing an 8% gain in the couple of months since I bought in.
However...one of its biggest holdings is in Facebook, and what has Carole's expose done to Facebook's share price? It's fallen off an effing cliff, taking most of the big tech names with it, and of course the Fund's price too. Great....
After a successful week at Cheltenham, thinking of chucking some of my Samcro and Balko Des Flos winnings in this space. Done a fair amount of reading in this field over the years, and as it has been mentioned on here previously, quite like the look of Vechain from a long term prospective. Anything else that people think is worth looking at? Looking at this as a long term thing and not a cheap short-term play etc...
After a successful week at Cheltenham, thinking of chucking some of my Samcro and Balko Des Flos winnings in this space. Done a fair amount of reading in this field over the years, and as it has been mentioned on here previously, quite like the look of Vechain from a long term prospective. Anything else that people think is worth looking at? Looking at this as a long term thing and not a cheap short-term play etc...
Interesting time to come in, I think a good time as things have calmed down a bit. There’s still quite a bit of fud with bitcoin after the revelation that the crash earlier in the year was mt.gox creditors dumping some of the millions of bitcoin the bankrupt exchange has in its possession. They own a lot more.
I’d say read through the thread, a page or two ago I posted a link with cryptos similar to Vechain in that they reward holders with more crypto.
Comments
@kentaddick - Did have a look at Ark a while ago, it’s def a shit or bust project. Pull it off and it could be up there competing with the big boys. However, not sure if I see it happening. Potentially worth a small punt.
A This is very much a solved problem; and the solution is what we refer to as "High Availability"; that is you synchronise data and computing resources across multiple data centers (or "availability zones"), and ensure there's adequate failover systems in place.
An awesome example of this is how Netflix architect their systems; they have a tool called "Chaos Monkey" that will randomly disable production systems.. on their production network. Any system/node can go down and the resiliance is such that it has no effect on network throughput or data access.
In sectors like healthcare and finance they generally go beyond, and have pretty comprehensive business continuity plans; it's a fundamental tenet of information security/assurance. A decent BCP combined with the type of cloud tools that Microsoft/Google/Amazon provides - means that there's genuinely no excuse for downtime nowadays.
B Now we're getting closer, although you'd be barmy to utilise something blockchain based purely to avoid downtime or service outages, you would be quite wise to do so to ensure data integrity.. but not confidentiality.
This comes not from encryption, but from hashing; the same branch of mathematics (cryptology) but an entirely different use case.
Encryption is two-way - so if I have a secret I want to share with you, I'll encrypt it and provide you with a means of decryption; i.e in the form of a password.
Hashing is one way - and is a way of assigning a unique signature to something; I can't determine what that something is from the signature though. If we both get the same signature from a given something, then we can be sure we have the same something.
So although we may not be keeping secrets, we can be sure that we all have the same data and that it's intact.
Why do I make this point? Because it drums in the entire point about the concept of a blockchain, and that the entirety of its value is "merely" the open storage of records with assured data integrity.
In information security you look at what's referred to as the C-I-A triad, or Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. Blockchain is awesome for the I, and for the A (although simpler options are available).
The C however - Confidentiality - is an issue where I'd expect corporate adoption to involve private networks running their own private forks. And that's why I'm curious about how partnerships will translate in to mainnet adoption.
Anyone heard about robin hood releasing a fee-less crypto app? any competition to get coinbase to expand the cryptos available and drive down their fees can only be a good thing.
bitcoin crashed from $20 back down to less than $1 at one point, if you would've bought/held on then you'd be laughing now.
Being smart cookies they might issue crypto currency/tokens are a means of raising capital so as not to use their own capital, and at the same time retain ownership of the intellectual property embedded in the technology in return for worthless tokens. Second thoughts, they wouldn't fleece the unsuspecting public would they?
https://csrc.nist.gov/CSRC/media/Publications/nistir/8202/draft/documents/nistir8202-draft.pdf
Vechain rebranding event, partnership with oxford university and BMW announced.
Now the US is in relative decline, the dominance of the dollar will decline slowly as well. The rising power, China, is not(yet) powerful enough for its currency to play that role.
There is scope for cryptos to play a role during this interregnum (which could go in for a long time).
The main weakness of cryptos is that there is no state or state bank to guarantee its value.
It is likely to be very unstable as a result.
A bit like the Euro but 100 times worse.
Oh well, it was a punt.
In the real world, Polar Capital Tech Trust has recovered well from the recent all market dip. I dived in then and am already seeing a 7% increase. I bought it on the basis that many of its key holdings, such as Microsoft, are believed to be heavily into blockchain.
7% gains? That’s cute, but I’ll definitely look into that.
PCT is a simple enough thing to understand, but the kind of investment that crypto investors are now contemptuous of because they seem to expect 100% gains in weeks. It invests in tech stocks, mainly the big names in the US and China. You won't get rich quick, but depending on your timing you won't likely lose much either. in 2017 over the full year it grew over 30%, (but most market indices were up 20% or more).
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has launched a scathing attack on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and called for them to be held to the "same standards as the rest of the financial system".
In a speech delivered to the Inaugural Scottish Economics conference in Edinburgh, Carney branded cryptocurrencies a "failure", a lottery and said they exhibit the "classic hallmarks of bubbles" that attract "fools".
Talking about how well cyrptocurrencies perform the job of traditional money, Carney was far from complimentary.
The long, charitable answer is that cryptocurrencies act as money, at best, only for some people and to a limited extent, and even then only in parallel with the traditional currencies of the users. The short answer is they are failing," he said.
Carney added: "The prices of many cryptocurrencies have exhibited the classic hallmarks of bubbles including new paradigm justifications, broadening retail enthusiasm and extrapolative price expectations reliant in part on finding the greater fool.
"At present, crypto-assets raise a host of issues around consumer and investor protection, market integrity, money laundering, terrorism financing, tax evasion, and the circumvention of capital controls and international sanctions."
His comments come as bitcoin's value continues to gyrate wildly, having rocketed to nearly $20,000 late last year before plunging and settling at $10,890 on Friday.
The governor added: "A better path would be to regulate elements of the crypto-asset ecosystem to combat illicit activities, promote market integrity, and protect the safety and soundness of the financial system.
"The time has come to hold the crypto-asset ecosystem to the same standards as the rest of the financial system.
"Being part of the financial system brings enormous privileges, but with them great responsibilities."
Carney said that, in his view, crypto-assets do not "appear to pose material risks to financial stability".
The one good thing about it
However, Carney conceded that the distribute ledger technology which underpins cryptocurrencies can act to help the way payments are made evolve.
"Even if the current generation is not the answer, it is throwing down the gauntlet to the existing payment systems. These must now evolve to meet the demands of fully reliable, real-time, distributed transactions.
"The Bank believes that distributed ledger technology could over time significantly improve the accuracy, efficiency and security of processes across payments, clearing and settlement."
Although I wouldn’t call it “dividends” quite a good article.
Another form of node announced, just seen a 20% spike in vechains value
https://medium.com/@vechainofficial/my-story-the-first-ever-3rd-party-initiated-developed-and-managed-dapp-on-vechainthor-61deb8839e0d
I can use my phone to pay for literally ever I'd never need and it makes things so much simpler.
Brilliant bit by John Oliver, well balanced and well explained.
Presumably epayment system is the same as the card/iPhone readers most stores have introduced and nothing to do with crypto.
The drawback of the current epayment system is not the consumer experience or lack of availability, it's the fact that the banks charge suppliers a large percentage that you and I pay for within the price of items we buy. I am sure Blockchain will eventually remove banks and their central ledgers from the transaction process, but the only change in customer experience should be added value through lower costs of goods as suppliers' overheads are reduced. Crypto currency will still need to become a stable store of value before it itself is the currency of exchange for goods and services via epayments.
I've been full of admiration for Carole Cadwalladar, the Guardian journalist who has led the expose of Cambridge Analytica. They finally ran the whole thing on Sunday, and Channel 4 News have followed up with a big undercover film sting tonight, and tomorrow.
So? Well you may remember that I mentioned that my main investment in blockchain would come via the safer long term bet on Polar Capital Technology Fund, which invests in the big companies that are believed to be heavy into blockchain development. Pleased, I was, it was already showing an 8% gain in the couple of months since I bought in.
However...one of its biggest holdings is in Facebook, and what has Carole's expose done to Facebook's share price? It's fallen off an effing cliff, taking most of the big tech names with it, and of course the Fund's price too. Great....
I’d say read through the thread, a page or two ago I posted a link with cryptos similar to Vechain in that they reward holders with more crypto.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/crypto-assets-task-force-to-boost-fintech-ts3g8tnmg
Good to see the government making a proactive stance in being a crypto leader.