Cryptocurrencies Could Reach $5 Trillion in 5 Years, Says Wall Street Billionaire Bitcoin Investor

Cryptocurrencies Could Reach $5 Trillion in 5 Years, Says Wall Street Billionaire Bitcoin Investor

Cryptocurrencies Could Reach $5 Trillion in 5 Years, Says Wall Street Billionaire Bitcoin Investor

 

Billionaire investor Michael Novogratz, a former hedge fund manager who has been supportive of bitcoin, claims cryptocurrencies could be worth more than $5 trillion in five years, speaking at the CB Insights Future of Fintech conference in New York,

Get exclusive analysis of bitcoin and learn from our trading tutorials. Join Hacked.com for just $39 now.

For this to happen, companies have to develop business principles that satisfy regulators. The recent cyberattack that disabled computers and demanded $300 bitcoin ransom payments is one reminder of the challenge bitcoin faces, following May’s WannaCry attack. Such events reinforce bitcoin’s reputation as a currency favored by hackers and criminals.
 

Bitcoin Needs A Better Reputation

Novogratz, who formerly managed liquid strategies for Fortress Investment Group LLC and has addressed bitcoin investments since 2013, is among Wall Street’s most visible cryptocurrency supporters, according to Bloomberg. He urged cryptocurrency companies to pay their taxes since “nobody in that space” pays taxes. He said a core group of developers have good intentions, however.

The Nasdaq reached $5.4 trillion in 1999, he noted.

 

Hack’s Impact Not Great

The recent cyberattack did not impact bitcoin’s price, which at 2 p.m. Tuesday was $2,339.66. Some makers of chips used for bitcoin mining equipment did retreat, however. Bitcoin has gained more than 140% on the year, while Ether has skyrocketed from $8 to $240.

 

Challenges still face cryptocurrencies, Novogratz noted. The cyberattack struck amidst questions about the strength of the current cryptocurrency rally and about the scalability of digital assets, Novogratz noted.

This week’s downturn in crypto values shrunk the total market cap from $110 billion $90 billion, according to coinmarketcap.com.
 

Novogratz Bets On Bitcoin

Novogratz said he has profited on the bitcoin and ether surges, and still has 10% of his net worth in cryptos, including assets he acquired in initial coin offerings. He hopes to add more bitcoin if the price falls to $2,000, and more Ether should the price drop between $200 and $150.

Bitcoin could emerge as a store of wealth similar to gold, he said, while Ethereum could provide the foundation for future Facebooks and Googles. He suspects money transfers to securities settlement will discontinue using blockchain technology.

 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur David Ogden

 

Author: Lester Coleman

 

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Beware Cryptocurrency Gold Rush Mentality

Beware Cryptocurrency Gold Rush Mentality

Beware Cryptocurrency Gold Rush Mentality

On one hand, it's hard for many investors not to be excited about the meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies in the past few months. Bitcoin has roughly tripled in value since the beginning of the year, Ethereum is up by about 40 times, and Ripple, one of the newest arrivals on the scene, gained a shocking 3800%. What's more, the total market cap for the cryptocurrency industry has been steadily increasing as well, and more and more businesses are finding ways to incorporate digital currencies into their models and payment systems. However, with all of this excitement about the new industry, there are also many analysts approaching with caution. Aberdeen Asset Management is one of the latest firms to do so, suggesting that there is a virtual currency bubble which will, at some point, eventually burst.

Prices Driven By Speculation?

In an interview with Bloomberg, the head of global venture capital at Aberdeen Asset Management had some words of caution for investors considering the cryptocurrency field. Peter Denious said that "prices right now aren't being driven by network usage, they're being driven by speculation that tokens are going to appreciate. It's a gold-rush mentality." Denious and others point to the rapid increase in the number of initial coin offerings, or ICOs, as well as the quick gains in the price of tokens upon listing as two signs that a bubble is in effect. ICOs are tremendously successful, with many companies operating in the blockchain space making millions of dollars in minutes, even if they have no proven or distinctive idea backing their token.

Cryptocurrencies Not the Only Assets to Reach Heights

It may be important to note, however, that digital currencies are not the only assets which have seen gains to record levels in recent months. The returns on the leading cryptocurrencies so far in 2017 have been unparalleled in other areas, but other asset classes have also made impressive gains. Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices are at record levels, despite the widespread uncertainty surrounding global markets. At the same time, housing prices seem to have mostly recovered from an earlier burst.

Coin Telegraph suggests that the increase in asset prices may be due to large degrees of liquidity across global markets, thanks to quantitative easing by many central banks around the world. Considering this possible reason for the gains, it may not be just a cryptocurrency bubble that eventually bursts. If there is, in fact, a burgeoning bubble in either the real estate or equity worlds, those could have serious and long-lasting effects on the worldwide economy. As cryptocurrencies are untested, it's more difficult to say what the impact of a bubble burst would be in that area.

 

 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

daviid ogden

 

Author: Nathan Reiff |

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Market Turns Green

Market turns green

Market Turns Green

The cryptocurrency market takes a turn to the green, led by Ethereum and Bitcoin.

After two days of the so-called ‘crypto correction’ in the final days of June, the wider cryptocurrency market is seemingly back on a comeback trial as all top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap make gains over a 24-hour period.

According to CoinMarketCap, all but two of the top 50 cryptocurrencies have taken a positive turn during Tuesday’s trading period. At press time, only Bytecoin, the original anonymous crypto which made a 250% jump in May and Ardor, a blockchain-as-a-service platform, see their respective tokens fail to make gains at the top half of the table.

 

Ethereum leads the way among the big dogs, with a near 8% gain as Ether prices return to hitting above $275. Bitcoin, up over 2%, is trading just above $2,475. Ripple, Litecoin and Ethereum Classic are following the trend. Dash, at #7 on the crypto-ranks, is up nearly 13% at over $170 per DASH.

 

Today’s upward gains will come as respite during a dramatic few days for the cryptocurrency market. Rewund back to mid-June, the entire cryptocurrency market cap had struck $117 billion. At its lowest point on Tuesday, the combined market cap of all cryptocurrencies in circulation had fallen to $88 billion – a wipeout of $29 billion in two weeks. Monday, in particular, saw 92 of the top 100 cryptos hit red, with the IOTA’s IOT token and Ethereum taking the biggest falls.
 

Tuesday didn’t start off on sound footing either, as Ethereum fell nearly 20% to a low of $227.14 today, a near 4-week low. A mainstream rumor that Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin died in a car crash didn’t help matters.

 

Ultimately, the downturn that began on Sunday evening could have ultimately proven to be the pause the market needed following significant gains in recent months. A breather helps. It never was, nor will ever be a sprint. It’s summer time, after all. Everyday investors, having helped boost entire cryptocurrency market leap from $28 billion in mid-April to a dizzying $117 billion in mid-June, could be closing their positions for profits during summertime.

 

“All that really happened today was some newcomers and bull traders got discount coins,” wrote CCN’s P.H. Madore amid Monday’s gloom. For others, these last few days have merely been an exercise of holding on.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

 

Author: Samburaj Das

 

 

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

IMF Urges Banks to Invest In Cryptocurrencies

IMF Urges Banks to Invest In Cryptocurrencies

IMF Urges Banks to Invest In Cryptocurrencies
 

A June 2017 staff discussion note from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests that banks should consider investing in cryptocurrencies more seriously than they have in the past. According to the IMF staff team responsible for the note, including prominent economists such as Dong He, Ross Leckow, and Vikram Haksar, "rapid advances in digital technology are transforming the financial services landscape." These members of the IMF feel that such transformations generate new opportunities for consumers as well as service providers and regulators. The ultimate message of the report seems to be one of support for cryptocurrencies, as it outlines some of the ways that the fintech industry might be able to provide solutions for consumers related to trust, security, financial services, and privacy in this area.

 

Boundaries are Blurring

One of the key findings of the IMF report is that "boundaries are blurring." This means that the borders between intermediaries, service providers, and markets, previously well-defined, have become blurry with the advent of new technology related to digital currencies and cross-border payments. Along with the blurring of these boundaries, the authors of the report suggest that "barriers to entry are changing." This does not, however, mean that barriers to entry are universally being lowered. Rather, they are being lowered in some situations but raised for others, particularly "if the emergence of large closed networks reduces opportunities for competition."

 

Trust Remains Essential

Absolutely key in the view of the authors of this report is that "trust remains essential." With less reliance on traditional intermediaries, consumers are turning more toward new networks and providers. The facilitation of this transfer on a large scale requires significant levels of trust in security, privacy, and efficiency. Along with this, and perhaps contributing to a new sense of trust, is the authors' conclusion that "technologies may improve cross-border payments" by serving better and more cost-efficient services, by lowering compliance costs, and by working to fight against terrorism financing.

 

In the view of the IMF authors, the financial services sector is poised to make the change toward cryptocurrency involvement. That being said, the report suggests that "policymaking will need to be nimble, experimental, and cooperative" in order to successfully navigate this crossing. Simultaneously, regulatory authorities will have a careful job to do: they must balance efficiency concerns and stability tradeoffs. In order to be willing to enter into this world, regulatory authorities will likely need reassurance that risks including cyberattacks, money-laundering, and terrorism support can be mitigated without harming the innovative progress of the digital currency world. To do this, the authors believe that regulators might need to increase their attention on activities and that governance will need to be strengthened. If all of these things take place, the IMF authors believe that banks could integrate cryptocurrencies successfully.

 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

 

Author: Nathan Reiff

 

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Why Just Holding Cryptocurrency Will Change the World

Why Just Holding Cryptocurrency Will Change the World

Why Just Holding Cryptocurrency Will Change the World

 

Cryptocurrency, digital assets run by blockchain distributed ledger technology, have some pretty revolutionary features and use cases. They can cheaply and permanently send wealth faster than anything else. They can cryptographically prove your identity. They can run self-executing smart contracts instead of relying on an enforcement mechanism when people don’t keep to their deals. But what if I told you that one of the most world-changing things about digital currencies is simply having some?

 

Crypto is new

 

The first, best, and most basic benefit of wealth generated by digital assets is that it’s new. Even if this new money was no different from anything currently out there, just by being new it provides a valuable fresh start to the current wealth distribution. When you hit the reset button, there’s a chance at a new bunch of people getting in at the bottom and making it big. Seeing a fresh set of faces on the rich list is better than having the same few families and groups maintaining an iron grip on the world’s resources generation after generation.

 

Anyone with basic technological access can get into crypto

 

The big barrier to entry when delving into the world of digital assets is internet access. However, this group of people currently stands at about half the global population and quickly rising. More importantly, the regions seeing the greatest growth in internet users are, in descending order: Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. Anyone with a basic internet connection can download a wallet app or get a desktop wallet. At that point they can sign up to an exchange to buy cryptocurrency, or go the more grassroots route and buy in cash from someone they know (or a service like Wall of Coins or LocalBitcoins that connects such people) or work for it. Since the internet is global, so is the work that it can facilitate, and with it a borderless form of wealth transfer allows people in the poorest countries to be paid alongside those in the richest. Compared to other investments, the barrier to entry is very low, particularly for the unbanked.

 

Crypto attracts a certain kind of person

 

This is where we get into the uncomfortable territory of painting with a broad stroke, but it’s still important to consider. Generally speaking, cryptocurrency enthusiasts tend to be technophiles, innovators, nonconformists, activists, and liberty lovers. It makes sense, too: those seeking an alternative to the present financial system probably have a problem with the current regime to begin with, and even those who don’t will tend to display intellectual curiosity and a dash of courage to venture off the beaten path into uncharted territory, especially with something as risky as their money. Whichever kind of person we’re talking about, it’s probably a good idea to give them wealth rather than to some of the people who have it already, particularly in countries without a free economy where the entrepreneurial can’t get ahead.

 

Regulation, where existent and applicable, has minimal effect

 

There’s one big problem with the current financial system: control. The few at the top, whether in government, banking, or an industry powerful enough to influence the first two, effectively direct what happens to everyone else’s money. The average person is helpless when they can have their bank account frozen, their cash devalued or reissued (or discontinued altogether), and their investments taxed or seized. Even a physical asset such as gold can be confiscated and have its supply and exchange severely limited. Cryptocurrency, when run in a truly distributed fashion as Bitcoin’s mysterious creator intended, is highly censorship-resistant, requiring an area-wide internet shutdown to provide any meaningful chance of being stopped. Regulation can just make it harder to own and use crypto through legitimate channels. For some fun anecdotal evidence, remember that even Venezuela has a cryptocurrency exchange.

 

Dash in particular builds longer-term, harder to censor wealth

 

If you look at the cryptocurrency charts long-term, you’ll see that holding pretty much any digital token can make you rich at this point. However, Dash in particular has demonstrated, in addition to stable and consistent growth, a few extra benefits. To begin with, anyone with the foresight to run a masternode back when it was $5,000 (or less) to do so is now sitting on almost $200,000 that makes over $1,250 per month in recurring income as a reward for helping to run the Dash network. Those of us (almost all of us at this point) who can’t afford to buy into that level of recurring income can look into a masternode share with some trusted third party (not as good as running something yourself, but still better than a bank). In the future, Dash has savings accounts planned, which will allow anyone to make recurring income off of their investment. And, let’s not forget that you can move Dash around for a couple pennies per transaction, and can spend it at hundreds of places worldwide, lessening your need to hold other, lesser forms of money.

 

Now remember, this is just what cryptocurrency can do for the world if you do nothing but get some and hold on to it. Imagine what will happen when we start leveraging the technology for all it can really do. The future is exciting indeed.

 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

 

Author: Joël Valenzuela

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Cryptocurrencies Continue Recovery, Resume 2017’s Growth Trend

Cryptocurrencies Continue Recovery, Resume 2017's Growth Trend

Cryptocurrencies Continue Recovery, Resume 2017’s Growth Trend

Cryptocurrencies continued their recovery from last week’s massive price fallout, resuming the upward trend that has characterized 2017. All but 12 of the top 100 cryptocurrenices posted gains in the last 24-hour period.

 

Market leaders bitcoin and Ethereum had the smallest gains the last 24-hour period, with the former adding 0.88 points and the latter 1.15 points and market caps of $45 billion and 31.7 billion, respectively.

Bitcoin’s price reached $2,760.61, attempting to reclaim the record $2,864.85 it set on June 9. The price has hovered in the high 2,700 range after falling to a monthly low near $2,100 last week.
 

Ethereum Recovers From Bottleneck

Ethereum, at $342.27, continued the recovery it began two days ago following two days of losses. Ethereum has been fighting a correction that came from a sudden increase in demand which caused a bottleneck that delayed its transactions.

Despite showing a correction since it peaked at $402 two weeks ago, Ethereum is still showing impressive overall gains this month.

Ethereum has suffered from scaling problems as more new digital currencies opt for the Ethereum platform when holding their initial coin offering (ICO). Status ICO, which raised more than $100 million in Ethereum, caused a demand spike that some exchanges couldn’t handle, causing Ether prices to drop 15% momentarily. This sudden drop also affected other currencies, as nine out of the top 10 registered losses.

 

Third place Ripple rose 9.19 points to $0.294288 in the last 24-hour period, reaching a $12.7 billion market cap, but still below the $0.348079 it hit on May 16.

 

Litecoin Hits A Road Bump

Litecoin, the fourth highest market cap at $2.408 billion, was the only currency with more than $1 billion in market capitalization to show a loss in the recent 24-hour period, losing 2.36 points. Litecoin nevertheless has managed to hold the number four spot, following the activation of the Bitcoin Core development team’s transaction malleability fix Segregated Witness (SegWit), which led to an increase in the demand for Litecoin and a significant surge in development. Within months after the activation of SegWit, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee announced his resignation and his intent to focus on the development of Litecoin full time, which further increased the expectation of the cryptocurrency community and market toward Litecoin.

Within three months, Litecoin’s market cap increased from $200 million to a staggering $2.5 billion, recording a 1,150 three-month increase. In that short period of time, Litecoin surpassed Ethereum Classic, Dash and NEM in market capitalization.

More importantly, the mid-term increase in the market cap of Litecoin, the activation of SegWit, successful testing of Lightning Network on Litecoin, issuance of services by companies such as BitGo and the shift in focus from Litecoin creator Charlie Lee further triggered the currency’s development community.

On June 19, Bitstamp, the eighth largest Litecoin trading platform within the U.S. Litecoin exchange market, announced the integration of BitGo’s Litecoin multi-signature security service. Although the majority of Litecoin trades are processed within the Chinese Litecoin exchange market and Bitstamp only accounts for a fraction of global Litecoin trading, it marked the first case in which a major international digital currency trading platform has integrated BitGo’s security services to secure Litecoin transactions.

 

IOTA Gained The Most

Among those with more than $1 billion in market capitalization, IOTA, number 7, posted the biggest gain as the price hit $0.525929 for a $1.461 billion market cap, a 26.48 point gain. IOTA has continued recovering since suffering one of the largest losses last week, when it dropped 36.5 points in a 24-hour period.

 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

 

Author: Lester Coleman

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Cryptocurrency: How We Hook the Masses

Cryptocurrency: How We Hook the Masses

Cryptocurrency: How We Hook the Masses

In this opinion piece, Svinkin argues that using cryptocurrencies for rewards schemes can demonstrate the value of the technology and ultimately help bring mass adoption.

Before the hype and before the price explosions of the past year, I sat down and looked at cryptocurrencies from a UX perspective.

That post, published on CoinDesk, offered a simple central premise: the entire bitcoin project was envisioned, designed, built and released as a peer-to-peer value exchange system. It wasn't supposed to be a standalone asset class or a messaging system for banks.

A year later, we're in the midst of a hype-ridden initial coin offering (ICO) explosion. ICOs are another use case in the UX quiver, one we can add to the progress of the last few years. The ICOs (I prefer to call them token sales) are a great engine of growth but they do not achieve our ultimate goal: adoption of cryptocurrency by the masses.

 

Looking back

Prior to Jobs and Wozniak, computers were the domain of engineers, hobbyists, large corporations and government agencies. The dominant framework for users to interact with these machines, the command line, ensured low user adoption.

As Neal Stephenson noted, however, the wizards who held sway over the simple cursor and text interfaces later built the tools to drive mass adoption. From the command line, we moved into something relatable and simple, and, in the process, we hid all of the piping behind wall after wall of abstraction.

I don't want to understate how big of a leap this was for my generation. You mean we can make the screen do what we want like an arcade game? We can "save" what we're doing and come back to it later? We can put stuff on a disk and put it on another computer? Wow!

After we were hooked, we started learning heuristics for the things we'd need to master to get more out of the experience. We started implicitly understanding what a KB meant. We grew to "kinda know" how much would fit on a floppy disk.

Some of us started learning how to make simple animations and games. The computer was at first a toy then a tool.

I argue that, in the crypto space, we're at the point in our evolution where the command-line is giving way to new and more generalized heuristics – with similarly explosive opportunities. Right now, the equivalent of the command line are things like wallet addresses, private keys, cold storage, and other obfuscating elements.

I wrote a year ago that I think we need a Steve Jobs in this space. No one has yet stepped up to the plate.

Crypto is no MacOS, yet


 

Even if regular people were to learn all the terms of art, master using the exchanges, grow comfortable with identity verification and currency exchange rates, and accept the long wait times in transferring fiat in/out, we'd still have a problem that would keep the bulk of the planet off the chain in a meaningful way: risk.

Modern operating systems mitigate risk immensely. Every program we use has some sort of backup system and now you rarely lose work. With cryptocurrencies, the existential threat of losing everything is still there.

The best way to deal with risk, at least at the start, is to try to eliminate it. We must not treat crypto like a competitive currency at least not now. Instead we must treat it like a reward, something new.

We must allow people to buy it, but also allow folks to earn it, with their time, effort, attention, with non-monetary capital. Don't force people to have to buy it with fiat.

Instead, let them earn it.
 

A user-first model

There are folks that are on a rewards-oriented path: Steemit, Brave, Bitwalking, Metal and others.

This is going to be a growing trend in the months and years to come. All of them want to reward you for something – Steemit for creating and engaging with digital content, Bitwalking just for walking. Brave is taking things to the next level: you get rewards just for using a secure browser and for engagement and attention.

Metal will reward you for converting, sending and spending.

All are trying to get to the same goal: they want the cryptocurrency they've issued to become valuable in the real world, to become the lifeblood of a new economy centered around a particular set of use cases.

The success of these products is dependent on ultimately hooking the masses via a rewards-based introduction – points, miles, cash back – these are notions we all get, just like I did 30 years ago with writing, drawing and reading on the Mac.

But the final step requires users to make that leap from rewards to currency for this revolution to get to the next level. And for that goal, I – a true believer – am very hopeful with this recent wave.
 

The big fear

That said, I still have one hesitation. All of these solutions make progress on the various complexities and issues surrounding adoption.

But, the one thing they all do not do, is obfuscate the currency exchange problem inherent in forging ahead with something new right away. It can show the value of the new currency in terms of fiat, but even currency earned through effort will be at risk of losing credibility and lasting power.

There will always be fear that the $398 I have in crypto will one day be $0, or in an hour will be worth $118.

Sure, we could be at the start of a fiat currency collapse and not even know it, as the market cap of crypto currency rockets up. This may even be good for the whole system. But, even if the crypto world supersedes the money we know, it will be the option with the most perceived stability that ends up winning. Not the ones with the most speculative upside or interesting "applications."

We’ll know we've "won" when a cryptocurrency becomes woven into the daily lives of the majority of people on earth. That people recognize finally that the fiat they know is also volatile and purchasing power is dynamic and ever changing, and cryptocurrency has many other benefits the analog doesn’t have. Or simply that a cryptocurrency finally becomes more stable so people run to it to escape losing all their value in government-backed money as a crisis looms or is underway.

Until then, it's hard to say what we’ve accomplished truly, but the goal is ultimately that we move belief in fiat money to belief in cryptocurrency.

To me, the best way to start that transition is to get people used to and interested in this new phenomenon by utilizing familiar bridges like air miles and minimizing fear and risk to allow for everyday use to come to bear – and even bring some fun to the strange world of cryptocurrencies.
 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

 

Author:Richard Svinkin

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Bitcoin Will Make Lots of Millionaires Before “Returning Down to Earth”: Economics Professor

http://seriouswealth.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bitcoin-Will-Make-Lots-of-Millionaires-Before-Returning-Down-to-Earth-Economics-Professor.

Bitcoin Will Make Lots of Millionaires Before “Returning Down to Earth”: Economics Professor
 

Despite its price volatility, Bitcoin is likely to make more millionaires.

Panos Mourdoukoutas, chair of the department of economics at LIU Post in New York City, whose works are published by Forbes and The New York Times, thinks Bitcoin is likely to turn more individuals into millionaires before its price dives again.

Bitcoin recently reached an all-time high of $3,000 this June after a huge correction to $2,682 from $2,957 in the period of two days. This is after tech billionaire Mark Cuban reportedly called Bitcoin's recent price surge a bubble.

However, this is not the case since the cryptocurrency is showing an uptrend, based on its recent price of $2,831 and its continuing upward trend.

Mourdoukoutas shared a partially similar viewpoint to Cuban's. Both had similar claims that Bitcoin's price would drop after a substantial surge, however, he stopped short of calling Bitcoin a bubble.

 

Making more millionaires before it crashes again

Mourdoukoutas mentioned that the digital currency made many "overnight millionaires" – individuals who invested into BTC when it was worth just a portion of its current rate.

He also mentioned that Bitcoin will reach new highs, making more millionaires in the course of the action, before "returning down to earth."

Mourdoukoutas added that one of the reasons for the increased investment in the cryptocurrency is the "ultra-low” rate of interest environment, makings the trade of Bitcoin an enticing proposition.

In addition, there is a growing mistrust in the currencies of several nations, following government policies that have pushed more investors into the cryptocurrency.

 

Price restricted by policies and supply

Mourdoukoutas said that one of these policies is the act by federal governments to provide new treasury bonds at record low rates to cover the old financial obligations with brand-new ones.

For instance, Japan sells treasuries that yield nearly absolutely nothing for the state, however, the nation's debts amount to approximately 250 percent of the country’s GDP. The teacher mentioned that China's treasury yields "something," however, no one knows the specific quantity of the "informal financial obligation".

The fact that there is a substantial quantity of financial obligations linked to the Chinese Yuan and the Japanese Yen diminishes the confidence of investors. Given that there is Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that has increased its worth by 125 percent in 2016, investors in Asia have taken advantage of the possibility to invest more into the digital currency.

 

The economics professor also highlighted another government policy which might decrease trust in a country's nationwide currency. This relocation is when governments wish to eliminate the old currency notes, as held true in India and Venezuela. Such incidents, according to Mourdoukoutas, is one of the reasons why Bitcoin price has risen.

 

Still better hedge fund than traditional ones

Mourdoukoutas further commented that there are particular advantages which make Bitcoin a much better hedge than traditional ones, such as gold. He added that the millennial generation is one of the greatest supporters of the cryptocurrency as they understand BTC much better than the "baby-boomer generation.”

 

Mourdoukoutas shared:

"Unlike gold, for instance, Bitcoin is a hassle-free medium of payment around the globe.”

 

The economics professor expounded that Bitcoin's supply is anticipated to be restricted to 21 mln. Compared to gold, there is no deficiency of the mineral considering that when the rate of gold rises, it supplies more incentive for gold miners to mine for gold.

Finally, Mourdoukoutas specified that the financier buzz around Bitcoin continuously helps the cryptocurrency to go upwards, as a growing number of financiers are becoming familiar with the digital currency, and can utilize ETFs (exchange-traded funds) to "conveniently participate in the market."

 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

 

Author: Charles Dearing

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Teenage bitcoin millionaire can see the cryptocurrency’s value shooting as high as $1 million

Teenage bitcoin millionaire can see the cryptocurrency's value shooting as high as $1 million

Teenage bitcoin millionaire can see the cryptocurrency’s value shooting as high as $1 million

If this teen entrepreneur, high-school dropout and bitcoin millionaire has any predictive powers at all, then we’ve hardly seen the top of the market for the hot cybercurrency.

Meet Erik Finman, who started picking up bitcoin at $12 apiece back in May 2011, when he was just 12, riding a hot tip from hits brother Scott and a $1,000 gift from his grandmother, he told CNBC. He’s now the owner of a reported 403 bitcoins, and while the cybercurrency has been on a bit of a bumpy ride lately, at a Wednesday morning price BTCUSD, -0.48% of $2,773.54 each, the now 18-year-old Idahoan’s stash is worth $1.1 million and change.

“Personally I think bitcoin is going to be worth a couple hundred thousand to a million dollars a coin.”

Erik Finman

 

Finman cashed out his first bitcoin investment back in 2013 and started Botangle, an online education company that provides tools for locating instructors in subjects they need or wish to learn about.

He wasn’t a fan of high school and convinced his parents, both Ph.D.’s, to let him drop out at 15.

His teachers clearly weren’t seeing his potential. “One teacher told me to drop out and work at McDonald’s because that was all I would amount to for the rest of my life. I guess I did the dropout part,” the young bitcoin millionaire said. He didn’t really want to go to college, either, and won a bet with his parents that if he was worth a million dollars by 18, he could skip it. He was, and so he did.

Finman encountered discouragement from an Uber executive, who, instead of listening to his Botangle pitch, told him he should count on college rather than racking up millions. But the teen did end up successfully selling his company’s technology, for a cool price of 300 bitcoin, reportedly. He has said he turned down a $100,000 offer.

Bitcoin prices have soared more than 300% in the span of a year, with the bulk of the gain coming during May and June. Ethereum, one of its chief rivals, has also seen big gains. Bitcoin tapped $3,000 last week, before a pullback last week that saw it shed billions in market cap.
 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

 

Author: Barbara Kollmeyer
Markets Reporter

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Ripple Cryptocurrency Aims to Make Global Assets Liquid

Ripple Cryptocurrency Aims to Make Global Assets Liquid

Ripple Cryptocurrency Aims to Make Global Assets Liquid

 

One one level, Ripple is another cryptocurrency in an ever-growing list of fledgling products, hoping to earn a place in the wider world of business and finance. While the value of Ripple's currency, XRP, is well below $1 per unit, making it a mere fraction of the value of Ethereum or Bitcoin, Ripple nonetheless sports the third-largest portion of market capitalization as compared with the rest of the cryptocurrency industry. But aside from its growing position as a currency, Ripple is drawing more and more attention from banks and financial institutions around the world for another crucial reason, too: the blockchain technology behind the currency itself.

Ripple Aims to Build an "Internet of Value"

A recent profile on Ripple by American Banker reveals that the San Francisco-based startup has its sights set on creating an "internet of value," a worldwide network system for financial transactions. Ripple's goal is nothing less than the ultimate freeing of monetary value, allowing assets to flow instantly and seamlessly between mobile systems, public blockchains, and bank ledgers. The goal is a massive one, and yet Stefan Thomas, Ripple's chief technology officer, stands behind his company's ability to enhance banking around the world. "We're not the disruptors, we're not the guys who come in and tear everything down," he stresses.

But in the Meantime…

For the time being, though, Ripple seems to occupy at least two different spaces. First comes the chryptocurrency side, and success in that area has not come as quickly as some would have liked. John Light, a consultant working with multiple startups that have integrated Ripple's technology into their systems, indicated that Ripple has "had something of an identity crisis about who their customer is, and what problem they are trying to solve."

First, the company aimed to build a new currency that would improve upon Bitcoin. This was a key component of the instantaneous transactions goal, as Bitcoin has been racked with problems relating to the system's processing capacity which has left some users waiting for days for their transactions to clear. Beyond that, though, Ripple differed from Bitcoin and other digital currencies further, even at its earliest stages. Ripple's leaders disagreed with other chryptocurrency enthusiasts who suggested that the new currencies could replace banks or even government currencies. Rather, Ripple aimed from the beginning to work with banks to make global assets even more liquid.

With roughly 60 financial institutions around the world sporting Ripple technology, the company is seeing its vision begin to take shape. However, the fact that the currency itself has not gone away makes the list of offerings that Ripple presents somewhat confusing. If banks and investors around the world are to continue to gain interest in Ripple, it seems that the company will be best served by streamlining its offerings further into the future.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

 

Author: Nathan Reiff

 

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden