Monthly Archives: June 2017

The total market cap for all cryptocurrencies just surpassed $100 billion. The vast majority of these gains have come in just the last few months on April 1st the total market cap was just over $25 billion representing a 300 percent increase in value in just over 60 days.

While some of these gains are from bitcoin itself (BTC is up ~160 percent in the same two-month time frame), other digital currencies like Ethereum are also responsible for the increase, which on its own has increased ~439 percent over the last two months.

Theres perhaps no better way to show this diversity in gains than by looking at a chart of bitcoins dominance i.e. what percent of the entire cryptocurrency market cap is represented by bitcoin. For years this had always hovered around 80 percent, but in the last few months has fallen to below 50 percent with currencies like Ethereum and Ripple taking its place.

Source: coinmarketcap.com

Bubble talk?

Its hard to be an experienced investor, or even an at-home part-time trader, and not think of a massive bubble when you see that some asset has increased more than 400 percent in just a few months. Its just how history works when an asset rises that fast its a near certainty that it will come back down. Markets are irrational, after all.

So dont be surprised if theres at least some type of correction. There already was, a few weeks ago bitcoin pulled back from a high of $2,700 to around $2,000, but, as of today, has slowly climbed back up to a new all-time high of ~$2,850.

That being said, we may look back in 12 months and realize that this two-month period of insane growth was less of a bubble and more of a rebirth of cryptocurrencies as a whole.

The fact that these gains have come from currencies other than bitcoin are a good sign that this is less of a bubble and more of a resurgence of interest in crypto. It makes sense that Ethereum is on a tear the cryptocurrency has technological improvements over bitcoin, including the ability to code smart contracts directly into the blockchain, which in turn allow for things like the ability to build totally new tokens and even host ICOs (initial coin offerings).

And similarly, Ripple, a cryptocurrency based on inter-bank settlements, has signed up more than 100 banks worldwide. Even if this takes a while to implement (which anyone who works in the old-school banking industry will confirm), its still tangible news and a reason for people to get excited about the currency.

These recent developments certainly dont justify increases of 400 percent in 60 days. Both Ethereum and Ripple have been around for a lot longer than a few months. Soif these were publicly traded companies, there would be (almost) no reason for drastic rise in value. But cryptocurrencies are new most of the world has no idea what bitcoin is, let alone Ethereum and Ripple and other currencies.

The public has never been able to put their money directly into a technology that has so much potential but is still developing.

For example, a technology enthusiast in the 1990s may have foreseen the rise of the internet, but had no way to directly take a stake in the technology.The idea of applying cryptography to the storage and transmission of data is still very new. And the fact that anyone can directly buy the currency that powers these cryptographically securedblockchains is much like the public actually getting a chance to invest in the internet during its infancy.

There is one rational explanation that, if true, would totally justify this rapid increase in price across some of the major cryptocurrencies. And that is, maybe these currencies are actually worththese high prices, and maybe even worth many times more than that at which they are currently trading.

But the problem is we have no way to figure out their value. Cryptocurrencies arent public companies with earnings and expenses and EPS. For example, we can look at Apples financials and determine its book value what the companys assets would be worth if hypothetically liquidated today. Of course, stocks trade at a premium to this, because people are enthusiastic that Apple will continue to perform well and this book value will continue to rise.

But we cant do this with cryptocurrencies. We could guess and compare it to things like the total money or gold supply in the U.S. For example, if youre someone who thinks of cryptocurrencies as a store of value, the total estimated value of all gold in the world is more than $8 trillion dollars meaning if bitcoin would ever replace or supplant gold, its current value is pennies on the dollar.

If youre someone who thinks of cryptocurrencies as a genuine currency, you could compare the market cap to M2, which is the total money supply in the U.S. cash and checking accounts, as well as near-money accounts like savings, mutual funds and money-market securities. The total value of M2 is about $13.5 trillion, also meaning cryptocurrencies are just a small fraction of that.

Ive long cautioned readers (and friends) from buying cryptocurrencies because they have seen it rise and just want to make a quick buck. The past two months have led to a tremendous surge in public interest, with mainstream news like CNBC and CNN explaining how to invest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Just make sure youre doing it for the right reasons. Buy cryptocurrency to learn about it and transact with it. Or buy it because you are betting that this new technology will change the world by:

These are just a few options, and if youre in tune with the cryptocurrency world, youll know the opportunities are endless. So if youre going to buy cryptocurrency, do it because you see the long-term vision (and sure, ostensibly the financial gains that may come from them), not because you think it will blindly appreciate and give you a good return on your investment.

The author holds bitcoin and Ethereum and other smaller cryptocurrencies.

Originally posted here:
What the hell is happening to cryptocurrency valuations? - TechCrunch

The blockchain and crypto industry is currently replete with innovations looking to advance the technology and bring about the best results. But could there be a missing link, which when identified can lead to better investments and proper mitigation of risks?

A section of the industry insiders believe that Derivatives could be that missing link, and introducing derivatives to the blockchain could possibly enable investors to better mitigate risks involved in trading cryptocurrencies and allow them to hedge their bets. The success of derivatives has already been proven in the world of securities trading, which can be replicated in the crypto world as well.

The benefits of derivatives will be wide ranging as they will include non-stop trading, instantaneous transactions for fraction of the current fee, nearly no need for third parties except for traditional assets, no downtime, no DDOS type attacks, anonymity and the possibility to execute trades without logging in.

The process of bringing the power of derivatives to the blockchain community is being spearheaded by DCORP. DCORPP has created a platform that will allow derivatives trading in the form of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain where the exchange exists. Users will be provided with a friendly interface and since the exchange is decentralized and operates autonomously there is no need for intermediaries like market makers, bankers or third parties.

The exchange will generate value for the investors, the proceeds of which can be used by DCORP to carry out its venture capitalist activities. DCORP being autonomous and democratic, will, in turn, lead to the democratization of venture capitalism.

Derivatives trading has the potential to unleash revolutionary change in the way cryptocurrencies are traded today, as more investors are bound to be attracted by the opportunity to use hedging mechanisms, which will only enhance the value of blockchain.

The ability to enter derivatives contracts anonymously will also provide additional value to investors and they will also be able to trade existing derivatives contracts by sending Ether to them.

Investors stand to benefit by harnessing the power of derivatives. Traditional derivatives like futures and options will be available, and the investors will also benefit from Futures with Ascending Stakes. The whitepaper elaborates upon the type of derivatives that will be made available on the exchange.

There is also a plan to use the blockchain and smart contract technology to enable talented entrepreneurs and ventures to gain access to funding. DCORP will make it possible for anyone to join the organization either as a shareholder or as a talented contributor. Investors can also participate in the ongoing DCORP crowdsale.

The DCORP exchange promises complete transparency in its operations as the Board of Directors will comprise of 7 elected individuals. Frank Bonnet, the founder of DCORP who will also be a member of the Board of Directors, explains that the voting behavior of the members will be recorded on the blockchain, public and immutable. The members can also be replaced by submitting a proposal and getting the token holders to vote in favor of it.

DCORP intends to carry out a streamlined democratization of venture capitalism, which is not only an interesting idea but also novel, as it enables even non-technical persons to benefit from it.

The introduction of derivatives to crypto can only generate further investor interest as it brings in an element of risk management to venture capitalism.

See the original post here:
Derivatives The Missing Link in The Cryptocurrency World? - newsBTC

Imagine an online gambling ecosystem that is decentralized, meaning that it cuts out the typical middleman between a game-maker or betting operator and the player or bettor. Thats the pitch of Russian company DAO.Casino, a decentralized platform for online gambling operators that runs on the Ethereum blockchain.

In its white paper on the developer site Github, DAO.Casino says it can solve common headaches of online gambling that afflict both game developers and game players, such as: fraud risk; hidden fees; high cost of entry for game developers; operational overhead; player access to funds; player withdrawal delays; and general lack of trust.

If that sounds like a mouthful, lets take a step back. In the cryptocurrency world, much of the press and attention right now is around bitcoin, since the price of bitcoin is flying: its up 200% in 2017 so far.

But the price of a rival cryptocurrency, ether, has seen a bump as well: its up 174% in the past month, to $263. Ether is the currency of the Ethereum network, which is a blockchain for smart contracts.

Price of ether in 2017. (CoinMarketCap)

While bitcoin runs on the bitcoin blockchain, a decentralized, permissionless ledgerand blockchain technology originated with bitcoin in 2009Ethereum runs on its own blockchain specifically designed for smart contracts.

Smart contracts are coded agreements that live in a permanent address on the Ethereum chain. These agreements can interact with other contracts to automatically enact functions.

In other words, smart contracts is a fancy way of saying computer programs. For example: on Ethereum, we could exchange the title deed to a car, directly from seller to buyer. In a recent Cognizant survey of 578 financial service firms, 78% of respondents said their firm is exploring multiple blockchain platformsof those, 49% listed the bitcoin blockchain, 42% said Ethereum.

While bitcoin is soaring as a speculative investment, there arent yet obvious mainstream uses for the currency beyond trading and holding it; many in the industry await the killer app for bitcoin.

There is arguably more excitement right now around the uses of Ethereum, since it was created specifically for smart contracts (not for the currency, which is just an incentive token for developers). TechCrunch writes that Ethereum is poised to overhaul open-source development. And Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin (just 23 years old) met with Vladimir Putin this week, who praised Ethereum.

That brings us to DAO.Casino, one of the many startups that believes it can solve a problem using Ethereum. On June 29, DAO.Casino will launch an ICO (initial coin offering), a popular new way of raising money for cryptocurrency startups in which investors buy up the startups own coin and pay for it with a more established coin. Ethereum did its own ICO in 2014, in which investors bought ether using bitcoin. An ICO typically lasts for a month. Think of an ICO as the equivalent of a VC round for cryptocurrency startups. In DAO.Casinos ICO, it will sell BET, its own token, in exchange for ether.

Just dont associate DAO.Casino with The DAO, a leaderless, decentralized network that launched in May 2016 (via an ICO that exchanged tokens for ether) as a platform for Ethereum-based projects and was quickly hacked, one month later, to the tune of $50 million. The entire Ethereum blockchain had to perform a split known as a fork in order to restore all the funds stolen in The DAO hack.

DAO.Casino is not an actual casino itself, but an open protocol for online gambling companies (like an online casino, blackjack game operator, or sports betting site) to build on. (DAO.Casino will also build its own branded games.) It isnt aimed at the end userif an online betting site were to use it, the bettor wouldnt have toknow or see that theyre using a system built on Ethereum. (I could even develop my own gambling site on top of DAO.Casinos protocol and pay out users in BET tokens, but rename them Dancoins.) The companys hope is that online betting sites will integrate with its network to offer games without the casino, a middleman that takes a big cut and may not always be trustworthy.

Read More

If youre confused, dont feel bad. In a blog post back in March, the company addressed the confusion its name creates. Many people wonder why do we have DAO in our name, when the term has previously been associated with a hacked investor-directed venture capital fund. They think and we dont blame them for it that is somewhat an extension of an organization whose security loop couldve cost them millions worth of ether. The post goes on to acknowledge that using the DAO acronym is somewhat giving us bad publicity.

Nonetheless, the company embraced the DAO acronym because of what it stands for, a decentralized autonomous organization (which any blockchain-based project is), even if it now carries the stink of The DAO.

Of course, online betting operators may be hesitant to jump on an Ethereum-based protocol for reasons that have nothing to do with DAO.Casinos name.

For starters, the entire cryptocurrency space still has an air of distrust to it; blame the high-profile Silk Road drug market trial, or periodic hacks of bitcoin exchange sites, all of which stoke negative headlines. As one West Coast bankruptcy lawyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, tells Yahoo Finance, I get clients all the time that say, I want to take X and make it better by using cryptocurrency, and its always either a way to try to get around something illegal or it solves a problem that really didnt exist.

Keep in mind also that online gambling (or iGaming) is still illegal in most states in the US, even when the website taking a bet is based outside the US. But online gambling thrives outside America, and is a $46 billion market globally.DAO.Casino could face regulatory scrutiny in the US, even though the company would likely make the argument that it is just an Internet protocol, not the gambling operator.

As of January, nearly 25% of all smart contracts on Ethereum were game-related. Thats why DAO.Casino CEO Ilya Tarutov honed in on a gambling protocol. Traditional server-based online gambling sites dont engender enough trust, he says, but using a decentralized network can add transparency.

Tarutov explained it to Coin Telegraph thusly: Game outcomes are determined by equally unpredictable pseudorandom values, and anyone can audit this. Once the game software is audited and deployed, no one can fiddle with it and change it.

To ensure fairness of games, DAO.Casino implements randomness through PRNGs (pseudorandom number generators), and incentivizes users who develop new games, fund the development of new games, operate casinos, and contribute random-number algorithms by rewarding them in BET tokens. The games built on DAO.Casino will operate in BET. (Grossly simplified, Tarutov explains, BET is a security measure.)

For now, DAO.Casino is in beta, and offers a simple dice game as an example of what it can do. More games are coming, Tarutov says, from online gambling operators ready to put their games on DAO.Casinos testnet. In the next few days, the site will add a blackjack game.

You can register right now and youll get a free token to try these games. But their real purpose is to show developers, Tarutov says, that it is possible to implement serverless and fast PRNG methods on Ethereum. It shows that theres hope and direction. Were confident that we can implement one more method before the end of this year which is suitable for multiplayer games. But this is just a start.

Daniel Roberts closely covers bitcoin and blockchain at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.

Read more:

Why Ethereum is the hottest new thing in digital currency

More than 75 banks are now on Ripples blockchain network

Expect more blockchain hype in 2017

Heres why 21 Inc. is the most exciting bitcoin company right now

How bitcoin company Coinbase is staying relevant amid the blockchain craze

Read the rest here:
DAO Casino wants to use cryptocurrency to disrupt online gambling - Yahoo Finance

The consequences of allowing a cryptocurrency takeover, or trying to head one off FT Alphaville (registration) In this guest post, economics professor and former Bank of England economist Tony Yates talks about the potential for cryptocurrencies to compete with government-backed money, and what central banks can do about it. The total value of all ...

More:
The consequences of allowing a cryptocurrency takeover, or trying to head one off - FT Alphaville (registration)