Witness History: Donald Trump pays bitcoin for burgers

19

September

2024

5/5 (1)

Unconsciously, Donald Trump made history as the first former U.S. president to pay with Bitcoin. During his visit to PubKey, a cryptocurrency-themed bar in Manhattan, Trump shouted to the crowd that he was treating everyone to burgers. 

When handed a Bitcoin payment code, he fumbled with a custom iPhone and trying to scan it, but unfortunately, modern tech isn’t his forte. Eventually, the bar owner and an assistant stepped in completed the transaction. With his signature smile, Trump declared, “History is being made!” He spent around $950 in Bitcoin, buying burgers and Diet Cokes priced at $17 each. After his paying, Trump took this chance to criticize the Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate cut and suggested that this is either political manipulation or a fiasco U.S. economy. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price surged past $62,000, thanks to favorable economic conditions like the rate cut.

Embrace the crypto industry.

Although Trump is already 78, of course cannot be a Bitcoin expert, he has made several pro-crypto promises. At PubKey, he told the crowd that if he could be re-elected, he would stop the Federal Reserve’s work on a central bank digital currency and fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler on his first day back in office. Trump also pledged to make the U.S. a “global cryptocurrency and Bitcoin capital,” establish a “Bitcoin national reserve,” and set up a presidential advisory committee on cryptocurrency.

Business! It is all about business!

Trump used to call Bitcoin as a “scam”, but now he embraces it isn’t without reasons. On one hand, there are about votes and campaign funds. After promising a crypto-friendly regulatory environment, Trump’s campaign has received millions in cryptocurrency donations.On the other hand, there are family interests in this game. Trump and his sons recently announced a new venture, “World Free Finance,” which aims at providing financing alternatives to those underserved by traditional banks.

As a typical businessman, Trump has also profited handsomely from the NFT boom. In 2023, he made nearly $7.2 million selling Trump-themed NFTs, including special edition digital trading cards featuring his infamous red tie and suit worn during his Georgia arrest. Trump’s embrace of cryptocurrency combines politics and profit, turning his campaign into both a rallying cry and a business venture in the crypto world.

Cryptocurrencies have evolved into significant political and financial tools. Donald Trump’s recent use of Bitcoin, with his promises to make the U.S. a “global cryptocurrency capital,” signals the growing political importance of virtual currencies. Initially skeptical, Trump now leverages Bitcoin to attract campaign donations and appeal to younger voters.

Bitcoin’s value is tied to economic conditions, such as the recent surge past $62,000 following Federal Reserve actions, but its volatility poses risks for mainstream adoption (Nakamoto, 2008; Yermack, 2015). Furthermore, Trump’s opposition to central bank digital currencies reflects broader debates about regulation in the crypto space, where decentralization is seen as both an opportunity and a risk (Narayanan et al., 2016; Schär, 2021).

Reference:

Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. Retrieved from https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Yermack, D. (2015). Is Bitcoin a Real Currency? An Economic Appraisal. In D. Lee Kuo Chuen (Ed.), Handbook of Digital Currency (pp. 31-44).

Elsevier.Narayanan, A., et al. (2016). Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies. Princeton University

Press.Schär, F. (2021). Decentralized Finance. St. Louis Fed Review, 103(2), 153–174.

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Why did Bitcoin fail in El Salvador and what opportunity do “stablecoins” present?

14

September

2024

5/5 (1)

I must say I have been a skeptic towards cryptocurrencies for a while and at times I would strongly advocate for why they make no sense. However, after hearing more about cryptocurrencies as a disruptive technology during our lectures I realised I should maybe give them a chance and try to understand cryptocurrencies further. When reading into them I took interest in the use of cryptocurrencies as macroeconomic instruments in some of the world’s developing regions.

El Salvador has definitely taken the spotlight amongst countries that have adopted cryptocurrencies, specifically bitcoin, on a national level. 

In 2001 the country went through a major economic restructuring with the US dollar replacing their Salvadoran Colon. This left many lower income households in confusion and then exactly 20 years later they are faced with a major change to their country’s monetary landscape (link). In June 2021 the country’s president passed the “bitcoin law”, making the digital currency Bitcoin a legal tender (link). Since then, it has been unclear to what extent this adoption has been a success, where many say it was a complete flop. 

Only a year after the passing of the Salvadoran Bitcoin Law, the majority of the population were fueled with doubt when posed with the idea of bitcoin (link). The digital wallet that was launched by the country – Chivo Wallet posed significant drawbacks to do with traceability and fraud. The Chivo Wallet is a custodial wallet which means that a third party has custody of private keys on behalf of the users (link). This meant that although transactions were verified through Chivo wallet, identities were not, which led to the risk of fraud and identity theft (link).

With the national authorities failing to mobilize the adoption of bitcoin, residents that had initially invested in Bitcoin in 2021 found themselves with bitcoin that had almost halved in value. This is since cryptocurrencies in its nature are highly volatile where its value is mostly derived from how people value it (link).

Since then many countries have hopped on a new boat of a more stable alternative called “stable coin” which is essentially a more stable cryptocurrency. To reduce the volatility that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin face, these stable cryptocurrencies are based on tokens that are flagged to the value of a fiat currency, assets or another cryptocurrency (link). Nigeria is a country that has also gone through the adoption of cryptocurrency and is now looking towards a rapid rise in stable coins. Given the reputation of Nigeria’s Naira, a USD backed stable coin assures users of price stability. It also allows users a higher ease of access to the USD. On a more macro level, when residents have access to a USD backed stable coin they are less likely to be exposed to inflation within the country (link).

With technologies under Web3 still being relatively contemporary, countries and individuals are still researching the implications of these digital technologies as financial and economic instruments. Going forward their success will largely depend on appropriate governance and public trust.

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Stablecoins Are Not So Stable – Crypto

3

October

2021

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The popularity of cryptocurrency has been increasing over the years. According to the global crypto adoption index, in 2021 there has been an adoption increase of 880%. Even institutional money and cash of huge firms have been added into the crypto market. Names like Blackrock, Tesla, PayPal, and Square are all examples of organizations that have adopted Bitcoin in some form. There are even rumors that Amazon will soon allow payments to be made with cryptocurrencies.

Although the increase of adoption has a positive effect on the future of cryptocurrencies, there is still one elephant in the room to be addressed that makes further adoption more difficult: the high volatility of cryptocurrencies. Perhaps today you could still use your bitcoin to buy a shirt, but the opposite could be true for tomorrow. To solve this problem, stablecoins like Tether and Binance Coin were introduced to the crypto scene by crypto organizations. The idea behind this special digital money is that it is pegged with fiat USD on 1:1 ratio, which means that one does not need to be worried about losing buying power in the short-term. Just like normal fiat money, the only way for stablecoins to lose buying power is by inflation. The question remains, however, how are these crypto organizations able to keep the stablecoins pegged on a 1:1 ratio with the USD?

In theory, stablecoin organizations are able to produce an infinite amount of stablecoins. But in order to be pegged with the USD on a 1:1 ratio, the same amount of USD must be owned by the stablecoin provider on their balance sheet. The problem is that many stablecoin organizations do not allow external auditing, which means that nobody knows if stablecoins are really backed by fiat money. Therefore, stablecoins could turn out to be a ponzi scheme. Another problem is the fact that stablecoins are rumored to be backed by bonds, some even of the almost bankrupt Evergrande, risking the intrinsic value of stablecoins. Although as of today both potential problems have not been proven yet to be real, it is clear that the use of stablecoins is still quite risky, making the coin potentially to be worth $0.

Interestingly, even with this risk in mind, there is still lots of demand for stablecoins. In fact, one could earn up to 8.25% interest if they store their stablecoins on crypto banks or crypto exchanges. Compare that with the interest rate of barely a percent by fiat banks, this seems like a great way for the normal people to earn interest on their savings. To good to be true? Maybe.

Interest rates for stablecoins on Blockfi.

The reason for the high interest rate of stablecoins is due to the high demand of borrowing stablecoins by investors to speculate on the crypto market. Given the high volatility of cryptocurrency, this makes it possible for borrowers to have a high return of investment, using a part of their proceeds to fund the high interest rate. This concept is not new: fiat banks are doing the exact same. The only difference is that fiat money stored in fiat banks are insured by the government. In other words, if the borrowers are not able to pay back their debt, the government could still save the fiat bank and its customers with funding. The unregulated crypto banks and exchanges, however, are not insured, making it very risky to lend out stablecoins. Earning interest on stablecoins is thus high-risk high reward. Not to mention what could happen to the value of your lend out stablecoins once it is clear that it is perhaps a ponzi scheme. It was not a surprise when some governments are planning to come with their own stablecoins. China has done it.

To conclude, current stablecoins are not that stable as they seem to be. Not for daily use, and not for storing in your savings account. However, it is still quite useful for high-risk high reward investing strategies. Are you into that? Let me know in the comment section below.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/21/evergrande-crisis-could-drag-down-tether-and-other-cryptocurrencies.html

https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-the-digital-yuan-stablecoin-impacts-crypto-in-china-experts-answer

https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2021/stablecoins-under-the-microscope-as-us-preps-digital-currency-framework/

https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2021-global-crypto-adoption-index

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencewintermeyer/2021/08/12/institutional-money-is-pouring-into-the-crypto-market-and-its-only-going-to-grow/?sh=64bbb24d1459

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/23/amazon-is-hiring-a-digital-currency-and-blockchain-expert.html

https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-promises-an-audit-in-months-as-paxos-claims-usdt-is-not-a-real-stablecoin

https://ronaldmulder.medium.com/why-stablecoins-make-no-sense-999490b08910

https://blockfi.com/rates/

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The myth of crypto exchange

1

October

2021

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Early 2021, the US’s largest Crypto exchange Coinbase went listed on Nasdaq, a traditional stock exchange, through a direct listing process. In this article, we will shed some light on the development of crypto exchanges, and some concerns regarding their liquidity and legal risks.

Decentralised exchange and centralised exchange

Crypto exchanges have two different types: centralised exchange and decentralised exchange . A centralised exchange shares similar functions with a stock exchange, where they trade tokens instead of shares, with a central authority managing the platform. A decentralised exchange (DEX) instead is an application impacted by decentralised finance (Defi), solely acting as a non-custodial marketplace where peers can freely exchange cryptocurrencies. The first cryptocurrency exchange emerged in 2009, where people can trade bitcoins with different currencies. Some well-known centralised exchanges today are Coincase, Binance and Gemini (Arora, 2021). As for the decentralised exchanges such as Uniswap, they only facilitate crypto exchanges but not trading with fiat currencies.

Concerns and risks

While choosing which exchanges to trade or list their tokens, investors and companies need to pay attention to the liquidity of different exchanges.  Companies can issue tokens instead of shares as a method to raise capital, however, not all exchanges are liquid enough to benefit investors and fund raisers. According to incomplete research, over 500 crypto exchanges are competing in the market (Schueffel, 2019). Concerns are that liquidity figures of each exchange are self-reported with insufficient evidence and audit to prove their authenticity. For example, if an exchange claims to have two million users, no trustful document can provide the genuineness of this figure.

In addition, not all exchanges are regulated, choosing unregulated ones could be riskier for both companies and investors. An LSE blog (Mosioma, Walker, 2021) pointed out that only four of the largest crypto exchanges are significantly regulated. Although regulated, the focus is on anti-money laundering and due diligence matters rather than trading (Mosioma, Walker, 2021).  Therefore, investors are not yet protected by existing regulations.

Overall, unlike traditional stock exchanges that are legally scrutinised and well-structured, the crypto exchanges are still immature and subject to controversy. With the Chinese government officially banned cryptocurrency trading, it is worth investigating whether the crypto exchanges will take actions to build a more transparent and trustworthy trading environment.

References

Arora, K., 2021. Centralized and Decentralized Cryptocurrency Exchanges | Analytics Steps. [online] Analyticssteps.com. Available at: <https://www.analyticssteps.com/blogs/centralized-and-decentralized-cryptocurrency-exchanges> [Accessed 1 October 2021].

Walker, M. and Mosioma, W., 2021. Regulated cryptocurrency exchanges: sign of a maturing market or oxymoron?. [online] LSE Business Review. Available at: <https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2021/04/13/regulated-cryptocurrency-exchanges-sign-of-a-maturing-market-or-oxymoron/> [Accessed 1 October 2021].

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Gotta ban them all!

26

September

2021

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Ever since cryptocurrencies have existed, they have been a controversial topic mostly because of their volatility, the electricity needed to mine them, and the legality of the transactions behind them. After several (unsuccessful) attempts to stop cryptocurrency activity in China, the government has passed a bill this Friday, the 24th of September, to make all crypto financial transactions illegal (BBC News, 2021).

China’s first attempt to ban cryptocurrencies dates back to 2013. Eight years later they have decided to take more extreme measures and the results are still to be seen. It’s easy to understand why it is not an easy task, the technology behind crypto is untraceable, and China is responsible for 46% of the world’s current computing processing power used for mining (Al Jazeera, 2021). Nonetheless, the measures seem to be working, as in 2019 this value was up to 75%.

Why is this happening?

Cryptocurrencies’ worth is translated in individual empowerment and in a form of freedom. These are 2 concepts that are not well aligned with CCP’s usual policies. The government would rather hold the population and, most importantly, their information solely under their control, and anything that provides an alternative to that is considered a threat. However, the government justifies these measures with environmental issues and population protection from a dangerous volatile market (Al Jazeera, 2021). The People’s Bank of China claims that “[virtual currency-related business activities] seriously endangers the safety of people’s assets” (BBC News, 2021).

Effects

Despite the drops this news caused in the market the following days, the rest of the world doesn’t seem to care too much about this ban. Ulrik K.Lykke, an executive director at crypto hedge fund ARK36 wrote in an email: “While each time this [China’s crackdown] happens, the markets react with a price drop, each time the effect is smaller and more short-lived. The ‘China bans Bitcoin’ story has gained almost a meme-like status in the Bitcoin community because of this.” (Yue, 2021). The truth is the market has survived every ban news since 2013, and since then, Bitcoin’s value has skyrocketed from just 196 US$ in Oct 2013 to 44,755 US$ in Sep 2021 (Statista, 2021). Cryptocurrencies seem to have come to stay, and China’s efforts to ban their power, just give its supporters more reason to believe it is fulfilling its job of empowering individual freedom for the world.

References

BBC News. (2021, September 24). China declares all crypto-currency transactions illegal. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58678907

Al Jazeera. (2021, September 24). Bitcoin slumps as China bans all cryptocurrency transactions. Business and Economy News | Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/9/24/bbbitcoin-slumps-as-china-bans-all-cryptocurrency-transactions

Yue, F. (2021, September 25). China’s crypto ban has almost achieved a “meme-like status,” but here are the lingering impacts. MarketWatch. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-crypto-ban-has-almost-achieved-a-meme-like-status-but-here-are-the-lingering-impacts-11632512981

Statista. (2021, September 24). Bitcoin (BTC) price history up until September 24, 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/326707/bitcoin-price-index/

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Why a digital cat is sold for $172,000

18

October

2019

No ratings yet. You have probably heard of cryptocurrencies before, but have you heard of “cryptocollectibles”? They are like digital marbles or Pokémon cards that you have probably collected when you were younger. The company Axiom Zen released a new unique Cryptokitty – a digital collectible cat – every 15 minutes that only one person can buy until November 2018, when they capped these kitties at 50,000 (CryptoKitties, 2018). However, there are currently way more Cryptokitties, because unlike Pokémon cards, you can breed them. The game is that there are billions of different possible combinations of traits and appearances and so you can decide which combination is interesting for you. Therefore, you can go try to find a cat that has that combination and buy it. Also, you can try to find a combination that no one has created before and through the breeding mechanics you can come up with new combinations of traits or if you are lucky, even new traits entirely which has a big market value on the platform. Popular Cryptokitties earn high prices the way collectibles naturally always have.

Dragon
Dragon, owned by rabono as of Oct. 18th 2019, Image owned by CryptoKitties.

Meet Dragon. “Dragon bit Rebecca Black when he was younger, but luckily those days are gone. He finds that spying on the neighbors is seriously exhilarating and suggests you to try it some time” (CryptoKitties, n.d.). On September 4th, 2018, Dragon was sold for a staggering 600 ETH, which was equivalent to $172,000 at the time (Nguyen, 2018). Many questions were raised as Dragon was not one of the first 50,000 Generation 0 Cryptokitties that are generally worth more than the bred Cryptokitties.  Many people speculated that the transaction may have involved money laundering. However, Dragon may have some hidden attributes or the buyer maybe has an emotional attachment with the name, which will mean the purchase is made because of scarcity.

The interesting thing is that digital scarcity is a quite a new concept (Posth, 2019). Before the Digital Era, if you owned a thing, only you have that thing and no one else has it – unless you gave or sold it to another person. But that completely changed when goods became digital and accessible online. One the internet, it’s a copy every time you give somebody data. In contrary, Cryptokitties can be scarce, because they are built onto a blockchain. It provides a decentralized system for recording transactions. For example, if Alice has 10 Cryptokitties it is registered in everyone’s ledger with all the transactions. Therefore, if Chuck would say that Alice only owns 6 Cryptokitties, Alice and everyone else in the network can point to their ledger and say that Chuck is incorrect and possibly malicious. This makes copying, fraud or piracy a lot harder.

Cryptokitties are cute and the concept behind it is complicated. That is because owners of these kitties merely own the code and not the visual that they associate the kitty with. However, they rather associate their kitten as “the one with the funny eyes” or “the one that bit Rebecca Black when he was younger”. Therefore, Cryptokitties show that we still have steps to make until we can finally really keep a digital collectible like a tangible Pokémon card and not solely the code.

References:
CryptoKitties. (2018). Some of the rarest CryptoKitties will stop being released on November 30th. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/cryptokitties/some-of-the-rarest-cryptokitties-will-stop-being-released-on-november-30th-ec218f3fc5c4
CryptoKitties. (n.d.) Dragon. Retrieved from: https://www.cryptokitties.co/kitty/896775. 
Nguyen, C. (2018). Cat got your wallet? CryptoKitties virtual feline fetches $170K in crypto cash. Retrieved from: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/dragon-cryptokitties-most-expensive-virtual-cat/
Posth, S. (2019). Decentralization and Scarcity — Blockchain and the Cultural Industries. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/@posth/decentralization-and-scarcity-blockchain-and-the-cultural-industries-f27068e82863

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Initial Coin Offerings: A Ticking Time Bomb?

18

October

2017

4.75/5 (4) The cryptocurrency world is going mad for token offerings. So far, over $320 million have already been raised this year through what is called Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) – the blockchain community’s version of crowdfunding. Many regard them as a promising new funding model that has the potential to disrupt traditional venture capitalists.

Bildschirmfoto-2017-07-05-um-09.35.47

But how does an ICO actually work? Basically, a company issues a certain amount of digital tokens, kind of an own cryptocurrency, to gain funding from potential investors. These tokens – which are similar to shares issued in an IPO – are sold in exchange for Bitcoins or Ether, but it can be fiat money as well. To do so, the startup firm must create a document that outlines key aspects such as

  • The overall idea of the project
  • Ways in which company seeks to generate value
  • Amount of money needed to undertake venture
  • Running time of the ICO campaign

Investors hope that the startup will become a success, which will lead to a value increase of their tokens. In fact, there have been already some very successful ICO projects in the past, such as Ethereum that managed to raise $18 million in 2014. Accordingly, ICOs are more and more seen as an efficient way to kickstart blockchain-focused projects.

However, insiders increasingly warn that ICOs become a hype and investors do not critically assess the companies they are investing in. In many cases, startups are launching an ICO without having a working product. Example: EOS. The company raised 650,000 ETH, which is the around $200 million, within the first five days of its ICO campaign. EOS could convince its investors with the idea of building a platform that is similar to Ethereum – just better, without transaction costs and faster processing. However, so far, it is just an idea and the startup has not come up with a working product yet. Accordingly, it is highly unclear, whether investors will ever get a return on their investment.

In general, a potential problem of ICOs is that they are unregulated, which means that they are not overseen by financial authorities like the Securities Exchange Commission. Thus, investors have no protection in case of fraudulent initiatives. Paired with a lack of careful upfront research and analysis, as investors blindly follow the temptation of potential huge returns, ICOs may in fact become a ticking time bomb…

 

References

Coman, A. (2017, June 25). ICO Review of: EOS (EOS tokens on Ethereum blockchain). Retrieved October 18, 2017, from https://medium.com/@EthereumRussian/ico-review-of-eos-eos-tokens-on-ethereum-blockchain-8984c975cd48

Marshall, A. (2017, March 07). ICO, Explained. Retrieved October 18, 2017, from https://cointelegraph.com/explained/ico-explained

Momoh, O. (2017, September 05). Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Retrieved October 18, 2017, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/initial-coin-offering-ico.asp

Wong, J. I. (2017, June 05). The new cryptocurrency gold rush: digital tokens that raise millions in minutes. Retrieved October 18, 2017, from https://qz.com/994466/the-new-cryptocurrency-gold-rush-digital-tokens-that-raise-millions-in-minutes/

 

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Technology of the Week – Will cryptocurrencies take over the world? (76)

6

October

2016

5/5 (1) Today’s topic is the disruption of the current banking system. Within the current model, banks are involved in every transaction made. As a middle man, they have control over the process and usually charge a fee to carry out the transaction. Wouldn’t it be great to carry out a transaction between you and the other side of the world instantly and without transaction costs? With the introduction of the cryptocurrency, this has become a possibility. Let’s focus on two of the most popular cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology; the blockchain.

 

The Blockchain

The blockchain is a database that maintains an ever-growing list of records. These records are so called blocks. What is unique about the blockchain concept is that the database is distributed among every user of the blockchain. All these users have a copy of the same database, which is automatically updated around every 10 minutes. There is no user which has more information about the blocks than one another, therefore the blockchain has information symmetry.

Cryptocurrencies use this blockchain technology as an open and secure ledger of all transactions ever made. The blocks then contain information about the transactions, which will be authorized by miners. These miners are rewarded a small fee for their work.

 

Bitcoin

Let’s illustrate how Bitcoin works. Every user of the Bitcoin has an own wallet, which exists out of 26-35 alphanumeric characters. When a transaction is made, the Bitcoins are transferred instantly to the other’s wallet, without the interference of a middle man. The transaction is verified by miners.

More about mining: (Bitcoinmining.com)

 

Ethereum

Ether is another cryptocurrency based on the blockchain. Its decentralized system, known as Ethereum, can execute peer-to-peer contracts using the cryptocurrency ether. Currently, there has been interest in Ethereum from large firms like IBM, Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase to solve issues in various industries. The value of Ethereum is rising from 1 tot 12 dollars in 1 year. This relatively new currency is therefore a serious contender for a dominant cryptocurrency.

 

Bitcoin vs. Ethereum  

Pros     

pros

Cons

cons


Prediction

If we compare the pros and cons we see that the two cryptocurrencies both serve different purposes. Nonetheless, the question whether these cryptocurrencies will ultimately replace traditional money remains. Experts believe that the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum will only go up as it attracts more interest. This will also lead to a higher acceptance by (offline) merchants. However, the blockchain technology itself is the real innovation. Banks are gaining an interest in the technology for their own activities. So even if cryptocurrencies ultimately cease to exist, the blockchain will continue to thrive.

Thanks for reading. (Group 76)

Also please check out our video!

 

More information at:

https://blockchain.info/

https://www.bitcoinmining.com/

https://www.bitcoin.com

http://www.npo.nl/vpro-tegenlicht/01-11-2015/VPWON_1232890

 

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Technology of the Week – Electronic Markets: Forex & Bitcoin

6

October

2016

No ratings yet. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuxBKOROjKU&feature=youtu.be

 

Looking into history, the very first sight of electronic markets appeared in 1970 with the creation of the single-source electronic sales channels; linked customers to the products of the single vendor owning the market channel. Since then, the electronic have changed dramatically thanks to new technologies but their primary function as remained the one of traditional markets, namely matching buyers and sellers, enforcing contracts and providing a price mechanism. The advances in IT have greatly reduce both the time and the cost of these exchanges between both sides of the market. Named electronic communication effect, it affected almost all businesses in a profound and lasting manner.

 

In our ‘Technology of the Week’ video, we decided to focus on a special category of electronic markets with very defining characteristics: currency exchange markets. We looked into the most common and used one, Forex, as well as a relatively new but promising one, the crypto-currency exchange, focusing on bitcoins.

 

Forex, or the Foreign Exchange Market deals with currencies of other countries. All trading takes place on the over-the-counter market, a non-transparent and decentralized market open all day long on weekdays.  

 

Cryptocurrencies arose in 2009, as a reaction to the 2008 financial crisis. They are a generic name that covers all types of currencies that are not operated by a central bank. Encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of these currencies and verify the transfer of funds using them. Satoshi Nakamoto invented the bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency at the moment, with the idea of cutting the middleman from the process while still offering a secure and effortless currency. A digital wallet is needed to store bitcoins while transactions are verified by digital signature and blockchain. The blockchain technology is basically an online ledger that records all transactions and is open to everyone. It is worth mentioning that despite all benefits offered by greater privacy, bitcoins have helped criminals and terrorists transact online.

 

The PEST analysis shows that the environments in which both markets operate are subjected to different influences. At the political level, the main difference is the regulation. Forex is governmentally regulated which provides a safety net to traders while Bitcoin markets are much less protected. The economic landscape has a direct influence on Forex, while bitcoins are much more volatile and rely on speculation theories. Regarding social factors, the anonymity of bitcoin traders is differentiating this market greatly from Forex, where all traders are personally identified. On the technological side, the technologies behind both markets are rather similar, the only difference being in the density of players and integration of back-and front-end.

 

Summarizing the findings, Forex has the benefits of being regulated, and hence safer, having a relatively low volatility while still allowing informed traders to make profits. When it comes to the bitcoin market, privacy, low costs, and high availability are its great advantages.

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Is mining Bitcoins worth it?

3

October

2016

5/5 (1) The legend says it all started in October 2007, when Satoshi Nakamoto published the whitepaper of the Bitcoin on the internet. In 2008 Bitcoin software was released and the Genesis block, block 0, was ‘mined’. Finally, on 9 January 2009, the first version of the Bitcoin was released. It included a Bitcoin generation system that would create a total of 21 million Bitcoins through the year 2040. So what is this mining? More important, is mining Bitcoins worth it for you and me?

The Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency or digital currency. There are just two ways to get Bitcoins. Either buying them for traditional valuta or mining them yourself. Mining Bitcoins serves only one purpose. Authorizing Bitcoin transactions made in a certain period. The miners prevent Bitcoin users from spending their coins multiple times or committing fraud in a different way. Afterwards, the miners will be rewarded in Bitcoins.

So how does this mining work?

Everyone with a PC or a laptop can mine Bitcoins. In the beginning, miners used the processor in their computers to mine Bitcoins. After a while, they noticed that video cards of gaming PC’s were much better suited for the mining process. The video card will use it’s power to solve difficult math problems ( Hash’s) that authorize the transaction made between Bitcoin users. To start mining, you’ll need three things.

  • Mining hardware (high-end video card)
  • Mining software (downloadable for free)
  • Mining account

After you meet these requirements you can start mining. Mining has become more difficult the last few years, for several reasons. First, you got ‘The Bitcoin halving’. Bitcoin’s code commands that every 210,000 blocks, the number of new bitcoins created is cut in half. (Coinjournal, 2016). When Bitcoin was launched in 2009, miners were rewarded with 50 bitcoins per block. The second era started in November 2012, reducing the number of bitcoins earned to 25. The third era started in July this year, reducing the number of bitcoins to 12.5 per block. The second reason  is that the number of miners keeps increasing. How more miners, how smaller the chance you’ll solve the math problem and earn the Bitcoins.

So is mining Bitcoins worth it for you and me?

Mining has become a serious business in the last few years. The value of the bitcoin increased from $0.04 in 2012 to around $600 today. There are several huge mining rigs which are just built for mining Bitcoins. We’re talking about warehouses with thousands of video cards, million dollar investments and a lot of dedication. They use hundreds of thousands of dollars of electricity each month and only a few manage to mine efficiently. In the documentary ‘Het Bitcoin Evangelie’, there is an owner of such bitcoin mine who talks freely about his mine. (I’ll post the link below) Currently, it is barely profitable for individuals to earn money with Bitcoin mining with a single setup. A possibility is to join a mining pool, which is a group of individuals who mine together. Still, within this group, you will just earn a few dollars if you got a thousand dollar video card.

Conclusion: Mining Bitcoins as an individual with a gaming PC will only earn you a few dollars a day, even if you are within a mining pool. There are too many high-end players on the market with high-tech setups. You can compare it with the regular mining process. An individual can go mine for gold with his pickaxe but probably won’t succeed. If you group with 10 miners you will have more success, but there will always big mining organization who got the equipment to mine way more than you’ll be able to do as an individual. My advice: don’t start mining unless you are you really dedicated.

If you have any questions/comments, please share them!

 

 

More information about the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining:

To fully understand the Bitcoin mining concept, I’ll share the next 2-minute explanation video. Credits to Bitcoinmining.com

Documentary about the Bitcoin (partly Dutch). 35:40 Is about the owner of a huge mining company

http://www.npo.nl/vpro-tegenlicht/01-11-2015/VPWON_1232890

 

 

Others interesting articles&websites

http://coinjournal.net/halvening-explained-infographic/

http://historyofbitcoin.org/

http://www.coindesk.com/information/who-is-satoshi-nakamoto/

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