Daily Crypto Nooooooz

[indiamikezulu]

Now is a good time to trade on our lower-volume exchanges: Livecoin, Coin Exchange, Cryptopia.

Check the volumes. Check the spreads. Tip-toe around. You could get bargains/make profit.

[indiamikezulu]

'Bank Indonesia has now joined forces with local police to prevent bitcoin transactions where they are most likely to take place – in Bali.'         

https://news.bitcoin.com/crackdown-on-bitcoin-hits-businesses-in-bali/

Something rather formal today:

you can follow through history the course of various political movements, and see them shift from some 'pure beginning' to being the sock puppets of their opponents. I remember the debate, in the early 1970's, about the potential of . . . the television! The argument was that television had tremendous potential as an instrument of education.

It just didn't work out that way . . .

What's my point here?

The 'pure' idea of Bicoin – that is, non-Government-issued currency – is being 'infiltrated' and cheapened – 'co-opted' – very fast at this point. We got e-fiats (Government 'cryptos') incoming. We got a tsunami of regulation incoming. Got the Wall Street Bitcoin-futures squid clamped on our face.

Meanwhile, though, Wall Street – the global economy – is ripe for a whoopsie, and that will swing the odds in our favour. But whatever happens, cryptos – certainly one as solid as GRS – will persevere.

Wooooooo!

[indiamikezulu]

'With the Italian public increasingly disenchanted with the euro, the country's parliamentary election in March could lead to the introduction of a "new lira" as a parallel currency.'           
https://www.wikitribune.com/story/2018/01/11/current_affairs/italy-could-start-new-parallel-currency-after-upcoming-election/34349/

Today, a brief tour of the fantastic shift in the reality/range of money in the world in recent decades:

the Euro is a supra-national currency (and every crypto geek needs to know what 'supra-national' means).

I recall this from earlier days of the Eurozone crisis: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/27/ireland-euro-uncertainty-reviving-punts

There are a range of local currencies like the Brixton pound: http://brixtonpound.org/what

You may think that gold ETFs are a scam – I sure do! – but they are also a quite new form of 'currency' – working-class folks weren't trading these things in 1970 in the country town I grew up in!

Then there's the IMF's 'SDR's.

The Caribbean's pegged-fiat-token is (tiny but) multi-national: http://bitcoinagile.com/5A558B/bitt-launches-caribbeans-first-blockchain-based-digital-money_stream

And now the petro-yuan, an open affront to U.S. dollar hegemony.

And the Venezuelan/supranational petro-currency disaster-in-the-making: http://www.zdnet.com/article/venezuela-asks-other-countries-to-adopt-oil-backed-cryptocurrency/

And 5,000 cryptos/a range of Ether tokens.

[indiamikezulu]

https://blogs.thomsonreuters.com/answerson/world-cryptocurrencies-country/

The list of 'the state of play' in various countries is good information, quite an interesting read.

[indiamikezulu]

'I wouldn't proclaim so confidently that 2018 is going to be a sideways year, all indications barring any serious unexpected regulation say it's going to be the biggest year of growth yet.' https://www.reddit.com/message/inbox/

One: the spike of late 2013 resulted in a government backlash that pushed crypto prices down for over 20 months.

Could that happen again?

Well, the 'support base' of cryptos is enormously larger than it was in late 2013, and that's a very positive factor. But the number of ICO scams, and the way in which it is transpiring that other ICOs contravened various laws, and the enormous amount of capital that has flowed in, have given governments reason (according to their values . . . ) to act, and that action is underway: Europe, India, China, the U.S., Australia, South Korea, and other places.

Two: how stabilizing a factor will the Wall-Street futures be? Is it so that they can profit from shorting Bitcoin? and later, presumably, other cryptos? Wall Street wants to tame cryptos, and they have the capital to try to. And we're going to see how it all goes this year.

Three: the 'vapour cap' thing has long been a problem; but has the enormously more complex nature of cryptos made it even worse? The millions and millions of newcomers are getting hard lessons in how things go on Planet Kryptos. What if all these newcomers begin to scrach and sniff?           

Let's watch and wait.

[indiamikezulu]

'Some experts think it will be the trigger for the next financial collapse. Others call it a "national crisis" of unprecedented proportions.

But what all of them agree on is that there's no way US pension funds can keep their promises to the next wave of retirees.'

https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliviergarret/2017/06/09/the-disturbing-trend-that-will-end-in-a-full-fledged-pension-crisis/#7147303a6620


'The looming pension crisis has been signalled in the collapse of Carillion.'

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-22/global-pension-ponzi-carillion-collapse-one-many-come


The 'original' GFC -- 2009 -- was caused by large amounts of low-quality debt. What followed was the creation of lots more low-quality debt.

But the recovery hasn't come, and it isn't coming. (That's just newspaper headlines -- and who believes those?) One of two things will happen. The first is that governments will continue to print money, which will make cryptos attractive as a safe haven. The second is that the economy will just start spiralling out of control, which will increase distrust of government, which will make cryptos attractive as a safe haven.

[indiamikezulu]

The global crypto-noooz reality has been a little 'mushy' in the last fortnight.' You could spend an hour going over this:

https://cryptocoinmastery.com/south-korean-card-companies-block-transactions-overseas-cryptocurrency-exchanges/

We have overlapping reports, reports supporting one agenda or another, badly-translated reports, false reports intended to move the markets -- all sorts of reports!!

And in the interest of simply being honest and objective: IMHO it will go on for a while yet. Entities like the U.S. SEC and the South Korean Government can take months -- years!! -- to get policies in place.

Now is a great time to involve yourself in developing GRS's community. There is too much 'When Moon?' stuff still going on.

Now is a great time to improve your OPSEC, and perhaps read up on LN and atomic swaps.

What's clear is that anyone who is here now, and who sticks around, will have an income for life trading cryptos.

[indiamikezulu]

'Brisbane Airport (BNE) will soon become the first cryptocurrency airport terminal, according to reports from local media. The airport is working with local and international companies to make the entire terminal cryptocurrency friendly, with stores, coffee shops and restaurants accepting Bitcoin, Ether and Dash.' 

https://cointelegraph.com/news/worlds-first-cryptocurrency-airport-in-brisbane

These guys have scale on their side. Suppose they set up their system so they can 'real-time convert' back to fiat. Suppose that their analysis is that this is a good time to buy in to cryptos -- 100% appreciation within two years? 200%

The scale thing is that these guys already have lawyers on staff, so such a venture isn't a great trial (as it is for individuals like us hobbyists . . . )

Then they watch the markets like hawks. If things seem to be getting steadily better, they keep some or all of that incoming crypto -- they don't real-time convert it. But if things look like going 'sideways,' then they sell that incoming crypto.

[indiamikezulu]

Having some fun today/why we love GRS

'Defendants illegally purchased a home, antiques, fine art, jewelry, luxury goods, furniture, interior decorating and other home improvement services, travel and entertainment.'       

'without providing any service to the clients.'         

https://www.techspot.com/news/72941-two-charged-big-coin-cryptocurrency-scam.html

[indiamikezulu]

' "Caveat emptor," said Yvonne Zhang, who had spoken on a panel on the future of cryptocurrencies at an Association of Futures Markets conference in Bangkok on Friday. "The 'investors' that did not do due diligence and take time to understand what they're trading in, both venue and subject matter, face unhedgable risks. If they continue to 'trade' the same way knowing the murky nature of this market, they're gambling." '       

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-26/cryptocurrencies-drop-after-japanese-exchange-halts-withdrawals


The OPSEC of the average citizen of Planet Krypto has worsened with the influx of newcomers in the last year. Now we get to wonder if this sloppiness extends to exchanges. The fantastic thing about the Coincheck Exchange hack is not that they had a half a billion bucks' worth of funds in a hot wallet; but that in a formal interview, they didn't really quite seem to understand that it was their fault. Wow!

[indiamikezulu]

'the rapid growth of ICO fundraising in many countries is the main reason behind Thailand's decision to address the matter at policy level.'

https://news.bitcoin.com/thailand-taking-steps-to-regulate-icos/


Reports on the legality of Bitcoin are fabulously confused. Many headlines say 'Banned!' but the articles outline restrictions.*

A couple of countries are hard cases -- Bangladesh.

[And this is good data on the 'state of play': https://blogs.thomsonreuters.com/answerson/world-cryptocurrencies-country/]


So, Thailand has seen the light. Belarus has announced some sort of ICO-friendly stance. South Koreans reacted angrily to government threats to constrain cryptos/ICOs. And other nations will continue to do this.

So how can I argue that 2018 may be a 'sideways year'?

Well, I think there is a 'third category.' It's not 'Bitcoin is illegal in Country X!' -- which is the sort of headline we see. And it's not 'Country Y announces it will be a crypto paradise!' -- which is the other headline we see.

It's the headline we don't see: 'Country Z announces it is crypto friendly, desires to be a leader in the fin-tech space; but banks in Country Z refuse to transfer funds to tax-paying crypto exchanges, and the tax regulations are unbelievably difficult to understand, so you almost begin to feel that Country Z would really rather that cryptos -- real cryptos -- just disappeared, and they could keep blockchain and maybe launch an e-fiat.'

Let's see how it goes!


*This 2014 article is a good example of this sort of confused reporting: https://www.coindesk.com/bank-thailand-says-bitcoin-illegal-warns-use/

[indiamikezulu]

'A growing movement of senior business figures, economists, and powerful investors from across the globe is calling for capitalism to be reimagined so that companies everywhere serve a social purpose.

The charge is being led by Larry Fink, the founder and chief executive of the world's biggest asset manager, Blackrock. The investment house has $6.3 trillion (£4.5 trillion) under management, making Fink arguably the single most influential investor on the planet.

Fink detonated a bomb in boardrooms everywhere earlier this month with a letter to the bosses of all the companies it owns shares in, saying they could no longer afford to focus simply on profit.'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/01/28/larrys-letter-drives-charge-reimagining-global-capitalism/


My stance on this is clear: it will be a disaster for the human race:

even though revolutionary communism – like the U.S.S.R. – failed, its lesser form ('Eurosocialism' will do for a term) has been becoming steadily more authoritarian – cultural Marxism!

Globalism and technologism (and 'climate-change-ism') have given bureaucrats excuses to move into bigger offices. No one will now deny that government and capitalism are working more closely together – like Google and the German government.

But until now, there has at least been the pretense that the capitalists need to be controlled because they are an anti-social force.

But now the capitalists will convince the bureaucrats that The New Capitalism is good (but the capitalists will keep all the bad old power and money, just the way the tobacco companies did when they divested . . . )

And the bureaucrats will be happy to be convinced because they'll get even bigger offices.

And the result will be that that the massive and bankrupt and authoritarian bureaucracy, and the loony policies of cultural Marxism, and The Noo Caring Capitalism, will become a single entity.

And what does this have to do with cryptos? Cryptos are one of the few things left with the potential to weaken governments and banks.

[indiamikezulu]

Woo hoo!!

'All pairs are now tradable against BTC, ETH & USD.'    https://twitter.com/bitfinex/status/956195856847433728


'The adoption of Bitcoin Cash is seemingly continuing to increase as its supporters promote its use for ordinary commerce, like cash.'

https://www.trustnodes.com/2017/10/27/bitcoin-cash-now-accepted-1200-restaurants-denmark


Bitcoin 'dominance' was once as high as 98%. Today it's down to 33%. So . . . how does this concern GRS?

It means that Bitcoin's stranglehold on trading and 'brand recognition' is broken. Many many more cryptos will achieve significant adoption -- on exchanges and by merchants -- in coming years.

[indiamikezulu]

https://cointelegraph.com/news/facebook-bans-cryptocurrency-ico-ads-because-of-deceptive-promotional-practices

Today is a good day to be an experienced crypto geek. There are always 'internal' events (like tech updates) and 'external' events' (like the one above). Either can cause craziness.

Keep track of the buy-in prices of your GRS purchases. Keep some fiat to buy in when prices are low. Keep a little bit of your 'pole coin' (which would be Bitcoin if you're trading BTC-GRS) in reserve -- not much. Just a pinch. If a slump looks like continuing, sell any coin that you can break even on -- which gives you pole coin to carry on with.

Keep your mind on the big picture. Keep trading.

[indiamikezulu]

'Sberbank does not plan to provide cryptocurrency exchange to retail investors, but is looking to operate on the institutional level.'           

https://cointelegraph.com/news/russias-largest-state-bank-to-open-cryptocurrency-exchange-in-europe

This is a very important shift in the terrain, campers. The less important thing is that this bank has decided to set up outside Russia.

The more important thing is that they will only serve institutional customers. The response of committed crypto geeks should be to set up groups of p2p traders, who can provide non-mainstream bulk cryptos. I already know of the existence of one of these.