Jan 9, 2018  -  U.S. technology firm Kodak has announced that it will launch its own cryptocurrency, with plans to host an initial coin offering (ICO) at the end of January.

In an official announcement, Kodak said the cryptocurrency would underpin "an encrypted, digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers." The idea is that photographers could use Kodak's forthcoming blockchain to register works, with "KODAKCoin" functioning as a medium of exchange on the platform. Users can receive payment in the cryptocurrency as well as pay for rights, according to the company.

The unveiling marks the first time Kodak has revealed its interest in the technology. The company is perhaps best known for its photography-related products, though a bankruptcy and subsequent recovery in 2013 led the firm to focus more actively on printing and digital film.

Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke said in a statement:

"For many in the tech industry, 'blockchain' and 'cryptocurrency' are hot buzzwords, but for photographers who've long struggled to assert control over their work and how it's used, these buzzwords are the keys to solving what felt like an unsolvable problem. Kodak has always sought to democratize photography and make licensing fair to artists. These technologies give the photography community an innovative and easy way to do just that."

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It's not clear at this time how much Kodak intends to seek through the ICO, but the company said that the token sale – set for Jan. 31 – will be open to accredited investors from countries including the U.S. and Canada.

"This initial Coin Offering is issued under SEC guidelines as a security token under Regulation 506 (c) as an exempt offering," Kodak said.

Market data suggests that, at the very least, Kodak is enjoying a bit of an investor windfall as a result of its announcement. As of press time, shares for Kodak are up roughly 37 percent for the day, having risen from an opening of $3.10 to $5.50, according to Google data.

Source:  Coindesk   |  January 10, 2018   |||

Jan 3, 2018  -  Adding Ripple to Coinbase could send an already rising value skyrocketing writes Alasdair Wilkins on Inverse Innovation.  While no cryptocurrency is yet ready to rival bitcoin, a surprise contender has popped up in the race for the silver medal. Originally designed in 2012 to ease bank-to-bank transfers, Ripple now has the biggest market cap of any non-bitcoin cryptocurrency, and there’s still one obvious thing holding back its potential: It’s not yet on Coinbase, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange.

Jan 3, 2018  -  A post from IKIGUIDE - As a professional who has been doing Public Relations/ Community Management in the cryptoworld for some time already, it recently came to my attention that some of my friends are completely lost when my fellow traders and I discuss crypto stuff. This is because we tend to spam cryptocurrency jargons like water.

Indeed, cryptocurrency jargons can sometimes be quite confusing to a person who isn’t familiar with crypto! Yet if you are just starting out in crypto in Singapore, you will see such language used really often on reddit and in telegram. Having said that, don’t worry. Here’s presenting a Top 5 Must-Know Cryptocurrency Jargon Post to help you decrypt some of the potentially confusing language.

Cryptocurrency Jargon #1: “HODL”Everytime you read Facebook Groups, Telegram, Reddit–there will be at least one person who uses the term “HODL”.

So initially when I first started out in the cryptoworld and doing research, I was totally judging redditors. “Cannot even spell ‘HOLD’ meh? So fail.”

But actually, “HODL” refers to “Hold On for Dear Life”. It’s not a misspelling or autocorrect for the word “HOLD”.

Well as I’m typing this, TRX is like mooning again due to its newest listing today on a major exchange. So someone might tell you to “HODL” because the prices will be increasing (X10? X100?) over the next few hours or days.

Which brings us to our next jargon…

Cryptocurrency Jargon #2: “Mooning”Basically the action verb of mooning describes the increasing price of the cryptocurrency.

Contrary to popular language, it’s not describing an ass. (HAHA– that was what one or two friends speculated).

Sometimes crypto traders use the phrase “to the moon” to describe the skyrocketing prices of that particular coin.

Cryptocurrency Jargon #3: “FOMO”This abbreviation stands for “Fear Of Missing Out”.

The shittiest feeling in crypto is when you cannot buy ETH as coinmama/ coinbase/ xfers is taking forever to verify your account, or you buy a coin at a relatively high price because everyone else is doing so.

Take the recent example of VERGE. A couple of days ago, there were massive rumours surrounding the verge wraith protocol release. The prices of VERGE fell due to loss of confidence, then peaked when a developer “leaked” a picture of a wraith protocol screenshot on snapchat.

So why did the price of VERGE peak due to pure speculation? It’s the fear of missing out or FOMO. So there you go

Dec 27, 2017  -  If 2017 was the year of the ICO, 2018 will be the year of the great ICO hangover.  It will also be the year major financial institutions adopt digital assets, and mark the birth of hybrid blockchains.

Dec 21, 2017  -  TL;DR–an item that represents the work that someone invested is a representation of value. This has been true throughout history and it is true now.

The origin for this post is a bit unusual….the Old Testament.

I was reading a story about Joseph when he was viceroy of Egypt and how his brothers came down from Canaan to buy food during the famine. The text says that they brought “money” with them (in the form of silver coins).

The question that I had then was: Why would believe that the ruler of a foreign land would accept their silver coins in payment for something of “actual” value, in this case, food?

Physical Proof of WorkThroughout history, some metals have achieved the status of “precious” and been used as a form of money.

As we talked about the other day, money needs to have a few characteristics to make it work.

It needs to be durable, transportable, and relatively scarce, among other things.

One possible reason that a silver (or gold) coin works as money is that it actually is a physical representation of the fact that someone put their labor (which is value) into the mining, refining, smelting, forging, etc. of the coin.

So, the coin in your hand is a “proof of work.”

That proof, then, represents value and it can be transferred from one person to the next.

That’s the physical world.

Digital Proof of WorkThe reason why (some) blockchains have value is because of the “proof of work” algorithm.

In this case, the miners invest work (computing power and electricity) to verify transactions and add blocks to the chain. When they do, they get new Bitcoins which are the digital representations of the fact that they did the work.

The more I think about it, the more I realize Satoshi’s genius in outlining the terms for the Bitcoin blockchain as he did.

When you can prove that work was done to create something, that thing has some inherent value.

The Problem with FiatWhich brings us to fiat currency.

When the US dollar was backed by gold (until 1971), we just had an easier, more transportable way of representing the proof-of-work that went into creating the gold.

When Nixon took the US off that standard, however, it became free floating.

Ironically, it is the US dollar that isn’t really backed by anything (except for the government’s ability to coerce you to use it when paying your taxes and jail you if you don’t).

For 46 years, we’ve had the inertia of the value of a US dollar because everyone else accepts the dollar for payment. It’s a big magic trick we all play on each other.

But here’s the challenge.In order to create new dollars, there is no “work” that needs to be done. Someone pushes a button and POOF…money is created.

Argentinians, Zimbabweans, Turks, Cypriots and others have seen firsthand what happens when this is taken to its extreme. That is the danger of being able to create money without any actual work behind it.

What’s Old is NewSo, the reason why the ancient Near East accepted gold or silver coins is the same reason why more and more people are accepting cryptocurrencies. It represents a proof of work.

All of us know that our labor has value.

By having an incorruptible proof of our labor (a gold coin or a blockchain-based coin), we can give others greater confidence that they can accept the proof in exchange for their assets.

Source:  Jeremy Epstein for Never Stop Marketing  ||  December 21, 2017   |||

Dec 19, 2017  -  Bitcoin: Flipping the Coin  - You must be familiar with the above quote if you’ve watched the Christian Bale movie The Big Short. Does that mean the Bitcoin is a bubble waiting to burst? Maybe. The truth is no one knows just yet. It’s difficult to assess whether something is a bubble by simply reading the news or following the market. So, let’s begin by understanding what is a Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a decentralized, digital cryptocurrency. Confused? Let’s take an example. Let’s say that you are ordering headphones from Amazon via a seller and you want to know exactly where they’ve been before they were shipped to you. How do you find out? The answer is, you cannot. You can’t know the exact source of the product and you definitely cannot find out all the transactions related to those specific headphones.

Imagine if there was some sort of a digital ledger that could tell you all that and more? There is. Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that stores all transactions related to a specific product or asset. But then what is a Bitcoin? Blockchain technology is what makes the Bitcoin possible.

Bitcoin is a peer to peer decentralized digital currency that is used to buy and sell products online. Decentralized means that the Bitcoin is not managed or issued by a company, government or financial institution. Bitcoin uses blockchain to store all transactions in a digital ledger which is then accessible to everyone globally using their computers. Now that you understand the basics, let’s understand why there is so much hype surrounding the Bitcoin.

1 Bitcoin costs $10,886.85 at the time of writing this article. Crazy, right? Bitcoin was worth $1 in April 2011 and now, 6 years down the line, it’s worth more than 10,000 times its original value. But, why is the price of the Bitcoin so high? Bitcoin’s growing demand and the awareness amongst the public about cryptocurrencies is causing the price of the Bitcoin to rise.

The price of the Bitcoin has been fluctuating a lot recently but some are betting that the price of the Bitcoin will rise to $40,000 by the end of 2018. People are even purchasing 5% of 1 Bitcoin so that they can sell it off and earn a profit when the price rises again. Various Bitcoin exchanges like Coinome, Zebpay, Unocoin and several others in India are currently allowing the public to purchase and sell Bitcoin also known as BTC. So, should you invest in Bitcoin? I hope I can help you answer that question by the end of this article.

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s wealthiest individuals and a person who is widely regarded as one of the best investors of his time had this to say about the Bitcoin: “It’s a mirage.”

Several others share his thoughts but does that mean that they are right? Well, they could be but it’s quite difficult to assess something like this and who knows what could happen in the future. Let’s take a look at some important points:

1. Volatility: The price of the Bitcoin has been fluctuating a lot and although it has been termed as a currency, a 15% change in price in a single day is concerning. Although, you wouldn’t be thinking about this today if you had invested in Bitcoin a few years ago because you would have been a millionaire by now.
2. Regulatory problems: Various countries such as China have imposed various restrictions to try and regulate Bitcoin and some countries have even banned the use of Bitcoin completely. Some believe that a few countries are working on their own cryptocurrency which means more regulations.
3. Bubble: Bitcoin has drawn several comparisons to other bubbles in the past specially due to the fluctuations in price and the massive hype surrounding it.
4. Legality: Although, buying or selling a Bitcoin is considered neither legal or illegal in India but the Reserve Bank of India has not declared it a currency yet.
5. Fraud: Various individuals and companies are contacting the public to ask them to invest in Bitcoin through them but because Bitcoin investments are not regulated, if you are cheated by someone you can’t do much about it.
6. Price: The golden rule of investment is to not invest an amount that you cannot afford to lose. If you want to invest in a Bitcoin then purchase a small portion of 1 BTC but do not purchase a large amount if you do not fully understand the market. Also, it would be a good idea to buy it when the price is lower than usual.
7. Future: The market cap of the Bitcoin is much higher than any currency or stock. It is used throughout the world and is truly international.
8. Wallet: After you purchase a Bitcoin online, they are stored in a virtual wallet but they are not entirely secure as the company that owns the wallet might get hacked. It’s important to remember that if you decide to buy bitcoin, do not store it with an online coin exchange platform. Instead, withdraw it and store it on a hardware or offline wallet so that it is secure.
9. Supply: The number of Bitcoin in existence is not expected to exceed 21 million and because “No one can see a bubble. That’s what makes it a bubble.” — The Big Short there is a finite number, the demand continues to grow.
10. Futures trading: Anyone who has invested in stocks before understands the meaning of futures. Futures are contracts to buy or sell something after a set period of time at a predetermined price. Why am I mentioning this here? It’s because Bitcoin futures could be a reality, in fact US regulators have given the green signal to a few companies to allow Bitcoin futures trading.

Hopefully, some of these points helped you make a decision whether you should or should not currently invest in Bitcoin. Invest wisely and only invest in something you truly understand and believe in.

Source:  FreeCodeCamp  ||  December 2, 2017   |||