Category: Markethive

Austrian Post Offices Sell Bitcoin, Ethereum and More For Cash

Austrian Post Offices Sell Bitcoin, Ethereum and More For Cash

Austrian Post Offices Sell Bitcoin, Ethereum and More For Cash

Post offices in Austria are offering bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Dash in exchange for cash through “bitpanda to go,” a startup that focuses on making the purchase of cryptocurrencies easy. Users can purchase 50 €, 100 € or 500€ worth of cryptocurrency from the Osterreichische Post branches.

Post offices in Austria are offering bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Dash in exchange for cash through “bitpanda to go,” a startup that focuses on making the purchase of cryptocurrencies easy. Users can purchase 50 €, 100 € or 500€ worth of cryptocurrency from the Osterreichische Post branches.

The 1,800 post branches provide cryptocurrency purchasers a receipt that can be entered on bitpanda.com/togo. The website also posts the current exchange rate for the respective currency. There are no additional fees.

Users need a valid email address to set up an account. They select which cryptocurrency they want to purchase and enter a code. The selected amount is then transferred to the user’s wallet.

 

Fair Prices For Offline Purchases

Bitpanda, formerly known as Coinimal, seeks to provide fair prices for offline purchases of cryptocurrencies. The Österreichische Post AG allows bitpanda to offer the digital assets at cost. Hence, the fee structure by offline purchases via cash matches “online” options. This provides cryptocurrencies a more acceptable image in the minds of those who view Internet commerce less favorably.

Bitpanda was founded as Coinimal in October 2014 by bitcoin enthusiasts who had experienced how hard it was to acquire bitcoin in the European Union. This deficiency in the market led to the idea of Coinimal.

 

A Versatile Platform

Last year, Coinimal introduced a “sell” feature to enable users to convert ETH back to fiat as an easy way to buy and sell Ethereum using a bank account. The process of buying and selling ETH can otherwise be time-consuming since most exchanges are either U.S.-based or primarily offer ETH-to-BTC trading. There are nine funding options and withdrawals using PayPal, NETELLER, Skrill or SEPA transfer.

Coinimal rebranded as bitpanda in 2016 and introduced its own bitcoin wallet. Last month, bitpanda built an Ethereum wallet into its platform. It has also added Litecoin and Dash.

 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

 

Author: Lester Coleman

 

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Tokens Are ‘Eating The World’, Become “Another Killer App”: Vinny Lingham

Tokens Are ‘Eating The World’, Become “Another Killer App”: Vinny Lingham

    

Civic CEO Vinny Lingham has stated tokens are “eating the world”

as his startup’s token becomes exchangeable. In a Medium post Monday, Lingham said that tokens released by companies as value assets are becoming “yet another killer app.” “We are now entering a realm where its (sic) possible for applications to be built on top of Blockchain technology, and this is enabling new use cases and, more importantly, the ability to create ‘private economies,” he surmised.

Lingham received praise for the distribution methods of Civic’s CVC token last month as other ICOs, and token sales gained criticism for their perceived lack of technical robustness and impact on the Ethereum network. Currently trading on Bittrex, EtherDelta and COSS as well as ShapeShift, the average cost of CVC is now just over 20 cents — already double that of the token sale price. “When we look at Civic, we don’t see how the value of Civic tokens is correlated to the cryptocurrency ecosystem, except that there is demand from crypto buyers/traders,” he continued.

“We aren’t dependent on the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum or any other crypto.” The post serves as a vote of confidence in CVC’s future as much as in tokens in general. Lingham also highlights the benefits of having a token not dependent in any way on fiat currency by default. Gift cards, which Lingham dealt with daily for his previous business Gyft, are vulnerable to inflation as they are controlled by the health of the fiat currency they represent, he notes as an example. he entrepreneur has often called for restraint in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Meanwhile, arguing too rapid a price rise would lead to instability and a detrimental effect on the cryptocurrency’s long-term image.

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

 

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Are Cryptocurrencies Recovering or is This a Dead cat Bounce?

Are Cryptocurrencies Recovering or is This a Dead cat Bounce?

Are Cryptocurrencies Recovering or is This a Dead cat Bounce?

 

No one can say there is such a thing as a boring day in the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. After the onslaught of price declines throughout the weekend, we kick off this Monday on a positive note. All currencies are seemingly recovering their losses. The Bitcoin price surpassed US$2,000 again, but it looks like Ethereum is the winner of the day so far. Other currencies all doing quite well too, for now.

 

CRYPTOCURRENCY MARKET SEES A DEAD CAT BOUNCE

Even though we are not a big fan of the term “dead cat bounce“, it accurately describes what is going on in the cryptocurrency world right now, by the look of things. The markets are showing signs of positive momentum, but there is no reason to get overly excited just yet. After all, the gains made today can easily be wiped out in an hour or two of bearish trading. This is especially true for the currencies showing large gains compared to yesterday.

Taking a closer look at the charts, we can see there is only one coin in the top 50 without a green number next to it right now. Overall, that is a positive sign for cryptocurrency as a whole. At the same time, people have to keep in mind these positive changes are a direct result of the Bitcoin price going up slowly. Should Bitcoin drop in value again, these short-term gains for all altcoins will be wiped out pretty quickly.

While it is good to see the Bitcoin price bounce back to above US$2,000, maintaining that position will be quite challenging. There is a lot of negative pressure on the market, which may push the price back to to the US$1,900 range in the coming hours. Such a retrace will effectively prove to be a tough time for any altcoin struggling as of late, including the likes of Ethereum and Dash.

Speaking of those two particular altcoins, Dash has seen its value climb by 13.52% over the past 24 hours. This is despite a trading volume of under US$50m, mind you. Ethereum, on the other hand, notes an 18.02% gain over the past 24 hours, thanks to a trading volume which even surpasses Bitcoin’s. Many people still hope to see ETH return to US$400, but for now, it is a struggle to remain above US$160.

Seeing the Ethereum trading volume surpass Bitcoin’s is not entirely surprising. Korea and China are trying to push the ETH price back up, yet their efforts are not wildly successful so far. In fact, the price on Bithumb — denominated in US Dollars- is below the ETH/BTC price on Poloniex when converting it to USD. That is somewhat surprising, considering Korean exchanges often depict higher values for cryptocurrencies compared to Western markets.

It is still too early to tell if the cryptocurrency markets are effectively recovering. For all we know, this is just a temporary blip on the radar, which will be nullified before the day is over. It seems plausible to assume Bitcoin will have a tough time remaining above US$2,000 for an extended period of time. The markets remain volatile for quite some time to come, but there is always sunshine beyond the dip. No one needs to panic right now, as things will be alright in the end.

 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

 

Author: JP Buntinx

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

How to Build an Inbound Marketing Strategy in 24 Hours

How to Build an Inbound Marketing Strategy in 24 Hours

                

"I'm active on social media."

"I'm blogging regularly." "I'm using SEO best practices." "I feel like I'm doing everything right, but I'm not seeing results." Do any of these statements sound familiar? A lot of marketers and CEOs we talk to feel like they are doing all the right things.  But, they aren't achieving their goals. A recent survey from DM News confirms this is common. 46% of the executives surveyed, stated that a "lack of an effective strategy" was the biggest obstacle in achieving their inbound marketing goals. So why is everyone struggling? I'm not quite sure as to WHY, but in this article, I'll show you HOW you can overcome this obstacle…and overcome it in the next 24 hours.  Let's roll!

What is Strategy?

First, let's identify what strategy actually is. It really doesn't have to be that complicated.  Strategy is simply a plan of action designed to achieve an expected goal.  So, we need a goal to get started. For the purpose of this article, let's say that our goal is to generate 50 qualified leads per month for the sales team. A worthy goal. Now, we need a plan of action that will get us there. You may have a different inbound marketing goal, so just apply this same framework in order to backtrack from your goal, to an activity plan.

Identify Audience

If we're going to generate 50 qualified leads per month for the sales team, we need to define a "quality lead". Let's pretend we're a software company that provides project management software for contractors like roofers, electricians, plumbers, etc.  The sales team says that if they can get a Demo Request, they consider that a quality lead. Okay, so now we've got an audience and we know what a quality lead is.  We're getting closer to being able to build our plan of action.

Action Steps for Identifying Your Audience:

  1. Nail down your target market. Target Market Example: Contractors located in the United States that are doing between $500,000 and $20M in revenue annually. 
  2. Talk to the sales team and establish what a quality lead is. In this case, we know we need 50 Demo Requests each month.

Time Estimate: 2 hours

  1. Honestly, this should be something you already know (your target market).  But give yourself an hour to talk to a few people inside your company, read through your messaging, and establish who you're really after.
  2. Give yourself another hour to talk to a few sales reps or the sales manager at your company. Or potentially, you're talking to the owner or president.  Make sure you find out exactly what will be considered a quality lead.

Identify Where Your Audience Lives Online

Once we know who our audience is and what our goal is, we need to locate our audience.  Where are they online?  You'll want to look at social media, blogs, websites, and forums.  Make a big list!  Here's what I might do if I were looking for contractors.  First, I'd dive into social media. I know LinkedIn is better for B2B, so I head there first.  There are tons of various groups, so I started looking for groups full of my audience. A quick search for "roofers" brings up 38 different groups.

I will continue my search for "HVAC", "plumbers", and "electricians".  After spending some time gathering a list, hopefully I've identified at least 25 solid groups that have my target audience.  Next, I'll explore other social media options to see if there is anything industry specific.  After spending some time on Google, I run across Houzz, a social network for contractors, builders and remodelers.

Still further, I'll spend some time on Google again looking for blogs, forums and other websites where I might find my audience. At the end of this research process, you should easily have 50-100 websites (forums, blogs and other websites), groups (on LinkedIn or Facebook) and communities (on Google+) on your list. Now, we're getting somewhere! We're narrowing down the Web and locating the corners in which we want to spend our time and effort.

Action Steps for Finding Your Audience:

  1. Spend time looking at social media, websites, blogs and forums for your target audience.
  2. Create a master list with links to these places.

Time Estimate: 4 hours

  1. Don't shortchange yourself here.  Put in the time to locate your audience.  This step will serve you well for many inbound campaigns into the future, so spend about four hours doing your research.
  2. Create the list as you go along.

Identify Pains, Problems, Questions

Ok, just to re-cap.  We now know:

  • Our goal
  • Who we're targeting
  • Where they live online

Now, it's time to dig for pain. As you're doing your research and visiting groups, websites and blogs with your audience, start listening. What does that mean, really? How do you listen? What are you listening for? What you want to do is listen to the problems that your audience is expressing. You want to write down the questions they are asking.  Write down the things they are complaining about. You want to be able to speak their language. You'll start to see different discussion questions, comments on blogs, or frustrations. Here are a few sample discussion topics I pulled from a LinkedIn Group full of roofers.

  

Obviously, you want to identify challenges and pains

around the product or service you offer, but sometimes you can get some really powerful insight just by writing down any common questions or problems. You'll start to see some trends. As you'll see in the next section, we want to use these questions, pains and problems in our content and messaging.

Action Steps for Identifying Pains, Problems and Questions:

  1. Go to 10-20 places on your master list and start copying and pasting your audience's discussions and questions.

Time Estimate: 2 hours

  1. This should take you about 2 hours, but don't be afraid to spend 3 or 4 if you feel you're not seeing any trends.

Create a Content Calendar

Alright, now we're ready to create a content calendar. Most people want to rush into this step because it feels like you're accomplishing something. However, this step won't be worth much if you haven't dedicated the time to your research. Basically, now that we've got a sense for what our audience is dealing with, we can brainstorm some effective blog titles, maybe some webinar topics and definitely some e-book ideas. If we think back to our goal of 50 qualified leads per month, you might be asking, "How many blog articles should I be writing?" or "How many lead generation offers, like e-books, do I need?" You can make an educated guess, but this is always the unknown with strategy. (Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty)  You make the best plan of action you can to achieve your goal, but you'll need to adjust your plan over time depending on how close you are getting to that goal.

Based on my experience, without knowing how much traffic this hypothetical website is getting or how many leads it's currently generating, you'll want to be creating 2-3 blog posts per week. You'll also want to have at least two or three e-books that you can leverage to capture leads. In addition to the e-books, you'll want to create email nurturing campaigns that will move leads down the funnel towards the goal step of a Demo Request.  For a quick and effective guide to lead nurturing, check out this document here.  It will walk you through the steps of taking an e-book lead and moving it towards a goal like a Demo Request.

Action Steps for Content Calendar:

  1. Brainstorm blog topics, e-book and/or webinar topics.
  2. Map out how many blog articles you'll need to create each week.
  3. Plan your e-book creation.
  4. Plan your lead nurturing sequences.

Time Estimate: 2 hours

  1. Spend 1 hour brainstorming topics and titles.
  2. 15 minutes for mapping out your blog calendar.
  3. 20 minutes for planning out your e-books.
  4. 20 minutes mapping out your lead nurturing sequences.

Create a Promotions Plan

Your promotions plan is just as important, if not more important that your content plan and calendar.  Most marketers feel like once they hit "publish", it's time to start working on the next piece.  Not true!  Once you hit publish, it's time to go to work promoting that article.  You spent time writing it, editing it, finding an amazing photo and placing a relevant call to action.  Now, it's time to zero in on our audience and share that content with them. This is how we'll drive people back to our content, they'll click on our e-books, receive our emails and ultimately sign up for that demo! Creating your promotional plan will be much easier now that you've got a master list of where your audience lives. You'll be able to share your blog articles as discussions in exactly the right LinkedIn Groups.

You'll be able to comment on other websites and blogs and reference your content in a super relevant fashion because you know exactly what your audiences challenges and pains are. You'll be able to craft blog titles that are irresistible to your audience because you studied their problems and pains. Your promotions plan should basically be the time you spend promoting your article to all the places on your master list. It might look something like this: Blog Title: 5 Project Management Struggles Roofers Face…and How to Solve Them

Promotion:

  • Create a discussion in all 20 LinkedIn Groups and frame it with the question "What is your biggest project management challenge right now?"
  • Share article on Twitter using the hashtags #projectmanagement #roofers #contractors #HVAC #plumbers. Rotate hashtags. Schedule 10-20 Tweets over the next 30 days.
  • Jump into a couple of forums and find the discussions around project management.  Add value to the discussion and add a link to the blog post as a reference point.
  • Find individual contractors on Houzz or other websites and send a personal email with a link to the article.
  • Send out an email to all current leads in the database and share the article.

So, your promotions plan will have some activity that you'll do every time you create a blog post.  Then, for specific topics, you may have additional activities you'll want to add that make sense based on the topic.

Action Steps for Content Calendar:

  1. Write out all the possible promotional activities you might have for a specific blog post.   Each time you publish, go to that list and execute as many as possible!

Time Estimate: 1 hour

  1. Spend an hour brainstorming all the ways you could promote a blog post, e-book or piece of content.

Your Strategy

Phew!  There's a lot of work there, but you can do it… and you can do it in less than 24 hours!  The total time spent in this process totals 11 hours.  Obviously, it would be a long work day to push through these activities, but you'll be setting yourself up for success over the next several months, if not years. If you can't block off an entire day to do this, spend a couple hours each day for a week and you'll be all set. Your goals and strategy will change over time, but I wanted to break down a very simplistic way to create a strategy quickly and start moving forward. 

Just to re-cap what you need to do:

  1. What is your goal?
  2. Who are you targeting?
  3. Where do they live online?
  4. Develop your content calendar.
  5. Create a promotional list.

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to Learn more about
-Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

3 reasons cryptocurrency prices are in free fall

3 reasons cryptocurrency prices are in free fall

3 reasons cryptocurrency prices are in free fall

Whether it be Bitcoin or Ethereum, every cryptocurrency has suffered massive losses over the past several days. Prices have dropped to as low as 64 percent, bringing the entire cryptocurrency market cap down to $70 billion from $110 billion.

Ethereum’s price has gone from $400 right down to $151 in about a month, leading investors to panic sell. On the other hand, Bitcoin, which dominates the cryptocurrency market is down about 36 percent from its high (it’s currently trading around $1,894). Investors are finding it hard to hold onto cryptocurrencies at such a low price — especially amateur investors who bought them at a much higher price.
 

So what is causing the prices to dip so low? Could they go any lower? Could the market rebound from here?
 

Here are a few possible causes for the recent price tumble:
 

1. August 1st is looming

The infamous crypto “civil war” is around the corner. The debate on whether or not to increase the Bitcoin block size has been going on for a few of years now, with disagreement between the miners and nodes.

 

On August 1st, we could see a split, with part of the Bitcoin network supporting a change in protocol and the other part sticking to the current protocol. The result could be a massive devaluation of Bitcoin. This particular concern is making investors nervous, and some are liquidating their BTC into fiat, which could be the cause for this free fall.
 

As the Bitcoin price falls further, it will take down most of the major currencies with it. It is safe to say August 1st is not only Bitcoin’s independence day, but also a big day for all the blockchain based currencies.
 

2. Post-ICO “startups” are cashing out

Many blockchain-based companies have managed to raise millions of dollars in ETH — through initial coin offerings (ICOs) without even having a product. Nearly $700 million was raised in total last month through ICOs on the Ethereum platform.
 

Needless to say, most of these so-called startups are not worth the money they have raised. For instance, the BAT ICO raised $25 million in less than a minute, Cosmos raised $16 million, Status raised $95 million, and Bancor raised $153 million. One thing these companies are good at is marketing and writing fancy white papers.

 

Serious startups may hold onto Ethereum when they receive their funds, but those that are looking to make a quick buck could immediately cash out. This trend could also cause honest companies to liquidate their ETH and hold their funds in fiat (because, well, less volatility).
 

This could be one reason the Ethereum price is feeling downward pressure. EOS, for instance, which raised $200 million worth of ETH earlier this month, has apparently been offloading its ETH to Bitfinex. EOS is not alone; TenX, which listed Vitalik Buterin as an investor, raised 200,000 ETH ($67 million at the time) in its token sale, has sold nearly 30 percent of that ETH cache already. It is not clear whether TenX’s ETH are being sold on open exchanges or directly to individual investors, but they are going off TenX’s smart contract address.

 

From a startup’s perspective converting ICO funds (ETH) into fiat isn’t a bad thing at all, as Jeremy Epstein explained recently on VentureBeat. It helps them stay away from a highly volatile market and focus on their project.

 

Still, given that many ICO project developers have no incentive whatsoever to deliver on their promises following a big fundraise, we need an ecosystem to regulate these irrational multimillion-dollar seed funding rounds — and it needs to be set up quickly. The system must ask for provable business models. The projects must have use cases, users, flowing revenue, and even profits. Also, a working prototype would be nice.
 

3. We’re seeing market manipulation and amateur panicking

The cryptocurrency market is as unregulated as it can get. Things that would result in jail time on the stock market are legal here. In such a scenario, it’s no surprise that big players are manipulating the markets for their own gain. It’s no longer rare for people to run bots to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

 

Amateur investors, on the other hand, want to make quick profits. Once the price starts falling, these investors tend to panic sell. The combination of market manipulation and panic selling may be a reason behind the current price fall. One might argue that the market is going through its long term growth correction, but there is a chance it could be in for a deeper fall. The market could swing either way.

 

The bright side

Cryptocurrency is here to stay. While most of the current coins might disappear in the years to come, a few of these startups hold the potential to disrupt the entire financial system as we know it.

 

Some analysts are very bullish on this market and say it is still in the nascent stage with very few investors. Once the cryptocurrency market goes mainstream, the market cap will grow and so will the prices of coins.

 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

david ogden cryptocurrency entrepreneur

 

Author: Anupam Varshney

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap Continues to Shrink, Bitcoin Price Heads Toward Sub-US$1900

Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap Continues to Shrink, Bitcoin Price Heads Toward Sub-US$1900

It is a very rough weekend for cryptocurrency holders,

as is to be expected. With the value of Bitcoin going down even further, most other altcoins see similar losses. We also saw both Dash and NEM suffer from their market cap going below US$1bn. Moreover, the total cryptocurrency market cap continues to drop and is on target to go below US$60bn in the coming days.

The Cryptocurrency Downtrend Continues Unabated

Do not be mistaken in thinking we like to report on massive losses in the cryptocurrency world. At the same time, there is no reason to ignore the obvious facts staring us in the face right now either. Cryptocurrency is not in the best of places and the overall downtrend is not over just yet, by the look of things. Bitcoin has dipped below US$2,000, as we predicted in yesterday’s article. We wouldn’t have minded being wrong in that assumption, though. Looking at the current price, Bitcoin is holding its own around the US$1,900 level. That doesn’t automatically mean the price won’t go below that target, though. Rumors and speculation on Telegram hints at how BTC may even hit US$1,400, although that may be wishful thinking at best. There are plenty of people who wouldn’t mind buying some additional bitcoins while they remain cheap. Now is a good price to buy Bitcoin, assuming you expect the value to bounce back over time.

Other currencies are not doing much better either. If the Bitcoin price goes down, the rest of the ecosystem will automatically follow. It is one of those unwritten rules in the world of cryptocurrency. Ethereum lost another 24%, with Ripple putting up similar numbers. Litecoin “only” lost 4% — which is quite remarkable — whereas Ethereum Classic dropped 13.3%. It is quite interesting taking note of these different percentages, even though the overall trend is anything but positive.

As is to be expected, there is always one currency to buck this trend. On this Sunday, that coin is none other than IOTA. Given the recent beating IOTA has taken across the exchanges prior to this Bitcoin drop, the reverse trend is quite intriguing to take note of. Whether or not this momentum can be maintained for the long run, remains to be seen. Most currencies are noting losses of well over 12%, which is quite a bit higher than Bitcoin’s 7% loss. All things considered, Bitcoin is still in a better position than most other currencies, with the exception of Litecoin. The bigger question is why this extended downtrend is taking place right now. The upcoming SegWit2x and UASF activation certainly cause a lot of fear among novice users. Moreover, it appears some exchanges will halt Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals during that period. That is not uncommon by any means, as the risk of a chain split is very real. Halting trading at such a critical point in history is the best course of action and shouldn’t be any cause for concern whatsoever.

If the cryptocurrency market cap continues to shrink at the same rate, we will go below US$60bn very soon. Right now, the total cap is just below US$64bn, which is well below the US$110bn mark we reached a few weeks ago. A correction was bound to happen sooner or later, though. We have seen a lot of money pour into cryptocurrency as of late. Such a massive trend can’t be sustained indefinitely. The markets will bounce back eventually, though, and now is a good time to hold and not look at charts until early August.

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Cryptocurrency fall continues ahead of Bitcoin’s ‘civil war’ conclusion on Aug 1- Ether below $200

Cryptocurrency fall continues ahead of Bitcoin's 'civil war' conclusion on Aug 1- Ether below $200

Cryptocurrency fall continues ahead of Bitcoin's 'civil war' conclusion on Aug 1- Ether below $200

Bitcoin prices fell below USD 2,100 today and are inching towards breaking the USD 2,000 level, as bears continue their rampage on cryptostreet.

Cryptocurrencies continue to bleed as speculators remain jittery ahead of bitcoin’s scaling debate conclusion on August 1. The total market cap has dropped by USD 9 billion, a 11 percent fall, in the past 24 hours, according to coinmarketcap.com.

Bitcoin prices fell below USD 2,100 today and could soon break the USD 2,000 level, as bears continue their rampage on cryptostreet.

The price slipped to USD 2,057, at time of reporting, according to CryptoCompare.com, a drop of around 32 percent from its all time high of USD 3,000.

Ethereum, bitcoin’s closest rival in terms of market cap, again dropped sub-USD 200 to the levels of USD 186, as per CryptoCompare. After falling 50 percent from its all-time high in June, ether has now hit a 45-day low.

Other major cryptocurrencies like litecoin, ripple, zcash have witnessed a drop of 10-20 percent over the past 24 hours.

The crypto-asset space reached a peak market cap of USD 116 billion in June and since then has lost USD 42 billion, a 36 percent correction over the past one month, entering a bear market, going by conventional definition.

Since the start of 2017, cryptocurrency prices have had a phenomenal rally. Experts believe this was due to speculative buying as prices were being driven by the mania for initial coin offerings (ICOs).

 

What the ‘fork’

Just when everyone thought it was over, the bitcoin ‘civil war’ resurfaced in June when major mining firm Bitmain announced the launch of a user- activated hard fork (UASF).

In May, a majority of blockchain industry bigwigs reached a consensus regarding the bitcoin scaling solution and agreed to enable the Segregated Witness (SegWit).

The SegWit was supposed to be a soft fork, a temporary solution to make bitcoin's software protocol handle the growing transactions burden.

"The prospect of a bitcoin fork isn't enticing for bitcoiners as it highlights the inability for the project to move forward and the divisiveness in opinions on how to do so," Charles Hayter, co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency data platform CryptoCompare, had earlier told Moneycontrol.

"The scaling debate has been around for two years now and the ramifications of the present state of play lead to a number of price-sensitive scenarios that are not positive."

n case of a hard fork, if the bitcoin blockchain splits, users are at risk of losing their bitcoin. Bitcoin experts have suggested to not make transactions during the uncertain time period around August 1.

If the Bitmain hard fork happens then there would be two legitimate Bitcoin ledgers on August 3rd. The soft forked version of Bitcoin and the newly forked Bitmain Bitcoin.
 

David Ogden
Entrepreneur
David Ogden Entrepreneur

 

Author: Sidhartha Shukla

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Buckle Up: Bitcoin Price Heads For Below $2,000 As August 1 Nears

Buckle Up:
Bitcoin Price Heads For Below
$2,000 As August 1 Nears

    

Bitcoin has fallen almost 12 percent in 24 hours

as the reality of the Aug. 1 scaling deadline unsettles markets. Current trade prices according to Coinmarketcap, which averages readings from across major exchanges, shows Bitcoin at $2,076 — its lowest price for two months. The knock-on effects for altcoins in the top 10 were as palpable as ever, with Ethereum, Litecoin and others following Bitcoin downhill. Ethereum has fared particularly badly over the past week, with monthly losses to its market cap now nearly $18 bln. As always, internal reactions with cryptocurrency were mixed, some despairing while others are eyeing a keen

buying opportunity.

$5.5million of new $BTCUSD short positions have opened up within the last 12hrs on Bitfinex

While a general consensus points to the upcoming hard fork probability as the principal motivation for market uncertainty, mainstream media have been quick to sound the alarm about Bitcoin once again. “Rival factions of computer whizzes who play key roles in Bitcoin’s upkeep are poised to adopt two competing software updates at the end of the month,” Bloomberg reported Friday, announcing Bitcoin could be “nearing a total meltdown.” “That has raised the possibility that Bitcoin will split in two, an unprecedented event that would send shockwaves through the $41 bln market.”

Major Swiss Online Bank Unleashes Bitcoin In Week’s Second Swiss Breakthrough

    

A further major Swiss financial institution has begun accepting Bitcoin

this week as Swissquote follows Falcon Private Bank. In a press release issued today, Swissquote describes itself as the “first online bank in Europe to offer Bitcoin investing.” The decision opens up Bitcoin investment to the platform’s 302,000 customers with a combined capital of 17.8 bln francs ($17.6 bln). “Many investors are interested in cryptocurrencies, but are afraid to trade them, because the players in this market are mostly little-known and they often require the transfer of funds to a foreign account,” CEO Mark Buerki commented in the release. “As a Swiss bank, we offer our clients a simplified, transparent process, without foreign transfers, that is within reach of everybody.”

The news comes just days after Swiss private bank Falcon announced it had partnered with Bitcoin Suisse to allow its customers to “to hold, buy and sell Bitcoin directly through their e-banking platform or account manager.” Prior to that, it emerged that a Bitcoin certificate was on “most days” the most popular financial product available on Switzerland’s main stock exchange, SIX. Meanwhile, for its project Swissquote will use Bitstamp, the exchange currently headquartered in Luxembourg, to handle payments and provide pricing information on Bitcoin. “The Bitstamp-Swissquote partnership marks a milestone in the already promising development of Bitcoin, which is being implemented gradually into the traditional financial system,” the release adds. Switzerland is already considerably ahead of its neighbors Austria and Germany in the race to propagate emerging Blockchain and cryptocurrency technology.

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Cryptocurrency Investors Must ‘Be Prepared to Lose Everything’

Cryptocurrency Investors Must 'Be Prepared to Lose Everything'

Cryptocurrency Investors Must 'Be Prepared to Lose Everything'
 

Potential investors in cryptocurrencies should focus on finding a great new concept rather than rushing to buy volatile Bitcoins, Dr. Campbell Harvey told Radio Sputnik.
 

The market in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has been subject to remarkable growth but also volatility in recent months.

On June 11, the price of Bitcoin peaked at $3,019, an increase of more than 300 percent since the beginning of the year. However, the price has dropped since then and the cryptocurrency was trading at $2,207 on Friday.

 

The value of the Ethereum cryptocurrency has also decreased by almost half in recent weeks from a high of $392 on June 13 to $211 on Friday, according to Coindesk.com.

According to BlackRock's global chief investment strategist, cryptocurrency volatility may be a sign of a bubble in the market.

"I look at the charts, and to me that looks pretty scary," Richard Turnill told a media briefing in New York on Tuesday.

Dr. Campbell Harvey, Professor of Finance at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, told Radio Sputnik that the sharp rises in the value of cryptocurrencies this year is a cause for caution.

"Any time you see something go up in value by a factor of 20 over a few months, you need to be very cautious," Harvey said.

"I think part of it is just the nature of the actual game, that this is a new technology, it is extremely volatile. For instance, if you look at Bitcoin it is six times the volatility of the S&P 500. It is very volatile and it's very difficult to figure out what the actual value is. If you are speculating in cryptocurrency, you need to be prepared to lose everything," Harvey said.
 

"In the 'dotcom bubble,' people were basically buying lottery tickets. They saw firms go from one cent a share to $100 a share, it was like a lottery and you didn't want to be left behind. You wanted to have some kind of investment and that drove up the prices very dramatically and I think it's the same thing today with the cryptocurrencies."
 

'Digital Gold': Cryptocurrencies Soar as Investors Swap Dollars for Bitcoins

Harvey recommended that potential investors do their research before taking the plunge and focus on finding an attractive concept.

"You really need a good story behind a new crypto that you're offering. There will be a lot of people coming in with bad ideas that will get funding. The best way to do it is to invest directly in some of the start-ups in this space rather than just going out and buying some coins."
 

"When the prices go up so dramatically, a smart investor will basically take some profit and indeed this is what I recommend to your listeners. If you've doubled your money, sell half. What that means is that you've recovered your initial investment and everything that's left is just pure profit and if you lose it, you lose it.
 

"Given there's uncertainty in the US right now, people are looking elsewhere. Gold is an alternative but gold is real pain because you have to vault it, basically protect the gold. But cryptocurrency is basically extra-national, you need a wallet and backup. You don't need a vault or security guards."

 

In the future, cryptocurrencies will develop in several different ways. These include collateralized cryptocurrencies and the expansion of the blockchain technology behind them.
 

"One of the things we'll see is collateralized cryptocurrencies. There's an initiative with the Chicago mercantile exchange and the royal mint group in which they'll put some gold in a vault and issue a crypto based upon that gold.

"As soon as you do that, then the crypto is linked to the price of gold and its volatility is linked to the price of gold. You can do this with anything — with equity, bonds, commodities in general, that you can issue cryptos based on a vault or a storage facility with the actual collateral. I think we are just beginning to see the collateralized versions."

 

"In a broader context, most of the action in terms of blockchain is not with cryptocurrencies, it's with businesses using blockchain technology to solve things like supply chain problems and other property transfer problems where you don't even need a cryptocurrency. So, as I see it from a business point of view, most of the action won't come from the initial coin offerings, but the application usually of Ethereum-based blockchain technology in business."
 

"It's not as sexy as looking at the price of Ethereum or Bitcoin doubling or tripling or going up by a factor of 20. In the media, people focus on the cryptocurrencies but in the practice of business the action is blockchain applications to solve business problems, not as much the currency aspect."

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

David Ogden Entrepreneur

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Are Boys With Midas Touch About To Make Move On ICO Market?

Are Boys With Midas Touch About To Make Move On ICO Market?

    

The recent maneuvering by the billionaires into the world of Initial Coin Offerings

Our London correspondent Nick Ayton aka The Sage of Shoreditch explores the recent maneuvering by the billionaires into the world of Initial Coin Offerings, AI and Blockchain. ICOs have enjoyed their best run ever, albeit it’s a new phenomenon in recent time. The last six months have seen the ICO market leave traditional funding mechanisms in their wake. Will ICOs become the preferred mechanism for entrepreneurs of all shapes and wallet sizes?

It seems so.

"The Midas touch boys are moving in as they know a good thing when they see it. And they don’t like to miss out."

It can come as no surprise to me to see billionaire moves by Mike Novogratz who placed 10 percent of his wealth into crypto and Mark Cuban who has announced his own ICO of Unikrn, a sports betting business. And there will be more to follow.

ICOs coming of age

Some are calling ICOs into question, demanding regulations and government intervention, others see it at a big scam. But ICOs are attracting a lot of interest from very successful entrepreneurs who are turning their back on banks as a source of capital that becomes very expensive, with its high fees and

lots of strings attached.

"The involvement of the Billionaire Boys is the sign that ICOs are not only becoming mainstream but also a legitimate alternative capital market for already successful entrepreneurs."

Is this the extra endorsement needed where Bill Gates who has already said if he would start a new business today it would be in AI on the Blockchain?

Are records about to be broken, again

With Bancor, Status, Block One and others that have easily passed the $100 mln mark,  are we likely to see soon the first billion dollar ICO? Enter stage left, Gurbaksh Chahal who certainly has the Midas touch when it comes to backing the latest technology and is already disrupting global advertising with his AI marketing engine Gravity4. He wants to launch the largest ICO ever breaking the $500 mln plus mark, and who would be against him?

Can he make Gravity4 a leader in Artificial Intelligence Big Data Cloud, the largest ICO in ever surpassing $500 mln or even $1 bln as they take what is known as High-Frequency Marketing to the next level? Who would bet against this maverick entrepreneur of Indian-American descent who founded his first company aged 16 and sold it for $40 mln?  Further going on to sell four businesses for $300 mln:  BlueLithium (behavioral targeting) to Yahoo, RadiumOne (programmatic advertising) and ShareGraph and innovative tech business.

Gurbaksh explains:

“We intend to take what we have done in AI marketing and connect it to the Blockchain. We have already created the world’s first Artificial Intelligence Big Data Cloud called Mona Lisa and we are already way ahead of SalesForce, Oracle and Adobe.”

Gravity4 already has a footprint in most of the major Fortune 1,000 brands globally and many consider their offering to be way ahead of anyone else. The business is on track to deliver $200 mln revenues in 2018 and so this is no mere startup.  

High-frequency machine learning

Gravity4 is the world’s first high-frequency machine learning marketing operating system built to enhance advertising across SaaS Industries. It collates customer experiences so marketers can target customers more effectively through the entire customer journey, regardless of delivery channel. The proprietary AI technology ‘Mona Lisa’ builds a ‘consumer persona’ aggregating the data from all channels and touch points, using semantic graphs to form connection clusters and correlation variables in a single click of the mouse, optimizing and automating the effort in what is a $200 bln global advertising market.  

The worlds of AI and Blockchain sit well together and deliver a powerful combination indeed. With Gravity4 we are not seeing a startup trying to raise capital to build a Blockchain. Gravity4 is already a very successful global business and wants to raise further capital to extend its R&D to dominate the high-frequency machine learning marketing industry. Who would be against them?

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor

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Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member