Bitcoin is still a new technology, therefore a lot of people would be against it. The major reason why so many people against bitcoin is because there are so many form of online scams, more especially "Ponzi Schemes" running online. these scams created some many bad reputations for online investment opportunities such as bitcoin as an example, that's why lots of people are scared of bitcoin and thinking bitcoin is one of the sophisticated Ponzi or something like that.

Bitcoin has been categorized in to many different forms, such as a digital currency, a store of value and a commodity too.
But bitcoin was originally invented as a peer-to-peer digital currency that is fast, secure, decentralized and to be acceptable worldwide.

Bitcoin is a digital store of value (Digitally) while Gold is also a store of value but (Physical). Bitcoin and gold have two things in common which is a value and physical variations. Bitcoin is currently working as both digital currency and also a digital form of storing value. 

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency that is fast, secure, decentralized and acceptable worldwide. With bitcoin you can send money anywhere in the world. Bitcoin has no borders, boundaries, or central authority that controls it like fiat. Bitcoin is the first free currency which was made and controlled by the people. Bitcoin was originally invented as a digital currency but due it limited supply and value, people are now using bitcoin for both currency and asset.  

Crypto Exchange Poloniex to Impose Customer ID Requirements



One of the longest-running cryptocurrency-only exchanges is taking steps to bring its customer registration processes in line with the wider industry.

Announced on Dec. 27, U.S.-based exchange service Poloniex revealed it will soon disable all legacy accounts, that is unless these users complete the same verification process as its newer account users who must complete know-your-customer (KYC) due diligence. The exchange said a deadline for identification verification will be released within the first quarter of 2018.

Stepping back, the requirement is perhaps the latest move by the exchange to meet regulatory compliance and better ensure its services aren't used as a conduct for criminal activities such as money laundering. Those not able to meet the requirement deadline, Poloniex said, will have their accounts disabled, meaning they will no longer be able to deposit, trade, lend or open orders.

Similarly, a margin position will be offered an eight-week grace period before closure.

It appears that the only feature to remain functional for legacy users will be withdrawal, which is subject to a maximum limit of $2,000. Based in the U.S. and incorporated in the State of Delaware, Poloniex has seen $860 million in trading volume within the last 24 hours, according to data site CoinMarketCap.

The exchange did not disclose how many legacy accounts are to be affected by the new rule.


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-exchange-poloniex-impose-customer-id-requirements/

Massachusetts Securities Regulator: Bitcoin Fails 'The Smell Test'



The top securities regulator in Massachusetts told CNBC yesterday that the bitcoin market is "entirely speculation."

"It doesn't pass the smell test," said Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, whose responsibilities include overseeing the state's securities division. He warned:

    "It's also subject to manipulation, because no one can explain it, no one can control it."

Galvin's comments are the latest from U.S. regulators that warn investors about risks associated with cryptocurrencies, following the Securities Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority earlier this month.

Yet, it wasn't Galvin's first comment on the bitcoin market. Earlier this month, Galvin issued a press release cautioning against "bitcoin mania," while saying he is not coordinating with other state regulators on the issue at the moment.

The release listed seven points for investors to consider before buying bitcoin, including checking fees on exchanges, the inability to recover stolen funds and the wild fluctuations in price.

The federal government has also been cautioning investors about the cryptocurrency's historic rise. Galvin said, "we all seem to agree that this is a problem," and also extended his concerns to issues around other activities such as initial coin offerings.

"We believe they (ICO) certainly qualify as securities," Gavin said, adding "This is clearly an area with potentials for fraud. And we are very concerned about that."


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/massachusetts-securities-regulator-bitcoin-fails-smell-test/

2018 and Beyond: Tokens Are Slowly Eating the Firm



One of the most fascinating outcomes of the 2017 gold rush into open-source protocol development is the growth of "community management" – a business function that combines elements of marketing, business development, investor relations and human resources.

Community managers are being hired en masse. Their job is to oversee all matters relating to a blockchain project's community of supporters. This includes interacting with core developers, contributors, investors and even end users. The role of the community manager is vital to the success of a protocol; so vital that a ‘cottage industry’ has propped up overnight to offer community management as a service.

Pay anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars and a contractor will manage your project's Slack and Telegram channels, Reddit posts and marketing strategies (which may include, for example, "air dropping" free tokens to potential contributors).

Even more interestingly, community management is somewhat disrupting traditional notions of how business organizations should operate.

Due largely to the proliferation of freely tradable cryptocurrencies and the use of new incentive games such as developer bounties, there is a growing adoption of, what could be described as, the "communal business model."


What is the communal business model?

One distinct characteristic of this model is blurring the line between formal employment and informal contribution.

Through the use of bounties and payment via inflationary funding, anyone around the world may contribute labor to a blockchain project and be rewarded through a dilutive issuance in that project’s native currency. Rewards are most commonly offered for tasks such as coding, logo design, website design, white paper translation and more.

In theory, so long as the value realized in a token's market price by virtue of the work exceeds the value diminished through dilution, any labor sourced and compensated through this model is a net benefit to all token holders.

The use of bounties also bootstraps the development process by mobilizing and incentivizing a much broader group of participants. From management's perspective, bounties enable the company to meaningfully vet prospective hires through a "trial run" before committing to the offer of full employment.

Unsurprisingly, blockchain projects using these mechanisms today often consist of distributed teams of contributors from around the world, and – anecdotally – have low attrition rates.

Another characteristic of this model is that transparency often trumps confidentiality.

Try spending time in a project’s Slack channel and you may be surprised by the amount of seemingly proprietary information a core team will share. This is uniquely enabled for blockchain development projects due to the open-source nature of the code base in development.

Often, a protocol’s adoption relies more on network effects (i.e. strong community backing) than it does on proprietary information or functionality, so there is an inherent incentive to reduce the information asymmetry between a project’s core team and its support community.

   Case Study: Interactive Coin Offerings

    The interactive coin offering protocol co-authored by Jason Teutsch (Truebit) and Vitalik Buterin (ethereum) is a great case study of the communal model in practice.

    Through a publicized announcement of the white paper, 73 developers joined Truebit's Slack channel including representation from the Ethereum Foundation, Zeppelin, ConsenSys, Modular, Shapeshift, five acclaimed developers from the USCC coding challenge, and many more.

    The group quickly self-organized to build the first implementation of the smart contracts with various parties contributing to the protocol, code, testing, security audits and UI/UX design.

    The implementation can be found in Truebit’s Github repository.


DAOs as communal businesses

It is possible that open source development is merely the first use case of a communal business model.

In coming years, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) might utilize the transparency and censorship resistance properties of blockchain technology to pursue their business objectives in new ways. This would blend the traditional roles of managers, employees, shareholders, creditors and customers.

The use of on-chain voting could enable DAOs to implement a liquid democracy model to decentralize managerial decision-making. And similar to the case of protocol development, mechanisms like bounties, inflationary funding and tokenized/automated dividends can be used to incentivize and reward a DAO's workers.

The notion of a DAO that is operated and governed entirely on-chain is the epitome of the communal business model. As entities of this nature gain adoption, the labour force of the future may look less like a "9-to-5 job economy" and more like a "gig economy" on steroids.


Opening the closed firm model?

Community management is sparking a paradigm shift. One that may, in time, influence even the most "closed" industries to re-evaluate their approaches.

I focus on the example of law firms, as it is the case I am most familiar with. Law firms are business entities that, historically, have had little to no economic incentive to coordinate or cooperate with one another. In fact the opposite is true. Law firms are motivated to safeguard and silo intellectual resources, as very minute and nuanced information is often what differentiates the value proposition of one firm from another.

Nevertheless, we live in a world in which most forms of intellectual labor (including legal work) are being increasingly commoditized.

So, it seems plausible that new "open" approaches may demonstrate the economic benefits to collaboration in certain contexts (such as a nascent regulatory industry like blockchain). The SAFT Project is a great example of a co-ordinated approach in such a context.

To be clear, I don’t expect the firm model to go away overnight – or likely ever. But blockchain technology presents an important opportunity to experiment with open models in traditionally closed arenas.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/2018-beyond-tokens-eating-firm/

I don't see bitcoin going back to $8000 because bitcoin never lost more than 45% in the past bitcoin market correction history.

I think bitcoin had it year which is 2017 - the best year ever for bitcoin and 2018 is going to be the year of altcoins such as Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, IOTA, Cardano, Monero, Zcash, and Bitconnect.

Definitely GDAX and Bittrex. I see you forgot to mentioned that. Gdax and bittrex are among the very few of the biggest bitcoin exchanges in the world that i personally used and know for sure they can do such very huge transaction.

Once you see the bitcoin price going up that means many people are buying bitcoin and fewer are selling. and whenever you see the bitcoin price is dropping that means there are many people are selling bitcoin with fewer buyers in the market.

So many predictions were been made for the bitcoin price in 2018 by different people from good to bad. For me, i think 2018 is going to a wonderful for bitcoin despite so many challenges affecting bitcoin e.g. high transaction fee and slow transaction speed. Even with all that, i think bitcoin will finish selling around $50,000 in 2018.   

Well, that is unpredictable but it appears like the bitcoin price is going down today - December 30, 2017! who knows the reason behind the current bitcoin latest dip? Maybe, it is because many people are on holiday and some are also cashing out for new year celebrations.  

Yes, bitcoin is unpredictable these days. it is currently under serious market correction. thus, I suggest you hold your money until when the bitcoin price is fully stabilized. Investing in bitcoin today might lead two things whether making profit or losing some the next day, that is why i suggest you hold on to your money for now and wait for a day or two to see how the market will perform.  

I think the bitcoin price is going to grow more further in the middle to the end of 2018 because bitcoin normally used to do that. if you look at the past bitcoin price chart over the years, you'll see that bitcoin price take a continues growth from third quarter to the forth respectively.

India’s Ministry of Finance Compares Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies to ‘Ponzi Schemes’



India’s Ministry of Finance has claimed that Bitcoin and the other digital currencies are “like Ponzi schemes” and investors should take extra caution when investing in them, in a statement issued this Friday.

The ministry added that the cryptocurrencies lack “intrinsic value,” as well as the backing by any assets and “mere speculation” is the only reason why their prices continue to increase.

In its statement, the Ministry reiterated that there is a real and heightened risk of an investment bubble in the cryptocurrency market that is similar to Ponzi schemes. This may result in an immediate and prolonged crash where investors, particularly the retail consumers, may lose all their hard-earned money.

Part of the statement reads:

    “There is a real and heightened risk of investment bubble of the type seen in Ponzi schemes which can result in sudden and prolonged crash exposing investors, especially retail consumers losing their hard-earned money. Consumers need to be alert and extremely cautious as to avoid getting trapped in such Ponzi schemes.”

The government of India is yet to introduce regulations covering the digital currency market, but it already created an interdisciplinary committee to research and to develop a regulatory framework for the sector.

The committee’s members included the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Meanwhile, the Indian Supreme Court has issued an appeal to the government in November to start the drafting of a regulatory framework to ‘control the flow of Bitcoin’ in the country.

Despite its latest warning, the finance ministry has not implemented a total ban on virtual currency trading and has not announced any measures that will curb the adoption and trading of digital currencies in India.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/indias-ministry-of-finance-compares-bitcoin-and-cryptocurrencies-to-ponzi-schemes

Banks of Future Will Face Digitally-Empowered Customers: Expert Blog



Over the last 10 years, mobile phones have introduced the Internet into all our economic and social interactions. Already, in places such as Chinese, we see mobile apps like WeChat and Alipay dominating more than 90 percent of the payments market. They are not competing for profits, but to learn their users’ likes and dislikes, and to understand their habits and financial status. This knowledge is used to build a user profile that is then sold to advertisers or translated into lending.

China is becoming a cashless society, using mobile apps that reduce financial institutions to mere payment providers. Banks are becoming far removed from their customers, without any knowledge of those customers’ needs or the ability to engage with them. It’s easy to extrapolate that payments will be integrated into any digital social interaction in which we will engage in the future.

Thus our future banking providers will have to hitchhike on top of social networks, wallets, messaging apps and mobile operating systems. These will become distribution networks for their services. Banks will be competing to provide the best digital banking experience for a generation that will not understand the concept of physical banks.

One of the biggest impacts of using Internet-based distribution networks to access your consumer base is that it will reduce the number of intermediaries that need to participate in a transaction. This is not to say that middlemen will entirely disappear, but in a world where any two entities can communicate P2P on public internet rails, the concept of correspondent banking will be transformed.

We already see the power of such networks in places like Kenya, where it took a branchless banking service called M-Pesa only three years to become the most successful mobile banking service in the developing world. They did this simply by connecting millions of consumers with their bank through SMS.

Another impact will be a reduction in the friction inherent in switching banks. Think about how easy it is for a cab driver to switch his or her entire personal business from Uber to Lyft on a daily basis. This opportunity for an individual to “exit” the network puts big pressure on traditional business models. It gives the advantage to intermediaries that are able to connect with consumers on a personal level, give them a voice and create loyalty that reduces “exit.” 

Implementing distributed systems

As these new distribution networks evolve, they become more efficient. We can see an example of this in Blockchain-based networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which provide P2P transactions that are carried out without any single network operator taking a fee. These networks evolve slowly because of their governance structure, but are displaying a significant ability to coordinate large numbers of people and organizations by using economic incentives. This aligns all parties’ interests in maintaining the network and improving it. Imagining new types of banks that operate on top of a decentralized ledger could lead to true competition in banking and introduce opportunities for financial innovation.

In a world where payments are cheap, instant and 24/7, these new crypto-banks will be trusted intermediaries that accept deposits from customers and manage those customers’ capital. But unlike traditional banks, they will not lock users into a closed garden of financial services. The value they provide to their customers will be measured in terms of their ability to package solutions into digital products. They will form a marketplace of banking services, ranging from lending and wealth management to insurance.

Offering a banking product on a public distribution network also changes the flow of information. Today, when consumers provide their credit card number and in return receive consumer credit, they are locked to a single credit provider. But when customers provide proof of their identity, those customers share an attestation of their financial conduct. They are also giving their location in order to reduce fraud, and informing the retailer of the best way to reach them for matters of customer care and digital receipts.

Standards for digital identity will create new models for evaluating risk, which will allow connecting credit givers to credit takers and remove reliance on centralized credit scoring providers. Already, social and mobile apps are offering better data privacy controls for sharing information with third parties as a result of public demand. Better encryption-based privacy controls can empower users to choose their credit providers by sharing more of their information and securely recording the full context of each transaction.

As society becomes less reliant on cash transactions and more dependant on public Internet rails, capital management and banking compliance will look very different, with a bigger emphasis on decentralized cryptographic systems. The cost of banking IT will be reduced by using open-source software and improving its resilience by leveraging its distributed nature. The first technology-oriented regulators will create internet standards for regulation and pave the way for all the rest. This will allow the providing of cryptographic proof of solvency or proof of your identity. Companies will be able to operate with greater transparency and consumers consume with greater privacy.

Eventually, fintech companies and banks will become more and more alike. As user acquisition costs begin to rise for banks, they will begin to think more about maximizing the lifetime value of each customer and becoming more efficient. Fintech companies will become, well… just “banks,” and we will soon realize that there's no escaping that word, no matter how much tech companies will try.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/banks-of-future-will-face-digitally-empowered-customers-expert-blog

Startup Seeks to Lower Costs, Improve Outcomes by Tokenizing Healthcare



Healthcare is a political and social landmine. According to TechCrunch the average American spends close to $10,000 for healthcare, with the entire industry being worth $3 trln. The World Health Organisation and World Bank report that nearly 100 million people around the world are forced to choose between food and healthcare. This frightful dilemma affects those living in developed and developing countries alike.

It is becoming imperative to develop better systems that can deliver healthcare in a more affordable, transparent and secure way. To ensure better accessibility to adequate health services, we need to focus on efficiency and technology enabled solutions.

Healthureum, an Estonia-based company, is in the process of creating a ‘dynamic and multi-functional ecosystem’ based on the Ethereum Blockchain that will change the way we look at healthcare and usher in an era of standardization, scalability and social responsibility. Ethereum is a Blockchain that not only delivers transparency and security, but also has smart contracts baked into it.


Why does healthcare need Blockchain?

Healthcare is riddled with problems such as fraud and lax data protection. As recently as December, 2017 it was reported that private health records of one in 10 Australians was leaked due to errors on the part of Department of Health. News-Mail reported:

    “We found that patients can be re-identified, without decryption, through a process of linking the unencrypted parts of the record with known information about the individual such as medical procedures and year of birth.”

It is precisely these situations that Healthureum can prevent by introducing a robust framework that emphasizes transparency, security and accountability.


An all encompassing approach

Using Blockchain to deliver better quality healthcare is not straightforward. It needs to take care of several factors such as confidentiality, scalability of the system and its ability to meet the needs of healthcare providers. However, using Blockchain it is possible to manage a plethora of health related use cases. These range from clinical trials, health records, claims assessments to data protection and more. Patients stand to gain as they get access to cheaper and higher quality health care, enjoy a more trusting relationship with medical staff, access to genuine drugs and a reduction in fraudulent practices. Healthureum is taking steps to make this Blockchain-based solution a reality by following a systematic and innovative approach.


Token of health

Using an Ethereum-based token, Healtherum will touch every aspect of healthcare. Data systemization will ensure that medical records, personal data, test results, and billing can be consolidated. Since Blockchain is not necessarily the most suitable way of handling large files such as medical records, this type of data will be managed by Healthureum off-chain though the use of encrypted links.

In order to use the ecosystem Healthureum tokens will be required. The token will act as a bridge between patient, hospital and labs. The ecosystem will also provide access to doctor consultations through video calls, referrals for second opinions, specialist consultations and diagnostic tests in a local lab. Patients will even be able to get medical and pathology tests results added to their Healthureum patient record in an instant, secured on the Blockchain. Doctors and other associated medical personnel can be paid using the token, which will facilitate fast and secure payments for health services rendered globally.

The benefits of the Healthureum ecosystem and token are not limited to patient data management. On a large scale, Healthureum will facilitate interoperability between internal processes of a hospital or clinic, as well as inter-hospital data sharing. The Healthureum system will also use the Blockchain to capture procurement and supply chain data, ensuring authenticity and efficiency.

Healthureum tokens will be used in purchase, service and renting of medical infrastructure and the resulting data will be saved for analysis and make the process of procurement more transparent. The use of the token in research programs will facilitate proper recording of data and better monitoring. It will also mean that the system can be scaled to meet the needs of researchers while providing the subjects with data security.


Milestone-driven fundraising

The Healthureum Token (HHEM), which is Ethereum ERC20 compliant, will be the driving force of the ecosystem as a utility token. A Token Generation Event (TGE) will be held starting January 10, 2018 to fund the various stages of the project as milestones are achieved. The TGE will end on February 13, 2018.

A successful fully subscribed pre-TGE has already been completed. During the TGE, Healthureum tokens can be purchased using BTC, ETH and ECH. A bonus program is also in place with participants getting a 22% bonus on Day 1, 17% in the first week, 12% in the second, 7% in the third and 2% in the fourth week. There are no bonus tokens in the fifth week of the TGE.

The total supply of HTH tokens has been capped at 150 million. Healthureum hasput together a participation guide for interested participants.


Your data, your doctor, your way

Those who participate in the TGE are helping build a better and more affordable healthcare system. The large scale of the project necessitates participation in the TGE and enables participants to be able to enter the project at a favourable price point, while early funding would ensure that the project gets underway.

A white paper outlines the development plans of the project which is expected to continue well into 2019. However, various alpha versions of the project are expected in 2018. A successful Healthureum would usher in an era with better systems for greater efficiency, transparency and data security.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/startup-seeks-to-lower-costs-improve-outcomes-by-tokenizing-healthcare

It is very funny people without the technical knowledge or pure understanding of bitcoin are the ones making predictions for bitcoin. I see there are tons of bitcoin predictions by different guys on YouTube without any specific insight or proven calculation. they were just predicting bitcoin price just like that without making any sense. 

The are some many factors that might lead to the current bitcoin crash, such as panic selling, bitcoin dump by the big whales for profits, and the end of the celebrations and holidays. Any of the mentioned above contributed in crashing the bitcoin price. in fact, i think they are the major reasons behind the current bitcoin correction.