Nice analysis harizen, Houston Rockets as a contender gives me some doubts but I guess it's a real possibility and they actually have a chance of knocking a true contender like the Spurs or the Warriors. Either way I think I would still place them with the Near-The-Tops. The reason is that I just don't trust D'Antoni coaching strategies with all out 3pt shooting, run & gun style of offense. It's all fine until the pace of game changes during the playoffs and teams start locking down on defense, slowing the pace down. Houston will suffer a lot from this since their defense is questionable at least.

Now the Cavs also have displayed some terrible defense during the regular season but we all know they are capable of getting it together during the playoffs (plus they play is usually more isolation focused and slow pace).

yefi, you know we were discussing similar issues when Ethereum started that huge rally back in early 2016. I'm a believer in Ethereum because I really feel it's one of the only altcoins that really add something new. But I've also sold all my stash some time right after the DAO hack when it was still above 0.02 since I knew a bear trend would set in eventually. And I'll sell again if in the next months we see it at above $50-100, with all ENS, ICOs and POS/Metropolis hype. I know this is all experimental technology and a very risky, volatile investment, and that includes Bitcoin which have a lot of negative stuff to sort out no matter what maximalists deny or say.

So my point is, one should be aware of fundamentals and sentiment. I think right now we are at a point where Bitcoin can't really justify itself any longer based on the arguments you hear. It might have worked 2 or 3 years ago, but right now it's becoming inexcusable. If this continues, a bear trend will start and we'll see sub 1k again, mark my words. I'm not even mentioning the real possibility of a hard fork happening. I do agree that Bitcoin greatest asset is becoming a settlement and decentralized database, but price is kinda secondary if the "currency" is not actually used for anything. That's why Ethereum makes a little more sense to many, it needs to be earned, used and consumed.

I'm a pragmatic person and I don't see the world in black and white. I think most debates have good arguments on either side, there's nothing 100% right or wrong.

The problem with Bitcoin is that most are delusional about decentralization. There's no leadership and roadmap at all, and when many intelligent people like Gavin Woods proposed changes and innovation they were shut down. That's why so many companies are packing their bags and moving on. Also mining centralization is a huge issue if you ask me and I don't see any solution for that in the near future unless it goes POS and we all know how that will be received, an instant fork lol.

I'll believe in Bitcoin again when it represents my interests and curiosity, I'm not under some sort of dogma or blind faith. I still hold Bitcoin but much less than I would if I saw some actual development or fertile community.

Well I think we agree more than I thought, however I don't know what a cryptocurrency is anymore. To me a currency needs to be stable first, and that's why Bitcoin has failed to reach the mainstream, that's the bottomline. No average Joe wants to see his stack or salary cut in half because there was a hack or an ETF got denied. He needs to know how much Netflix costs by the end of the month or groceries next week. I won't even get to the "small" issue of using decimals, my mother could make a simple mistake and confuse 0.001 with 0.0001

Now, Ethereum with all its problems is actually a platform that you can use to develop dapps and even stable tokens if you want, for example the Goldman Sachs Dollar, as weird as that sounds.

I don't have anything against banks, they never robbed me a penny, to me they are necessary evil like governments. Yes I would like to live in a world where governments don't force me to pay taxes and enslave me for life but that's not gonna happen in my lifetime at least. Bitcoin was created in a time of crisis and low faith in institutions. I agree a trustless public blockchain can solve many problems. To me the DAO hack was a debacle and very irresponsible from the devs behind the project. However I think the foundation did the best they could for such a shitty situation and it was very mature in my opinion. Not letting someone steal millions of dollars because of a bug is always the right answer. Letting him walk is being stubborn and rigid, that's not how the world works, difficult decisions must be made and it's not all black and white. And remember the problem was not in the Ethereum blockchain itself, it was in a smart contract holding millions in a beta project. It was too much too soon, but don't condemn them all, there are a lot smart people working and trying new things.

So I invest where I see the opportunity for growth, smart people and innovation. Bitcoin promised that years ago, but what about now? Tell me why should I invest in it?

Not so funny now...the future is grim for Bitcoin if you ask me and they only have themselves to blame, nothing but petty disputes, greediness and denial about the deep problems it has. What is Bitcoin anyway right now? I mean honestly, what does it do? It's certainly not a day to day currency that once proposed. A store of value? a decentralized database? Ok I can give you that, but there's zero incentive to buy it other than hodling and speculate with it, this trick won't last forever.

Now I'm not calling the death of Bitcoin or anything, I'm sure it will be around for many years, but something's gotta give, plenty of business had moved away from it due to the toxic environment and altcoins started to take on Bitcoin marketcap little by little, just look at the graph of altcoin market compared to Bitcoin, it's bullish as hell.

And like it or not, Ethereum is the second one behind it, with a lot of projects actually using its blockchain (not different blockchains altogether).

So glad I'm on Lykke, ETH and USD! I got scared for a moment though hehe. The future is bright for blockchain projects but Bitcoin will need a lot of work and some actual roadmap to recover from this in my opinion. No matter what maximalists say, there's nothing in the horizon other than petty disputes and 0 progress. There's a real chance ETH or others continue to dig at its marketcap. To me this is only Bitcoin fault, they got lazy, conservative, greedy, angry...this community is nothing like the one I heard and read about in 2011-2013.

What it's clear is that BTC is no store of value (whatever that means) and certainly not a currency, nothing this volatile and manipulated can be considered a day to day currency.

Yes today's the day, even if there's no announcement it would mean it would pass (I doubt they will choose that route but hey...if they can't decide and don't see anything too risky). The price is pumping right now, it's clear to me it's all manipulation, I'm not gambling and trying to "trade" today. I'm sure they are pumping it high enough so they can short it from the heavens if the ETF news comes.

Speaking of risk, completely agree on Ethereum, but that's how innovative technology and good investments are made, taking risks. And if you think about it, Bitcoin seems so stable and risk free but I'm fudding when I say that there's a high chance of a fork coming its way especially if ETF doesn't get approved and sentiment changes. This will create huge instability in the market and the whole industry will suffer for months like it happened with Ethereum. Ethereum survived because it has too much momentum, developers and ideas on its side. Bitcoin? a fork could absolutely annihilate it because it will hit when it hurts the most.

I've heard Factom wants to anchor into Ripple ledger too? is that for sure? I think Lykke should anchor to Ethereum as soon as they can and become more Ethereum friendly if you will, they will be right at home with that community.

Choppy waters all around, hard to predict what will happen but I stick with the previous mentioned projects. I was a Factom believer but as their project is mostly focused on actual business using their services I've grown a little tired of holding it. Their community is not very engaged and it's always the first coin to dump during BTC rallies (and even dumps) so I would only buy back when I see the opportunity, I think it's getting closer now since to me $2 FCT is a steal.

Anyway, regarding Lykke, I know they are trying to build some ties with Ethereum since Switzerland is aiming to be the Silicon Valley of crypto and Ethereum is Apple right now or whatever analogy would like to use hehe. I think they both can benefit from each other massively, especially regarding licenses and regulations. Many people don't understand just how hard it is to get into crypto, not everyone has ETH to participate in ICOs and for many that means buying BTC first, jumping through hoops, exchanges, wallets, etc.

For example, UJO Music is poised to disrupt the whole music industry in my opinion, their idea and concept is amazing and groundbreaking. Having complete control over music tracks, rights, completely automated is a solution to a problem when there are millions of Youtube channels and everyone is a creator for example.

However to buy the drum track for example to use on your Youtube video or even just stream the song currently available ("Tiny Human" by Imogen Heaps) means you need ETH, and that's the end of the road for most.

Yes I use Android at the moment, it works perfectly fine, no hiccups whatsoever. I'm in the business so I know how hard is to develop for Android instead of iOS (I'm sure they've chosen to develop for iOS first because of that). Either way, I think their strategy is perfect, they already have the apps up there getting more users by the day, when they deliver the web platform they will already have plenty of early adopters like us eager to use it. Like I said early, if they add ETH I would move 90% of my weekly trading to Lykke.

Regarding the price, I'm not sure and I'm not worried either (at least for Lykke), I just hope I can catch a small dip during these uncertain times, we may see it drop to $0.04-0.045, lower than that it would be a complete steal in my opinion considering we are talking about a company here.

I still maintain the ETF will get denied. I'm now convinced that if it gets approved it will benefit us all in the crypto space no matter what top 10-20 project you hold, however as we can see with these recent dumps, if it gets denied marketcaps could get cut in half in terms of fiat.

I've personally chosen to hedge my BTC with LKK, ETH and USD moving forward.

Those look amazing, I personally can't wait for the web/desktop based platform since most of us are used to trade this way, although I find myself using the app everyday lately trading between LKK, USD and BTC for now. I hope to catch a nice short dip in terms of USD price for LKK if BTC dumps, something below $0.04 would be amazing.

tempus, do you know if these options will be readily available for Android? I noticed the iOS app is a little more developed (could be just my idea though). As they first developed the iOS app I think that's the base for all future updates and then they push all progress to Android.

Dirk is awesome, everyone loves him and he's the ultimate professional. Also that he is so related to the Mavs franchise and Dallas makes it even better, it's nice to recognize these type of players that devote themselves to one team and are basically the image of it. Like Jordan and most recently Kobe, while Lebron played in Miami it certainly represents Cleveland much more. Speaking of him, getting 30k points will be an afterthought, I would say he even have a shot for 40k if he doesn't have any injuries in his upcoming years, the dude's a beast and will certainly average +20 points per game for the next 5 years at least, including deep runs in the playoffs.

I'm sure they are planning to list LKK on other exchanges but it won't be easy honestly. As we've been discussing in this thread Lykke aims to disrupt FX, CFD and Crypto Exchanges. It's also a semi-decentralized exchange (all the benefits in security that it has but also making sure it's actually usable you know...).

Either way if Waves and Bitshares are shared there, I'm sure Lykke can do it too. Also why do you want to buy LKK elsewhere? There's 0 fees involved if you download the app...

Amazing, this is so exciting, they are definitely keeping the eyes on the prize, while there are many similar projects like Waves or Bitshares, the key here is licenses/regulation, usability and professionalism. If you download Lykke app you can already know the level of quality and attention to detail the team has. On top of that Lykke could disrupt not only FX markets as we mentioned but CFD markets which had exponential growth in recent years.

Keeping in mind what Richard Olsen mentioned, they are basically aiming to provide a more secure and transparent CFD product via the blockchain. Anyone interested on Lykke should do some research on eToro to see the potential here, they recently launched a Ethereum CFD (they've been offering BTC CFD for a while).

Nice pick, I don't like your username at all though! Cavs fan here 

Well Cleveland ranking 22nd in defensive efficiency certainly looks quite bad, especially taking in consideration how many awful teams there are in this league compared to previous years, the contrast is huge, there's only 5 or 6 realistic contenders (Cavs and Warriors being on top) and the rest are miles behind. So for Cleveland to be mixed with the likes of Orlando, Denver, Miami, Sacramento and others is embarrassing.

In my opinion, it's sort of understandable that Cavs took it easy after winning the championship, they are still number one in their conference and they will most likely reach the finals again. I would wait for the first playoffs game to see if it's just a matter of effort and attitude though.

Great tempus, thanks for the quick reply, well not sure what that entails but even if it's postponed it's also a confirmation that they are working on it already and it's coming in the next months. Most likely they are focusing on getting the Chronobank integration ready by this week or the next.

Yefi what do you think about this Dash rally? It definitely came out of nowhere for me and some are saying it will go to $100 and above which to me is completely ridiculous. I don't really understand what's the appeal for Dash but I'm kicking myself for not seeing the signs and potential for the hype. I kind of get the masternodes lock a lot of Dash and all but I don't see what's so special I'm terms of tech that either Ethereum or even Litecoin or Doge can't do in terms of speed. Even Bitcoin if they manage to take these things seriously.

Anyway, do you think the pump is over or this is a good entry point? At least before the ETF decision unleash chaos hehe.

Thanks tempus, you're always so helpful! I do have some experience, I think they are great even for long term investing that is if you trust the exchange or authority managing it. Sites like eToro or plus500 are safe and regulated and with insurance but of course it's not the same as owning the actual stock. However for medium term investment or diversifying I think CFDs are perfectly fine. That is if you also get the dividends you are entitled to. A while ago these exchanges kept the dividends for themselves but lately they started distributing them so right now there's virtually no difference on holding a stock to a CFD except for the risks I mentioned above. It's very similar to a IOU if you will. This could very well translate to crypto soon with dividend paying tokens like ICN, SNGL, LKK, etc. We'll see if exchanges will distribute them or not.

I know because we already discussed that CFDs will be a major player for Lykke along with FX so I'm curious to see what they are planning in this case

Well it certainly didn't work out that well haha. I think you are right that Derrick Williams is a much better player form the bench since he brings much more energy and drives to the basket/draws fouls. However he's an improvement in terms of rebounds and crashing the boards compared to James Jones. Jefferson it's also a very decent defender and gets plenty of rebounds. I mentioned this because Thompson alone was not a match for Whiteside.

Either way, I don't think the Cavs could've won this game with so many absences but with some tweaks they could've made it more competitive at least...they ended up losing by 30, I think that's just too much when you have Deron Williams, Korver, Shumpert, Frye and others in your roster.

I understand this aspect and I understand what that entails too for many, however we need to acknowledge there's a problem with adoption and interest from the mainstream. If we don't solve this, most projects will end up dead or completely forgotten. I'm talking about using the best blockchain technology has to offer and leave the rest for the longer term or once things are more regulated and accepted by the general public.

There's also an issue with stability. To me none of these projects are currencies themselves. A currency must be stable so you know what you are paying next week. I know Netflix costs around 10 bucks a month. This is a major issue that so few of these projects even consider and a major adoption barrier.

You don't pay your coffee or buy an app with an Amazon or Apple stock, you hold stocks or Bitcoin or whatever because you think it will go up in price. So the real change will come once we can use cryptocurrency as just that, currencies you earn and spend.

No real currency ever appreciates in the real long term, it loses it value via inflation (slowly if it's a strong one but surely).

I understand Ethereum is experimental but the DAO hack was very particular because of how it was set up. No other project had problems and there are plenty (some much more ambitious than LBRY...). I mentioned Ethereum since at least it has some actual answers to scale in the future. Either way my point was that you don't even need a decentralized currency. Just use an internal credit system or colored coin/token if you want anchored to a popular blockchain (BTC, ETH, whatever) for settlement, that's it. This will solve a lot of technical issues and delays. but crypto is full of nerds who think that the average joe cares about "decentralization". The average joe cares about usability and speed, that's it. You can achieve transparency and security via decentralization too but not in real time, so it's ridiculous to put that as the top priority. The result will be that no one will use your product/service except a bunch or crypto geeks. No one is waiting an extra second to get a coffee just because it's "decentralized".

Having 5k blockchains is a complete overkill and ridiculous, that's why I think only a handful will survive. Too many blockchains just won't be able scale and are not really needed. Even Bitcoin has only a laughable number or nodes...