Prelude: There was a conversation recently about the role blockchain tech can play in founding new ideologies. I wrote a research paper that explores essentially this concept, so I thought it might be appreciated to share this. Just to warn you guys, this paper is written under the context of a Marxist Economics course (I am not a Marxist though). The philosophy is essentially the same as I would use in another context, although the verbiage and structure is different that what I'd normally use. I do think the "blockchain mode of production" could be a likely successor to capitalism, although I think this is because it's superior to capitalism, and not because capitalism is broken or evil. Without further ado:

At the core of Marxist ideology lies an unwavering opposition to the capitalist mode of production. Through the deification of capital, the majority worker class is alienated from their labor and reduced from humanity to a mere commodity, where they are valued only for their worth as a wage laborer, through a method no different than that used to assign value to land or infrastructure. “What can displace the capitalist mode of production?” remains an essential question to Marxist thought that has largely remained unanswered. However, cryptocurrency, and more importantly, its underlying blockchain technology, represents a rapidly emerging concept that enables the creation of a new mode of production, enforced by algorithms. This idea, the blockchain-based mode of production, enables a system superior to capitalism, and thus, has potential to act as a tool to truly displace capitalism- empowering workers and eliminating the oppressive, all-powerful ruling class.

Before a Marxist analysis can be applied to cryptocurrency, it’s necessary to first define what exactly this new technology is. Cryptocurrency can best be summarized as a form of digital money. Cryptocurrency is unique from other currencies due to its decentralized nature. Unlike fiat currencies, which are minted, controlled, and propagated by a government or otherwise central body, cryptocurrency belongs to no domain. It is sovereign in nature, free from control or tampering from any body. Instead, participants worldwide form a network of dedicated computing power. These participants are responsible for securing and creating the cryptocurrency following a universal, immutable set of algorithmic rules. What makes cryptocurrency revolutionary is an inherent truth that anyone can act as a participant to the network. Additionally, anyone can use or send any amount of cryptocurrency to any other party anywhere in the world, and no third party, government or otherwise, has any capabilities to restrict or influence activities by any individual that interacts with cryptocurrency.

The network created by participants is coined “the blockchain”. The blockchain represents a universal, completely transparent, fully comprehensive ledger of transactions. When participants dedicate computing power to this blockchain network, what actually takes place is participants receive, verify, and present every transaction made. These transactions are pooled together as a batch, or “block”, of payments, which is published or put forth to the network at frequent intervals. Each new block presented is placed upon, or “chained” to the previously block. The result is an immutable sequence of payment batches that encapsulate every single transaction that has ever taken place.

The first instance of cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, proposed by an pseudonymous author, Satoshi Nakamoto, in late 2008 (Nakamoto). Shortly after, on January 3, 2009, Bitcoin launched, accompanied by a timestamp that read, “The Times[sic] 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” (Genesis Block). From its initial launch, cryptocurrency was situated as a response to the global financial crisis, which saw the livelihoods and security of families and citizens worldwide jeopardized and even demolished, in contrast to the banks and global financial institutions- perpetrators of said crisis, receiving bailouts and maximum support from governments all over the world. Pioneered by Bitcoin, this introduction situates cryptocurrency as a tool for empowering global citizens as a financial alternative that does not subject them to the oppressive nature of the capitalist bankers. Of course, this closely mirrors the rhetoric and ambitions used by Marx.

Another element of cryptocurrency that can be seen as Marxist is the idea of value-backed currency. With the introduction of Bitcoin, there also emerged a new manner in which money could be minted. Termed “Proof-of-Work”, participants in the network, while simultaneously dedicated computing power to processing transactions, are also working to solve complex algorithms, or “mine” Bitcoin. Bitcoin is minted as mining rewards, where computing power competes in a sort of race to find or mine the Bitcoin rewards first. This computing power carries a very real value. That is, so much electricity and hardware resources are sacrificed through the minting of new Bitcoin. As a result, it can be argued that the value of Bitcoin must at least reflect the value of the work put in (Huckle and White). Bitcoin is not the only example of this, most cryptocurrencies utilize a similar approach to distribution. Of course, as was discussed in class, Marx similarly asserts that money should reflect the work put in to it. Karl Marx argues that currency should be merely a representation of some unit of labor, and that prices of commodities should reflect the amount of labor units required to produce it (Mandel). Beyond the Proof-of-Work process, cryptocurrency also maintains intrinsic value as a utility currency. As it currently stands, different cryptocurrencies can be used towards a number of functions. Cloud computing, file storage, product authenticity verification, asset registration, and secure messaging are just a handful of countless use cases cryptocurrencies already encapsulate. There is similarly an intrinsic value in the goods and services represented by these currencies.

Another major criticism of Capitalism from Marxists is the role of intellectual private property. Most evident in the insurance industry, there are significant negative externalities associated with commoditizing and profitizing knowledge, as we had discussed in class earlier in the term. Another core value of cryptocurrency is an open-source approach to development. With few exceptions, the codebase of each individual cryptocurrency is transparent, accessible to anyone. Beyond this, anyone can contribute to the code of different cryptocurrencies. This community-driven approach was first formed via Bitcoin and is now seen across most cryptocurrencies. In the case of Bitcoin, anyone can propose additions or revisions to the Bitcoin codebase as a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP). When a BIP is submitted, participants in the network review it and decide whether or not to accept it. This community development approach is one of the purest forms of public ownership in today’s society, and very accurately reflects the Marxist paradigm of thought (Huckle and White).

While these ideas are interesting, these early Marxist implications do not necessarily equate to a breakthrough Marxist progression. Similarly to Marx’s views on labor cooperatives and their use of an IOU-style currency system, it’s very possible that Marx would even suggest these values are simply a distraction to the Capitalism problem. In order to meaningfully apply Marxist thought to cryptocurrency, it’s necessary to address it in regards to its relationship with Capitalism. More specifically, the Capitalist mode of production must be understood in order to assess cryptocurrency and blockchain technology as a tool for forging a superior mode of production.

At the core of Marxist thought is a socioanalysis of Capitalism- where it derived from, how it rose to power, and how it’s maintained dominance thusfar. The socionalysis of Capitalism is a core pillar of Marxist thought, and while many opinions of Marxist thinkers may often veer away from Marx and other Marxists, each must “accept and begin from… an understanding of what capitalism “is” that derives from Marx’s original insight” (Heilbroner 21). As this socioanalysis of Capitalism is a core value of Marxism, his critiques are frequently shared throughout his publications, such as in The Communist Manifesto and Capital. Marx believes that Capitalism emerged as the dominant mode of production due to its insatiable emphasis on efficiency and technology. While Marx views capitalism very poorly, he does admit his awe regarding the rate of technological progress brought on by capitalism. According to Marx, the capitalist mode of production is made up of the dialectical capitalist ruling and subservient worker classes. The introduction and proliferation of capital as the ultimate good spawns the normification of wage labor. That is, workers exchange their human output for monetary wages. Wage labor lies at the heart of Marx’s capitalist criticisms. He views this relationship as the complete exploitation of workers, as they forfeit the ability to maintain ownership of the outcome of their labor, or rather, they lose the right, as Marx sees it, to reap what they so. As such, the ruling capitalist class wins the entire labor surplus and exerts complete ownership over labor. Marx strongly believes that work is the essence of man, and to strip man from the fruits of his labors, he is completely alienated from his work. Wage labor acts as a means to reduce the worker to merely a commodity, whose value is assigned in a manner no different than that is to land or machinery. In the capitalist mode of production, Marx asserts that man is stripped of his humanity.

As has previously introduced in this paper, cryptocurrency holds no weight as a potential “capitalism killer”, so to speak. However, in 2014, the introduction of a new cryptocurrency network, Ethereum, massively expanded the size and scope for the possibilities capable through blockchain technology. Often referred to as “blockchain 2.0”, Ethereum represents a network that, beyond just currency, individuals within the network are given the capabilities to transact data (Blankenship 25). What makes Ethereum important is the introduction of this new method of communication called smart contracts. Similar to contracts as they traditionally exist, smart contracts represent some sort of agreement between two or more parties. However, the pen and paper contracts of yesterday differ in that they are enforced by law and government. In contrast, smart contracts are automatically enforced by the Ethereum network itself. In other words, the agreements that take place through smart contracts are published, recorded, and enforced automatically via computer algorithms. On their own, smart contracts provide a number of use cases. They can be used to orchestrate loans, escrow, data transmission, exchange of virtual goods, and much more. These smart contracts are a massive evolution beyond traditional contracts because the automatic and unwavering nature of algorithmic enforcements means that it is impossible for one party to cheat the other, and thus, trustless cooperation can take place.

While each smart contracts individually provide significant value, the real, massive value possessed by smart contracts is unveiled when they are used in conjunction with one another. When a number of smart contracts are combined towards a specific goal, to create a web or network of contracts, a never-before-seen organization of communication is born: the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) (Blankenship 51). If each part of DAO is approached individually, the entity it represents is fairly straightforward. Decentralized has been explained previously- that is, a descriptor of something that operates peer-to-peer, or in the absence of some central regulator or authority. Autonomous represents independence or sovereignty, and an organization is some sort of collective or conglomerate of parties. As such, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization represents a driven ecosystem governed automatically and immutably through a system of algorithms. Of course, all the previously mentioned qualities of cryptocurrency similarly extend to any DAO. These organizations are completely transparent, with the entire codebase and functionalities of the DAO completely public. Beyond this, any participant similarly can contribute to the addition or improvement of the existing code. And of course, there are similarly no barriers to entry to a DAO. Even internet access is not a requirement to participate in a DAO or any cryptocurrency. Those with intermittent or no access to the internet can maintain ownership or participatory rights through paper or brain wallets (Loera).

When production is organized in a Decentralized Autonomous Organization manner, the role of capital is completely replaced by that of the algorithm. In other words, the managers and CEOs of the capitalist class are made obsolete through a perfectly consistent alternative, the algorithm. Of course, capitalists share a dialectical relationship with workers, so if capitalists are removed from the mode of production, so are the workers. While the capitalists are replaced by algorithms, the workers are replaced by participants. Unlike workers, participants have complete freedom to associate with and support any number of DAOs. As participants share public ownership over and are responsible for forging and improving algorithms, they maintain complete control over their individual participation and the productivity of the DAO as a whole.

Of course, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization is worthwhile, and wildly exciting to the Marxist, in its approach to production that provides and upholds ownership in a completely egalitarian manner. However, in a society dominated by neoclassical ideals, such as the capitalist society of today, these Marxist ideals can only carry water so long as they are competitive with their capitalist counterparts. That is, the blockchain mode of production as introduced through the DAO is only significant if it can compete with the dominant capitalist organizations.

And it is for this reason that the DAO is truly a remarkable concept. For not only can a Decentralized Autonomous Organization compete with capitalist alternatives- it outperforms them. Capitalist progressions and advancements take place in the pursuit of higher efficiency: maximum output and minimum input. Firms strive to approach zero marginal costs of production. However, the DAO eliminates an input cost, which can now be seen as a negative externality, completely: the organization of capital via the capitalist class. Algorithms require no upkeep cost, and above all else, are automatic. Whereas the capitalist banker, manager, or CEO requires education, training, resources, transportation, and more, the algorithm does not. And at the end of the day, capitalists are humans, and not perfect. Whereas the capitalist can never be perfect, the algorithm can never not be perfect. There is no margin of error in an algorithm. In certain situations, the marginal cost to produce in a DAO achieves a rate of zero. Such a reality makes the capitalist alternative completely obsolete. In all situations, the removal of the capitalist class improves efficiency and productivity in a DAO in a manner that capitalist competitors fundamentally cannot.

Even though the technology and ideology behind Decentralized Autonomous Organizations is very new, there are already a number of DAO’s in existence. Perhaps the most widespread example is the Steem blockchain. The Steem network propagates a blogging website called Steemit.com. On Steemit, any user can create blog posts, as well as comment and vote in other posts and comments. Like Bitcoin, Steem is a Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency, where participants that dedicate computing power act as miners, and are rewarded with Steem cryptocurrency. However, unlike Bitcoin, only a fraction of each chunk of rewards is awarded to miners. The majority of it is distributed among bloggers, commentators, and voters. The way it works is that, when participants vote on new content, it affects the value or reward of said content. Additionally, those who vote “smart”, or, are determined by Steem’s algorithms to vote positively on quality content and negatively on poor content, are also rewarded. Each day, upwards of thousands of dollars worth of Steem are paid out to contributors, with close to one million unique users contributing content since December of 2017 (Thelwall). Every cost associated- from site upkeep to content payouts- are ensured automatically through the blockchain itself. There is currently more than US$2 million worth of Steem currency in the active rewards pool. Of course, this only includes rewards that have yet to be paid out (Steem).

Other examples of DAOs include the DASH protocol, which, like Steem, sets aside a percentage of each mining reward to be paid out. Unlike Steem, DASH’s payment pool is reserved for funding projects proposed and voted on by participants in DASH. DigixDAO is another example, which acts as a means to digitilize gold. MakerDAO acts similarly to Digix, but instead works with the US Dollar. Current industries already facing pressure from DAO alternatives includes banking, escrow services, and investment banking. Of course, it’s logical to suggest that the purely or primarily capitalist industries are the most at risk to be displaced by the blockchain mode of production.

In classroom discussion, two industries we focused on that see large externalities associated with the capitalist mode of production were insurance and medicine. These are two industries that a DAO can easily encapsulate. In the case of insurance, a DAO could represent an insurance collective where participants vote on rates and frequencies of payments that are put towards a global insurance fund. Participants can then propose insurance claims, which can be accepted or rejected by the network. Alternatively, participants in this DAO could vote to delegate responsibilities, associated by a set amount of funding to a party that acts as the claims processor for the DAO. In the case of medicine, we could see a similar approach taken by DASH, where funding is generated by the network, and/or contributed by participants, and put towards research initiatives. The outcomes of the research would be published to the DAO itself and become public domain, eliminating the burdens of privatization of IP that promotes the profitization of health and medicine.

Of course, it’s more difficult to suggest how a blockchain mode of production could apply to more material industries- anywhere from automobiles to restaurants. While there is not currently infrastructure to support a DAO alternative to factories or brick and mortar businesses, there will be in an automated future. Under the capitalist mode of production, further technological development is inevitable, and many scholars and theorist suggest automation must act as a catalyst to a new mode of production. Economic theorist Jeremy Rifkin argues that a sharing economy will take hold out of sustainability necessities. Technology research company Gartner argues that the future will encapsulate a “programmable economy”. The commonality among different predictions is the vital role that the blockchain mode of production plays in enabling these futures.



In viewing this emerging composition, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, as a new, blockchain mode of production, it’s worthwhile to assess it through the five themes of Marxist socioanalysis. Economically, we see a complete displacement of the role of capital. As is seen through the Steem example, the role of capital is replaced by participation, and beyond that, incentivized participation. Politically, the consensus-reliant nature of the DAO applies true democracy at every level. Beyond this, the sovereign, or autonomous, nature of the DAO greatly diminishes and could even eliminate the role of governments and other central overseers. Ecologically, the digitalization associated with the blockchain mode of production can displace the role of fossil fuels and unsustainable resource consumption with renewable resources- electricity and computing power. Familially, work life can transition back to the home, as participants are not constrained to urban, corporate settings as their primary place of work. Participation happens where the participant is the most comfortable. Participation is also fully inclusive. Women, minorities, or otherwise are not treated differently in the blockchain mode of production. Ideologically, the pursuit of knowledge and technical literacy replaces capital accumulation and profit as the ultimate desired goods. Society is morphed into an egalitarian meritocracy.

While there are a number of Marxist implications behind cryptocurrency, by far the most exciting and significant is the role cryptocurrency and its underlying blockchain technology can play in forging a new mode of production- the blockchain mode of production. This concept finally solves the essential question, “What can displace capitalism?” and can introduce a political economy that, for the first time in history, could be truly equal.


Bibliography
Blankenship, Joe. “Forging Blockchains: Spatial Production and Political Economy of Decentralized Cryptocurrency Code/Spaces.” Scholar Commons, scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6681/.
“Genesis Block.” Hash - Bitcoin Wiki, en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block.
Heilbroner, Robert L. Marxism: for and Against. W. W. Norton and Company, 1981.
Huckle, Steve, and Martin White. “Socialism and the Blockchain.” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 18 Oct. 2016, www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/8/4/49/htm#B12-futureinternet-08-00049.
Mandel, Earnest. “Karl Marx - 6. Marx's Theory of Money.” Karl Marx - 4. Marx's Labour Theory of Value, www.ernestmandel.org/en/works/txt/1990/karlmarx/6.htm.
Nakamoto, Satoshi. “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” Bitcoin - Open Source P2P Money, bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-paper.
“Programmable Economies.” LinkedIn, Gertner, 12 May 2018, www.linkedin.com/search/results/content/?lipi=urn:li:page:d_flagship3_search_srp_content;Lp/4SHIHSrCYN3bPoMoZ/w==&licu=urn:li:control:d_flagship3_search_srp_content-object&lici=ombEoOSlQ5WVwQk7rk1GcA==#.
Rifkin, Jeremy. “The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy.” YouTube, Vice, 13 Feb. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX3M8Ka9vUA.
“Steem.” 20297495 | Steem Block | Steem, steemd.com/.
Thelwall, Mike. “Can Social News Websites Pay for Content and Curation? The SteemIt Cryptocurrency Model.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Sage Journals, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0165551517748290.

Hey all, want to gage interest in a potential series of articles I may publish to nulltx.com.

Just now, my mind wandered to the infamous Bitcointalk account, Bipolar Bob. It dawned on me that many likely have no idea who this is. I picture this project as a series of articles that conveys the timeline or major happenings of prominent personas in the space from way back when. Others may include accounts like laszlo and TradeFortress. Would you guys be interested in this type of content?

Hey all, I've got a bit of an assignment for my uni course. I need to put together a composite of responses from a number of individuals. Would love to get a few responses to the following two questions:

In one or two sentences, define what exactly life is, as clearly and completely as possible:

Do you think there is anything akin to human life somewhere out there?

I should note that this is simply for a homework assignment. None of this information will be published or solicited. The goal is to get 5 responses so would love some help from you all

Hey all, someone on my Facebook trade group for my college is sending what appears to be a pretty beefy PC. The specs are as follows:

2 gtx970 video cards in SLI
32 g of ram ddr3 2400 mhz
8 hard drives
Boots 4 different system
And a i7 4790k processor

As is it is selling for $1500, although I've been told most pieces can be downgraded if necessary, so I imagine it would do no harm (for mining) to cut down on hard drives and RAM. If I use it to mine while on campus, Electricity is free (I will spend about 60 weeks between now and June 2019 on campus).

Doing a bit of googling suggests that each card will mine about $2.50 per day. Want to know 1) if I'm getting ripped 2) what parts are superfluous 3) is it worth?

Hey all, trying to research some options available in regards to blockchain games that are not hosted on Ethereum. By blockchain game I mean a game in which moves are situated on the blockchain, not a game that simply has a cryptocurrency economy. Games that are released as well as in development are both fine. Here are the ones I'm aware of:

Bitcoin/Counterparty: Satoshis Place, Rare Pepe Party, Mafia Wars, Bitcorn

Litecoin: Crypto Monsters, Coindroids

Steem: Steem Monsters

XAYA: Treat Fighter, Soccer Manager Crypto

EOS: EOS Knights

NEM: Xarcade, RPG

Huntercoin (own blockchain)

NEO: HashPuppies

WAVES: Laserchain

Any others?

EDIT: Added more, keep em coming

Hey all, wanted to highlight a serious issue that I have recently been exposed to.

Over past weeks, there has been massive discontent from community members as it has become increasingly apparent that the executive in charge of GNation have done a lackluster job, to put it lightly- traveling and living lavishly without doing anything in terms of actual development.

Days ago, it was exposed that a faction of long-time GameCredits supporters employed by GNation unhappy with management have split to create GameCredits Foundation. This is massively unsettling because we now have a situation where the subset of employees responsible for what development has taken place over the past year+ are disconnected from the $200 million + ICO funds. Investors in ICO that have stuck around are in a position where their money sits with what amounts to little more than conmen.

I wanted to share this all with you because it represents an unsettling nature of ICOs which suggests that there is really no accountability by teams to deliver what they plan to do. This is coming from one of the oldest projects in cryptocurrency.

What do you guys think this will mean for the future of both currencies? Which have both absolutely tanked in the past weeks regarding the atmosphere of surrounding communities. Are there other currencies that could see similar fates?

[only]

Hey all,

wanted to open a discussion about a small cap projects I am a huge supporter of: MyWish. Here's a a few metrics about MyWish:

* Market cap is under US$2 million
* Each token is valued at about $0.09
* Tokens traded for over $3 at peak

Now, as for the project itself:

MyWish is a smart contract market place. Users can pay with MyWish (and for certain contracts, ETH as will) to create any of 10 smart contracts across three blockchains: ETH, NEO, BTC (soon EOS as well). This marketplace is live, and it's the only project to offer something like this (others still in development)

Days ago, they launched their airdrop contract, which automatically handles airdrops for projects, something virtually all projects use. Utilization of MyWish can reduce gas fees by up to 30%. Again, the ONLY project to offer such a service. They also offer a crowdsale and token creation contract, which means anyone can create their own ICO entirely through MyWish. So far, over 1,300 smart contracts have been created through MyWish. At recent conferences, 10 projects indicated they would be operating their ICO through with MyWish contracts, and many more indicated they will be using the airdrop contracts.

What makes MyWish different from other projects is the team always hits deadlines. They've never "re-calculated" their roadmap. They've simply hit every single deadline they've placed. We're talking dozens of developments without hiccup.

Now, what's exciting is MyWish has indicated they are in communication with Huobi Pro and another top 10 exchange for listing. Currently, MyWish volume is very low due to it only being traded on Cryptopia, which has its own issues. The bear market + lack of exchange has crippled the price, but when MyWish is listed on a major exchange, I think the sky's the limit.

What do you guys think? I think MyWish is criminally undervalued. Do you agree, or do you have any reasoning to explain why I am wrong?

Hey all, I'm looking to put together a list of current ICOs that are compliant with the US SEC. Of course, most offerings do not meet this criteria, so I'm sure this is a very niche list.

Hey all, I'm doing a research paper on blockchain technology as a mode of production, in which a large portion will be focused on the concept of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations. I know of two current ones: DASH budgeting and DigixDAO, and one in development: Chimaera DAU.

Of course, I know there is potentially others currently up and running and I'm sure plenty more in development or conception stages. Does anyone know of some other examples of DAOs I can explore further?

I've seen very little information about CEFS, and wanted to know if anyone had researched it. For those who are unaware, 4.5% of Cryptopia's fees are shared as monthly dividends with 6,300 CEFS. That means 1 share equals .0007% of all fees. With Cryptopia's current volume and CEFS prices, the ROI is about 15%. This (I believe) is better than KuCoin Shares.

I imagine prices will dump pretty hard after today, as this is the day dividends are paid to holders. It may drop as low as .15 BTC per share in the next couple of days. Wanted to know if any holders are lurking around and can provide their opinions?

Hey everyone, my school is offering an "innovation challenge" that brings new initiatives to the school that brings in more $$/helps costs. Every summer and winter break, only a fraction of the network's bandwidth and computing power is ever used, meaning the school is paying for a lot of network and hardware to just sit. I'd like to propose the network installs mining software that mines BTC, LTC, and ETH at a safe % of CPU/GPU usage during the three month summer vacation and one month winter vacation. First of all, is it even a worthwhile proposition, after electricity costs? This is for a small school of 1400.

A week ago I was on a road trip and recorded a  6 hour brain dump of everything I know and learned over the 4.5 years I've been involved with crypto, broken up into different sections. Where would be the best place to upload this so people can listen and share for free?

I input an Eth withdrawal request on Cryptopia 40 minutes ago... it's still pending. I was transferring funds over to livecoin to buy dumped OTN...  which has now passed. Normally wouldn't care too much but Cryptopia has a tab dedicated to arbitrage, which often times requires moving funds quickly. How can they advertise arbitrage if they withdraw funds at a snail's pace? Unacceptable.

Here are the top 100 coins from coinmarketcap filtered to exclude useless shit:

1. Bitcoin
2. Ethereum
4. Ripple
5. Litecoin
7. Monero
8. NEO
11. IOTA
13. OmiseGO
21. Stellar Lumens
22. Waves
25. Ark
26. Steem
28. BitShares
33. Decred
35. MaidSafeCoin
36. Vertcoin
39. Gas
41. Binance Coin
46. Factom
49. Basic Attention Token
51. Dogecoin
52. Walton
53. Siacoin
56. GameCredits
58. Blocknet
63. 0x
67. Raiden Network
73. Bancor
84. FunFair
89. Storj

Bonus: undervalued coins out of top 100: MobileGO, CounterParty, LomoCoin, EnjinCoin

Don't @ me

GameCredits (and by proxy, MobileGO) look too good to be true right now. Both these coins remained relatively unscathed in recent BTC climb to 6k, and yesterday, perhaps the biggest partnership for any crypto project took place between GameCredits and Unity:

"I'm incredibly proud to announce one of our most important partnerships ever. GameCredits Inc. has partnered with the multi-billion dollar gaming company Unity Technologies to provide the gamecredits store as a built in Unity standard. Some of Unity's most popular games include Temple Run, Pokemon Go, Rust, Hearthstone and Assassin's Creed Identity. They also are responsible for over 50% of all mobile game development (34% of the top 1000 games), about 140,000 games total. The Unity SDK we announced before is just a small piece of the puzzle. Rather than just allowing developers to build apps for our store, publishing to our store will be the same process of uploading a Unity game to google play or the app store. Several Unity developers have been working alongside our developers in our office to make this integration possible. At the same time our teams have agreed to work together to create a unity application that will allow any unity game to have esports capabilities in our companies applications. Essentially adding a simple noninvasive plugin to a unity game will allow gamers to wager and bet on that game using our technologies."

I'm wickedly confident that GameCredits IS going to disrupt the global gaming industry and when that happens it's going to be one of the largest projects in cryptocurrency. Imagine the impact when half of all mobile devs who are Unity have the option to 1) automatically publish their games to the G Store and 2) add MGO wagering to their application. I'm amazed both these coins are still as cheap as they are.

If you've been around Bitcoin since 2013 and look at the graphs today- it's almost unbelievable to see how the November runup and subsequent crash pales in comparison to what we've seen this year, and more importantly, the past few weeks. Unlike 2013, this recent run has been accompanied by a similarly, if not more, impressive run by altcoins as a whole. What I think is a major contributor to this run is the whole system altcoins are predicated upon: People buy Bitcoin to buy altcoins.

What this means is that in order to jump on board this crazy train, you've gotta get crypto (and sometimes Eth, and sometimes something else) to get your altcoin of your choice. What this means is that just by dipping your toes in altcoins, you've already helped push everything upwards. When I buy bitcoin to buy CounterParty to buy PepeCash to buy Rare Pepes, I'm pushing a lot of shit upwards with just that single Bitcoin purchase. At the very least, you get double purchasing power when you go fiat>BTC>altcoin.

Of course, the flipside is also true- cashing out alts to fiat has a multiplied downward effect on the markets as well. I think, ultimately, the inability or hesitation to cash Bitcoin to fiat is what this entire market run is predicated upon. Let's be honest, it's still difficult to cash out to fiat, at least exponentially more than it is from alts to BTC. Coupled with tax burden associated with cashing out, and going against some of the core sentiments of cryptocurrency, it makes sense why people by and large aren't cashing out.

I think BitcoinCash is a pretty strong indicator towards this actuality. The free distribution of a token currently valued at close to 10 billion did not shake Bitcoin's price. People didn't cash out their free money in favor of a guaranteed, risk free profit- they either held on to it, sold it in favor of another altcoin, or sold it for Bitcoin and held onto it.

So far it's not an issue, as bigger and bigger players are entering the crypto sphere. Microsoft, JP Morgan, fucking Russia are some pretty big entities. But what happens when bigger and bigger presences stop entering the realm? Or less than that- what if these money multiplier purchase slow down? First people will hand their alts back in for Bitcoin as they see the markets slowing down- and then what? Some people are going to inevitably want to cash out (at least a portion of) their Bitcoin, and then beauty of these secondary, tertiary, etc. markets have turned into a nightmare. Many individuals who started this journey 1-4 years ago have already far surpassed whatever ambitions they may have for their portfolios. Plenty of people will be fine with losing out on some profit if it means they can ensure they still keep most of it.

The counter argument to this, of course, is that the increasing in total market value is due to previous undervaluation alongside new and improving tech in the cryptocurrency realm. While it would be foolish not to agree that great strides and progress has been made in recent times, I don't think it's enough to justify the major run.

Take a look at individual currencies and ask yourself if they are worth their current value. I love Pepecash, but is it really worth 8 million? What about it's clone, Memetic? Is that worth more than 2.5 mil? Is Fuck token worth close to 1 mil? Is Dogecoin worth 200 million? What about BitConnect, a fucking ponzi scheme. Is it worth almost one billion dollars? Is Steem worth almost 350 million? (Many speculate that Yahoo overpaid for Tumblr when they purchased it for 1.1bil in 2013).

Ask yourself if you think the coins you look at every day are worth the amount they trade for.

I asked recently on Reddit but didn't get much help. I'm heading back to college in a few days and interested in starting up a general Bitcoin group at my college. I was wondering if there are any current resources available for such endeavors. I've heard of Blockchain Education Network but their website hasn't been updated for a year so I'm assuming that entity fell through. If you have any information please share!!

Hey guys, I've got 3 years left at college which means 3 years of free electricity. I want to know how feasible/possible it is to purchase a new PC, and earn back the payment via mining. There are no electricity costs, so essentially the question becomes can the PC pay for itself before it bricks or 3 years have passed. I have no previous mining experience outside of renting altcoin miners online with BTC. Am I stupid for even thinking this could work?

I want to put a bit of BTC into 4chancoin. Some new shitcoin I saw on /biz/. Problem is it's only traded on TradeSatoshi right now. Never heard of this exchange before and doesn't look very professional from what I've seen. If I put a couple hundred dollars of BTC into it am I essentially just donating it to some overseas scam artist? If you've used TradeSatoshi in the past, lmk. Thanks.

For those who have been playing on MneThatDigi within the past couple of hours, you've probably seen conversation about people duplicating items in the game. While admins went to bed, a group of players have been creating infinite diamonds for themselves. What this means is the server will most likely have to reset, and anything that happened today will be lost. Like all server resets, angry players may quit, this will hurt playerbse significantly.

Do you think frustrations regarding the Minecraft server will lead to a further downswing in DGB?