I want to award merits to those whom seldomly get awarded merits for their extraordinary efforts or opinions that had an impact on you. If you found a particular post or thread this year that has helped you in anyway, feel free to post the link in this thread and let us know why it has helped you. I (and probably others) will be meriting of these gem posts that you found to be exquisite. It will also help me recap some of what you guy's have been discussing as of late. Happy Holidays everyone! Rules:1) Has to be a post by someone else other than yourself 2) Has to pertain to altcoins, if it's a broader piece about Bitcoin and the markets these are valid as well. 3) Don't try manipulating this thread, everything will be checked accordingly. 4) Please post the link to the thread post and why it has helped you. 5) Posts or Thread must be from 2023 only. 2019 Version - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5212250 |
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Ask yourself this, where's the proof of any backing? Where are the journalists questioning USDT's holdings? The true state of obliviousness in crypto is still baffling. Despite billions of dollars and repeated offenses by countless wolves over the past 10 years in all of crypto, no one bats an eyelash at the lack of any tangible* evidence from the largest stablecoin. USDT will become the biggest scam in crypto history, bigger than XRP by 5-fold. The day of reckoning will arrive soon enough. Maybe a few more years before this speculative prophecy comes to fruition.
From user YogeeThere was a report last year about Tether's reserves but the problem was it's conducted by an audit firm called Cayman. Tether opened their books to them as part of their compliance but you cannot really rely on reports released by another shady company can you? Why did they not seek the expertise of top audit companies like Ernst and Young or the PwC?
Here's their reserve breakdown as reported by Coindesk,
- Cash & Cash Equivalents & Short-term deposits & Commercial paper: 75.85%
- Secured Loans: 12.55%
- Corporate Bonds, Funds & Precious metals: 9.96%
- Other investments: 1.64%
From CNBC about the NYC Lawsuit - Ryan Browne - Feb 21st, 2021 - *Note that their investigation was highly limited in scope.* The state’s top law enforcement official had been investigating the firms over allegations that they moved hundreds of millions of dollars to cover up the apparent loss of $850 million of commingled client and corporate funds. Tether and Bitfinex — a popular digital currency exchange — are owned by the same company, Bitfinex. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office says it found that Tether sometimes held no reserves to back its cryptocurrency’s dollar peg. It said that, from mid-2017, the company had no access to banking and misled clients about liquidity issues.
In a 2019 filing, the attorney general’s office said that Bitfinex handed $850 million to a Panama entity called Crypto Capital without disclosing it to investors. Executives at Bitfinex and Tether then allegedly engaged in a series of transactions that opened up Tether’s cash reserves to Bitfinex.
“Bitfinex and Tether recklessly and unlawfully covered-up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines,” James said in a statement Tuesday.
“Tether’s claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie,” she added.
“These companies obscured the true risk investors faced and were operated by unlicensed and unregulated individuals and entities dealing in the darkest corners of the financial system.” Accounting Firm Report Card - Coindesk by: Helene Braun - March 30, 2021 To be clear, an attestation is not the same thing as an audit. The latter is designed to look for potential risks, while an attestation only evaluates whether the data being examined by the auditor is accurate. However, no stablecoin issuer has been able to secure an audit, including companies regulated by U.S. entities like the New York Department of Financial Services. In other words, the attestation puts Tether on par with stablecoin issuers such as USDC’s Centre, GUSD’s Gemini or PAX’s Paxos, at least when it comes to financial clarity. Coindesk Report about Moore Cayman (Auditor) - now known as MHA Cayman - Jan 26th, 2022 FRC is looking at MHA's audits of the financial statements of MRG Finance UK for 2018 and 2019, ahead of a planned shakeup of the nation's audit market, according to the FT. MHA is a subsidiary of Baker Tilly International, the 11th-largest auditor of London-listed companies by market value, according to the FT, quoting Adviser Rankings. |
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(This was originally posted, by me, in mid-2021, for 1 day)
Since DeFi was the major trend early last year, it has since flatlined, in hype, many months ago. Now both DeFi and NFTs are in their infancy, but this topic will specifically focus on the latest trend, NFTs. This initial NFT hype boom, that started roughly 12 months ago, will eventually fade away and mature quietly in the background. We are already hearing mostly dead-silence in regards to this, since the Bitcoin fallout with the wider stock market.
The concept of bridging a physical tangible good, into a tokenized system, is fundamentally game-changing and is not a new concept in this space. What has recently occurred is the proof-of-concept of NFTs, the actual application and adoption of the tech, which has thousands of practical applications and will continue evolving dramatically in the coming years. There's a great parallel that can be struck currently to 2013-2015, NFTs today are what Foodcoin, titcoin, dogecoin and the 100s of other real-world like POW cryptos, and of those 100-400 shitcoins only 1 survived, Dogecoin. But, they represented a: physical, tangible good, service, idea or etc. And I suppose as crypto has been evolving, there has been a subconscious desire to tokenize everything this world represents, often for malicious schemes, but the pattern goes far beyond then just monetary incentive. People like collecting things and owning them. But in the end, you are no more the owner of your NFT than I'm. That's the reality. That really goes for anything that's digital, be it your collectables in a video game or music album, movies... whatever. The idea of digital collection and digital ownership is an entire field in itself and is highly subjective - I'm not going to get into too much debate about. Ultimately, the majority of digital ownership is subjective in the end, without any governing force or law. With that subjective thought each individual will assign a value to that specific item and thus value is created if another individual agrees on that value. That's essentially what's occurring with cryptos, NFTs, stocks and virtually everything that is tangible.
But alas, what we are witnessing now in the NFT space is speculative gambling, similar to the collection of any other object in existence be it baseball cards, pokemon and etc. The reason being, is that people are assigning a value to a specific arrangement of pixels, in hopes that someone will assign a similar value to those arrangement of pixels in the future. The bigger problem with the current NFT market value or digitization of media is the accessibility to anyone and everyone, which is the inherent reason for the ballooning and inflation of seemingly worthless markets, concepts and etc. With accessibility comes highly-manipulative practices, the wolves are eating the sheep up and making no longer just baby change, but multi-million dollar schemes are operating day-by-day. Just like with everything, a small majority of NFTs - be it your "artwork," music or whatever you've purchased, will actually be worth something. The vast majority of NFTs will have no inherent value, because they were made for a specific purpose in fooling unwary modern-day mom-and-pop "investors." In the end, if you are investing in NFTs, I would urge you to tread very carefully. There are teams, individuals and more who are operating very carefully orchestrated schemes and enacting very diligent forms of social engineering to make you believe you are buying something that is desired and has value. Just know, there are only so many people in this world and only so many people will find worth in what you are so-called investing in, if any. Don't gamble your life-savings away.
NFTs are headed towards major adoption in the future, specifically with the recent buzz about the metaverse and ownership... etc. There's no doubt that NFTs will become standard when it comes to ownership, but don't expect your "artwork" to be worth anything in the future. Just like with any collectible that ever existed, only a fraction are worth anything and the vast majority become useless and worthless due to inflation and lack of appeal. 80-20 rule.
If you are new to this space, just take great caution. Be sure you are sound of mind and body before making any irrational or rational decision. If you're ready to gamble it all away, so be it. The reality is, yes many become millionaires over-night, but the vast majority do not. And for every millionaire that's minted, hundreds of others probably lost their life-savings or are drowned further into debt.
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It's important to understand that the crypto market is being flooded by new users, new projects, new scams and therefore, fortunetellers. Before investing your life savings into some random new shitcoin, be sure to have a clear thought processes on why you're investing in this crypto.
We are witnessing unprecedented territories and this space is being flooded by naive individuals and the wolves who are herding you into the next ponzi-scheme. I can soundly say, despite what many have stated, technical analysis and moonboy shills are some of the worst tools to rely on. Strictly speaking, most of you are relying on word-of-mouth investments and are not fully understanding you're being controlled and socially engineered by intelligent individuals, scammers and wealthy individuals who've been in this crypto space for several years now and understand what it takes to manipulate the average crypto user.
Take a step back, analyze, take in all possible sources of information, compare, contrast and understand what you're investing your money into before you invest or make your next trade. This Bitcoin bullmarket is in a territory that no one can predict the outcome of. If you're taking that risk, great. But that risk also can come with severe repercussions. Learn from your predecessors in the 2017-2018 bull-market, where the majority lost their life savings and the minority made it out big.
There will be another bear market, there will be a day were the market once again falls through. Be prepared and be ready. No one knows when and how it will come, but it will come. Nothing in crypto grows forever and the majority of newer-projects (<6-8months) will die out, just like the ICO boom of 2017. Tech analysis and your favorite shill will not save you, no one will but yourself and your intuition.
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Break incentivized posting on altcoin sections. Break the mass spam of the puppet masters.
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The day of reckoning has finally arrived and this is should be liberation for all legitimate cryptocurrency teams out there. Ripple set out to create a remittance platform under the pretense of being a "cryptocurrency" when in fact, XRP has never and will never be a cryptocurrency. It's a centralized ponzi scheme that has been reportedly going on for 7 years, since 2013. I and many others have been calling out this scam for years now. Anyone halfway serious and understands crypto, knew this day was eventually coming and should be rejoicing. To those who've been seeing XRP shills fill this board for years, in the comments and making threads, on social media and etc, just know that the vast majority of these accounts are manipulated bots and guerilla marketing teams that have been pumping their scam for years. Altcoin markets took a very short shock, but since have all but recovered and will quickly resume their pace with Bitcoin. XRP in fact, had an insignificant impact on the crypto markets and any markets impacted will soon recover. This is a day you shouldn't fear, but should rejoice at the cleansing of scam coins from the broader market. The biggest scam, which will cause a shock to crypto markets (for better or worse, capital flight will fly to other stablecoins and or back to Bitcoin) is Tether, USDT. This is the next monstrosity that will be targeted in the near future and will have a direct impact on all crypto, but it's long overdue. Tether prints billions of dollars and is the single most obscure and least transparent of any stablecoin, even moreso in the last 2 years when it overthrew XRP for the top spot. As you can see on display in this thread, the botnet and puppet network of XRP's marketing is in full-force mitigating the damage. 0 Rep, Spammy, New Accounts. Nice list by Tash: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=477706Lets look at some of the facts of this piece of crypto junk • Ripple Inc sued by xrp investors and process ongoing • Ripple Inc in trouble with SEC • XRP validator operating nodes transmitting money without a license (will have legal issues at some stage) • Marketcap is wrong, the real Marketcap is the sold XRP for which tax has been paid for • xrp genesis ledger is Number 32570 and not 0 like any proper coin • Ripple Inc has contingency plan to become a software company if xrp fails • Contract agreements only affect Ripple and have nothing to do with xrp. • From technical perspective a single xrp works as well as 100 000 000 000 • It is 100% centralized as one company and only one company sells and controls all supply • Banks have and will make the own tokens (Banks dont pay fees...they collect) • Only a handful of people hold third of all XRP • Ripple gifts XRP's or bribes “partners”, crackpots sent money to get some • Circulating supply has decreased from time to time, what a joke • Out of thousands of coins only 2 have ever been hacked (XRP, XLM) • Dev was gifted 1 Billion XRP for loosing part of the database • Ripple Inc have previously been fined • Ripple manages are a massive financial burden (overhead) • Ripple INC investors and XRP gamblers are at opposite ends, one provides/finaces the money for the other • Hostile takeover, yes possible with Ripple Inc • 50% of circulating supply got released on a single day August 2014 • How much does it cost to make a XRP (the real price of a product) Satoshi more than a century ago https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=57.msg415#msg415 "the price of any commodity tends to gravitate toward the production cost" and "in later years, when new coin generation is a small percentage of the existing supply, market price will dictate the cost of production more than the other way around". Selling an ordinary apple for $100 is a scam |
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Due to the nature of this post, it may convey some sensitive topics and pride (and bias) for open, free and democratic societies. The most important news for digital currencies, blockchain technology and crypto's is a story that has gone largely unnoticed, under-the-radar, https://www.coindesk.com/chinas-national-blockchain-will-change-the-world. Without delving too deeply into territories that reveal my biases and obvious country of origins, this article by CoinDesk and other news crypto agencies is significant. China has been increasingly delving down the path of weaponizing blockchain technology for economic gain and power. The history of technology and more recent discussions of surveillance are always highly controversial, but without getting to philosophical, it comes down to how the particular technology is put into use and for what primary purposes. This is generally the differences between authoritarian regimes and the west ~ whereby the west generally is more inclined for capital gains then direct control of behaviors - or censoring and " giving social credits" for acceptable cultural behaviors of said individuals. The west may be increasing moving in this direction, but it's nowhere on the caliber of the Communist Party of China (CCP). This topic in itself is a major issue and I will not delve too heavily further into this hotly and broad topic. Since 2019, China's agenda was revealed to the world through blockchain technologies push, this was followed by a bull-rush into cryptocurrencies, which saw a 10k BTC, before retreating back. In essence, the objective of China currently is to create the world's largest integrated and interoperable blockchain, according to CoinDesk. This is set to launch July of this year and will emphasis and take advantage of Blockchain technologies on a scale we've never witnessed before. Little details are shared on how this blockchain will function, but the gist of it is that nodes will be controlled by centralized telecom and external agencies, under the authority of CCP (Chinese Communist Party). The implementation will allow for robust technologies, cloud computing and etc, all the benefits of blockchain with "transparency," efficiency and reduced costs. The primary objective of such a system is to be integrated into external countries, for the same benefits. It all sounds amazing, no doubt. But now the kicker.As many of us come to know and understand, 51% attacks on any network remains a real threat and the greatest security risk undermining any blockchain, or DLT (Hyperledger) technology. Therefore, if a malicious actor sought to control the network, in this instance CCP, they could do so by having full authority of doing so. The way China operates, according to most western investigations, reports and intelligence is that all companies operating in China are beheld to China's authority, from Telecom's to every industry operating ( which is why you hear about Huawei and etc. being a security threat to the western world). China will assume to incorporate this DLT technology, therefore with it's independent (or dependent on CCP) will in effect be a 100% controlled and closed system at their discretion, or this is how the article is interpreted. We still know very little of what China is developing, what interoperability will look like and etc, but a formal infant conclusion can be drawn to a centralized, controlled and closed DLT system, with the full authority and surveillance of the CCP; similar to most of their behaviors and actions in the last decade and increasingly in the last 5 years or so on their people. Blockchain technology, in effect by China, is becoming a weapon for power, control and monetary control. A highly critical threat. This also includes their digital currency RMB, which has also been more relevant then this news. It also appears that Chinese crypto companies, Binance and others may be under-pressure (this is a conspiracy theory by me btw, but does not go unwarranted) and continue their expansions on the cryptocurrency front, to monopolize the industry entirely. As recently reported on Binance's continued monopolistic tendencies, but, the safe-guard is they are operating out of the democratic, but increasingly pressured Hong Kong. What does this essentially meansCurrently, there's no region or country aside from China, who's this bullish and sought to integrate a centralized blockchain or DLT system to this level. They are years ahead of the rest of the world. The U.S. and the rest of the world is still ignorantly "assessing and analyzing" the benefits of such systems and for good reason. Blockchain integration is mostly untested, but furthermore the resources and capacity to understand the benefits of blockchain technology or even the ability to harbor companies exploring and advancing the industry forward is still in a highly premature state, with over-regulation destroying most crypto-based companies operating in the U.S. Obviously, there were many reasons for this, but the SEC has recently drawn back their stance, but still remain as vigorous as effort in their continued malignant and blind ambitions for regulations and control. Everything is still mostly untested in real-world scenarios, but if anyone has any inclination to blockchain technology, then this should be a cause for alarm for all western nations, who remain as ignorant and blind in their actions as ever, even in regards to the newest and most exciting technical frontier in the last decade - Bitcoin and the advent of Blockchain Technology -- The advancements in this space from hundreds of teams that continue to propel this entire space to the future, businesses in which you and I are invested in --- cryptocurrency projects. This post is not complete by any means, as we have no idea of what this system will entail or what's being developed behind closed doors, but it is still something to greatly consider where the entire crypto and blockchain industry is heading towards for the future; as I've always stated, governments and powers will be players in this space and that is coming to fruition, for better or for worse. Technology is controlled by humans, therefore its use and intent of use is solely predicated on those who use said technologies. Don't mind my grammar, or loose thought processes, I don't particularly feel like checking this post at this time and it will be updated if users comment for clarity. I wanted to write this post to express some deeper thoughts and general insight. |
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I'm out of Merits currently. I'll award posts as my merits replenish. I encourage everyone to look through these posts and award merits accordingly The year is coming to a close and we're shifting into a new decade. I want to award merits to those whom seldomly get awarded merits for their extraordinary efforts or opinions that had an impact on you. Therefore, if you found a particular post this year that has helped you in anyway, feel free to post the link in this thread and let us know why it has helped you (2+ sentences). I (and probably others) will be meriting of these gem posts, that you found exquisite and that have gotten buried in this highly active forum board. Again, this is about giving back and acknowledging specific individuals that have helped you; meaning, do not post your own posts/threads. Happy Holidays everyone! Rules:1) Has to be a post by someone else, other than yourself 2) Has to pertain to altcoins only, if it's a broader piece about Bitcoin and the markets, these are valid as well 3) Don't try manipulating this thread, everything will be checked accordingly. 4) Please post the link to the thread post and why it has helped you. 5) Posts must be from 2019 only. |
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Aside from monetary incentives in crypto, I rarely come across discussions pertaining to why the average enthusiast in crypto is involved with crypto. While the answer may be pretty straightforward, there are some outliers.
Crypto means much more than just monetary incentives, it's essentially a technical revolution that has involved the masses, something you and I can be apart of. Ultimately, that's probably one of my greatest interests for blockchain and crypto. Another big intrigue for me is the evolution of blockchain tech in itself. I've been around for quite sometime and have witnessed the evolution of cryptos, businesses, behaviors and attitudes.
These 2 factors, along with several others, are the reasons I continue to be involved on a community and business level with crypto. It's become a hobby, passion and business for me.
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This is a new thread, a follow-up from a thread created a year agoI've been active within crypto, nearing 6 years now. It is my passion to share my experiences, talents, wisdom and assisting others with wisdom and insight into all things related to crypto. Over the years, I've been involved in over 40 crypto and blockchain projects and have been friends with some of the biggest legendary figures known to crypto. I've helped coins that still linger in the top 20 and many more that have been in the top 100. But, this thread is for my beloved Altcoin community on Bitcointalk, whom I vigorously watch, read, merit and occasionally comment on your threads. I invite you and anyone to ask any question pertaining to cryptocurrency and blockchain. The only types of questions i will not answer, are those specific to a crypto, questions like "What do you think about Ethereum?" "What coin are you investing in?" ... etc. This thread should not be used for investment/trading decisions or be declared as financial advice. Always DYOR and always invest/trade carefully. |
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We are no longer in an era that will see particular crypto's double or triple overnight for no reason. Many investors, especially in IEOs and ICOs are looking to coins and business with the mindset of "getting-rich-quick," when in fact, the majority of IEOs and ICOs to launch this year have barely held over 2x ROI, especially if you factor-out most of Binance-shilled cryptos, in which have been losing their luster and freshness over the last 2-3 months.
If you're willing to gamble, go play a slot machine. If you're looking to get rich or die trying, go play a slot machine. If you consider yourself a wise investor, then question the teams to no end and be sure every loose end is tied up with a bow before you spend 1 cent sending your money.
In general, crypto investors, traders and profit seekers are very lazy and mostly uneducated. But, this is changing a steady pace, as the average crypto investor has become much more wise and much more cautious, but the majority are still making mistakes that will destroy their lives and entire savings.
In this climate, every crypto to launch, no matter who's backing or has given it legitimacy has been untested, even more so towards IEOs, often piggy-backing on their host-shills for publicity and guidance.
1) Never listen to any news outlet about their predictions about coin markets
2) Never listen to any shill, rating, Twitter or useless influence about any crypto. Use them as a reference only
3) Never invest if you can't afford it
4) If you want to take a risk, weigh your positives and negatives.
5) If you're throwing your money around blindly, go play a slot machine instead, you have the same odds
6) Always question everything, every move and every practice.
7) If the team has no developments, they are a shitcoin. If they have no marketing, they are a shit coin. If they have no volume, there is no demand, they are a shitcoin. If they are relying on 1 particular brand or business for their entire crypto to succeed, they are a shitcoin. If they promise and do not fulfil on their promises and words, then that's a scamcoin.
These are some of the many guidelines to follow, there are many more good insights and inputs that will be given and have been given. In summary, invest in your knowledge and always be cautious about over-hyped shitcoins. It's a rarity to find any tested team, who understands crypto and the entire market and how they fit in, with their niche. There are far fewer projects that understand economic principals and underlying trends within the markets. And it's even more of a rarity to find any niche that hasn't already been satisfied.
Be cautious, be safe and question everything. Most crypto teams have no clue in what they are doing or how to run a business, this is coming from a person who's been around giants of crypto and the smallest of cryptos for over 5 years now. I've seen it all and it's more pathetic than you can imagine.
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There's a common occurrence recently within altcoin discussions, there's a flood of individuals posting links and promoting their news/blogs. While the content is generally good, this generally does not yield authentic and "good" quality threads.
Occasionally, there are links to malware and malicious sites as well, which i frequently report.
Ban Jr members and lower ranks from posting links in Bitcointalk. A lesser severe ban would be in specifically altcoin sections, which will follow the rules of competing forum sites as well.
This problem has always been somewhat persistent, but has increasingly been a problem occurring within the last few months.
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I frequently view discussions about an upcoming "alt-coin season," meaning altcoins will reclaim lost dominance that has and is being captured by Bitcoin. In the current state, crypto is undergoing a transition, from being secluded in various of corners of the internet, breaking out and exposing itself to further integration into existing business, new businesses and society itself.
Altcoins are important for one factor, it's ever-evolving and changing. Bitcoin's capabilities will only go so far, but there are various of top blockchains that are gaining ground in various of niche's and territories that Bitcoin could never reclaim. There will be a realization soon by all investors in crypto, that many altcoins are undervalued with respect to their network size, the underlying tech behind them and the overall value these blockchains offer to the real-world.
There are many altcoins that are still heavily overpriced, despite experiencing alt-time lows-vs BTC pairing and there are many more alts that are heavily under priced (for their integration, network and functioning as a business) that will soon be realized by all. This is why, if the next major alt-season comes, the reigning thought is many shitcoins will die out. This is somewhat true, because in the end, if there is money to be made, it will be made regardless of what the shitcoin looks like.
My encouragement to everyone, is patience and understand exactly why you're holding or have invested in your particular altcoin or shitcoin. It may ultimately be sound reasoning to cut your losses short on a particular coin and delve into an existing, functioning business and highly active team around their particular blockchain or protocol. Money is to be made on alts, the time is ever looming on us all. Bitcoin is the leader, but crypto does not end with Bitcoin, it only ever started with Bitcoin.
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OverviewI’m T.k. Hamed and I have been involved within the crypto industry since 2013. For over 6 years I've been assisting a wide variety of crypto start-ups successfully launch with a complete and highly focused marketing department. For over 6 years, I’ve acquired universal hands-on altcoin experiences, properly understanding the crucial knowledge needed to successfully launch and maintain your project. Relentlessly, I emphasize: strategy, insight and core growth by focusing on fundamental essentials, such as your blockchain vision, effective growth marketing and constructing a perfected community framework to operate within. About DeFi Advisor & T.k. Hamed:Coin Trader‘s Evolution (CTE) Advisor was founded from the ashes of the first altcoin information site, Coins Source Inc (2013-2015), which innovated and transformed the crypto space entirely. There were many leftover pieces, contacts and ongoing project involvements, forming under a creative specific company to address these issues was needed. I’ve been in crypto-currency since the very first alt-coins and invested in the first ICO’s on Bitcointalk.org. I continue to invest hundreds of hours on a weekly basis and over the past 6 years, gained tens-of-thousands of hours of crypto-experiences. These unique experiences are specific to crypto, from development to community reception, SEM marketing and many other factors pertaining to what it takes to be a successful crypto. Feel free to contact for more information or general inquiriesTelegram: @tk808About: About Me
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There are 3 components that every good crypto project continues to improve on
1) Technical capabilities & Delivering on Technical goals
2) Marketing, Community and Adoption
3) Integration, Partnerships, Usability and Company Structure
From these 3 distinct categories, there's a whole infrastructure and sub-categories that can be stemmed. Ultimately, there are teams who solely focus on 1/3 areas and neglect the others; this is ultimately what we call shitcoins. Most top 50-100 coins have at least captured 2/3 of these areas, with only a select handful of gems attaining or about to attain all 3 levels of success.
Ultimately, every project I see can be defined by these basic and generic overview of essential capabilities I view. Again, I want to stress there are several areas to emphasize within these categories there are numerous of sub-categories, such as legality, financials, revenue, market share, competition and a whole host of other factors that make up any successful business
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(note, there will be no sources or no data to backup what's expressed, this is purely a critical thought overview from someone who's been in this scene for over 5.5 years now, and spends several hours per day examining and reading everything on blockchain/crypto). I've been meaning to write some sort of crypto overview for a while now. The current era of crypto initially was shaped in 2017, with the build-up period occurring between 14'-17'. In today's climate, there's much more capital flowing into cryptocurrency, giving legitimacy and this more observable today than ever in every aspect that has to deal with crypto, more notable, this has brought some stability within the markets. Due to the amount of capital needed to "pump" markets, there remains a grand gateway to actually realizing significant profits, especially if you've been accustomed (like me), to seeing major volatile swings of double-digit %'s on a daily basis. this is just no longer the case, unless a catalyst occurs or some exchange or trader bot goes haywire.
In today's climate, we can segment the market by 5 particular individuals
1) The average crypto investor and trader, not necessarily part of any large organization. This generally ranges from a crypto casual who's interested in this new industry, to individuals looking to create wealth in a very quick period. 2) The entrepreneur who's seeking to raise capital for a business venture and decides to create a "blockchain" gimmick and a new shitcoin to actually be funded through IEO's or less common these days, ICO's 3) The scavenger, generally the types of guys looking to earn any crypto however they can. More often than not, this is a full-time for some guys who can yield thousands of USD per month, through bounties, airdrops and every way team's use crypto's to gain traction. 4) The service/business guy. An entire industry has cropped up since mid-2017 and these are often parasites of the crypto world. Generally, business/services around blockchain tech and crypto are in their infancy, but are maturing quickly. This section ranges from the useless "I’ll promote your coin to 100k users" to business offering liquidity, exchanges and etc. 5) Institutionalist, which is occurring a very rapid pace currently and unlike ever before. This will be discussed heavily, but these are the big guns and outside parties whom are looking to shy away from every conventional (and albeit, corrupted) means of launching a crypto and use their powerhouse name to drive forward new tech, financing or service. I wanted to define these categories, because it's crucial to understand who's involved in crypto these days and why there's currently a battle occurring, the small guy is no longer essential to the survival of most major crypto's, institutionalists are quickly taking over the scenes, for very good reasons, but they come at heavy repercussions and pull many ignorant eyes on crypto, namely, governments. Where we are with adoptionIn the past 8 months or so, the climate has undergone an ID change, shifting away from the roots in what crypto was founded on, now catering to mass audiences, mass-media and overall the beginnings of integration into society. We're currently at a breaking point where crypto is essentially the new kid on the block and everyone wants a slice of the pie or to be recognized for their excellence in the field (this is the reigning mentality for economists, institutionalists, shills and everyone who talks about crypto). Big financial institutions are no longer on the sidelines discrediting Bitcoin or blockchain, but are entering the acceptance phase that Bitcoin and blockchain is not going away anytime soon, but on the contrary, is in its infancy stages waiting to be nurtured and milked. I once said somewhere on these forums, when you sit down with an accountant or some financial advisor and they recommend Bitcoin and crypto to you, then you know this industry has become something that many of the oldest guys on these forums known since 2011, this is a financial revolution and it has reached mainstream audiences. With this increased awareness, we’re now seeing a pool of ignorant and clueless individuals, to those who seek to discredit or de-legitimize the industry entirely with one of the most common associations with crypto, criminal activity. But in several regards, this is a false blanket statement. Leading into financial capital. The beginning of this year saw a 3.5k-4k BTC, dipping to a low-point of around 3k. Since then, Bitcoin has grown by x3 in under 8 months, and there is no sign for another recession for Bitcoin occurring soon, due ever economic and political uncertainty in the world. In the current state and it has been observed in the paste 3-5 months or so that Bitcoin is being ran by big-guys, hedging the world markets (in many respects, but not a direct correlation like gold) to Bitcoin. Thus, with Bitcoin being legitimatized first and often synonymous with cryptocurrency, altcoins have suffered to all-time lows vs BTC pairings. The average crypto investor and trader fell behind the curve and most where unaware of how Bitcoin is essentially the gateway drug into crypto as a whole, driving forward major sell-offs of altcoins for Bitcoin. This was never unheard of btw, this idea of that "Your bitcoin portfolio valuation" was an idea since the dawn of altcoins, it was always about how much your altcoins held with Bitcoin and how many Bitcoin’s you could ever gain. One has to ask, why is Bitcoin so special? The answer is simple, it is the original and the most tested crypto to date. Tested in the sense of security, awareness, adoption and technical. Bitcoin has been proclaimed to be "dead by so called experts" over 1,000 times since its inception, but today, Bitcoin is stronger than ever. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. The Altcoin Problem The world is changing and has changed drastically, no longer are systems that are governed by obscure sources with little oversight, there is a great desire by governments, businesses and individuals to capitalize on Blockchain tech, and use it to greatly enhance their businesses? But this is all a lie. As explained earlier, blockchain is in its infancy, blockchain tech is not proprietary or necessarily more efficiencies, faster or scalable as most altcoins claim it to be. 99% of altcoins in existence currently are what we call, proof of concept, meaning, it's all theory for the most part. Yes, these chains are working, but only using the most fundamentals of what blockchain is and their re-imagining of what it can be. You can shill or point out some particular shitcoin here, but the simple response to all altcoin shills, is can your mother use this crypto and understand what it is? I could say that about Bitcoin, which in a sense, is really basic. Everything outside of that, with the most sophisticated chains being marketed, no one gives two fucks once you’re outside your sale or launch phase. Thus, one could say the altcoin market, blockchain integration is a lie. Yes, you could, but as anyone who's knowledgeable in tech or understands anything about tech since the 60's, knows that evolution of technology occurs at a very rapid pace. There are blockchains out there that have somewhat of a working infrastructure or may be trialed by some large institution, but to date, there's not one single blockchain being used by any large-scale corporation or organization, for daily use. That is, up until about 4 months ago. Libra is the first representation of blockchain tech integrated on an industrial and world-scale, something that no other crypto or altcoin has been able to capture at all. I'm not going to get into further details why there are details about Libra that are also very damaging to crypto, but I’ll leave the final thought that Libra is only the beginning and most who've been following the news, understand this. Altcoins have always been linked to Bitcoin's fate directly, at least for most of the last decade this has been true. But as observed and expressed, this is not the case at the current time. What we're seeing is altcoin's inversely being hedged against Bitcoin, directly for the reasons of legitimacy and accumulation of the most trusted (sentiment wise) and easiest accessible crypto, Bitcoin. All altcoins suffer and will have to contend with infrastructure, use ability, integration, functionality and technical issues through their lifecycle, therefore, it’s not even feasible to discuss which altcoin will overthrow Bitcoin, because it will never occur under normal standards. You won’t wake up one-day and see Ethereum the top-alt, even if quantum computing disrupts all blockchains, all cryptos will suffer equally, because the fate of all altcoins is linked to Bitcoin’s fate (disregard any stablecoin for this argument). So essentially what is so special about altcoins? It’s a token promise that this blockchain will be usable and integrated into the world one day, because if that doesn’t ever happen or there’s no overarching goal for crypto’s in use for mass-adoption, then the tokens are basically useless security tokens, a hedge on the business to perform and execute in what they laid forth. 99% of the shitcoins you hold are worthless shitcoins, your best outcome for these shitcoins is gambling and hoping one day some whale will pump the shit out of your coin, but the chances of this ever happening are <1% (if any coin was ever chosen at random). In the end, 99% of altcoins will remain speculative, once in a while they will pump and dump due to some whales playing with the markets, or pump because that alt got integrated and recognized (one-step closer to chipping away at Bitcoin’s legitimacy/dominance in the real-world), but nothing will ever ultimately contend with Bitcoin’s dominance in the next decade. What we may see is a fractured market, where BTC’s dominance returns to 2017 levels, but that doesn’t mean BTC will ever lose dominant control of the market or suddenly X shitcoin will become the defacto standard. What we are going to see is more big-business and governments launch their own coins, further drowning out all the start-ups and noise of the relentless shitcoin launches. Almost every shitcoin will ultimately die in the next 1-5 years, but the ecosystem will continue to evolve as they new cycles and greater tech developers emerge in this space. Coins that launched in 2013 are mostly all defunct as of 2017, <1% of these coins survived. The same thing is happening now, coins to launch in 2017 are now becoming defunct and paving the way for more advanced, backed and more legitimate teams who want to make the business for the future. It’ll continue to be the cycle of death and decay, but only 1% of all altcoins will ever have any use in the real world, similarly to any tech-boom, only a fraction of business will ever succeed, because after all, a crypto is nothing without the people behind or backing it.
There was some rants here, ultimately any particular sentence has nuances and I could go into far more detail about the several topics discussed, but this expresses some root ideas I see being bloomed across the crypto climate at this time
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