No evidence here but I believe that price will stabilize at $10k by the end of this year. If it'll go below $5k, it's not a worry. Going back to $4k won't even be a worry at all if you are holding and just waiting for the price to bounce back. Bitcoin has not peaked yet.

It takes 30 activity points to move up to Junior level. Every 14 days, you can only earn a maximum of 14 points. Your activity level probably moved up to 28 points when you posted on this thread. If you started to post on March 14th, at 14 points per 2 weeks, you'll not upgrade until April 14th. Make a post on April 14th and the account should upgrade to Junior level in 30 mins after your post.

Go here for more info:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1689727.0

14 post max per 2 weeks gets you 14 activity points. If you made one post every day since the time you created your account, you should have made it to Jr. Level by now (30 activity points). If your post did not make it within the required time frame, you should see your level upgrade within 30 mins after you opened this thread. If still no good, check with mod.

Calculation? Maybe you can share some tidbits on how you came up with your predictions for us to check if it's a horse we can ride with. Personally, I do believe that bitcoin will be back to $10k levels, but I don't see it happening anytime this month or may or june. Probably around the tail end of this year but who knows.

One resorts to sensationalism if they don't have anything substantial to report. Tabloid fodder. Clickbait. How they con people to pay them to do this kind of research is beyond me.

Go John McAfee. Don't stop. At least it would be easier to track down the ICO's to avoid then. New "to avoid" list - John McAfee's crypto and ICO recommendations.

A chart from Goldman Sachs from Feb predicted the price to to around $5k this month. I think it could still go there as bitcoin's price is currently on a downward trend. As for where the price would normalize, I am still optimistic that it'll be back to $10k levels this year.

Wait and see how this develops as the policy is mainly aimed at limiting the way social media and internet giants have been exploiting data to produce a calculated outcome. It's the scandal rocking FB right now. Blockchains on the other hand do have immutability but blockchains were not programmed to collect data the way social media apps do. Blockchain is mainly a ledger for the transactions happening within the system. It is robust in tracking down the transactions within its algorithm and not much else outside of that. Blockchain does not spy on you nor does it mine your online activities to get to know you more and make marketing efforts to you. Though people can track the activities of a wallet, it is still more private compared to FB or the other social media giants out there.

"Innovators who seek to revolutionize and disrupt an industry must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday."

That quote, from the director of the SEC's San Francisco office, Jina Choi, referred to Theranos, the blood-test company and one-time Silicon Valley darling that the agency charged with fraud last week.

But you could be forgiven for thinking it was about the cryptocurrency space, given the frenzied fundraising through initial coin offerings (ICOs) for projects with little more than grand visions, a buggy prototype, zero users and plenty of speculators betting it can work.

To be sure, a cryptocurrency is not equity in a business (at least, it's not supposed to be), and an open-source project is not the same thing as a company. But the Theranos case, in which founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes paid a $500,000 fine and was barred from serving as a public company executive or director for 10 years, offers several sobering lessons for the [Suspicious link removed]munity.

Some of them may seem obvious, but they bear repeating. The first two apply to investors:

DYOR
For those who don't spend their days on crypto Twitter, that stands for "do your own research."

You know how Google Ventures figured out it didn't want to invest in Theranos? According to an investigative article published in Vanity Fair in 2016, Google's venture capital arm sent one of its associates to Walgreens, the pharmacy chain that had a partnership with the startup.

Supposedly, the "wellness centers" Theranos had set up in the stores were showcasing the company's technology, which it claimed could test for hundreds of diseases just by taking a tiny bit of blood from the fingertip. But, according to Nick Bilton's expose, "as the VC sat in a chair and had several large vials of blood drawn from his arm, far more than a pinprick, it became apparent that something was amiss with Theranos's promise."

It would later turn out that Theranos was using its vaunted Edison machine in only a sliver of the tests it sold to consumers.

What's the crypto equivalent of "just go down to Walgreens and see what's up?" Well, if a blockchain network is up and running, you can start by buying a tiny amount of a coin, downloading the software and playing around with it to see if the thing works as advertised.

That's how I figured out bitcoin was legit early on, and if the cryptocurrency you're looking at is anything like bitcoin, you won't have to buy a whole unit (and if you do, well that's a red flag right there). Better to blow $50 on initial due diligence than $10,000 on someone's assurances.

However, that "try it yourself" approach may not be sufficient if, say, the network is running on a small number of nodes manually controlled by the development team, with a promise to eventually take off the training wheels. And for a token sale that's funding a yet-to-be-built blockchain, one that theoretically could do awesome things in the future...well, the homework is going to be a lot more involved.

Ignore charisma
Holmes' Steve Jobs-style turtlenecks, Stanford-dropout backstory and change-the-world rhetoric made for great magazine copy. And like her idol Jobs, Holmes was reportedly secretive and imperious, largely forbidding even Theranos employees from communicating with each other about their activities.

Unlike the iPhone or the Mac, however, Theranos' devices didn't work the way Holmes led investors and patients to believe.

You would think that in cryptocurrency, a field whose own founder (or founders) remain unknown and where decentralization is one of the highest ideals, cults of personality wouldn't be much of an issue. But then there was Josh Garza. So don't pin your investment decisions on a single charismatic individual.

Of course, just because someone is charming doesn't mean they're a fraud, either. It just has little relevance to the merit of the project. Until some future time when we're all disembodied brains, we have to learn to discount these superficial distractions.

(On a related note, ignore "gravitas." Theranos' board included two former secretaries of state, a former secretary of defense, a retired Marine general and two former senators. Lots of gravitas. Not a whole lot of medical expertise, though. It was perhaps a more highbrow version of the celebrity-endorsed ICO phenomenon.)

The other two takeaways from this affair apply to token issuers, entrepreneurs and developers seeking to raise money in this space. And they may be even harder pills to swallow, as it were:

Tough tokens
Many may find it unfair that Holmes paid only a six-figure fine considering the size of the fraud ($700 million), especially in light of the harsh treatments given over the years to some crypto entrepreneurs who operated in good faith, simply because they did not ask for regulators' permission.

(Holmes did not admit or deny wrongdoing in the settlement agreement; according to the Wall Street Journal, a criminal investigation of Theranos is still ongoing.)

And it may well be unjust. But it shows the advantages of working within the system rather than outside it. Theranos paid millions for high-powered lawyers well before the government started investigating the company.

Even as a sham enterprise, it had resources to defend itself.

"You pay for things one way or the other, upfront or down the line," said Joe Colangelo, a New Jersey entrepreneur and longtime bitcoin enthusiast.

The wheels of justice turn slowly
Coming nearly three years after cracks started to show in Theranos' facade, the SEC charges show that enforcement actions can take time. Just because the government hasn't gone after someone for possible violations doesn't mean it won't.

"Whatever statute of limitations you think exists, it does not," Colangelo said. "They will catch up to you eventually."

Teams who thought they could "do an ICO really fast" because there were "so many they can't possibly punish all of us" were mistaken, he said.

"You might be getting charged with crimes associated with your ICO in 2023," Colangelo added. "You have to be ready to spend the next five years thinking about this."

Ouch. That smarts worse than a needle in the arm.

https://www.coindesk.com/tough-tokens-theranos-fraud-holds-harsh-lessons-crypto/

Crypto whales are generally thought of as wealthy traders with the ability to move markets via a single sell order. Yet the greatest whales of all aren’t traders but ICOs which own millions of ether worth billions of dollars. Over 3% of the total ethereum supply is estimated to be in the hands of ICOs, and when those projects cash out, as periodically happens, the effects can be dramatic.

Also read: The ‘Mt Gox Whale’ Explains His Crypto-Selling Strategy

Ethereum Is at the Mercy of ICOs Cashing Out
On Sunday, while the crypto markets were enduring yet more turmoil, ethereum took a sudden nosedive, going from $516 to $464 in under two hours. Up until then, it had been one of the more stable coins compared to alts still in the experimental stage, which have absorbed the worst of the losses. Ethereum’s flash drop made it one of the worst performers in the cryptocurrency top 100 yesterday, shaving around 16% off its valuation. The cause of the sell-off has been attributed to one of last year’s ICOs offloading a significant portion of its ethereum reserves. If so, it’s not the first time something like this has happened, and it certainly won’t be the last.

Ethereum’s ICO Whales Can Crash the Market at Any Time

Deducing the total amount of ethereum that has been invested in ICOs is relatively straightforward. Around two thirds of the $5.7 billion raised by crowdsales in 2017 was in the form of ether. These projects are obliged to sporadically cash out their holdings for fiat currency, to cover expenses that can’t be paid in crypto. And when they do, it makes sense for those projects to withdraw a lump sum. What’s good for them isn’t necessarily good for the market though, especially traders whose longs are rekt by a sudden dump of ETH.

Fear of the Whale
Ethereum’s ICO Whales Can Crash the Market at Any TimeCryptocurrency markets are much less liquid than traditional financial markets. When hundreds of thousands of ether is sold on the open market, typically via an exchange such as Bitfinex or Kraken, it will instantly depress prices. Traders, ever alert to even the slightest signs of market movement, are skittish creatures, and even the possibility of a coming dump can be a case for concern, as evidenced by the recent fears over the Mt Gox whale dumping BTC en masse – even though those fears have since been assuaged.

12 hours before ethereum dropped on Sunday, EOS moved 50,000 ETH to a Bitfinex address. It is impossible to determine when an entity sells the funds they have moved to a cryptocurrency exchange; the deposit only indicates intent to sell. The contribution addresses of major ICOs are monitored by discerning traders, however, and thus when a crowdsale transfers ETH to an exchange, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy that serves to deflate prices.

At Least 3.4% of All ETH Is Locked Up in ICOs
One crypto trader professes to have seen figures showing that 3.4% of all ETH, or around 3.4 billion coins, are in the possession of ICOs. When these projects have bills to pay, or fear that the market is likely to deflate further, they feel obligated to cash out. These whales are under no obligation to sell OTC; using a trusted exchange is generally the preferred route. All of this creates downward pressure on ethereum on a scale far higher than that faced by any other crypto asset.

For so long as ethereum remains the preferred fundraising platform for ICOs, the cryptocurrency will remain concentrated in the hands of 100 or so projects, each with the power to offload on the market at any time. In each instance, the market will recover, but not before some traders, especially those using leverage, have absorbed heavy losses. Every cloud has a silver lining though, and when major dumpage occurs, it’s a prime opportunity for other traders to scoop up cheap coins before the price rebounds.

https://news.bitcoin.com/ethereums-ico-whales-can-crash-market-time/?utm_source=OneSignal%20Push&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=Push%20Notifications

As always with these things, when money is involved, people will find a way to game the system. It's actually a good thing that people are vigilant and making noise about these anomalies. What we're expecting to see now is an update on the way merits are being utilized to ensure  that people are using the merit system properly, but that may be a long shot.

Cultivating a healthy degree of paranoia pays in this day and age. Threats are all around us and you'll never know where you'll be most vulnerable. Keeping yourself well informed is one good way of minimizing risk as being forewarned enables you to be accordingly forearmed.

Fundstrat’s Tom Lee has forecasted that Bitcoin’s price will reach $91,000 by March 2020, basing his prediction on a chart that shows Bitcoin’s (BTC) performances after past market dips, Forbes reported March 17.

Lee and Fundstrat used an average of the percentage gained in price after each dip to arrive at the 2020 figure.

Bitcoin since 2010

The Forbes piece notes that because the chart is based on a logarithmic scale as opposed to the traditional linear-based graph, BTC’s highs and lows are not as distinct.

Lee has been predicting high prices for BTC since its price was below $3,000. In July 2017 Lee had already stated that Bitcoin would hit $55,000 by 2022. More recently, in January of this year, Lee said that BTC would hit $25,000 by the end of 2018.

Lee and Fundstrat also recently released the “Bitcoin Misery Index” in early March, which is described as a “contrarian index’ that lets investors know how “miserable” BTC holders are at the current price

https://cointelegraph.com/news/tom-lee-predicts-bitcoin-to-reach-91000-by-march-2020-based-on-performances-after-past-dips

Tech giant Intel is joining the growing list of enterprise firms that see blockchain as a way to reimagine digital rights management.

In a patent application released March 8 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Silicon Valley tech company described a method for using a blockchain for downloading the rights to digital images, one it believes is unique enough to be a protected invention.

The patent application states:

"Blockchain technology is used to document and verify attributes of digital content that are relevant to copyright protection. Such attributes may include, for instance, an identifier for the author of the content, a timestamp to indicate when the content was created, and a measurement that can subsequently be used to detect copying or modification of the content."

As described, the proposed platform uses several types of software to automatically assess copyright policy settings for each image, even if the picture was taken from external sources. Then, it creates a unique identity for both the original content and any modified versions. The patent calls these identities "shadow images."

Intel's patent goes on to mentions video and other types of content aside from images, offering a more comprehensive rights system with additional features.

For example, Intel's system seeks to allow users to maintain works in progress, including "unstructured" pieces such as literature with multiple editors. In this way, content can only be modified in accordance with copyright policy settings.

Still, Intel is far from alone in pursuing the idea. In addition to blockchain industry efforts, like Berklee's Open Music Initiative, companies including China's ZhongAn and WENN Digital are companies to make headlines for similar ideas in recent weeks.

The patent is also that latest that finds Intel seeking to protect its intellectual creations related to the industry. In June 2016, the company filed a patent for blockchain-powered software to help research DNA, genetic sequencing in particular.

https://www.coindesk.com/intel-thinks-blockchain-power-next-generation-media-manager/

An international group of central bank regulators and government ministers said Sunday that cryptocurrencies don't pose a risk to global financial stability, comments that come on the eve of talks on the subject by the G-20.

In a letter published on March 18, Financial Stability Board chairman Mark Carney, who also leads the Bank of England, said that the organization doesn't see the tech as a threat - at least at this juncture.

Carney wrote:

"The FSB's initial assessment is that crypto-assets do not pose risks to global financial stability at this time. This is in part because they are small relative to the financial system."

"Even at their recent peak, their (cryptocurrencies) combined global market value was less than 1% of global GDP," he continued. "In comparison, just prior to the global financial crisis (in 2008), the notional value of credit default swaps was 100% of global GDP.

Their small size, and the fact that they are not substitutes for currency and with very limited use for real economy and financial transactions, has meant the linkages to the rest of the financial system are limited."

While the note is mostly in line with Carney's previous comments on the limited impact of cryptocurrencies on the global financial system, the letter offers a window into where the discussions around this area may head to at the G20 meeting this week. As previously reported, government officials will meet Monday and Tuesday in part to talk cryptocurrencies, an agenda item that has been deemed "important" in a bid to reach a "common response" to regulation.

As acknowledged in Carney's letter, a number of major countries - France, Japan and the U.S. among them - have called for a unified response to speculation around cryptocurrencies. Most recently, Japanese officials reportedly expressed interest in joint efforts around money laundering.

Indeed, some of those calling for action seem to share Carney's assessment as well. As previously reported, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin - who supports an international approach to regulation - has said in the past that he doesn't view cryptocurrencies as a threat to financial stability.

https://www.coindesk.com/financial-stability-board-downplays-crypto-impact-on-global-finance/

I may be a newbie but I like the merit system. Having the system in place gives an incentive to those people who would like to contribute to the discussion in a meaningful way. I joined the forum to get a sense of what people in the bitcoin community think of any particular issue in the community and having to sort through spam is actually very discouraging to a newbie. I don't want to waste my time going through one junk posts after another. If people posts in the spirit of the merit system, it'll be faster for newbies to learn the things that they would like to learn and it elevates the entire community as a whole.

For those interested in bitcoin and how it relates to the laws of your land, what happened to this man may serve as a lesson to all: http://sbj.net/stories/breaking-news-klein-sentence,55367 and http://time.com/5161663/bitcoin-sting-jason-klein-crypto-irs-money-transmitter/. Things that seem ordinary for us regular guys may not be what it is. The moral of the story is to be aware of the existing legislation for bitcoin/crytocurrencies around your place and adhere to the law. The government pouncing on the jason klein's of this world may seem like overkill to some but being caught up in legal tangles with the government will only bring unwanted troubles to yourself.

I would love it if PayPal will do some adjustments on their policies to allow for more exchanges to do transactions with them at lower transaction fees. It's sad that most legit exchanges do not offer the option for transactions to be done through PayPal or if they do, they and PayPal will charge you exorbitant fees for the privilege.

Honestly, I don't know what the real point of the study is. What is the purpose of using Kazakhstan as the barometer for the study? Is crypto's penetration in that area close to zero? If Kazakhstanis are now showing more interest in crypto, how does this relate to the whole world? Do the researchers have any other agenda aside from publishing their findings?

There are lots of ways to make money online. If you have mastery of a skill like coding, get a freelance job online. If you are into blogs and selling, you can try affiliate marketing. Social media? be a social media influencer. On youtube, upload your own unique content and see if people will follow. Good at writing, people pay for writers to write articles for them. You can even participate in signature and bounty campaigns in this forum if you are qualified.