I'm sure Bitcoin will reach a new ATH soon. The upcoming halving event, and companies buying like crazy (Blackrock, Fidelity, Microstrategy) will help BTC cross the $30k range faster than you could imagine. You can buy BTC at a huge discount and sell it for a profit once the market pumps again. Gold rises during times of war, but it doesn't experience high gains as Bitcoin does. It remains relatively stagnant for long periods of time.

When you invest in Gold it's to help preserve your capital/purchasing power. Not to get richer over time. By leveraging between the two assets (Bitcoin and Gold), you'll be able to achieve peace of mind. These are uncertain times we're living into, so expect the unexpected. Just my thoughts

Why would Monero be much easier to use than Zcash? I'd say XMR is harder to understand than ZEC because of the way it's designed. It uses three keys instead of two used by coins like Zcash and the others (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc). ZEC only has shielded addresses, whereas Monero has a public key/address, a spend key, and a view key. If you want someone else to view your transaction history, you'd need to share your view key to do that. Using only the public key won't suffice.

It takes quite a bit of understanding to get your way through the XMR blockchain. And it's even worse with Mimblewimble coins such as Grin, BEAM, and Litecoin (yes, Litecoin added said privacy feature some time ago). I think that's one of the reasons why privacy coins are very unpopular. At least, there are plenty of options to choose from. As long as R&D for privacy/anonymity continues, we should have nothing to worry about.

That's certainly true, mate. Dogecoin's success is concentrated in Elon Musk himself. Almost everyone follows the man's advise when investing into DOGE. Talk about "decentralization". On the other hand, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee decided to step down from the project to make it more decentralized. There's no one to follow, other than the community itself.

We could say Litecoin's price is driven by utility instead of hype (speculation). The cryptocurrency (LTC) is often used to test new features before they're integrated into the main Bitcoin blockchain. With a limited supply of only 84m units, Litecoin has a high chance of becoming "Silver to Bitcoin's Gold" in the future. It's very undervalued to say the least. Hopefully, people will notice its true benefits resulting in a massive pump in market prices. Who knows how far will LTC go?

Instead of "Digital Real Estate", they should change the name to "Virtual Estate". I honestly don't see how the hype will hold for long, when real estate is still one of the driving forces of the market. The new trend may be well ahead of its time. Just like NFTs and RWAs. Whenever we like these trends or not, there's no denying that this is the way of the future. Everything is pointing to that direction. AI, the metaverse, CBDCs, NFTs, RWAs, virtual estate, and quantum computing will pave the way towards a full-fledged digital society.

The question is not "IF" but rather "WHEN" it will happen. I think it's going to take quite a few decades from now before this becomes a reality. I'd put my money where my mouth is by investing into promising projects with real utility. As long as you don't invest more than what you can't afford to lose, there should be nothing to worry about.

For some reason, the link did not appear on my post. Here it is again: https://electriccoin.co/blog/the-trailing-finality-layer-a-stepping-stone-to-proof-of-stake-in-zcash/

Quite an interesting read if you tell me. Zcash will become a hybrid PoW + PoS coin and then switch to full PoS. A great opportunity to buy ZEC at a cheap price, IMO.

Of course. Without hype, I don't see ZEC "pumping" anytime soon. The developer team already announced their intentions to make Zcash a PoS blockchain. It seems they will be following ETH's footsteps. If the upgrade gains the approval of the community, market prices will "pump" like crazy. At least for a short period of time. This should be able to bring back the hype. If you're curious about the transition to PoS, I invite you to read all about it here:

Exciting times ahead for ZEC and Zero-Knowledge proofs as a whole. Even ETH L2 networks have been using ZKPs. Maybe someday ZEC will go all the way to the moon? Just my two sats.

It seems to me that the world is heading towards complete digitalization. What Matrix (the movie) showed us, could not be far from becoming a reality soon. Constant wars, economic instability, and a persistent health crisis (because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other diseases) will make us more isolated and away from reality. Everything will live in the "virtual realm" whenever you like it or not. Digital Real Estate, Tokenized Real World Assets, and the Metaverse are the way of the future.

It may not make sense today, but it will in the long run. I wouldn't invest into digital real estate as the industry is still immature. Everything is overhyped these days. Give it some time, and it could become a part of our daily life. The future is widely unpredictable, so we can only hope for the best.

For starters, Litecoin has the "Mimblewimble" privacy feature and LN integration. You don't see that coming with Dogecoin. I think most people prefer Dogecoin on top of Litecoin because of its inexpensiveness. It's no secret that Dogecoin market prices are a hell of a lot cheaper than Litecoin. The latter has a limited supply, whereas Dogecoin's supply inflnitely expands over time. This makes the "meme" coin more suitable as a currency than a store of value.

Dogecoin's inflation rate should be able to keep market prices low for the forseeable future. How cool is that? Sometimes I wish Dogecoin would go back to being worth less than a cent (USD). Just like in the early days. Maybe it will happen after the hype fades away?

I guess Bitcoin is still new to the world. Investors trust Gold because it has been around for centuries. I think we should give Bitcoin more time to see what happens. I'm certain the world will adopt BTC as the new store of value because of the benefits it provides. Volatility aside, Bitcoin is better than Gold because it's portable, decentralized, and highly-divisible. It should only be a matter of time before people recognize this.

I'm in no hurry to see Bitcoin going all the way to "Mars" as long as it does the job it's supposed to (bringing banking to the unbanked). If it doesn't sacrifice decentralization in the long run, it could last a lifetime. Maybe Bitcoin and Gold will co-exist for generations?

This explains everything. Thank you very much. Based on what you've described here, does that mean Zcash has the strongest privacy technique? If that's the case, I'm surprised to see XMR being hailed as the #1 privacy coin in the world. ZEC's limited supply (21m like Bitcoin) and innovative approach to privacy/anonymity should've made it one of the most valuable crypto coins on the market today. It's very undervalued to say the least. The majority are not focused on privacy coins these days, so don't expect things to improve anytime soon.

I'm yet to see if developers will launch new privacy coins that will challenge existing ones in the future. The lack of innovation in the privacy space, tells us developers are afraid of increasing regulatory pressure. It's likely privacy coins will remain a niche forever. At least, people have a choice. As long as decentralization wins, nothing else matters.

Having a centralized stablecoin that's prone to censorship, certainly does not go well with crypto/Blockchain tech's core ethos. I can't imagine how disastrous it would be to combine such a stablecoin with "De-Fi". It's like bringing banks to the Blockchain. This introduction of a middleman or third-party, greatly brings us the single point of failure from centralized systems. Most people don't care about this because they only want to make money fast.

As I always say, convenience goes on top of everything else. I hope we get more decentralized alternatives to help make "De-Fi" truly censorship-resistant. Otherwise, crypto will be doomed to failure. The future is widely unpredictable, so we can only hope for the best. Just my opinion

If there's one person who takes Dogecoin seriously, that would be Elon Musk. After all, he's the one who brought the "meme" coins hype. Foolish investors make their decisions based on Elon Musk's opinion. They will end up getting "rekt" in the long run. As the original creators stated, Dogecoin is only a "joke". It's more like a "fun experiment" that "doesn't break the bank". With ever-rising inflation, DOGE will become worthless in the future. It's not a matter of "IF" but rather "WHEN".

For serious day-to-day transactions, Litecoin would be the way to go. It's close to Bitcoin in terms of decentralization, economic model, and censorship-resistance. With added privacy features (Mimblewimble) and LN integration, LTC will become bigger and stronger than ever. Maybe LTC will reach a new ATH within the not-so-distant future?

Do you mean custodians like Goldmoney and Vaultoro? I was looking more into Blockchain-based digital Gold, because of the benefits it provides. Custodians charge fees for keeping your Gold stored in a vault. You don't have to worry about that with Gold-backed tokens on the Blockchain. You'd just buy, sell, and manage your "digitized Gold" on an ETH wallet of your choice. It's even better when you hold the keys/seeds yourself.

Digitized Gold is certainly an appealing option for investors who want portability and unparalleled security. It's the "best of both worlds". This is one of the many RWAs (Real World Assets) that will take the world by storm. If I had to pick between the two tokens, I'd choose Paxos Gold. It's not as shady as Tether. Hopefully, we'll see more options available in the future as RWAs becomes more popular. Just invest what you can only afford to lose, and there should be nothing to worry about.

I doubt Gold will lose value quickly, especially when it's been trusted by investors for centuries. I know the discovery of an asteroid with Gold in it increases the supply. But that doesn't mean its value will go down overnight. The only way this could happen is if BTC becomes the world's preferred store of value. It could take decades before we're able to witness such a change.

I'm fine with BTC just the way it is, as long as it doesn't sacrifice decentralization in the long run. Knowing that the supply of BTC is limited, there's a high chance the cryptocurrency will reach a new ATH in the future. With or without market momentum, don't expect Bitcoin to go anywhere soon. Just my two sats.

Most altcoins are down because of the bear market. Zcash is no exception. But when you compare ZEC's price vs the competition, you'll notice there's a huge difference. ZEC hasn't had any major price movement for quite a few years now. The cryptocurrency is way below its ATH of around $1.6k per coin. That's a huge loss for investors who bought the coin at launch.

I've thought the poor price performance was because ZEC was a privacy coin, but I think the "founder's reward" had to do something with it. For those unaware, a portion of each ZEC mined went to the company's founder's address. That "tax" is no longer being collected, but it did have an impact over the short-term growth of the project. There's nothing that would "pump" ZEC's market price now, especially when the majority are focused on smart contracts, and "meme" coins. Privacy coins are widely unpopular thanks to governments' propaganda/misinformation. If Monero is having a hard time getting traction, don't expect Zcash to do better. At least, the ZEC blockchain is working as intended. As long as it stays decentralized, there should be nothing to worry about.

Among the good-old coins listed on the market today, which one do you prefer the most? Litecoin or Dogecoin? The former is often used for serious cross-border payments at a fraction of the cost, while the latter is used more for micropayments/tipping. Despite these differences, it's no secret that DOGE is faster and cheaper to use than LTC itself (Dogecoin's block time is lower than Litecoin's, while market prices are cheaper). I'd choose both as they're tried-and-tested blockchain networks with decentralization and security/reliability in mind.

What would be your pick? And why did you choose that coin in the first place? Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I've stumbled across tokenized gold assets such as the ones mentioned on the title of this thread. I'm wondering which one is the best (safest) for buying and holding long-term? Knowing that Tether had a shady past, I'd be careful putting my money into something that might collapse in the future. Paxos might be a better option, though.

Still, I'd like to know what do you think about each of these tokens. Any insights as to the amount of reserves they have, or how they comply with regulations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

There are many privacy coins on the market each with their own features and approach towards privacy. I've read about various obfuscation methods such as CoinJoin, ZKPs (Zero Knowledge Proofs), RingCT, and Mimblewimble. Yet, I'm wondering which of these techniques is the strongest in terms of preserving your utmost financial privacy and anonymity.

Is it the one used by Monero (RingCT + Confidential Transactions), Zcash (ZKPs) or Grin (Mimblewimble)? Please enlighten me. A detailed overview among the strongest/weakest points of said privacy techniques would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I've seen Gold market prices rising lately as a result of the current Israel-Hamas conflict. However, Bitcoin hasn't experienced any upsurge in price. It's still hovering around the $26k range. Something similar happened during the Russia-Ukraine war.

Is it because investors still don't trust Bitcoin as a store of value? Or is it something else? Please enlighten me. Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Since the early days of launch, Zcash had a market price well above $2k per coin. Popularity/hype faded away and now it's sitting in the "double digits". With many improvements made on the network lately (like removing the need for a trusted setup, among others), ZEC should've been among the top ranks in market cap by now.

What happened? Do you think Zcash's downfall had to do anything with being a privacy coin? Or is it something else? Do you believe there's still hope for the project? Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.