For the last nine months, the Bitcoin rally that took the digital currency from a few hundred dollars to close to $3000 had all the elements of a bubble that has yet to turn into a mania before it bursts.

Every asset bubble is different, and can be easily confused with healthy bull markets. But they all follow a certain pattern. They begin with ‘investor hype’ over a popular theme – an emerging industry or an exotic product that promises to change the world and make many people rich in the process.

Somewhere down the road Wall Street develops the vehicles that make broad investor participation in this theme easier, like a mutual fund or an ETF—turning investor hype into market contagion, and pushing the price of the underlying assets ever higher.

Then comes easy money by accommodative central banks to provide ‘the air’ -- financing for the bubble to grow bigger and bigger. Bold predictions by market gurus and talk in the mass and social media create buzz that help prices double or even quadruple in a matter of days, even hours—turning market contagion into mania. Investing in this theme reaches a cascade, as no investor wants to be left behind.

Finally, the bubble bursts, as early investors have already cashed out, and there are no more investors to join the party.

Apparently, the ongoing run up in Bitcoin and other digital currencies has most of the elements of a bubble. It’s an exotic asset that comes with big advantages—a better hedge against global uncertainties than conventional hedges like gold; a convenient medium of payment around the globe; and a limited supply--21 million.

Meanwhile, there’s investor hype. More and more investors are becoming familiar with the digital currency, and can use investment trusts like GBTC to conveniently participate in the market.

Adding to the hype is an ultra-low interest rate environment (which has lowered the cost of holding all these four-digit trading Bitcoins).

But there’s one thing still missing to turn the bubble into mania: a broad participation beyond the “pioneers” and the “early adopters,” to “early majority--” along the Rogers curve.

That’s when the demand for Bitcoin reaches a cascade and turns into mania, as a critical mass of investors rush to buy “hot” Bitcoins for the promise they hold -- rather than for the fundamentals they display.

Investors who have been around Wall Street long enough know all too well that when money becomes tight and investment promises aren’t fulfilled, bubbles and manias end; and millions made are lost much faster than they were made. And then some.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2017/06/22/the-bitcoin-bubble-will-turn-into-mania-before-it-bursts/#511063f97945

Crypto-news and the author are in no way liable for any losses you may incur in applying the techniques in this article. Bitcoin lending is subject to high risks. Invest only an amount you can afford to lose.

If Bitcoin is to replace existing fiat currencies, it must carry out all the functions that a centralized currency does. One of the main features of fiat banking is the ability to lend currency at interest rates, or take a loan when funds are required urgently. Bitcoin has its own system of lending and borrowing, and it’s simpler than you think.

The 5 Golden rules of Bitcoin Lending

Bitcoin’s anonymity makes Bitcoin lending a controversial topic: after all, what guarantee do you have that a borrower will return your funds? Most Bitcoin lending websites require the borrower to submit proofs of identity, but there is no financial backing when it comes to the loan itself i.e. the loans are unsecured. This means that the borrower does not have to submit any assets which can be liquidated in case the loan is defaulted.

While this may sound like a major issue—and it is—there are 5 major precautions which can turn Bitcoin lending into a profitable business.

RULE 1: DIVERSIFY YOUR INVESTMENTS

The first rule to Bitcoin lending is to ensure that your bets are distributed over several loans, instead of one single loan. Quite logically, this ensures that even if a borrower defaults on your loan, your other investments will yield enough profit to offset the single loss. There are generally 4 ways to diversify investments:

1. Based on Loan Amount

Fund a very small portion of the requested loan, usually between 10-20%. So, if the borrower has requested a 1 BTC loan, fund only 0.2 BTC at the most. This increases the liability for the borrower as the funds come from different lenders.

Let one loan comprise of only 5-10% of your portfolio. If you have a target to lend 1 BTC in all, don’t lend more than 0.1 BTC to any borrower. Keep your investment in different loans.

2. Based on Geographical Location

While one part of the world could be experiencing an economic boom, the other part could be in recession. As employment falls, defaulters are likely to increase, so ensure that you have a good mix of both developed and developing nations in your portfolio.

3. Based on Loan Duration

Loans can be anywhere from a few weeks to a few years in length. Keeping long loans reduces your workload in reviewing borrowers and can provide long term benefit. Short term loans provide opportunities for re-investment and improve liquidity. You are open to choose your ratio of long-term to short-term loans.

4. Based on Rating Category

Higher interest rates generally have a higher chance of low ratings. Bitbond, for example, rates each borrower from A to E. While choosing lower ratings has a higher risk, it also offers lucrative profit speculations. Try to keep yourself in the middle, holding secured loans with lower rates as well as unsecured ones with slightly higher rates.



RULE 2: Loan Terms for Larger Amounts

If borrowers default on their loans, you have two options in front of you: take legal action against the borrower using his/her details, or sell the claim from this loan to a debt collection agency. Selling the claim is usually a much better option for lenders as it helps avoid the effort needed to proceed with legal action. The recovery amount is usually better with a professional organisation collecting the debt than an individual. However, this option is only feasible when the debt amount is above a certain threshold. Otherwise it will cost more to collect the claim than the claim amount itself.

For this reason, it is better to invest in larger loans where debt collection is concerned. You should keep in mind that different countries have different purchasing powers, and what may be a large loan in a developing nation wouldn’t necessarily be very large in a developed country. My personal recommendation is to invest in loans with a value upwards of 0.5 BTC in the developed world, and about 0.25 BTC in smaller economies.

Remember that the first rule still applies in this case. Investing in a bigger loan doesn’t mean that you have to increase your contribution to the loan (keep your investments diverse).

 

RULE 3: Check the Purpose and Feasibility of the Project

Before granting a loan, always look at what the individual wants to use the loan for. Does the idea appeal to you? Or is it a scam? Each applicant can write up to 1,000 characters describing what the purpose of the loan is. Analyse its feasibility and profitability in the long run. Try to find some alternate assets that the borrower can liquidize to pay off his/ her loan.

It is also important that you understand that not all borrowers will be native English speakers. Try to ignore their grammatical errors and instead focus on their product. If the funding required for the project and the loan amount do not match, something might be fishy. Also look at how ambitious the project is: if someone needs $1000 to start a car manufacturing factory then it’s probably a scam.

 

RULE 4: Beware of Risks: Lend only how much you can afford to lose

You must be aware that Bitcoin lending is still very new, so very few people have experience in the subject. Lending can offer returns as high as 20% p.a., but that doesn’t mean that they can leave your balance at 0. If a project fails, or if a borrower refuses to pay out, you shouldn’t be on the verge of bankruptcy. Keep a small part of your earnings in the lending business considering that it is a high-risk investment.

 

RULE 5: Learn from previous Investments

Check the progress of your investments at least once a month to monitor their progress. Try to find a trend in profitable investments and put your money in similar ventures in the future. Correct yourself if you see too many failed projects. Lastly allow investments to mature. Just because things don’t work out in the first month doesn’t mean that they won’t in the future. Use this link to see statistics on Bitcoin loans.

All in all, it takes is a little bit of caution and awareness while lending Bitcoin to make it from a seemingly impossible venture to a highly profitable side business. In many ways, Bitcoin Lending is like investing in start-ups; your money may make a small garage company a Fortune 500 firm in the future. Just remember to adhere to a healthy level of caution when engaging in Bitcoin lending.

https://www.crypto-news.net/the-5-rules-of-bitcoin-lending/

Bounty hunters also not so stupid guys and understand ptoy perspectives and the ability to revolutionize healthcare. I`m sure they wont sell more than 30% of their tokens. I am not sure about huge dump will take place.

Because devs are now still busy with fixing internal system bugs bounty hunters should stay calm and wait until June 26.

That boy is my idol now. When i started to read an article my first thought was "he just got lucky". But then i see that this guy really smart dude. He had made right investment decision, bought even more bitcoin at a low price, because he truly believe in bright future of btc. Real man with big nutts.

The last week listed in signature spreadsheet is 25 of June. Is it the last week where bounty posts will be counted, or signature campaign will be ended and posts counted as stated by ICO in 16 of JULY?

Cryptocurrency exchange Remitano has expanded beyond Asia to offer its bitcoin remittance services to millions of citizens in Africa.


The remittance industry has been expected to suffer great disruption at the hands of bitcoin since it’s inception. The global remittance industry has been valued at over $500 billion USD annually in recent years, yielding exorbitant profits for the middle-men who have monopolized the international circulation of money.

Remitano has recently announced that it will be expanding its services outside of Asia, with Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania. Remitano began its life a start-up in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, before incorporating in the African nation of Seychelles and being offered as a product under Babylon Solutions Limited. Remitano now provides remittance services to more than 10 different nations, including Vietnam, Malaysia, the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, China, India, and Ghana.

Remitano initially garnered attention for being the bitcoin exchange that experiences the most traffic in Vietnam, despite Vietnam’s notoriously unclear regulations when it comes to bitcoin. Vietnam first addressed the digital currency officially by issuing a warning in February 2014 stating that bitcoin wasn’t recognized as legal tender, nor covered by commercial or consumer legislation. In October of 2014 three bitcoin traders were arrested, but the request for charges was rejected by the judge as “[bitcoin had] not been subject to any legal regulations”. At present, financial institutions are forbidden from owning and transacting in bitcoin.


The Vietnamese ban on financial institutions from transacting in bitcoin has not prevented businesses such as Remitano from flourishing. In addition to Remitano, Bitcoin Vietnam has achieved success as an exchange, operating in partnership with Israeli company Bit2C for several years. As Remitano and Bitcoin Vietnam facilitate a marketplace that allows private individuals to transact in bitcoin, the companies themselves have managed to evade operating outside of Vietnamese cryptocurrency regulations.

The bitcoin-based remittance industry has started to gain traction in Africa. Last year theRemitano Expands Bitcoin Remittance Services Into Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania African economy lost over $60 billion USD to remittance fees, illustrating the imperative need for an alternative solution to the current mainstream remittance industry. Recently, the largest pan-African wallet provider, Bitmari, applied for an international remittance license with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Competition between remittance providers in Africa like Remitano and Bitmari will reap further benefits for local economies.

The expansion of companies like Remitano further embed bitcoin into the normal, daily lives of citizens across the globe, signaling that for some countries, mainstream bitcoin adoption may not be far away.

https://news.bitcoin.com/remitano-expands-bitcoin-remittance-services-into-nigeria-kenya-and-tanzania/

When we can expect the following events on Humanique? Release of demo app, participation in events and exhibitions? Roadmap release would be the great marketing step i think.

Когда можно ожидать следующие события по Хуманику, выход демо версии приложения например, будущие конференции с участием компании?

The Bitcoin blocksize debacle, a leading contributor to the bubble building in the alternative cryptocurrency market, continues full speed ahead, gunning toward August, when a showdown is scheduled to occur regarding the User-Activated Soft Fork, BIP 148, which will invalidate blocks mined by non-segregated-witness and ultimately cause a mighty chain split and a period of confusion. The belief is that in the end, through these efforts, congestion will be reduced in the network and price will continue on its merry way to infinity.

Adam Back is a computer scientist. It’s typically incorrect to accuse him of basing statements on emotion or personal belief, and given that his own invention, Hashcash, was a necessary precursor to Bitcoin, it’s wrong to ham-fistedly take his words out of context the way some outlets have since Back yesterday tweeted the following:


People took this out of context. Someone on Reddit made a dramatic post, “Is this a joke?”

Of course, it’s not a joke. In international, high-value remittances, high-fees are perfectly acceptable. There are so many reasons for this it doesn’t bear much explaining. It still raises the question of why the cryptocurrency with the most user adoption and biggest network should be dedicated to one of the smaller use cases, in terms of traffic. If this were all Bitcoin were used for, would there even be significant block congestion?

Link to full article: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-hype-watch-blockstream-ceo-adam-back-want-100-fees/

“I think the actual amount of disruption that is happening because of bitcoin is really not much,” Bram Cohen recently said on the Steal This Show Podcast hosted by Jamie King. “If you look at bitcoin compared to [other] currencies, it’s still this flyspeck. People aren’t buying their coffee with bitcoin or anything like that. Some people have made a lot of money off it. There is the big story that a number of years ago buying $100 in bitcoin would be worth millions today.” That’s a story people get excited about, he acknowledges.

Bram Cohen

“In terms of what it’s actually doing, Bitcoin is still overhyped,” he opines. “It’s getting a lot more media attention than the actual impact it’s having so far.”

Mr. Cohen, who concerns himself with network protocol, says: “A lot of people get excited about bitcoin, because it’s gone up in value, so it’s the future and blah, blah, blah. Most of these people don’t have any understanding about what Bitcoin actually is.”

But eventually people Mr. Cohen trusts pointed out to the seasoned distributed developer, ‘No, there is actually an interesting bit of cryptographic stuff’.

He saw the light: “And, yeah, there is a really interesting thing in there.”

But, people make outrageous claims, Mr Cohen points out. “‘Oh, it has infinite scaling at no cost and instant transactions and its like, ‘No, No, you are not helping. You’re spouting a bunch of bullshit and those statements are just wrong.”

He acknowledges the problems bitcoin solves.

“Bitcoin is a distributed database,” he elucidates. “So, the history here is there is this problem with doing a K agreement in databases. Basically, you can’t have a distributed database. You can prove that you can’t really have a distributed database. But, it turns out there is a loophole in this and you can have a distributed database, if you make it so your database can only handle a few transactions per second using just about the simplest semantics a database can support, a replication strategy that is everything goes everywhere, it takes half hour for anything to go through, and you have warehouses doing nothing whatsoever but burning electricity. Then you can have a distributed databases. And that is Bitcoin.”

Mr. Cohen’s passion is the details of protocols. “When you have a situation where everything is broken, and horrible, there is lots of stuff to work on. There is all sorts of stuff you can do here to try and improve the situation.”

Bitcoin could use some improving, he believes. The original crypto-currency is inefficient, because Bitcoin’s mining power is based on processor time. Mr. Cohen believes basing the value of bitcoin mining on storage is a more elegant solution.

By using the storage based solution, Mr. Cohen believes he will address multiple Bitcoin flaws. In a storage based system, there’s a lot less centralization in mining.

“So there’s a lot less concern about having a 51% attack,” Mr. Cohen says. “Sometimes people have this misapprehension that Bitcoin is a democracy. No, Bitcoin is not a democracy; it’s called a 51% attack for a reason.”

He believes in their pursuit of private, permissioned ledgers, banks will come up empty-handed. “Banks are looking at it and are kind of freaked out,” he says. “A number of banks are like, ‘We need blockchain, because it is the future. We try and explain to them, ‘Well, this doesn’t make a lot of sense for what you’re talking about.’”

He is skeptical about the novelty of permissioned blockchains, which use secure hashes in the backend.

“What they wind up doing is a term of art, a ‘private blockchain’, database using secured hashes in the backend,” Mr. Cohen notes. “Vendors are selling such things, and I think doing quite good business off that. And they say we have blockchain now. [It] has nothing to do with blockchain. Yeah, it’s a huge improvement over what you were doing before but you should have done that twenty years ago,” Bram believes. “Secure hash based auto trails are not a new thing.”

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bram-cohen-talks-bitcoin/

A Paris and Salt Lake City-based wealth management company that acquires businesses with the intention of improving their value has recognized the benefits of cryptocurrency and is actively working to integrate cryptocurrency in one its most recent acquisitions, a 20-year-old travel agency that prides itself on its innovative ideas.

Vecta Travel, the U.S. sister company of Compagnies du Monde, which provides travel to luxury destinations worldwide, now accepts bitcoin. Customers can pay with bitcoin for their highly customized travel plan, Vectatravel.com, according to Fabien Dureuil, CEO of Genevieve Company.

Cryptocurrency And Digitization

“We now put our best effort to digitization, app development, a new website, a new payment system, accepting cryptocurrency with Bitpay and Coinbase,” Dureuil said with regard to the changes he has made at both Compagnies du Monde in Paris and Vecta Travel in the U.S. The travel agencies will also be able to accept Ethereum and Digix Global, a tokenized asset platform built on Ethereum.

Allowing the companies to accept cryptocurrencies will create more liquidity for Compagnies du Monde and Vecta Travel, Dureuil said. It will also allow the companies to offer a point of distinction in the markets they serve.

Cryptocurrency makes perfect sense for an acquisition specialty/wealth management company like Genevieve that seeks to use cutting edge technology to make its client companies stronger. Such tools will be adaptable and designed for the modern business environment, providing a secure, reliable return for the investor.

More To Come

Dureuil said his company will introduce cryptocurrency to other acquisitions it makes. In addition to accepting cryptocurrencies, Genevieve will develop private cryptocurrencies for its client companies – currencies based on hard assets such as diamonds, gold and real estate.

“We strongly believe that cryptocurrencies are an alternative monetary system that needs to be accepted by services and vendors in order to be more current, and to increase the premium and legitimization of this medium of exchange,” Dureuil said. “To us, a medium becomes a currency if people trust it enough to use it to store value and to use it like a medium of exchange in everyday life, to purchase and pay for services and goods.”

“Genevieve and all of our participants would like to be a part of this transition,” he said. “We feel like we are in some ways financial activists, and good French person that I am, financial revolution is in the realm of Genevieve.”

Because the success of digital currency is based on trust and use cases, Dureuil is open to using it for any company Genevieve acquires. He said he is willing to promote any financial service that the law allows.

Technology To Help Investors

Genevieve seeks to use new technology in the service of offering investors opportunities to accumulate wealth through traditional methods, such as hedge fund management, financial engineering, access to venture capital and turnaround services.

Dureuil has more than 10 years’ experience in legal and financial advising, organizational restructuring and asset management.

Duane Kirkpatrick, senior partner, brings a background in information technology. He was CEO of TeleNova, a Brazilian company that provided Internet-based international phone service, and he participated in the first tech boom in the early 2000s.

Alan Walker, senior partner and vice president of operations, brings a tech background. He was vice president of operations at RAKUTEN US, the giant, Tokyo-based e-commerce platform.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/genevieve-brings-cryptocurrency-top-travel-agencies-enhance-value-liquidity/

With all the media attention and the skyrocketing price of bitcoin of late, it is common to hear that bitcoin is in a bubble. However, some analysts disagree, offering reasons why the digital currency has more room to grow.

Some Say Bitcoin Is in a Bubble

As the price of bitcoin surged over 180% this year, some speculate that the digital currency is in a bubble. Earlier this week, Shark Tank star and billionaire Mark Cuban gave his opinion of bitcoin’s price. “I think it’s in a bubble. I just don’t know when or how much it corrects,” he tweeted.

Last month, Bitcoin.com reported on Charles Hayter, CEO and founder of the cryptocurrency data analysis firm Crypto Compare, calling the Asian bitcoin price rise a bubble. As the price of bitcoin climbed higher in Asia than most western exchanges, Hayter said he “believes the increase is a bubble formation but questions the level of speculation.”

More info here: https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-bubble-analysis/

Sorry, i didn`t hear about this event. Where is that AMA event`s page located?

Is it a possibility, that tomorrow`s preICO collect necessary amount of money, and those, who have written not enough post (50 ?)  will be deprived of the opportunity to receive a reward ?

I think Putin was mad because he dissapointed that Russia lost her chance to accumulate key amounts of bitcoin in her hands, like China did. He understand that Russia superiority highly depends from high technologies.

The same situation was in Ukraine few years ago. When some problems starts in countries economy, first of all government forbid to withdraw deposits from banks. Horrible situation. It`s my money, i count on them, who has the right to tell me what to do with my deposit? That`s why decentralized currencies is better and safer.

Christ, overall market capitalization doubled for a month! Only i`m scared that such a big money injection in cryptocurrencies may overheat the market and lead to the bubble?

А когда примерно ожидаеться получение лицензии? Вижу что цена монеты уже растет, но хотелось бы узнать мнения, когда примерно ожидать настоящий памп.

Gay marriages repugnant to the Lord. Thanks God i do not grew in gay or lesbian family. What values could they instill me? If you are boy, and you like another boy as a friend, maybe it`s your future husband, think of it?)) No,no,no! Please understand me correctly, as a christian i can accept that matter of things, but as a human i understand people who was born with another propensity, but not the situation when they speak freely on tv, adopt children, or say how grate it is..