This is actually the pervading mindset of the government as far as cryptocurrency and illicit drugs are concerned. However, we have to be fair that even without the cryptocurrency people can still buy drugs on the street and in 70s where drug trades really started to take root in our society there had been no cryptocurrency yet that time. In fact, I would say that compared to fiat the use of cryptocurrency can now be easier to trace because there are that transactions in the blockchain anybody can open and analyze whereas with fiat there is no such thing (except if there are banking records involved). Drug enforcement agencies have to level up their capabilities and skills so they can be at par with the development of cryptocurrency and the increasing skills of drug producers and traders.

You can choose to headquarter the business in a location that can be friendly (and give a lot of incentives and breaks) to crypto-related enterprises and I am sure there are now many countries (especially small island states) very accommodating and welcoming new investments into their locations. I can mention countries like Belarus, Slovenia,  Liechtenstein and even Malta, headquarter of Binance, just to name a few. There is a big market with the lending/funding idea that you are thinking about and I think there had been some good projects on this industry, some of them even went ICO in 2017 and 2018.

Not unless the government itself will decide to add Bitcoin as one of its reserve currency (just like the real gold), those newly minted paper money has no chance to find their way to cryptocurrency. Well, technically, the money can go to banks and banks can use them to finance their usual business and then the money can be on circulation within the economy...so its possible the money can fall to someone who is a Bitcoin supporter/enthusiast but this can just be an imaginary story to be honest. Maybe the concern is: Will there be a negative effect to Bitcoin if the government will keep on using the so-called quantitative easing (printing money)? The answer to that question is negative, the one affected here is the dollar itself.

There is no question that the initial business volume that Bakkt managed to snatch is something not so spectacular, very anemic and truly lackluster, if you may. However, not all big and successful platforms started with a BIG BANG and many of them showed up with a very humble face which later on the market sympathized and them BOOM. Here is a good update on Bakkt which can be a good sign of development:


What this can mean is that there is still a BIG HOPE that eventually Bakkt can be able to level up to its huge expectations and full potential, maybe we should just give it some time and institutional money would stat to be flowing in gradually and steadily. What do you think?

Definitely, the global economy is edging towards a huge recession that can affect everybody from big economies to small ones. The debt trap will soon be roaring its ugly head and no one will be spared. Countries and people who are not entertaining the possibility of this major setback will surely find so many shocks and surprises. This is going to be wiping out a big chunk of people's accumulated wealth and that is why we have to be prepared for this coming malady and man-made catastrophe.

Bitcoin will then soon be tested and we can see how it will be behaving under the pressure of the intensity of the recession...will it make the coin soar and stronger or will it go south instead? Let's see what can be. For now, we should accumulate as much Bitcoin as we can as a way to store more value as our insurance in the expected economic conflagration. Hopefully, the recession can be the fire to test the mettle of Bitcoin and make it stronger and more valuable.

Actually, I was then excited to learn that Binance is going to open P2P trading for the Chinese market but deep inside I really have some doubts with it considering that China made a strong stand against Bitcoin and cryptocurrency way back 2017 and it seems there is no easing to that policy. Now, we understand that the government must have applied pressure on Alipay and WeChat not to deal with cryptocurrency in connection with that Binance announcement. This would have been a big breakthrough and can open up a lot of opportunities on many sides and for many people. The power of the government is certainly at play here and though it can never struck down Bitcoin it can however make things really difficult for people to adopt and use cryptocurrency. Now, to people who are always complaining against the USA in its strict policy on cryptocurrency, go figures!

I just use Google and search this piece and lo and behold it is just another copy-paste job which can be another plagiarism because there is no added reference below the post. Nothing wrong with taking something from another site if a reference is also part of the post. Anyway, I am happy to see that John McAfee is on the top of the list of the many famous and outrageous predictions on Bitcoin.


Now, the year 2020 is coming and I am sure by the end of next year Bitcoin will still not be able to break through the $500,000 the man thought it would be so we might as well be ready for the biggest spectacle ever in the history of cryptocurrency: The John McAfee Live Eat-His-Thing Show. Who would want to watch that on YouTube and be given free tokens courtesy of McAfeedex. Anyone?

However, I have no doubt that come 2020 there can be a big possibility of a bull run but there is no guarantee that it can be able to rival that of 2017, maybe it can just be mild bull run respecting the hypes and FOMO due to the Bitcoin rewards halving.

This is not surprising at all. Well, I think that rules and regulations are already published and known beforehand so any project that is planning to accept USA investors should comply otherwise there will really be a big problem. This is not a hidden nor obscured to anyone in the world of finance, investments and cryptocurrency. 

In fact, I am really a little surprised that telegram was not careful as they allowed $424.5 million from the USA token buyers. And that is a lot though figures is coming from SEC so this can be bloated somehow. Let's see if SEC and Telegram can soon reach a compromise on this issue and how much can the fine be applied. Just recently, Block.One which raised $4 billion successfully reached an agreement with SEC and secured a $24 million fine resulting into Block.One not anymore required to register EOS as a security.

I am predicting that Telegram and TON is going to be paying $15 millions in fine fees. With the $1.7 billion it raised so far, that can be peanuts!

When PayPal could not anymore tolerate the heat produced by the Libra project and had to announce of it leaving the Libra Association, I know for certain that it would just take some days before another Libra backer to pull out and stop dealing with the project. And now, Mastercard, Visa, eBay, Stripe and Mercado Pago -- all decided to also get out from the Facebook-led Libra Association.

I am not a good at predicting the future but it can be easy to see of the possibility that anytime soon Facebook can be announcing the "temporary" shelving of Libra and maybe do some months of fine-tuning and maybe even restructuring Libra -- they should make it a real cryptocurrency decentralized and all the main features we all appreciate.

Another good idea is to disassociate Libra from Facebook but how they gonna do that will depend on their creativity and some willpower. Plus they need a new team maybe which purpose is to salvage of what is left of Libra...then change the name of the project maybe.

Should we say with certainty that Libra is on of the failures of Mark Zuckerberg?

I think that Telegram's TON has to first face the regulatory power of the USA SEC before it can officially open its door for business. SEC does not like the idea of TON sold and will be for sale within the USA and in effect all of its citizens all over the world.

"The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) secured an emergency restraining order against the Telegram Group and its subsidiary TON Issuer for their $1.7 billion token sale.

The SEC announced late Friday that it filed for and received an emergency action and restraining order halting Telegram from selling or otherwise distributing its gram tokens within the U.S. The network was supposed to go live on Oct. 31."

Source here.

The main problem here, according to SEC, is that Telegram did not care to register the said token sale to the USA investors. I am sure this can be a grueling case not unless there can be an agreement reached by both sides soon. We know how contentious SEC can be when it comes to sale of unregistered tokens to American investors. Let's see how things will be on this development.

Yes, there are now some good lending programs operating online where you can 1) borrow money but you have to deposit some cryptocurrency to do so (your collateral) where the advantage is that you are not spending your digital assets but can use convert a fraction of them to cash and use for whatever you want; and 2) you can also lend your cryptocurrencies to the platform and earn a good rate of interest (compared to banks). 

Just Google "lending cryptocurrency" and you will be given a lot of choices and information on this type of crypto-related business. This is part of the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) movement whereby platforms are introducing many bank-like products/services. There is a big potential for this business type to be exploding in the coming years and can be one of the many ways that people can adopt cryptocurrency.

This won't take the professional investigating and analytical skills of Sherlock Holmes to come to the conclusion that OP is just really promoting Bitcoin Trader like it is the savior that newbie traders should be using to make more profits in cryptocurrency trading. I am not here to judge the said platform because I have not utilized it personally but I am aware that no matter how good a program is there will always be risks involved and risks have this nasty habit of giving us surprises especially at moments when we are not ready.

Hell, OP even forgot to share us the link or URL of Bitcoin trader maybe he is in a hurry. I am not a big fan of any autotrading software no matter if they call it as the next bet thing or that it is powered by Artificial intelligence or whatever new technology on the market. It is just not for me.

This is an interesting (well, can also be funny and entertaining I guess) piece linking the price movement of Bitcoin and guacamole which has one element present in both: millennials. Let's take a look:


You can read more of this here...

In the following weeks, it would be good to revisit this comparison between Bitcoin and avocados if they can really be correlated. For now, do you think there is really a connection or just amazing coincidences?

I read a lot of accusations of manipulations and wash trading done by some cryptocurrency exchanges even including the most famous ones. This topic is a hot one in some crypto-focused forums I am also a member of and yes even in this forum. On my part, manipulations in any form is really not so acceptable especially so when we are basing on data for our trading decisions. However, the reality is that exchanges are brazen in tinkering with data all because they feel that they can easily get away with it and there seems to be no backlash suffered by manipulative exchanges. And I think that there is where we can start. There should be an effective way we can send this message to them and them fear the possibility of regulators coming their way.

It is always amazing how the tax agency of the country can be more advanced in their guidelines on reporting income and how to pay them but in regard to other sides of cryptocurrency the development is too slow and many times stalled for different reasons. Sometimes I found it funny but many times sad. But this is a big reality we have to face.

At any rate, getting clarifications and providing more animations in gray areas can be much better than groping in the dark. Taxation is such a powerful tool by the government and failure to obey the laws can be a big hassle later.

While many Bitcoin supporters and holders got ecstatic because of the little jump the coin made in the past days, there is a big possibility that again Bitcoin can be back at the $8,000 level.


Please read more on this here...

So we should be bracing for the dip happening tomorrow and in the next few days. On the bright side, we should get ready with our available funds or stablecoins so we can buy Bitcoin at a cheaper price. This can be a bad news or a good news depending on how we look at the development. Let's prepare for 2020 by increasing our silos in the remaining days of 2019. Are you with me?

So is this good news or bad news for Eth to be categorized as a commodity and not as a security? I think it is the former. Now, just like Bitcoin, there is no more question if these digital assets should be taken as securities which can be a big problem especially in the USA. Now, the definition has been outed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Heath Tarbert. And in addition, the Chairman predicted that just like Bitcoin Ether futures trading on U.S. markets can also be a reality in the near future. I am hoping this can help push the value of Eth further in the market.

I understand that you don't agree with this ruling defining and categorizing Ether as a commodity and not security but we have to respect the Commission for this decision and I am sure that a decision otherwise can make many Eth holders and supporters sad, right? So we will just be happy for Vitalik and his cohorts.

Compared to the time maybe late 2017 and early 2018 when the price of bitcoin reached at its highest, we can say indeed that it is not as popular and there is a decline of activities BUT this is not something negative for Bitcoin. In 2017, speculations abound for Bitcoin and although there is nothing wrong per se with that the thing is so much of something can make anything unbalanced and it was the same with Bitcoin. With lesser speculations, the better it can be for Bitcoin. Now, just because 1 Bitcoin seems to be now affordable it does not mean that anybody can not own Bitcoin since nobody will be refused to buy a portion of Bitcoin for some dollars.

The full potential of Bitcoin remains to be in the future and 10 years of Bitcoin is a short period of time to see the things it can do and contribute in the history of mankind. Now, you seem to be a little discouraged with Bitcoin and can be because you read some negative comments and analysis not favorable to this cryptocurrency but I am telling you don't listen too much to them as these don't know what they are talking about.

You better go with people who are enthusiastic on Bitcoin because this is the way to the future and you surely do not want to be left behind eating nothing but dust after our car has left, right?

I remember the many Bitcoin faucet programs still existing in 2015 but many of them are not anymore giving the most coins and just distributing crumbs when I started to get aware on this cryptocurrency. Many people got benefited with the original faucets but many of those who were granted Bitcoin just sold them when the coins got good value at around $10 or $20 -- hey that was already a lot of money when you hoarded a lot with faucets. Faucets were like the airdrops happening these days from different new projects. Nowhere it did dawn them that eventually Bitcoin can reach thousands of dollars years after.

Honestly speaking, people who were able to get involved with Bitcoin in the early years of its introduction are quite lucky ones of all the billions walking on the planet. Sometimes luck can really come into you unexpectedly. As for us who are Bitcoiners years after, we have to work hard to get our share of the pie and have to use our hard-earned money to be a part of the Bitcoin bandwagon. However, I am not complaining.



 

Manipulations can come in different ways, forms, types and degree...this is quite true in international commerce involving commodities especially that of oil which is very much needed by all countries so their daily economic activities will not come to a halt. Lucky are the countries which have adequate supply of the "black gold" because they can take advantage of the market when prices go up and would not have to worry where to source supplies and paying a good price for them. As to countries which are at the mercy of international oil suppliers, they are the ones paying the premium whenever OPEC decides to control the flow of oil.

Now, having said that, the reality is that in terms of production of almost anything, the flow of supply really belongs to those who are producing them and those who are providing the distribution infrastructure. In the case of oil, the buyers are at the mercy of suppliers unless there is an oversupply in which prices can go down drastically like what happened years ago. That is why producers need to control the production as well as distribution and they are doing it by reaching an agreement.

Can we do something about it? As for me, only a powerful government can tell this group pf producers not to do anything with the supply. Not even USA is capable of ordering them to do otherwise. Unless we can also unite the buyers not to buy for a certain period of time...but that is almost impossible as oil is very essential to the running of the global economy. Only a lessening of the demand can change this dynamic for good...and can we do that? Maybe we can by exploiting other sources of energy but that can be another story altogether.