On Nov 27th and 28th, the first ever VeChain Foundation Steering Committee meeting was held in Singapore. Over the course of this meeting, we have accomplished a lot. We are pleased to say that we have finalized members for our VeChain Foundation Steering Committee; we have revolutionized our blockchain foundation governance system; we have discussed the evolution of the our blockchain design and functionalities and an exponentially upgraded economic model for all of our stakeholders.
In celebration of the VeChain Foundation evolution, we have initiated a rebranding effort, or rather an escalation of our brand, which we will have finalized within a month and a half. More will be presented below.
VeChain believes that a well governed foundation is the key to longevity, growth and stability. Making an actionable governance system, that matches the identity we envision for our product, is the base in which we built on for our apotheosis. As such, the governance model of VeChain Foundation was at the paramount of discussions.
VeChain is going through an evolutionary period across all aspects of the foundation as directed by our Board of Steering Committee. At its core, the VeChain Foundation does not believe in a fully anarchically decentralization, nor does it believe in totalitarian governance. It is for that reason the board members envisioned something in between. Our governance structure is a new breed of a decentralized system through centralized channels, at its core it is a principal never seen before within the blockchain industry.
PICTURE ONE Being the centralized agency to govern the decentralized workflows, VeChain is as strong as our Board of Steering Committee enables us to become. The Board of Steering Committee oversees the various functional committees within a decentralized foundation. The board members, though a governing agency, ultimately guide units towards cohesive goals and enables collaboration, efficiency, and output across channels that traditional org charts cannot.
The Board of Steering Committee is the governing body of VeChain Foundation. It oversees the various functional committees within the foundation and represents the balanced interests of the VeChain blokchains stakeholders as a whole. Stakeholders include Blockchain Smart Contract Owners, VeChain Authority Nodes, and token holders. In addition, the Board of Steering Committee ensures the development, innovation, coordination and advancement of the VeChain blockchain ecosystem. Though not necessarily involved in day to day operational activities, the main functions include but not limited to the following:
- Propose and organize blockchain-wide general voting;
- Review and approve the Foundation’s fundamental strategies on technical, financial and business;
- Review and approve the governance principle;
- Review and approve the Foundation’s annual budget;
- Review, approve and monitor the procedure of nomination and election of the Steering Committee members, functional committee chairs and the General Secretary of the Foundation.
The Board of Steering Committee must be comprised of brilliant and respected individuals across a multitude of industries and it is for that reason we are very lucky to introduce our complete Board:
| Name | Experience | Responsibility |
| CY Cheung | PwC Cybersecurity and Fintech Partner | Head of Regulation Committee |
| George Kang | CEO of Greater China Region, DNV GL Business Assurance | Head of Public Relation Committee |
| Jay Zhang | CFO, VeChain Co-founder | Head of Operational Committee |
| Margret Rui Zhu | Assistant Professor of City University of Hong Kong | Head of Compensation & Nomination Committee |
| Peter Zhou | Chief Scientist, VeChain Partner | Head of Technical Committee |
| Renato Grottola | Global Digital Transformation Director, DNV GL Business Assurance | In charge of VeChain business development related affairs |
| Sunny Lu | CEO, VeChain Co-founder | General Secretary of the Foundation |
C Y Cheung - PwC Cybersecurity and Fintech Partner Chun Yin Cheung is a partner in PwC China's Risk Assurance Practice, based in the Shanghai office, having worked at PwC for over 14 years.
Mr. Cheung is an information security subject matter expert, with extensive experience in security assessment and regulatory compliance related advisory for financial service institutions in China and Hong Kong.
Mr. Cheung was educated at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and achieved a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in Information Technology
George Kang - CEO Greater China Region, DNV GL Assurance George Kang has worked for one of the biggest state-owned automotive design and manufacturing company - SAIC Motor before joined GNV GL in 1999.
George has accumulated extensive experience in supply chain management, product assurance with a particular strategic focus on the food & beverage, healthcare and automotive & aerospace sectors.
George was graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University with a bachelor degree in Engineering and EMBA from Xiamen University. ** Jie (Jay) Zhang - CFO / CoFounder VeChain**
Jay has worked at 2 of the ‘Big 4’ accountancy firms - PwC and Deloitte’s and joined VeChain as leader of their Blockchain governance framework design and digital asset management framework.
Jay has 14 years’ experience in IT assurance and advisory services. Jie’s major areas of expertise and experience include IT General controls, IT security, IT Governance and risk management, System Application Controls, etc.
Jay was educated at Shanghai Jiaotong University and studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Margret Rui Zhu - Assistant Professor City University of Hong Kong Professor Zhu received her BA from Fudan University, China, MA in Economics from Indiana University USA and PhD in Finance from University of Texas at Austin USA. Professor Zhu is currently interested in corporate finance, corporate risk management and the interaction of capital market and product market.
Peter Zhou - Chief Scientist / VeChain Partner Dr. Zhou obtained a Ph.D in Computer Sciences from the University of Southampton and serves as VeChain’s R&D Director. He has been involved in projects funded by the European Commission and Academy of Finland whilst working as a postdoctoral researcher for the University of Kent in the UK. He has been published in numerous international scientific research journals.
Renato Grottola - Global Digital Transformation Director, DNV GL Assurance Renato is an experienced global Director with a demonstrated history of working in the advisory industry, skilled in Strategic Planning, Mergers and Acquisitions, Business Development and Management of complex international operations. Renato has been working on a blockchain backed project to introduce ship certifications to a private blockchain.
Sunny Lu - CEO, VeChain Co-founder Sunny Lu, the Project Lead for VeChain, has a wealth of experience in IT and Information Security across luxury retail brands, with his most recent role prior to co-founding BitSE being as CIO, IS&T Director for Louis Vuitton China.
Part of the LVMH Group, other famous brands across the portfolio include luxury fashion brands Givenchy and Christian Dior, alongside Champagne Brands Moet et Chandon, Veuve Cliquout and Dom Perignon.
Sunny was educated at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and studied Electronics and Communication Engineering
A board of this magnitude will need outside forces keeping them in check and aiding in the design, implementation, and vision of VeChain. This is why VeChain has seeked out a promising Advisory Board to be a backbone that the foundation can lean on to provide immense wisdom and experience in the blockchain industry. VeChains Advisory Board is currently comprised as follows:
| Name | Experience |
| Bo Shen | Partner, founder of FenBuShi Capital |
| Daniel Kelman | General Counsel of Bitcoin.com |
| James Gong | CEO of ChainB.com |
| Roland Sun | Partner of Broad&Bright Law Firm |
| Ning Nan | CEO of BitOcean |
Bo Shen - General partner of FENBUSHI Capital
Bo cofounded Bitshares, Qtum, Zcash, etc. He is also a veteran of traditional financial industry, accumulating 12 years of senior management in brokerages, hedge funds and investment banks.
Daniel Kelman - General Counsel of GSR and Bitcoin.com
Daniel represented the interests of creditors who lost funds in the MtGox hacking scandal. Besides, he is also a co-founder of BitOcean Japan, a cryptocurrency exchange which will be licensed by Japanese regulator FSA.
James Gong - CEO of ChainB.com
ChainB is the most influential professional blockchain and cryptocurrency media in China.
Roland Sun - Partner of a full-service Chinese law firm named Broad&Bright
Roland has rich experience in providing law consultancy services in the following practice areas, such as cryprocurrency, blockchain, banking and trust.
Nan Ning - CEO of BitOcean
BitOcean is a cryptocurrency exchange which will be licensed by Japanese regulator FSA.
With the combined expertise of the Board of Steering Committee and the wisdom of the Advisory Board, VeChain has the foundation to be a revolutionary force within the blockchain industry and a global initiative for decentralization of businesses, truly embracing a digital way of life.
Voting：
As mentioned above, VeChain stakeholders include Blockchain Smart Contract Owners, Authority Nodes and token holders (including VeChain Economic Masternodes/Nodes). Each of the stakeholder holds at least 10,000 VeChain tokens with a single public key will be considered to have ONE vote, and each stakeholder can have not more than ONE vote.
PICTURE TWO
The following fundamental subjects will be voted by the stakeholders:
- The election of new Board of Steering Committee;
- The modification of fundamental consensus mechanism;
- Other subjects that Board of Steering Committee deemed necessary for general voting.
The general voting activities shall be carried in the VeChain Blockchain voting platform, designed to ensure anonymity, accuracy and not subject to manipulation.
VeChain Rebrand
Our brand is not our name or logo, it is who we are. It is as much our governance model as it is our economic model. With VeChain undergoing its apotheosis it is imperative for our brand to grow with it. This evolution brings VeChain from a status of a blockchain solution to an one of a kind blockchain pioneer that can last indefinitely, offering a powerful and adaptable product for any business process that could benefit from trustless, immutable, and readily available data. This evolutional output requires us to reinvent the structure of our mainnet to coexist with an economic model design for indefinite stability and reward. As a result VeChain has become bigger, faster, stronger, disruptive, ambitious, incentivized and above all else, impactful. The board has made every effort to bring power to the stakeholders/people of VeChain. There are many attributes that make the Norse God “Thor“ and VeChain similar, and therefore:
VeChain is opting to upgrade the VeChain blockchain itself to VeChain Thor. The process of this transformation we call Apotheosis.
Our efforts towards apotheosis will last over the course of a month and a half from today, the full range of details will be released periodically from now until the mid of January.
Here is a glimpse at some of the changes being incorporated into VeChain Thor:
- VeChain Blockchain will be upgraded to VeChain Thor Blockchain
- Upon this release, we will be converting the existing VEN tokens for VeChain Thor tokens (VET). We are taking the appropriate measures to make this conversion seamless, we will begin this process by aiding current exchanges with the conversion first, all future exchanges will list our token as VET instead of VEN, including the ones we have been actively speaking to prior to this announcement of the name change.
- Transactions on VeChain Thor Blockchain will not use VET token as expense. This is our way of giving back to the stakeholders. In turn the blockchain transactions will be incentivized through other reward structures. This allows VeChain to offer a stable and predictable budget for enterprise users. This new system also enables resource optimisation and adjustments by economical approaches for the indefinite future.
- In order to take full advantage of decentralization and strong governance, the Foundation has decided to adopt Proof of Authority as the consensus mechanism of the VeChain Blockchain so that future developments are aligned with vision and direction the Foundation has designed;
- As for Nodes and Masternodes, (Yes, we have them!) We categorize two major types of nodes on the VeChain Thor Blockchain, a total of four distinctive nodes all together:
- One Authority Masternode
- Three Economic Masternodes/Nodes
VeChain Authority Masternode
Thrudheim means ‘World of Strength’ and is the home of Thor. We announce Thrudheim Masternode as the senior and most privileged masternodes that VET token holders can own.
There will be a total 101 Thrudheim Masternodes on the VeChain Thor Network. Thrudheim Masternodes:
- Receive the highest rewards of any node operators on VeChain Thor;
- Hold the most power when it comes to voting rights
- Are the most senior of masternodes that VET token holders can attain;
- Stabilise the VeChain Thor blockchain network;
- Are selected and rated based on the criteria the VeChain Foundation announce in the near future;
To successfully become a Thrudheim Masternode Owner operating a Thrudheim Masternode, the token holder needs to fulfill certain criteria:
A) Owns a Qualified Thrudheim Masternode Candidate, the said candidate is a trackable address holding a minimum of 250,000 VET/VEN starting from Trust Tracking Day until the Date of Decision. Date of Decision will be announced soon, this date should coincide approximately with our main net launch date.
B) The person who owns a Qualified Thrudheim Masternode Candidate is a Qualified Thrudheim Masternode Operator Applicant and will automatically enter into the application process, given he/she meets the below criteria:
- Due to the importance of these Masternodes, and the limited number available, VeChain Foundation will need a period of time to observe and review each applicant to determine their trustworthiness and value proposition within the network, and the decision of acceptance will take into consideration of the holder’s contributions to the Foundation as whole, therefore, the Trust Tracking Day of the Thrudheim Masternodes will start on December 21th. More detailed information soon to be released on The Decision Making Criteria of Becoming a Thrudheim Masternode Holder.
- The moment the token holding of Qualified Thrudheim Masternode Candidate is less than 250,000 VET, the address will lose the privilege of applying to become a Thrudheim Masternode when the blockchain launches.
- Hardware conditions: CPU, hard disk capacity, memory, overall performance will be reviewed individually.
- A full KYC and application procedure.
VeChain Foundation will release a detailed Thrudheim Nodes selection standards, procedure and rewards together in a later announcement.
VeChain Economic Masternodes and Nodes:
A VeChain Economic Masternode/Node offers stability to the ecosystem and acts as a distribution of power and privilege within the blockchain’s economy. VeChain Economic Masternodes/Nodes also have representation within the ecosystems voting periods. For an address with at least 10,000 VET/VEN held, a node represents one vote within the majority consensus. Unlike Authority Masternodes, Economic Masternodes/nodes do not produce blocks and ledger records.
Mjolnir Masternodes （Second highest-incentive Nodes)
Token possession: 150,000 VET and above
Incentive received: receive the highest reward among VeChain Economic Nodes.
Cannot be upgraded More information on Mjolnir Masternodes soon
Thunder Nodes (Higher-incentive Nodes)
Token possession: 50,000 - 149,999 VET/VEN;
Incentive received: receive the higher Thor incentive;
Can be upgraded; More information on Thunder Nodes to come.
Strength Nodes (Medium-incentive Nodes)
Token possession: 10,000-49,999 VET/VEN;
Incentive received: receive the medium Thor incentive, however, still more than none-node holders;
Can be upgraded;
More information on Strength Nodes to come.
Holders with less than 10,000 VET tokens receive default incentive.
Important Timetable and planned events:
- Hold corresponding quantity of VET/VEN tokens in a trackable wallet (such as MEW) starting from 00:00:00 UTC+8 on 21st December; if your wallet has more than or equal to 250,000 VET/VEN, then you will be considered as an applicant to become a Thrudheim Masternode Operator, this is one of important must-have criteria when the Foundation selects Thrudheim Masternode Operators.
- Any wallet holding a corresponding quantity of VEN/VET tokens for any other nodes begins to accumulate seniority and that will be used as a means of distributing incentives in the future.
- An official strategic partnership announcement event is planned late January at London between DNV GL and VeChain.
- A VeChain Rebranding event, in Singapore, is planned for mid-January.
- A detailed economic model upon completion
- Listing on a major exchange in December
- A complete upgrade and rewrite of our current “VeChain Development Plan (Not a Whitepaper Document)
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Major Exchanges
In finance, an exchange is a forum or platform for trading commodities, derivatives, securities or other financial instruments. The principle concern of an exchange is to allow trading between parties to take place in a fair and legally compliant manner, as well as to ensure that pricing information for any instrument traded on the exchange is reliable and coherently delivered to exchange participants. In the cryptocurrency space exchanges are online platforms that allow users to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for fiat money or other cryptocurrencies. They can be centralized exchanges such a Binance, or decentralized exchanges such as IDEX. Most cryptocurrency exchanges allow users to trade different crypto assets with BTC or ETH after having already exchanged fiat currency for one of those cryptocurrencies. Coinbase and Kraken are the main avenue for fiat money to enter into the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Function and History
Crypto exchanges can be market-makers that take bid/ask spreads as a commission on the transaction for facilitating the trade, or more often charge a small percentage fee for operating the forum in which the trade was made. Most crypto exchanges operate outside of Western countries, enabling them to avoid stringent financial regulations and the potential for costly and lengthy legal proceedings. These entities will often maintain bank accounts in multiple jurisdictions, allowing the exchange to accept fiat currency and process transactions from customers all over the globe.
The concept of a digital asset exchange has been around since the late 2000s and the following initial attempts at running digital asset exchanges foreshadows the trouble involved in attempting to disrupt the operation of the fiat currency baking system. The trading of digital or electronic assets predate Bitcoin’s creation by several years, with the first electronic trading entities running afoul of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in late 2004. Companies such as Goldex, SydneyGoldSales, and Ozzigold, shut down voluntarily after ASIC found that they were operating without an Australian Financial Services License. E-Gold, which exchanged fiat USD for grams of precious metals in digital form, was possibly the first digital currency exchange as we know it, allowing users to make instant transfers to the accounts of other E-Gold members. At its peak in 2006 E-Gold processed $2 billion worth of transactions and boasted a user base of over 5 million people.
Popular Exchanges
Here we will give a brief overview of the features and operational history of the more popular and higher volume exchanges because these are the platforms to which newer traders will be exposed. These exchanges are recommended to use because they are the industry standard and they inspire the most confidence.
Bitfinex
Owned and operated by iFinex Inc, the cryptocurrency trading platform Bitfinex was the largest Bitcoin exchange on the planet until late 2017. Headquartered in Hong Kong and based in the US Virgin Island, Bitfinex was one of the first exchanges to offer leveraged trading (“Margin trading allows a trader to open a position with leverage. For example — we opened a margin position with 2X leverage. Our base assets had increased by 10%. Our position yielded 20% because of the 2X leverage. Standard trades are traded with leverage of 1:1”) and also pioneered the use of the somewhat controversial, so-called “stable coin” Tether (USDT).
Binance
Binance is an international multi-language cryptocurrency exchange that rose from the mid-rank of cryptocurrency exchanges to become the market dominating behemoth we see today. At the height of the late 2017/early 2018 bull run, Binance was adding around 2 million new users per week! The exchange had to temporarily disallow new registrations because its servers simply could not keep up with that volume of business. After the temporary ban on new users was lifted the exchange added 240,000 new accounts within two hours.
Have you ever thought whats the role of the cypto exchanges? The answer is simple! There are several different types of exchanges that cater to different needs within the ecosystem, but their functions can be described by one or more of the following: To allow users to convert fiat currency into cryptocurrency. To trade BTC or ETH for alt coins. To facilitate the setting of prices for all crypto assets through an auction market mechanism. Simply put, you can either mine cryptocurrencies or purchase them, and seeing as the mining process requires the purchase of expensive mining equipment, Cryptocurrency exchanges can be loosely grouped into one of the 3 following exchange types, each with a slightly different role or combination of roles.
Have you ever thought about what are the types of Crypto exchanges?
- Traditional Cryptocurrency Exchange: These are the type that most closely mimic traditional stock exchanges where buyers and sellers trade at the current market price of whichever asset they want, with the exchange acting as the intermediary and charging a small fee for facilitating the trade. Kraken and GDAX are examples of this kind of cryptocurrency exchange. Fully peer-to-peer exchanges that operate without a middleman include EtherDelta, and IDEX, which are also examples of decentralized exchanges.
- Cryptocurrency Brokers: These are website or app based exchanges that act like a Travelex or other bureau-de-change. They allow customers to buy or sell crypto assets at a price set by the broker (usually market price plus a small premium). Coinbase is an example of this kind of exchange.
- Direct Trading Platform: These platforms offer direct peer-to-peer trading between buyers and sellers, but don’t use an exchange platform in doing so. These types of exchanges do not use a set market rate; rather, sellers set their own rates. This is a highly risky form of trading, from which new users should shy away.
To understand how an exchange functions we need only look as far as a traditional stock exchange. Most all the features of a cryptocurrency exchange are analogous to features of trading on a traditional stock exchange. In the simplest terms, the exchanges fulfil their role as the main marketplace for crypto assets of all kinds by catering to buyers or sellers. These are some definitions for the basic functions and features to know: Market Orders: Orders that are executed instantly at the current market price. Limit Order: This is an order that will only be executed if and when the price has risen to or dropped to that price specified by the trader and is also within the specified period of time. Transaction fees: Exchanges will charge transactions fees, usually levied on both the buyer and the seller, but sometimes only the seller is charged a fee. Fees vary on different exchanges though the norm is usually below 0.75%. Transfer charges: The exchange is in effect acting as a sort of escrow agent, to ensure there is no foul play, so it might also charge a small fee when you want to withdraw cryptocurrency to your own wallet.
Regulatory Environment and Evolution
Cryptocurrency has come a long way since the closing down of the Silk Road darknet market. The idea of crypto currency being primarily for criminals, has largely been seen as totally inaccurate and outdated. In this section we focus on the developing regulations surrounding the cryptocurrency asset class by region, and we also look at what the future may hold.
The United States of America
A coherent uniform approach at Federal or State level has yet to be implemented in the United States. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network published guidelines as early as 2013 suggesting that BTC and other cryptos may fall under the label of “money transmitters” and thus would be required to take part in the same Anti-money Laundering (AML) and Know your Client (KYC) procedures as other money service businesses. At the state level, Texas applies its existing finance laws. And New York has instituted an entirely new licensing system.
The European Union
The EU’s approach to cryptocurrency has generally been far more accommodating overall than the United States, partly due to the adaptable nature of pre-existing laws governing electronic money that predated the creation of Bitcoin. As with the USA, the EU’s main fear is money laundering and criminality. The European Central Bank (ECB) categorized BTC as a “convertible decentralized currency” and advised all central banks in the EU to refrain from trading any cryptocurrencies until the proper regulatory framework was put in place. A task force was then set up by the European Parliament in order to prevent and investigate any potential money laundering that was making use of the new technology.
Likely future regulations for cryptocurrency traders within the European Union and North America will probably consist of the following proposals: The initiation of full KYC procedures so that users cannot remain fully anonymous, in order to prevent tax evasion and curtail money laundering. Caps on payments that can be made in cryptocurrency, similar to caps on traditional cash transactions. A set of rules governing tax obligations regarding cryptocurrencies Regulation by the ECB of any companies that offer exchanges between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies It is less likely for other countries to follow the Chinese approach and completely ban certain aspects of cryptocurrency trading. It is widely considered more progressive and wiser to allow the technology to grow within a balanced accommodative regulatory framework that takes all interests and factors into consideration. It is probable that the most severe form of regulation will be the formation of new governmental bodies specifically to form laws and exercise regulatory control over the cryptocurrency space. But perhaps that is easier said than done. It may, in certain cases, be incredibly difficult to implement particular regulations due to the anonymous and decentralized nature of crypto.
Behavior of Cryptocurrency Investors by Demographic
Due to the fact that cryptocurrency has its roots firmly planted in the cryptography community, the vast majority of early adopters are representative of that group. In this section we cover the basic structure of the cryptocurrency market cycle and the makeup of the community at large, as well as the reasons behind different trading decisions.
The Cryptocurrency Market Cycle
Bitcoin leads the bull rally. FOMO (Fear of missing out) occurs, the price surge is a constant topic of mainstream news, business programs cover the story, and social media is abuzz with cryptocurrency chatter. Bitcoin reaches new All Timehigh (ATH) Market euphoria is fueled with even more hype and the cycle is in full force. There is a constant stream of news articles and commentary on the meteoric, seemingly unstoppable rise of Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s price “stabilizes”, In the 2017 bull run this was at or around $14,000. A number of solid, large market cap altcoins rise along with Bitcoin; ETH & LTC leading the altcoins at this time. FOMO comes into play, as the new ATH in market cap is reached by pumping of a huge number of alt coins.
Top altcoins “somewhat” stabilize, after reaching new all-time highs. The frenzy continues with crypto success stories, notable figures and famous people in the news. A majority of lesser known cryptocurrencies follow along on the upward momentum. Newcomers are drawn deeper into crypto and sign up for exchanges other than the main entry points like Coinbase and Kraken. In 2017 this saw Binance inundated with new registrations. Some of the cheapest coins are subject to massive pumping, such as Tron TRX which saw a rise in market cap from $150 million at the start of December 2017 to a peak of $16 billion! At this stage, even dead coins or known scams will get pumped. The price of the majority of cryptocurrencies stabilize, and some begin to retract. When the hype is subsiding after a huge crypto bull run, it is a massive sell signal. Traditional investors will begin to give interviews about how people need to be careful putting money into such a highly volatile asset class. Massive violent correction begins and the market starts to collapse. BTC begins to fall consistently on a daily basis, wiping out the insane gains of many medium to small cap cryptos with it. Panic selling sweeps through the market. Depression sets in, both in the markets, and in the minds of individual investors who failed to take profits, or heed the signs of imminent collapse. The price stagnation can last for months, or even years.
The Influence of Age upon Trading
Did you know? Cryptocurrencies have been called “stocks for millennials” According to a survey conducted by the Global Blockchain Business Council, only 5% of the American public own any bitcoin, but of those that do, an overwhelming majority of 71% are men, 58% of them are between the ages of 18 and 35, and over half of them are minorities. The same survey gauged public attitude toward the high risk/high return nature of cryptocurrency, in comparison to more secure guaranteed small percentage gains offered by government bonds or stocks, and found that 30% would rather invest $1,000 in crypto. Over 42% of millennials were aware of cryptocurrencies as opposed to only 15% of those ages 65 and over. In George M. Korniotis and Alok Kumar’s study into the effects of aging on portfolio management and the quality of decisions made by older investors, they found “that older and experienced investors are more likely to follow “rules of thumb” that reflect greater investment knowledge. However, older investors are less effective in applying their investment knowledge and exhibit worse investment skill, especially if they are less educated and earn lower income.”
Geographic Influence upon Trading
One of the main drivers of the apparent seasonal ebb and flow of cryptocurrency prices is the tax situation in the various territories that have the highest concentrations of cryptocurrency holders. Every year we see an overall market pull back beginning in mid to late January, with a recovery beginning usually after April. This is because “Tax Season” is roughly the same across Europe and the United States, with the deadline for Income tax returns being April 15th in the United States, and the tax year officially ending the UK on the 6th of April. All capital gains must be declared before the window closes or an American trader will face the powerful and long arm of the IRS with the consequent legal proceedings and possible jail time. Capital gains taxes around the world vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but there are often incentives for cryptocurrency holders to refrain from trading for over a year to qualify their profits as long term gain when they finally sell. In the US and Australia, for example, capital gains are reduced if you bought cryptocurrency for investment purposes and held it for over a year. In Germany if crypto assets are held for over a year then the gains derived from their sale are not taxed. Advantages like this apply to individual tax returns, on a case by case basis, and it is up to the investor to keep up to date with the tax codes of the territory in which they reside.
2013 Bull run vs 2017 Bull run price Analysis
In late 2016 cryptocurrency traders were faced with the task of distinguishing between the beginnings of a genuine bull run and what might colorfully be called a “dead cat bounce” (in traditional market terminology). Stagnation had gripped the market since the pull-back of early 2014. The meteoric rise of Bitcoin’s price in 2013 peaked with a price of $1,100 in November 2013, after a year of fantastic news on the adoption front with both Microsoft and PayPal offering BTC payment options. It is easy to look at a line going up on a chart and speak after the fact, but at the time, it is exceeding difficult to say whether the cat is actually climbing up the wall, or just bouncing off the ground. Here, we will discuss the factors that gave savvy investors clues as to why the 2017 bull run was going to outstrip the 2013 rally. Hopefully this will help give insight into how to differentiate between the signs of a small price increase and the start of a full scale bull run. Most importantly, Volume was far higher in 2017. As we can see in the graphic below, the 2017 volume far exceeds the volume of BTC trading during the 2013 price increase. The stranglehold MtGox held on trading made a huge bull run very difficult and unlikely.
Fraud & Immoral Activity in the Private Market
Ponzi Schemes Cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes will be covered in greater detail in Lesson 7, but we need to get a quick overview of the main features of Ponzi schemes and how to spot them at this point in our discussion. Here are some key indicators of a Ponzi scheme, both in cryptocurrencies and traditional investments: A guaranteed promise of high returns with little risk. Consistentflow of returns regardless of market conditions. Investments that have not been registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Investment strategies that are a secret, or described as too complex. Clients not allowed to view official paperwork for their investment. Clients have difficulties trying to get their money back. The initial members of the scheme, most likely unbeknownst to the later investors, are paid their “dividends” or “profits” with new investor cash. The most famous modern-day example of a Ponzi scheme in the traditional world, is Bernie Madoff’s $100 billion fraudulent enterprise, officially titled Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. And in the crypto world, BitConnect is the most infamous case of an entirely fraudulent project which boasted a market cap of $2 billion at its peak.
What are the Exchange Hacks?
The history of cryptocurrency is littered with examples of hacked exchanges, some of them so severe that the operation had to be wound up forever. As we have already discussed, incredibly tech savvy and intelligent computer hackers led by Alexander Vinnik stole 850000 BTC from the MtGox exchange over a period from 2012–2014 resulting in the collapse of the exchange and a near-crippling hammer blow to the emerging asset class that is still being felt to this day. The BitGrail exchange suffered a similar style of attack in late 2017 and early 2018, in which Nano (XRB) was stolen that was at one point was worth almost $195 million. Even Bitfinex, one of the most famous and prestigious exchanges, has suffered a hack in 2016 where $72 million worth of BTC was stolen directly from customer accounts.
Hardware Wallet Scam Case Study
In late 2017, an unfortunate character on Reddit, going by the name of “moody rocket” relayed his story of an intricate scam in which his newly acquired hardware wallet was compromised, and his $34,000 life savings were stolen. He bought a second hand Nano ledger into which the scammers own recover seed had already been inserted. He began using the ledger without knowing that the default seed being used was not a randomly assigned seed. After a few weeks the scammer struck, and withdrew all the poor HODLer’s XRP, Dash and Litecoin into their own wallet (likely through a few intermediary wallets to lessen the very slim chances of being identified).
Hardware Wallet Scam Case Study Social Media Fraud
Many gullible and hapless twitter users have fallen victim to the recent phenomenon of scammers using a combination of convincing fake celebrity twitter profiles and numerous amounts of bots to swindle them of ETH or BTC. The scammers would set up a profile with a near identical handle to a famous figure in the tech sphere, such as Vitalik Buterin or Elon Musk. And then in the tweet, immediately following a genuine message, follow up with a variation of “Bonus give away for the next 100 lucky people, send me 0.1 ETH and I will send you 1 ETH back”, followed by the scammers ether wallet address. The next 20 or so responses will be so-called sockpuppet bots, thanking the fake account for their generosity. Thus, the pot is baited and the scammers can expect to receive potentially hundreds of donations of 0.1 Ether into their wallet. Many twitter users with a large follower base such as Vitalik Buterin have taken to adding “Not giving away ETH” to their username to save careless users from being scammed.
Market Manipulation
It also must be recognized that market manipulation is taking place in cryptocurrency. For those with the financial means i.e. whales, there are many ways in which to control the market in a totally immoral and underhanded way for your own profit. It is especially easy to manipulate cryptos that have a very low trading volume. The manipulator places large buy orders or sell walls to discourage price action in one way or the other. Insider trading is also a significant problem in cryptocurrency, as we saw with the example of blatant insider trading when Bitcoin Cash was listed on Coinbase.
Examples of ICO Fraudulent Company Behavior
In the past 2 years an astronomical amount of money has been lost in fraudulent Initial Coin Offerings. The utmost care and attention must be employed before you invest. We will cover this area in greater detail with a whole lesson devoted to the topic. However, at this point, it is useful to look at the main instances of ICO fraud. Among recent instances of fraudulent ICOs resulting in exit scams, 2 of the most infamous are the Benebit and PlexCoin ICOs which raised $4 million for the former and $15 million for the latter. Perhaps the most brazen and damaging ICO scam of all time was the Vietnamese Pincoin ICO operation, where $660million was raised from 32,000 investors before the scammer disappeared with the funds. In case of smaller ICO “exit scamming” there is usually zero chance of the scammers being found. Investors must just take the hit. We will cover these as well as others in Lesson 7 “Scam Projects”.
Signposts of Fraudulent Actors
The following factors are considered red flags when investigating a certain project or ICO, and all of them should be considered when deciding whether or not you want to invest. Whitepaper is a buzzword Salad: If the whitepaper is nothing more than a collection of buzzwords with little clarity of purpose and not much discussion of the tech involved, it is overwhelmingly likely you are reading a scam whitepaper.
Signposts of Fraudulent Actors §2
No Code Repository: With the vast majority of cryptocurrency projects employing open source code, your due diligence investigation should start at GitHub or Sourceforge. If the project has no entries, or nothing but cloned code, you should avoid it at all costs. Anonymous Team: If the team members are hard to find, or if you see they are exaggerating or lying about their experience, you should steer clear. And do not forget, in addition to taking proper precautions when investing in ICOs, you must always make sure that you are visiting authentic web pages, especially for web wallets. If, for example, you are on a spoof MyEtherWallet web page you could divulge your private key without realizing it and have your entire portfolio of Ether and ERC-20 tokens cleaned out.
Methods to Avoid falling Victim
Avoiding scammers and the traps they set for you is all about asking yourself the right questions, starting with: Is there a need for a Blockchain solution for the particular problem that a particular ICO is attempting to solve? The existing solution may be less costly, less time consuming, and more effective than the proposals of a team attempting to fill up their soft cap in an ICO. The following quote from Mihai Ivascu, the CEO of Modex, should be kept in mind every time you are grading an ICO’s chances of success: “I’m pretty sure that 95% of ICOswill not last, and many will go bankrupt. ….. not everything needs to be decentralized and put on an open source ledger.”
Methods to Avoid falling Victim §2 Do I Trust These People with My Money, or Not?
If you continue to feel uneasy about investing in the project, more due diligence is needed. The developers must be qualified and competent enough to complete the objectives that they have set out in the whitepaper.
Is this too good to be true?
All victims of the well-known social media scams using fake profiles of Vitalik Buterin, or Bitconnect investors for that matter, should have asked themselves this simple question, and their investment would have been saved. In the case of Bitconnect, huge guaranteed gains proportional to the amount of people you can get to sign up was a blatant pyramid scheme, obviously too good to be true. The same goes for Fake Vitalik’s offer of 1 ether in exchange for 0.1 ETH.
Selling Cryptocurrencies, Several reasons for selling with the appropriate actions to take:
If you are selling to buy into an ICO, or maybe believe Ether is a safer currency to hold for a certain period of time, it is likely you will want to make use of the Ether pair and receive Ether in return. Obviously if the ICO is on the NEO or WANchain blockchain for example, you will use the appropriate pair. -Trading to buy into another promising project that is listing on the exchange on which you are selling (or you think the exchange will experience a large amount of volume and become a larger exchange), you may want to trade your cryptocurrency for that exchange token. -If you believe that BTC stands a good chance of experiencing a bull run then using the BTC trading pair is the suitable choice. -If you believe that the market is about to experience a correction but you do not want to take your gains out of the market yet, selling for Tether or “tethering up” is the best play. This allows you to keep your locked-in profits on the exchange, unaffected by the price movements in the cryptocurrency markets,so that you can buy back in at the most profitable moment. -If you wish to “cash out” i.e. sell your cryptocurrency for fiat currency and have those funds in your bank account, the best pair to use is ETH or BTC because you will likely have to transfer to an exchange like Kraken or Coinbase to convert them into fiat. If the exchange offers Litecoin or Bitcoin Cash pairs it could be a good idea to use these for their fast transaction time and low fees.
Selling Cryptocurrencies
Knowing when and how to sell, as well as strategies to inflate the value of your trade before sale, are important skills as a trader of any product or financial instrument. If you are satisfied that the sale itself of the particular amount of a token or coin you are trading away is the right one, then you must decide at what price you are going to sell. Exchanges exercise their own discretion as to which trading “pairs” they will offer, but the most common ones are BTC, ETH, BNB for Binance, BIX for Bibox etc., and sometimes Tether (USDT) or NEO. As a trader, you decide which particular cryptocurrency to exchange depending on your reason for making that specific trade at that time.
Methods of Sale
Market sell/Limit sell on exchange: A limit sell is an order placed on an exchange to sell as soon as (also specifically only if and when) the price you specified has been hit within the time limit you select. A market order executes the sale immediately at the best possible price offered by the market at that exact time. OTC (or Over the Counter) selling refers to sale of securities or cryptocurrencies in any method without using an exchange to intermediate the trade and set the price. The most common way of conducting sales in this manner is through LocalBitcoins.com. This method of cryptocurrency selling is far riskier than using an exchange, for obvious reasons.
The influence and value of your Trade
There are a number of strategies you can use to appreciate the value of your trade and thus increase the Bitcoin or Ether value of your portfolio. It is important to disassociate yourself from the dollar value of your portfolio early on in your cryptocurrency trading career simply because the crypto market is so volatile you will end up pulling your hair out in frustration following the real dollar money value of your holdings. Once your funds have been converted into BTC and ETH they are completely in the crypto sphere. (Some crypto investors find it more appropriate to monitor the value of their portfolio in satoshi or gwei.) Certainly not limited to, but especially good for beginners, the most reliable way to increase your trading profits, and thus the overall value and health of your portfolio, is to buy into promising projects, hold them for 6 months to a year, and then reevaluate. This is called Long term holding and is the tactic that served Bitcoin HODLers quite well, from 2013 to the present day. Obviously, if something comes to light about the project that indicates a lengthy set back is likely, it is often better to cut your losses and sell. You are better off starting over and researching other projects. Also, you should set initial Price Points at which you first take out your original investment, and then later, at which you take out all your profits and exit the project. That should be after you believe the potential for growth has been exhausted for that particular project.
Another method of increasing the value of your trades is ICO flipping. This is the exact opposite of long term holding. This is a technique in which you aim for fast profits taking advantage of initial enthusiasm in the market that may double or triple the value of ICO projects when they first come to market. This method requires some experience using smaller exchanges like IDEX, on which project tokens can be bought and sold before listing on mainstream exchanges. “Tethering up” means to exchange tokens or coins for the USDT stable coin, the value of which is tethered to the US Dollar. If you learn, or know how to use, technical analysis, it is possible to predict when a market retreatment is likely by looking at the price movements of BTC. If you decide a market pull back is likely, you can tether up and maintain the dollar value of your portfolio in tether while other tokens and coins decrease in value. The you wait for an opportune moment to reenter the market.
Market Behavior in Different Time Periods
The main descriptors used for overall market sentiment are “Bull Market” and “Bear Market”. The former describes a market where people are buying on optimism. The latter describes a market where people are selling on pessimism. Fun (or maybe not) fact: The California grizzly bear was brought to extinction by the love of bear baiting as a sport in the mid 1800s. Bears were highly sought after for their intrinsic fighting qualities, and were forced into fighting bulls as Sunday morning entertainment for Californians. What has this got to do with trading and financial markets? The downward swipe of the bear’s paws gives a “Bear market” its name and the upward thrust of a Bull’s horns give the “Bull Market” its name. Most unfortunately for traders, the bear won over 80% of the bouts. During a Bull market, optimism can sometimes grow to be seemingly boundless, volume is rising, and prices are ascending. It can be a good idea to sell or rebalance your portfolio at such a time, especially if you have a particularly large position in one holding or another. This is especially applicable if you need to sell a large amount of a relatively low-volume holding, because you can then do so without dragging the price down by the large size of your own sell order.
Learn more on common behavioral patterns observed so far in the cryptocurrency space for different coins and ICO tokens.
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