Bitcoin and other Crypto...

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

It's impossible for the likes of us knobs to do it consistently and make profit.

 

I've tried it with shares and eventually fucked it off and decided to invest in shares with long term gains rather than day trading.

 

I'm doing the same with this.

I'm getting on the old stocks and shares soon. Only a grand or so. Seems a bit easier to understand than this crypto stuff, which is just all random catchy names and nothing tangible, to me.

 

Diversify my portfolio and all that. A couple that might offer a bit of capital growth and one that pays a decent annual dividend.

 

I'm thinking Purple Brick, B&M or BooHoo for the quick(ish)flip gains and Galliford Try for the dividend of 8% and maybe a capital gain too.

[Paulie Dangerously]

Haven't checked my coinbase for a week or so. What's happened there!?

[TheBitch]

I'm getting on the old stocks and shares soon. Only a grand or so. Seems a bit easier to understand than this crypto stuff, which is just all random catchy names and nothing tangible, to me.

 

Diversify my portfolio and all that. A couple that might offer a bit of capital growth and one that pays a decent annual dividend.

 

I'm thinking Purple Brick, B&M or BooHoo for the quick(ish)flip gains and Galliford Try for the dividend of 8% and maybe a capital gain too.

I got in the banks and housing companies years back.

 

Taylor Wimpey and Barrett homes are big in the black. BDEV even paid me a handsome dividend at the end of last year.

The banks are pretty stagnant but I fully expect I'll have a nice profit in ten years or so.

 

I've been in with mining companies and held too long with one particular one that will haunt me to the grave.

 

Easy come easy go.

[Gooch]

Nice bounce back but still well in the red atm. I may go back into TRX before the coin burn in March, but can’t really do much about it now.

 

Hoping STRAT can start doing the business for me and piggyback on the success of NEO.

 

I’ve still got some KNC that I might get rid of once it recovers in price, also have some WABI lying about. Nearly put in £1k overall, don’t really want to be pumping anymore in, hoping to reinvest profits if I ever actually make any.

[Bob]

Haven't checked my coinbase for a week or so. What's happened there!?

Read three days worth of this thread, Paulie.

 

It's been a rollercoaster of emotions. By roller coaster I specifically mean the Big Dipper!

[skend04]

From the FT. The mystery deepens...

 

Financial Times

 

Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin Markets

A theory about the recent crypto price plunge

 

4 HOURS AGO By: Matthew C Klein

Note: this is just a theory. One of those of things that pops into your head when you’re in the shower after a long run. It may be nuts — and we certainly can’t prove it — but it happens to be consistent with publicly-available information.

 

Part 1: The North Korean regime benefits from high crypto prices:

 

While the majority of activity from North Korea during this timeframe was not malicious, there was a smaller, but significant, amount of activity that was highly suspect. One instance was the start of Bitcoin mining by users in North Korea on May 17…The timing of this mining is important because it began very soon after the May WannaCry ransomware attacks, which the NSA has attributed to North Korea’s intelligence service, the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), as an attempt to raise funds for the Kim regime.

 

By this point (May 17) actors within the government would have realized that moving the bitcoin from the three WannaCry ransom accounts would be easy to track and ill-advised if they wished to retain deniability for the attack.

 

It is not clear who is running the North Korean bitcoin mining operations; however, given the relatively small number of computers in North Korea coupled with the limited IP space, it is not likely this computationally intensive activity is occurring outside of state control.

 

–“North Korea’s Ruling Elite Are Not Isolated”, July 25, 2017.

 

 

Last week, the PUST [Pyongyang University of Science and Technology] faculty was treated to a splendid talk by Professor Federico Tenga of Italy. He explained in detail the fundamentals of Blockchain Technology and then spoke of its most notable application -Bitcoin. Many excellent technical questions were asked about the inner working of Bitcoin, its risks, and the measures taken to ensure security.

 

Not only was this talk informative, but it was also motivational in that several research ideas were conceived for possible future thesis topics at PUST.

 

–“PUST Research Lecture Series continues during the Fall 2017 Semester”, November 14, 2017.

 

“It is a fact that North Korea has been attacking virtual currency exchanges,” said Lee Dong-geun, a director with South Korea’s state-run Korea Internet and Security Agency. “We don’t know how much North Korea has stolen so far, but we do know that the police have confirmed the regime’s hacking attempts.”

 

–“North Korea may be making a fortune from bitcoin mania” December 13, 2017.

 

In November 2017, FinCEN issued an advisory to alert financial institutions about North Korea’s attempts to use front companies to launder money and evade sanctions. This information helps the private sector detect and report such activity, which in turn supports our efforts to target those persons and entities that help the regime fund its weapons program.

 

Our focus on depriving North Korea of its ability to earn and move revenue through the international financial system means that we must work with other countries to achieve this goal…We lead the world in mitigating the illicit finance risks of emerging technologies, such as the use of virtual currencies…We aggressively pursue virtual currency exchangers and others who do not take these obligations seriously.

 

–“Testimony of Sigal Mandelker Under Secretary, Terrorism and Financial Intelligence U.S. Department of the Treasury Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs”, January 17, 2018.

 

Part 2: China and South Korea had a summit in December where leaders discussed North Korea:

 

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a four-day visit harbouring hopes of improving political and business relations between the North Asian neighbours…China opposes sanctions in favour of more dialogue with Pyongyang, and Beijing is using the incentive of improved economic ties to tempt Seoul away from the hard line towards Pyongyang favoured by the US and Japan, according to one Asian diplomat.

 

–“South Korea’s Moon targets China thaw during Beijing visit”, December 13, 2017.

 

Moon, who advocates dialogue with the North, also called on Beijing to help to chart a peaceful solution to the North Korea nuclear crisis. “I hope we will reaffirm our countries’ joint stance to peacefully resolve the North Korean nuclear problem that threatens peace and security – not only in Northeast Asia but the entire world – and discuss specific ways to cooperate,” Moon was quoted by South Korean news agency Yonhap as saying.

 

Xi said that Beijing would work with Seoul as the two countries shared “key and common interests” on the nuclear question. “The goal of denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula is unshakeable and chaos and wars will never be allowed on the peninsula,” Xi said.

 

–“Xi Jinping says war must never be allowed on Korean peninsula as South’s president tries to mend relations on visit to China”, December 14, 2017.

 

 

Part 3: China and South Korea have intensified their crackdown on crypto trading:

 

Measures include a ban on opening anonymous cryptocurrency accounts to boost transparency and legislation to allow regulators to close digital currency exchanges if needed…Earlier this month, South Korea said it was considering taxing capital gains from cryptocurrency trading to cool demand.

 

—“Bitcoin slips as South Korea threatens to shut exchanges”, December 29, 2017.

 

On Monday, South Korean financial regulators said they were looking into six local banks that offered virtual currency accounts to institutions to see if they were abiding by anti-money laundering rules and used real names for accounts. “Virtual currency is currently unable to function as a means of payment and it is being used for illegal purposes like money laundering, scams and fraudulent investor operations,” said Choi Jong-ku, the country’s top financial regulator.

 

–“South Korea clampdown on bitcoin gathers pace”, January 9, 2018.

 

A multi-agency task force has instructed provincial governments to “actively guide” companies in their respective regions to exit the cryptocurrency mining industry, according to a document seen by the Financial Times. The move to pressure miners follows China’s shutdown of local bitcoin exchanges and its ban on initial coin offerings.

 

—“China moves to shutter bitcoin mines”, January 9, 2018.

 

South Korea is planning a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading as a clampdown on virtual currencies gathers pace in one of the world’s most exuberant bitcoin markets…Earlier in the day, South Korean tax authorities raided the country’s main cryptocurrency exchanges — Bithumb and Coinone.

 

—“Bitcoin tumbles as South Korea plans trading ban”, January 11, 2018.

 

In other words, it’s possible the recent price collapse below $10,000 per bitcoin is part of a coordinated effort by regulators to apply unconventional pressure techniques on North Korean elites. If so, well done!

 

(South Koreans who bought near the top and are now petitioning their government for a policy change can be forgiven for disliking this hypothetical plan.)

 

There are some issues with this theory.

 

The Chinese and South Korean governments have plenty of other reasons to limit crypto activity independent of any North Korean connection. Bitcoin mining is terrible for the environment because of the electricity that’s required. And neither government wants to sit by and watch people set their money on fire.

 

Then there is the question of timing. Back in September, both the Chinese and South Korean governments had banned initial coin offerings. Chinese regulators also went after the country’s Bitcoin exchanges in September. Bitcoin was worth less than $4,000 that month — up a lot from where it had been earlier in 2017 but still far below where it is now.

 

Despite these caveats, our theory could still turn out to be a partial explanation for what has been happening.

 

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2018. All rights reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the

[KopOut]

Nooo.. ether address liek imToken app or myetherwallet.

 

They will send them to you. They could be worthless or could be worth hundreds of dollars over 12 months.

I like Block Wallet for Ethereum. Easy to use, reasonably quick transactions.

[Spy Bee]

WAN is now live. The token exchange will happen over the next few days, then it will be on the exchanges. When I know where, I will buy my WAN then report back.

[Dan Vito Corleone]

WAN is now live. The token exchange will happen over the next few days, then it will be on the exchanges. When I know where, I will buy my WAN then report back.

 

Do you think Binance is a good shout?

[Pureblood]

 

It's just so... crypto-fascist.

[Bob]

Do you think Binance is a good shout?

I read somewhere that kucoin might be likely, though I've never heard of that and don't really want another exchange on the books so am hoping for binance

[Spy Bee]

I read somewhere that kucoin might be likely, though I've never heard of that and don't really want another exchange on the books so am hoping for binance

It will go on 3 exchanges.

[KopOut]

 

On cryptocurrency &

Hedge fund manipulation.......3 days ago:

 

*Hugo Bos :

 

*Hedgefund’s current trading strategy (this is the whale behavior that we are currently seeing):

 

The cause of today's chaos is likely large hedge funds using expiring BTC futures contracts as safety nets to exploit the only sure-thing in this market: a large amount of new/overextended investors who are easily moved to panic sell during a flash-crash.

 

On December 10, BTC futures trading went live. The first set of those contracts is set to expire tomorrow, January 17.

 

For those who don't know, futures contracts are agreements to buy/sell an asset (like BTC) at a specified future date and price. As the price of BTC was ~$15,000 on Dec. 10 , the first BTC futures contracts, which expire tomorrow, were fixed at about that same price. In a simplified form, this means that tomorrow:

 

the "short" side of those contracts must give the "long" side a BTC (which, if they don't already have, could simply be bought at tomorrow's market price); and

the "long" side of those contracts must pay the "short" side $15,000 in return.

Now imagine you are a large hedge fund evaluating these contracts, and the crypto market as a whole, on Dec. 10. Obviously, making a large bet on either the "long" or "short" side is extremely risky, since the price of BTC when the contracts expire (January 17) could very easily be $50,000 or $500. This makes large bets on either side a bad option for a large institutional investor like yourself.

 

However, you also know that crypto is still an emerging market with a large amount of new investors and "dumb money." And because you are a large hedge fund, futures contracts opens the door to a third option: use large bets on both sides to manufacture market chaos and make money on the ripple effects with little to no risk. Here is how:

 

Bet big on the "short" side of the futures contracts on Dec. 10. Let's say you do this for 10,000 BTCs. This means that on January 17 you will owe 10,000 BTCs to the "long" side of those contracts, receiving $15k per ($150,000,000) in return.

 

Buy an equally large amount of BTC on Dec. 10 at the market price ($15k/BTC). This cancels out your risk/reward for the futures contracts, making you essentially immune to changes in BTC's price while you hold both the contracts and BTCs. This also allows you to accumulate and hold an extremely large portion of the BTC market while taking little if any risk .

 

Shortly before your futures contracts expire, dump all of your 10,000 BTC on the market at once. Like clockwork, this will trigger stop-losses and panic sells from the consumer BTC market, virtually guaranteeing that the BTC price will continue to dip well below whatever price you just sold those 10,000 BTC for.

 

Ride that dip you just created to buy back the 10,000 BTC for much less than the price you just sold them for. This is particularly easy, since the funds you need are already liquid and ready to get back in the market.

 

Use the re-purchased 10,000 BTC for the expiring futures contracts, which get swapped for your initial investment ($15k/BTC). The difference in the price that you sold the 10,000 BTCs to start the dip from the price that you bought the BTCs back during the dip becomes your net profit.

 

For funds with access to enough capital to move the crypto market, this play should be easy money. It would also explain the series of huge dips (seemingly out of nowhere) that we are dealing with today.

 

If I'm right about the cause (and I'm fairly confident that I am), the good news is that today's dips are likely temporary and not signs of a more serious issue with cryptocurrencies as a whole. The bad news is that I don't know how this can be stopped as long as the prospect of capitalizing off of market fear remains a huge carrot for the sharks in this market.*

[KopOut]

When volatility sets in, it’s easy to lose sight of the basics.

 

Ethereum up over 40% for the month.

 

[Spy Bee]

Mintocin is part of a big two week long pump and dump. The price will go up a lot, but it's risky to be involved as you don't know when the plug will be pulled. They're claiming it will be 0.0088, but who knows.

[Spy Bee]

I won't be getting involved. I don't like pump and dumps, and WAN is imminent, as is CAS.

[skend04]

 

Bitcoin rival’s rise unnerves banking sector

 

Volatility of payment settlement group’s cryptocurrency poses questions

 

Ripple’s digital coin, XRP, is supposed to ‘oil the wheels’ of banking but the industry is nervous about the sharp rises and falls in its value © Alamy

 

Chloe Cornish in San Francisco and Martin Arnold in London

 

YESTERDAY

 

In October, a five-year-old company called Ripple boasted that it was one of America’s “most valuable start-ups . . . after Uber, Airbnb, Palantir and WeWork”.

 

Although its core finance technology business has not done much disrupting yet, cryptocurrency mania was growing the value of XRP, the digital coin created by Ripple’s founders and whose supply the company still controlled. XRP’s price rose 36,000 per cent during 2017, challenging bitcoin’s market value, giving Ripple an XRP hoard worth $200bn by Christmas.

 

XRP is a cryptocurrency outlier. Unlike decentralised, rebellious bitcoin, created post-financial crisis amid distrust of banks, XRP is supposed to grease creaking banking infrastructure, part of the back-office finance technology offered by San Francisco-based Ripple. Brad Garlinghouse, its chief executive, called XRP “the global liquidity solution for payment providers and banks”.

 

But Ripple’s golden goose cryptocurrency, whose price has now sagged, raises awkward questions. While its separate technology solutions for fast payment settlement impresses some financiers, XRP’s volatility, and Ripple’s ownership of more than half the 100bn XRP ever created, has unnerved banks that evangelists hoped would adopt the asset as a bridge currency.

 

Ripple wants to supplant the international Swift network, which is owned by and connects about 11,000 banks. It promises to accelerate cross-border payments using distributed-ledger, or blockchain, technology that sends messages between banks, while offering XRP as a cheap and universal bridge currency, to short-circuit the expensive nostro and vostro accounts of traditional correspondent banking.

 

Think of XRP “like the oil you put in [a car] engine”, says Greg Kidd, Ripple’s former chief risk officer who runs Synthetic Liquidity, a liquidity provider that is trialling XRP by moving small amounts. Banks “really shouldn’t need that much”, he adds.

 

But some speculators are betting that banks will need a lot of XRP oil as a reserve currency, which, if correct, would see XRP loom large in the global financial system. But if banks are unconvinced that they need to own substantial amounts of XRP — which Ripple’s systems for sending and processing payments do not require — the now $60bn total market value of circulating XRP coins looks highly speculative.

 

The enterprise software start-up says more than 100 financial institutions have adopted at least one Ripple product.

 

Ripple recently announced another pilot project with money transfer group MoneyGram, which will involve XRP. But while it has touted live projects with Santander, a Ripple investor, and American Express, others have hesitated to move beyond tests.

 

The Financial Times spoke to 16 banks and financial services companies publicly linked to Ripple (two more declined to comment). Most had not yet gone beyond testing, but some were using Ripple’s systems for moving real money. For instance, Sweden’s SEB bank says it used Ripple software for fast cross-border payments between accounts held by some of its corporate clients; soon, Santander is expected to launch a cross-border payments app using Ripple’s technology to clients in Europe and America.

 

But none of the banks who spoke to the FT had used XRP.

 

Kansas-based CBW Bank was one of the first partner banks announced by Ripple in 2014. But Suresh Ramamurthi, CBW’s chairman, says it has shelved plans to use Ripple’s systems until regulatory guidance is clearer.

 

Some banks shy away from cryptocurrencies such as XRP for fear of being “the first casualty”, Mr Ramamurthi adds.

 

Hank Uberoi, chief executive of cross-border payments specialist Earthport, works with Ripple to jointly offer their services to financial institutions. “Banks are hesitant to use XRP because they are unsure of the regulatory aspects of it. If money is in transition and the price of XRP collapses in that time, what happens then?” he says.

 

Ripple’s other problem, Mr Uberoi adds, was signing up enough banks to have the scale to seriously challenge Swift. “It is only of value if everyone is connected to the network — like a fax machine, if others don’t have one, then it is not much use,” he says.

 

Ripple says: “Enabling the internet of Value is not something we can do alone and it’s not something that happens overnight.”

 

A former staffer, who left last year, says Ripple was sometimes hasty to announce that banks were using its technology even if they were testing several blockchain solutions. The former employee describes this as a “survival tactic”.

 

A “vibrant and growing ecosystem of people and businesses . . . are interested in XRP”, says Ripple. It says Mexican bank Cuallix uses XRP.

 

The anxiety of bankers that Ripple might cash in its XRP hoard recently prompted it to lock up 55bn XRP and promise to regulate supply by releasing no more than 1bn XRP every month.

 

Regardless of whether banks use it, Ripple has benefited handsomely from XRP’s rise. Ripple sells XRP to institutions and through exchanges — $52.2m worth in last year’s third quarter, up 67 per cent from $31.3m the previous quarter. It advertises discounts for market makers who adopt early, to increase the pool of institutional buyers and sellers.

 

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Some staff take XRP as part of their salaries, and Ripple’s founders are enjoying a boost. Forbes reported that Chris Larsen, co-founder and former chief executive, personally owns 5.19bn XRP. According to cryptocurrency tracker Coinmarketcap, Mr Larsen’s holding is at present worth more than $8bn.

 

Since Ripple compared itself to Uber and Airbnb, XRP’s price has hit $3.80 highs but also fallen to just above $1 before rebounding this week, the volatility reflecting speculative cryptocurrency markets.

 

When Coinmarketcap removed Korean exchanges from its market capitalisation calculations last Monday, Ripple’s market cap crashed from $124bn to $101bn, revealing South Korea’s upward influence on XRP and triggering a panicked sell-off.

 

XRP’s volatile price responded enthusiastically to dubiously sourced news, climbing in December amid later debunked rumours that XRP would be listed on a key cryptocurrency trading platform, and recently rising 20 per cent after an unsubstantiated, anonymous report suggested that Western Union might adopt Ripple technology.

 

XRP’s speculative price rollercoaster “seems to represent the perfect blend of cryptocurrency hype and optimism”, writes Eric Turner, S&P Global Market Intelligence analyst.

 

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2018. All rights reserved.

[Dan Vito Corleone]

Cryptocurrencies have unnerved the banks full stop because they can't get their grasping fucking hands on any of the money.

[liverpoolsno9]

Spybee, I bought 2000 coins for Swissborg in their ICO a few weeks back. They’ll be getting in touch shortly to get my wallet address and also the KYC check. If I held over5000, they’d want a FULL KYC check, as it’s under 5000, they only want a ‘simplified’ KYC check. Do you know what this might entail. Problem is, my Passport has expired and I’ve lost my picture Driving License, so have no ID, and they won’t release the coins until they’ve done their checks. Might a ‘simplified’ check be a bit more ‘relaxed’? I can’t seem to find what this maybe online, you’ve bought a few ICOs, any idea? Concerned I may lose the coins without the relevant info.

[Spy Bee]

Spybee, I bought 2000 coins for Swissborg in their ICO a few weeks back. They’ll be getting in touch shortly to get my wallet address and also the KYC check. If I held over5000, they’d want a FULL KYC check, as it’s under 5000, they only want a ‘simplified’ KYC check. Do you know what this might entail. Problem is, my Passport has expired and I’ve lost my picture Driving License, so have no ID, and they won’t release the coins until they’ve done their checks. Might a ‘simplified’ check be a bit more ‘relaxed’? I can’t seem to find what this maybe online, you’ve bought a few ICOs, any idea? Concerned I may lose the coins without the relevant info.

No idea is my honest answer... I would imagine an expired passport, while not valid to travel on, is still satisfactory for ID. 

 

See if they have a Telegram group and join it and ask the question. If they're any good that is the best place to get an answer.

 

Is anyone doing Titanium ICO?

[KopOut]

Is anyone doing Titanium ICO?

All 35 million gone in double quick time. I missed out.

[skend04]

Insane this. Why put all your life savings into crypto? You wouldn't put it into shares. Plonker.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/metro.co.uk/2018/01/19/heartbroken-families-lose-life-savings-catastrophic-crash-bitconnect-cryptocurrency-7242067/amp/#ampshare=http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/19/heartbroken-families-lose-life-savings-catastrophic-crash-bitconnect-cryptocurrency-7242067/

[TheHowieLama]

Spybee, I bought 2000 coins for Swissborg in their ICO a few weeks back. They’ll be getting in touch shortly to get my wallet address and also the KYC check. If I held over5000, they’d want a FULL KYC check, as it’s under 5000, they only want a ‘simplified’ KYC check. Do you know what this might entail. Problem is, my Passport has expired and I’ve lost my picture Driving License, so have no ID, and they won’t release the coins until they’ve done their checks. Might a ‘simplified’ check be a bit more ‘relaxed’? I can’t seem to find what this maybe online, you’ve bought a few ICOs, any idea? Concerned I may lose the coins without the relevant info.

 

[TheBitch]

Insane this. Why put all your life savings into crypto? You wouldn't put it into shares. Plonker.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/metro.co.uk/2018/01/19/heartbroken-families-lose-life-savings-catastrophic-crash-bitconnect-cryptocurrency-7242067/amp/#ampshare=http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/19/heartbroken-families-lose-life-savings-catastrophic-crash-bitconnect-cryptocurrency-7242067/

 

Only bet invest what you can afford to lose.

 

Rule number 1.

[Reacher]

Good time to invest in Xrp? Seems to be hovering at $1.51