Cointersect is still growing. There are some really interesting things coming soon that may prompt the revival of my website and some other really cool things I’m excited to share soon! Stay tuned.
I wanted to take the time to wrote a long overdue blog post about the current state of crypto. It’s really hard to find time to write these things because I’m trying to absorb so much of what’s happening in the scene on top of actually managing my equipment, working a full time job, and taking care of three pets. Sometimes I stream myself working on my rigs on Twitch, so check it out for sure and come and ask questions!
So, biggest event that is going to happen this month is the Winklevoss twins' Bitcoin ETF. The SEC will either grant or deny this ETF by the 13th of March. Imagine institutional investors being able to casually add Bitcoin to the portfolios of millions of their clients, as the world’s most famous cryptocurrency will be traded on the NYSE. And this news will affect the ETF’s that have been filed after; more specifically the COIN ETF which may include other cryptocurrences. Bitcoin has rallied to almost $1300 in response to this news, and it is Western exchanges leading the charge. The price has rallied despite news from China that they’re clamping down on some of the business practices of their exchanges. Rumors floating around that China is concerned about capital controls. I won’t speculate on that, but the point is the price is moving. And March 13th will send it even further up or down. This decision is huge. Stay glued to your monitors on the 13th.
However, Bitcoin is having an internal war over how to scale Bitcoin. There are two major competing ideologies that have split the community in two over how to scale Bitcoin the most effectively. Bitcoin Core wants the Bitcoin blocks to remain 1 MB and focus on off-chain scaling such as the Lightning Network, while Bitcoin Unlimited wants block size to fluctuate based on network needs. Right now the blocks are full, and pushing some transaction into the next block and some transactions are taking days, and the current state of Bitcoin has never looked so feeble and dangerous to use. The Bitcoin ETF news has pushed this concern to the wayside for now, but please take note of the current technical state of Bitcoin.
As an Ethereum miner since day 1, I am excited to say that the price is nearly $20 per ETH and the market cap is at an all-time high. ETH has also begun the research and development portion of their transition into a Proof-of-Stake network. No more mining come early 2018! Those with 1500 ETH or more will earn interest as a part of this new type of network security. With this big change coming down the pipe, it hasn’t slowed development of various DAO’s. A few that I like:
Golem, a marketplace for buying and selling computing power. Think folding proteins, computing AI, rendering computer graphics, running cryptographic functions, etc.
Firstblood, a way for gamers to put money on the line in the games they play online.
Chronobank, a marketplace for employers and employees to contract out work and have it be paid through the blockchain.
Iconomi, A trading and management tool that will create a new generation of investors and money managers within crypto.
REX, Real Estate Exchange. Enough said.
There is more happening everyday and I continue to be very bullish on Ethereum and because of its multiple purposes and large community, predict will overcome Bitcoin one day.
OTHER NOTABLE COINS
Many people ask me what coins to look to mine or buy for someone who is looking to go beyond Bitcoin. I first steer towards blockchains that are accessible through general purpose hardware. I then check to ensure there are active developers. And lastly, I analyze whether or not their mission is one that will bring value. I may write another blog post discussing my strategy in determining winners and losers without using technical analysis, but looking towards how blockchains affect each other or movements in price/development can affect blockchains. In order of riskiness:
Monero: Slow and steady wins the race. XMR has been chugging along quite effectively, and does its job - anonymous online transactions - better than anyone. CryptoNote is still a general purpose hardware algorithm, meaning your CPU and GPU can both mine this relatively. profitably.
Decred: This hybrid Proof-of-Work/Proof-of-Stake coin has been fluctuating wildly in price, and it may continue to go up. Because you can earn about 7% interest per month while holding these. The network is secured by mining and holding. Mining is great because people can mine both Ethereum and Decred (and others) at the same time. And more people holding DCR means it is more scarce on exchanges bringing up the price, and it’s not done.
BURST: Have any extra hard drive space? Look no further. This project will pay you for it. While there are other HDD mineable blockchains out there, none are as developed nor look as promising as BURST.
Spreadcoin: This is my low-marketcap dark horse. As Bitcoin ages and the blockchain grows, it will be more and more cumbersome to run a full node. Spreadcoin aims to create an economic incentive to do just that. Taking notes from Dash’s Masternodes to incentive individuals to run full nodes may be just what crypto needs to remain decentralized and thrive.
Feel free to put you two cents in the comments below!
THIS IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS INVESTMENT ADVICE. PLEASE DO NOT INVEST IN ANYTHING BEFORE DOING YOUR OWN RESEARCH