The CryptoKick Observations August 15th

Hello Cryptoverse!

Disclaimer: I am not your financial advisor and this is not financial advice. This is just my personal view on the crypto currency market. Please, do yourself a favor, only invest what you can afford to lose.

Welcome to CryptoKick! Your one stop shop for CryptoCurrency news, ICO Reviews, and Portfolio tips. Today's Wire is authored by Bruce Parker.

News: Three Sides of the Coin

It's pretty obvious both national governments and major financial institutions have no idea how to deal with cryptocurrency, at least in the public eye. It's a paradoxical situation where the solutions provided by the underlying technology can greatly improve life, yet also threatens the foundation of the traditional economy. It's akin to training the new guy and finding out he's so smart he could easily take your job if you slip up.

The Ukraine seems to be trying to suppress the new guys talent and rummaging through his wallet when he goes to get coffee. Ukrainian police have been campaigning against the use of crypto lately, raiding several facilities housing mining operations. The irony- one of those facilities was state run! Let's throw some wood on this fire. Three legislators, Dmitry Golubov, Alexander Urbansky, and Dmitry Belotserkovets have also released information about their own bitcoin stash totaling roughly 46.5 million USD. Робіть як я кажу не так, як роблю- right Dmitry? Keep tabs on how the central bank tries to regulate the coin- it may lead the sentiment of the surrounding nations.

While the Ukraine is having an identity crisis, big news pops up from Switzerland. Falcon Private Bank, a Swiss bank, will soon allow its customers to purchase bitcoin as part of their portfolio! They believe this is the first asset in a line of crypto currency endeavors by the bank. The coin will be held in offline, multi signature wallets for safe storage. This is a true positive for the crypto community and another real sign of legitimacy- too bad Australia is coming in for the one up.

Australia, pending approval by their central bank, is working to make BitCoin an official currency. Labor senator Sam Dastyari and Liberal senator Jane Hume believe that BitCoin is the key to staying competitive in a market dominated by there Asian counterparts. It's a bold move that could send a ripple, not you XRP, through the entire market.

Whether you are calling heads, tails, or calling heads but saying you swore you called tails [sorry Ukraine]- there is a air of positivity over the future of cryptocurrency given the current market conditions. Hedge Funds are underperforming due to low returns on both alpha and beta streams. Leveling down to the average person, financial products are barely outperforming the shoe box or a hollowed out Harry Potter book. Their is a logical need for assets strongly uncorrelated or even inversely correlated [see yesterday's wire] to the current market and political climate.

Portfolio Talk: Week of August 14th

In the spirit of transparency I will always let you know which picks I am personally invested in.
I will always do my best provide accurate assessments based on the macro economic climate, technical analysis, and coin fundamentals. Most of my opinions center around medium term positions.

Today I would like to give you guys, especially the newer investors, how I think about currencies.

Fundamentals//People//Network Effects

Coin fundamentals are the backbone of crypto and the reason it's revolutionizing the world we live in. A coin should be solving the unsolved or at least making a current solution better. The blending of the solution and the technology should make sense. Sure blockchain tech is great but- do we need Tinder on it? Probably not. Video games on the blockchain? Unlikely to be your Ethereum like unicorn. The protocol should make whatever it's trying to do suck much less than it did before.

What is the application of the coin? Does it's use on the platform give it value? Is it a staking token? A currency? How is the currency supply controlled?

The next, in my opinion most important, part is the people behind the project. If Ray Dalio's life principles taught me anything, it is the who is usually more important than the what. The right combination of people and skills is imperative to a successful project. Even with the right technology and tools, the wrong people can turn your hopeful investment into a money pit. I can fill a 5 star kitchen with the Season 1 cast of Flavor of Love and I will probably get a terrible meal. For every Hoopz theirs a Hottie and for every Gnosis there's a OneCoin. I digress, I always learn as much as I can about the people to make an educated guess on whether they have the skill set and experience to accomplish the project's vision.

The combination of the fundamentals, people, and marketing will determine what network effects the coin can obtain. I break these down further into developer network effects and marketplace network effects. The developer network effects are simple- how easy and appealing is the protocol for other people to build on? Attracting more developers will attract more users to the products those developers make. Marketplace network effects start out as purely solving a problem for a small group of people. This supplied solution will cause an increase in demand, which attracts supply and so on.

While it's hard to accurately predict these effects, a sound approach usually leads to better investments.

Below are a few coin's I find interesting at the current market price:

1. NEO @ anywhere around 0.010604 BTC
   Neo has had a strong push followed by a correction in the past week. I think this listed level is undervalued. This coin should be a 65USD coin quickly- no later than the RPX ICO Invested

2. DNT @ anywhere around .00033
   Accumulate for the Bittrex/Binance listing. The listings could greatly increase the value of this coin. I would look to take profit shortly after listing on larger exchanges. I have a very bullish TP level, I believe we may see this coin double. Invested

3. ARDR @ .0003183 for a medium term hold until main net release
   While I have lowered my overall valuation of Ardor after the ETH Plasma news, I think there is still profit in Ardor. Look to accumulate Ardor through the main net release in Q3. This should cause a large value spike followed by a correction. You will hear more from me about this coin in the coming weeks.

That's all for tonight! I hope you enjoyed- any feedback is appreciated. Look out for the CryptoKick Observation everyday on Steemit and coming soon to YouTube!

Sources:
Australia's push to legalize Bitcoin
Falcon Private Bank
Ukraine legislators reveal Bitcoin holdings