Dear Crypto-Lover,

Welcome to the second edition of HodlingMoon. The dream of world domination and libertarian values for all is still alive. Whatever the prices do, however the markets go bull or bear, do not fear, it's Saturday, so HodlingMoon is here!


Enjoy the read!
On behalf of the editorial team,

May the Spirit of Satoshi live forever in your hearts and minds,

@fitzgibbon

Reports show that over 1.7 billion USD worth of crypto has been lost due to hacks and scams in the past 7 years. 40% of this figure, about $700 million has been stolen in the first three months of 2018. Crypto is the new gold and the shiny new coins have a fatal attraction on a new brand of digital misfits who have come for your money. In January, hackers took $400 million in digital gold from Japanese exchange Coincheck. Bitgrail got bust in February for $170 million.

99% of all stolen crypto was taken from centralized exchanges

One of the most principal arguments as to why crypto-currencies are superior to fiat money is the fact that a crypto holder can be his own bank. He can hold the keys to his safe storage himself and does not have to rely on a trusted third party to keep his belongins safe. Maybe the biggest lesson the blockchain teaches is that trusting someone means taking a huge risk. Always. There is a proper way of doing things. The blockchain tells you how. Take control of your assets, take care of storage yourself, don't trust anyone, especially not the exchanges. Do you even know the people running those things?

If you want reasonable security that your money won't get lost, you should keep your funds safe in your own wallet. Then only you have the private key. Money on exchanges is at big risk, but as long as you know about the possible risk of losing all those assets if your favorite exchange gets hacked, go ahead and trade away. It can sometimes be very entertaining and very profitable.

Cryptocurrency is receiving more and more common as a way of value transfer, with top coins reaching historically high prices toward the end of last year. This is attracting a lot of new, unseasoned investors who are not well versed in terms of online security and who are identified as easy targets. Crypto frauds, scams, and hacks tend to rise every time there is considerable upward momentum in pricing for cryptocurrency market. You have to be extra cautious when the market is bullish. Exchanges are and will be under constant attack. Make no mistake, unless you are trading on a decentralized exchange (DEX) where you control the private key to your funds, your favorite exchange will get hacked or will shut down. It is going to happen, this much is certain. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it's only a matter of time.

REKT

rekt?—?“wrecked”. As in “something might go rekt” or “He got rekt” (similar as “pwnd” in that case).
The first recorded mention of "rekt" was in 2011. On Urban Dictionary an entry was submitted for the term, defining it as text message slang for the term “wrecked”:

“Text for “wrecked”, as sooo drunk you’ve forgotten your name but can just about type a text to your mate whose missed called you"

This is why originally 'rekt' was often used in combination with 'M8' or 'mate'. It went viral from there and got mentioned in game forums, on twitter, on 4chan, on youtube and on twitch in the following years as a widespread meme. When the crypto communities appeared online, many memes were quickly adopted and turned 'crypto'. 'Rekt' became so commonplace that the most used definition today is now:

'REKT'
Usually refers to losing a lot of money. The term refers to a trader or investor who is utterly ruined and destroyed with losses from the current downfall of a price.

“The future of money is digital currency.” - Bill Gates

Bill Gates is quite the controversial guy in crypto-land. He doesn't always say what we like to hear. But his influence cannot be understated. When he spoke about the potential for the un-banked to get access to financial services through their cellphones it was an eye-opener for many.

In 1996, Bill Gates wrote an article about how the internet was going to change famously titled: "Content is King". His message was that the 'big money' was going to be made with content. The growth of social media and blogging sites in the past 30 years have been a telling reflection on how right Bill Gates can be at times.

Here at HodlingMoon we have been contemplating the possibility that these two statements are actually complimentary. If the future of money is digital decentralized currencies and content is king, then the king of crypto-currencies would be a decentralized incentivized content platform.

How bout that?

"Opium for the Masses"

Technical Analysis is a Scam!

From Wikipedia:

In finance, technical analysis is an analysis methodology for forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume.Behavioral economics and quantitative analysis use many of the same tools of technical analysis, which, being an aspect of active management, stands in contradiction to much of modern portfolio theory.

Crypto Technical Analysis (TA) is a scam. If you believe in TA, you deserve to get REKT. There is no prediction made on future price behavior of any crypto-currency by looking at graphs and drawing patterns.It doesn't make sense at all to be talking about elliot waves, reverse head and shoulder patterns, break-outs, laddering, contrarion indicators or bull wicks. There are all non-sense terms. A graph can only tell what has happened in the past. Whatever line, curve or channel you draw, it says nothing about where the price goes next. Do you believe the earth is flat? Do you believe the future can be seen in the stars? Do you believe it's possible to foretell major events in your life by reading your palms? Believers don't need facts. Of course, everybody is free to choose whatever religion they want, you have every right to believe whatever makes you happy. But please, pretty please, with sugar on top, understand that you are engaging in a pseudo-science, that the facts and figures do not align with your hopes and dreams. Here's a fact:

Four out of five trades are losses

Yes, 80% of all trades do not turn a profit. That's a statistical fact. "But how is that possible???", you might ask. "Every trade should have a winner and a loser! This cannot be right!!" Well, the exchanges (the middle-men) take their cut on every trade, so there's one reason. The other reason is a bit more telling: Trades are bundled. When a big sell or buy order comes in to trade a big amount of coins, all the trades between the current price and the order price are bundled into that large order. Since we know that there are more trades losing then winning, logic dictates that the big orders are winning more often than the small orders. What does this mean?
Well, in general, statistically, the whales are winning against the minnows. It's the big market movers with their deep pockets that win at trading. So, whatever the recommendation is that comes from some TA paint job, you can place a buy or sell order. But statistically speaking , odds are some whale will come in from the opposite direction to destroy you. There is a reason your favorite Technical Analysis Expert puts a legal disclaimer at the bottom of their recommendations. He already knows that whoever reads the whole crappy thing to the end is going to lose money.

So you still like and respect Technical Analysis? You're either stupid or you must like pain. Don't feel offended if you have a fetish for suffering, it's ok, we understand it builds character. There is no better teacher than failure, so go ahead, defend your TA idols, get REKT and learn from it. Reality will kick in at some point, it's inevitable.