Almost one million apostilles are processed every year in
the United States alone. As the world becomes more and more global, citizens
are doing business, retiring, relocating, and adopting children in foreign
countries. And doing so usually requires getting relevant documents apostilled.
Unfortunately, where there is money involved, thieves and
con-artists will arise to the occasion. And this has happened with the numerous
apostille services which are mostly advertised online.
Usually, a fake apostille service will con you one of two
ways:
They will simply take your money and important documents
(which you mail to them) and never deliver on their promise.
They will return your documents with counterfeit apostille
seals and you won't be the wiser until you try to pass those documents onto a
foreign government or agency.
The real catch here is that many of the faux operations are
located outside of the U.S., sometimes in Britain or other parts of Europe.
Therefore, the victim's recourse is very limited.
Protect yourself by making sure the company is operating
within the United States. There is no purpose in sending your important
documents (sometimes costly and difficult to obtain themselves) overseas only
for that company to turn around send them to an apostille office back in the
U.S. anyway.Visit https://legalizationservicecentre.ca/
Yes, there can be legitimate companies operating overseas,
but if you happen to choose a fake one, you won't have much of a recourse if
they are out of the U.S.
How long has the apostille service been in business? Look at
the length of time their website has been up, who it's registered to, and if
there are any online (unbiased) referrals from people who have used them. U.S.
expat chat groups are helpful for this since most of their members have gone
through the same process getting apostilles.
Is the site a copy of another legitimate site? Look at the
spelling of the URL. Is it close in wording of another popular site? Sometime
thieves will try and look just like a legitimate site but direct payments to a
different address. (If the apostille service is doing business in the U.S.,
contact their local Better Business Bureau and see if there are any complaints.)
Lastly, if the apostille service will only take wire
transfers, that is definitely a strong clue it might be fraudulent.
Be aware and vigilant and you shouldn't have any problems
choosing a legitimate apostille service. And if you want to be 100 percent
safe, consider handling your documents yourself. That way you're absolutely
certain they make it to the correct government office and receive legitimate
apostilles.
Bitclub Network seems to be the latest in a wave of bitcoin
mining income opportunities all around the internet. For a beginner it's hard
to discern from the real opportunities and the fake ones.
The first thing to know is the fact that crypto-currencies
are real and mining them is completely legal and globally practiced business.
It is based on computers doing complex mathematical equations to release the
next chain of coins into the market.
It is completely legal to mine bitcoins all around the world
and so are MLM (Multi Level Marketing) companies. The new wave of bitcoin
mining income opportunities are mostly a mixture of these two concepts.
A clean and professional multi level marketing compensation
plan and the unique product of a crypto-currencie mining.Visit https://www.bitcoin-cloudmining.com/
Combine these two and you have for the first time on the
internet, a truly legal passive income opportunity based on a real product with
a real compensation plan.
Next time you hear about Bitcoins, Litecoins, Dodgecoins and
others and the possible income opportunity, don't be scared, this is just part
of the new era of digital currencies and a more computerized world.
Everything is going virtual without a doubt. In the past,
communication was all about writing and mailing. Today communication is all
about writing and e-mailing. The only change is the "e", as in,
electronic.
Money is no exception. We started to use salt, foods and
precious metals as money, later down the road it went to coins, then paper and
finally, virtual money. Today we use credit cards, debit cards, echecks, ach
and other forms of virtual money.
Bitcoins and other crypto-currencies are just an inevitable
part of life as we know it. The way our race is evolving has led us to a more
comfortable way of using money and that is digital money.
So next time you see that opportunity, embrace it. The
chances are that you are going to be participating in something that can become
the next PayPal or even better, the next United States Dollar.
As for Bitclub Network it is an opportunity to which many
are afraid and I understand. We are scared of the unknown and sometimes afraid
to try new things. It is only a fact that now over 500,000 people use bitcoin
and this number is expected to hit 1,000,000 by the year 2015.
So which person are you going to be? The one standing on the
sidelines or the one participating and building his own future?
A common question we are asked all the time, is "Why
would I host my server at a data center, and not at my house, or my
office?". The Short Answer: Scalability.
While it is initially cost effective to keep mining servers
in a residential or small commercial setting, the saving's quickly diminish as
the mining operation scales up. There are many costs that are often ignored
when a Bitcoin Mining operation starts up. While nearly everybody is immediately
aware of the electrical costs involved in the endeavor, hidden costs quickly
add up. These include:
Electrical Infrastructure Costs: Typical new construction
provides for a code allowable wattage consumption of 38,400 watts. This is 34
Antminer S1's or 20 CointerraTerraminers. This power figure negates electricity
needed to actually live or work at the location, and it negates cooling costs.
Installing approximately 20 x 20amp electrical outlets also costs money.
Cooling Infrastructure Costs: It will take approximately 40%
of the electrical consumption used by a miner to cool the space it is in, if
mechanical cooling is necessary. This leaves only 23,040 watts available for
actual mining power, and it also adds 40% to the cost of the net electricity
used for the operation. With the national average of $0.12 per KWh, that brings
the total to $0.16 per Kwh with cooling costs involved. Also, a net consumption
of 23 Kw will require about 6.5 additional tons of cooling. Most large houses
have about 6 tons for comfort cooling, this will mean a total of 12 tons of
cooling necessary. Installing this additional air conditioner costs money.Visit
https://www.bitcoin-cloudmining.com/
Long Term opportunity costs: With the increasing Bitcoin
Difficulty, one must take into account whether the costs of installing 20 x
20amp plugs, and 6 additional tons of air conditioner will make a good long
term investment.
When it comes to crypto currency and mining for coins, the
old adage of "time is money" holds true more than ever. This needs to
be in the forefront of your thought process when deciding how you will go about
this process. Make sure you choose a data center that will understand how
valuable your uptime is!
In the end, a true data center will have not only battery
backup, but a secondary power source, such as a generator. They'll also have
network redundancy. These are 2 more things that will prove to be valuable to
your experience.
Save yourself the worries of power consumption, electrical
consumption and the fear of downtime for your equipment. Colocate your
equipment and start earning your coins!
Bitclub Network seems to be the latest in a wave of bitcoin
mining income opportunities all around the internet. For a beginner it's hard
to discern from the real opportunities and the fake ones.
The first thing to know is the fact that crypto-currencies
are real and mining them is completely legal and globally practiced business.
It is based on computers doing complex mathematical equations to release the
next chain of coins into the market.
It is completely legal to mine bitcoins all around the world
and so are MLM (Multi Level Marketing) companies. The new wave of bitcoin
mining income opportunities are mostly a mixture of these two concepts.
A clean and professional multi level marketing compensation
plan and the unique product of a crypto-currencie mining.Visit https://www.bitcoin-cloudmining.com/
Combine these two and you have for the first time on the
internet, a truly legal passive income opportunity based on a real product with
a real compensation plan.
Next time you hear about Bitcoins, Litecoins, Dodgecoins and
others and the possible income opportunity, don't be scared, this is just part
of the new era of digital currencies and a more computerized world.
Everything is going virtual without a doubt. In the past,
communication was all about writing and mailing. Today communication is all
about writing and e-mailing. The only change is the "e", as in,
electronic.
Money is no exception. We started to use salt, foods and
precious metals as money, later down the road it went to coins, then paper and
finally, virtual money. Today we use credit cards, debit cards, echecks, ach
and other forms of virtual money.
Bitcoins and other crypto-currencies are just an inevitable
part of life as we know it. The way our race is evolving has led us to a more
comfortable way of using money and that is digital money.
So next time you see that opportunity, embrace it. The
chances are that you are going to be participating in something that can become
the next PayPal or even better, the next United States Dollar.
As for Bitclub Network it is an opportunity to which many
are afraid and I understand. We are scared of the unknown and sometimes afraid
to try new things. It is only a fact that now over 500,000 people use bitcoin
and this number is expected to hit 1,000,000 by the year 2015.
So which person are you going to be? The one standing on the
sidelines or the one participating and building his own future?
A common question we are asked all the time, is "Why
would I host my server at a data center, and not at my house, or my
office?". The Short Answer: Scalability.
While it is initially cost effective to keep mining servers
in a residential or small commercial setting, the saving's quickly diminish as
the mining operation scales up. There are many costs that are often ignored
when a Bitcoin Mining operation starts up. While nearly everybody is immediately
aware of the electrical costs involved in the endeavor, hidden costs quickly
add up. These include:
Electrical Infrastructure Costs: Typical new construction
provides for a code allowable wattage consumption of 38,400 watts. This is 34
Antminer S1's or 20 CointerraTerraminers. This power figure negates electricity
needed to actually live or work at the location, and it negates cooling costs.
Installing approximately 20 x 20amp electrical outlets also costs money.
Cooling Infrastructure Costs: It will take approximately 40%
of the electrical consumption used by a miner to cool the space it is in, if
mechanical cooling is necessary. This leaves only 23,040 watts available for
actual mining power, and it also adds 40% to the cost of the net electricity
used for the operation. With the national average of $0.12 per KWh, that brings
the total to $0.16 per Kwh with cooling costs involved. Also, a net consumption
of 23 Kw will require about 6.5 additional tons of cooling. Most large houses
have about 6 tons for comfort cooling, this will mean a total of 12 tons of
cooling necessary. Installing this additional air conditioner costs money.Visit
https://www.bitcoin-cloudmining.com/
Long Term opportunity costs: With the increasing Bitcoin
Difficulty, one must take into account whether the costs of installing 20 x
20amp plugs, and 6 additional tons of air conditioner will make a good long
term investment.
When it comes to crypto currency and mining for coins, the
old adage of "time is money" holds true more than ever. This needs to
be in the forefront of your thought process when deciding how you will go about
this process. Make sure you choose a data center that will understand how
valuable your uptime is!
In the end, a true data center will have not only battery
backup, but a secondary power source, such as a generator. They'll also have
network redundancy. These are 2 more things that will prove to be valuable to
your experience.
Save yourself the worries of power consumption, electrical
consumption and the fear of downtime for your equipment. Colocate your
equipment and start earning your coins!
So, you’re sitting at your computer
with money to invest.
You have made some good money already
in the market, but you want more.
Cryptocurrencies have reached a
record $600 billion in
market value after the recovery, with the inevitable $700
billion mark right around the corner.
The price movement of top currencies
remains a mystery. But it doesn’t have to be.
THE PAIN OF
UNCERTAINTY
Cryptocurrencies are volatile,
irrational beasts.
Simple methods of forecasting grossly over/underestimate
the potential of a volatile currency.
For example, moving averages are used
frequently to estimate future prices. Moving averages, however, suffer from many pitfalls that make
them poor estimators of volatile markets.
Every great and successful investor
has a plan. You will add one more tool to your arsenal today.
This method is a Monte Carlo
simulation using the geometric Brownian motion model.
I won’t cover off on the full
methodology here, but essentially I am going to:
1.Get historical daily
prices for 10 top cryptocurrencies
2.Calculate daily returns
3.Simulate a year
4.Simulate a year many
times
By the end of the article, you will
have the following:
·A one-year simulation of
top cryptocurrencies
·Likely price range of
each cryptocurrency
·A downloadable model to
complete yourself
A note on
forecasting, simulations, and recommendations: Monte Carlo simulations are to
be used as guidelines and tools, not as gospel. I am not offering financial or
investing advice.
We can be 95% certain that Bitcoin prices will fall between $4,179,
and $273,028 with a median of $31,380.
BITCOIN CASH
What is Bitcoin Cash?
From the Bitcoin Cash project website:
“Bitcoin Cash is peer-to-peer electronic cash for
the Internet. It is fully decentralized, with no central bank and requires no
trusted third parties to operate.”
Really, it was an additional currency
that was created after a fork from Bitcoin core.
Verdict
We can be 95% certain that Bitcoin Cash prices will fall between
$94, and $94,225 with a median of $2,899.
ETHEREUM
What is Ethereum?
Ethereum is a decentralized platform
that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without
any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference.
Ethereum has been busy recently.
Multiple steps have been pushed in motion for the upcoming large change—reaching a new consensus method.
Ethereum’s Byzantium hard fork was only one half of
a two-part process designed to transition the decentralized application platform
to a new method for reaching consensus—proof-of-stake. The next hard fork, called Constantinople, was recently
discussed during an Ethereum core developer meeting and could include
VitalikButerin’s Casper update.
Verdict
We can be 95% certain that Ethereum prices
will fall between $706, and $30,062 with a median of $4,791.
EOS is a blockchain-based,
decentralized operating system, designed to support commercial-scale
decentralized applications by providing all of the necessary core
functionality, enabling businesses to build blockchain applications in a way
similar to web-based applications.
Verdict
We can be 95% certain that EOS prices will fall between $9.58, and
$14,898 with a median of $307.
LITECOIN
What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet
currency that enables instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world.
Litecoin is an open source, global payment network that is fully decentralized
without any central authorities.
Mathematics secures the network and
empowers individuals to control their own finances. Litecoin features faster transaction confirmation times and
improved storage efficiency than the leading math-based currency.
With substantial industry support,
trade volume and liquidity, Litecoin is a proven medium of commerce
complementary to Bitcoin.
Verdict
We can be 95% certain that Litecoin prices will fall between $30,
and $7,636 with a median of $472.
OMISEGO
What is OmiseGO?
OmiseGO is building a couple of
things:
1.Decentralized exchange
2.Liquidity provider
mechanism
3.Clearinghouse messaging
network
4.Asset-backed blockchain
gateway
OmiseGO is not owned by any single one
party. Instead, it is an open distributed network of validators which enforce
behavior of all participants.
Also, OmiseGo counts VitalikButerin (Ethereum), and
Joseph Poon (Lightning Network Co Author) among their advisers. Joseph Poon is
actually billed as author of the OmiseGo whitepaper.
Those are some pretty big names.
Verdict
We can be 95% certain that OmiseGO prices will fall between $1.17,
and $190.71 with a median of $15.74.
NEO
What is NEO?
NEO (formerly known as AntShares) is a
smart asset platform and the first open source public blockchain project in
China. Smart assets are the combination of smart blockchain contracts and
digital assets.
Verdict
We can be 95% certain that NEO prices will fall between $27, and
$13,229 with a median of $458.
RIPPLE
What is Ripple?
Ripple is a system created for banks
to enable immediate payments and lower costs.
The vision of the Ripple creators is
to allow a bank transfer in a few seconds (instead of the horribly annoying 2–3
business days).
Of note, is that Ripple is a U.S.
based company. From the xrphodor blog:
Ripple is a US-based company.
Why is this an important point to consider? A
US-based company like Ripple is subject to some very stringent laws regarding
securities trading and money transmission. These include requirements that
define how Ripple might interact with crypto markets and both institutional and
retail crypto traders.
Verdict
We can be 95% certain that Ripple prices will fall between $0.02,
and $175 with a median of $2.12.
MONERO
What is Monero?
Monero attempts to solve privacy and
fungibility issues that persist in Bitcoin.
Part of the algorithm for Monero
automatically mixes transactions with previous transactions and does this by
implementing ring signatures.
Verdict
We can be 95% certain that Monero prices will fall between $88, and
$10,338 with a median of $972.
IOTA
What is IOTA?
IOTA enables companies to explore new
business-2-business models by making every technological resource a potential
service to be traded on an open market in real time, with no fees.
The main innovation behind IOTA is the Tangle, a
revolutionary new blockless distributed ledger which is scalable, lightweight
and for the first time ever makes it possible to transfer value without any
fees.
Contrary to today’s Blockchains,
consensus is no-longer decoupled but instead an intrinsic part of the system,
leading to decentralized and self-regulating peer-to-peer network.
Verdict
We can be 95% certain that IOTA prices will fall between $0.13, and
$175 with a median of $4.55.
YOUR VERY
OWN FORECASTING TOOL
Since i’m so nice, I went ahead and
created a forecasting tool for you to use.
Full disclosure: The google sheets
add-in is a 14-day free trial, and $15 per month after. However, no one should
be refused access on the basis of money (especially true for students and less
fortunate). Send me a message, and I will make sure you are not left in the
dark.
A NOTE
ON SECURITY
Users have expressed hesitation about
running a google sheets add-in on their main computer, so I will attempt to
ease those concerns:
·I am located in the
U.S., and my business is registered in the state of Maryland
·If this were malicious,
people would have downvoted the add-in into oblivion, and it would have been
removed from the store
·If you are still worried, you can open it within a virtual machine and
test it first
WHAT
IT PULLS:
·90-day history of ~24
different cryptocurrencies
·1-Year simulation of
prices
·1-Year simulation of returns
·1-Year simulation ran
1,000 times
GETTING THE
SPREADSHEET TO WORK FOR YOU
1. Install the Spreadstreet add-in for
Google Sheets
·Follow the installation
instructions included with the add-in and log-in
2. Get sheet ready for use with the
add-in
·Important Open the
template, click the menu Add-ons / Spreadstreet / Help / View in store, and
then click Manage and in the dropdown menu click Use in this document.
·Login to the
Spreadstreet add-in for the first time (Add-ons ->Spreadstreet -> Open)
and keep the window open
3. After logging into the add-in,
change the dropdown reference
·In the analysis tab,
change the “SELECT CURRENCY” dropdown (B3) to one of the other choices…this
refreshes the pull
·Note: CoinMarketCap API
has limits. Be careful when attempting to refresh the sheet too many times
TROUBLESHOOTING
1.Important Open the template, click the menu
Add-ons / Spreadstreet / Help / View in store, and then click Manage and in the
dropdown menu click “Use in this document.”
2.A reload of the entire
worksheet fixes quite a few problems.
3.Deleting and re-pasting
the formula in A1 of the “Candles” tab fixes things as well.
4.If all else fails, drop
me a message
5.The “SELECT CURRENCY”
cell in the Analysis tab (B3) refreshes the pull. Change the results for new
data.
When I try and
change a coin, I get a #DIV/0 error
Login to the Spreadstreet add-in, and
keep the window open. Try changing the dropdown again.
I have tried
logging in, activating the template with “Use in this document” and refreshed
the sheet…still nothing.
Head to the “Data” tab. Delete the
formula in cell A1, and repaste the following: =SS(“candles-bitfinex”, ticker,
“1D”, “hist”, true, “”, “”, “”, “0”)
CONCLUSION
Whether you are investing in Bitcoin,
Ethereum, or SpankCoin, it is imperative to have a plan. Most notably, a
worst-case scenario.
The Monte Carlo simulation is a
fantastic way to get a range of prices for a cryptocurrency. And after reading
this, you can see how the final values change drastically depending on what you
are looking at.
I urge you to download the sheet and
try your own hand at simulating different coins. The sheet is setup to pull in
every single coin from CoinMarketCap.
Before we look at the coins in detail, let's start
with the potential ROI (100% = 2x Original Investment).
Bitcoin’s current market cap is $193,165,354,468 in
order for you to make 100% this number would need to double to
just under $400 Billion.
Ethereum’s current market cap is $44,715,990,083
, roughly 1/5th of Bitcoins.In order for you to
make 100% the price would need to increase to just under $90
Billion. - Mathematically this is more probable.
Ripple’s current Market Cap is $9,738,948,906 in
order for you to make 100% this would need to increase to just under 20
Billion. This is the most mathematically possible.
Which cryptocurrencies are investors more likely to
put their money into?
A purely peer-to-peer version of
electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party
to another without the burdens of going through a financial institution.
Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost
if a trusted party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a
solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The
network timestamps transactions by hashingthem
into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot
be changed without redoing the proof-of-work. The longest chain not only serves
as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the
largest pool of CPU power. As long as honest nodes control the
most CPU power on the network, they can generate the longest chain and outpace
any attackers. The network itself requires minimal structure. Messages are
broadcasted on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network
at will, accepting the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of what
happened while they were gone.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P): is a technical way of saying computers
(peers) that are connected together via the internet.
Timestamps: are
a sequence of characters that identify exactly when a certain event occurred,
giving the exact time and date.
Hashing: is
the process of compacting large quantities of data into smaller fixed sizes
(the image below might help)
Proof-of-work: is
the verification that the individual peer created the said hash
Nodes: are
computers that are connected to the blockchain
Bitcoin is a first generation cryptocurrency, that
was created in 2009 with the intention to become the currency of the internet.
However, Bitcoin faces several scalability issues.
The Problems with Bitcoin
1. Energy consumption
A study from Digiconomist found that each
transaction on the Bitcoinblockchain uses 236 KWh worth of electricity, this
amount is enough to power 8 U.S households for an entire day.
Now to put things into perspective, there are over
300,000 transactions per day. At this rate, Bitcoin uses more electricity per
year than the whole of Nigeria and this is only increasing.
Energy consumption will hinder the scalability
issues of Bitcoin, however the other issue that arises with POW mining is that
with the increase in cost associated with mining BTC it is less economical to
mine Bitcoin. This would limit the distributed nodes (miners) globally and
allow a larger percentage of control to the dominant mining pools / farms.
This would lead to a more centralised blockchain,
where they can change the rules of BTC as they please.
The supply of Bitcoin is finite, capped at 21
million. Eventually (currently predicted for 2140) Bitcoin's supply will run
out. Once this happens, miners will no longer receive rewards for completing
blocks but instead will be given fees. The fees will be drastically high in
relative terms, and people will stop using the blockchain.
Also, if miners decide that this is uneconomical
for them to process the transactions and use their computing power elsewhere
the speed of transactions for Bitcoin will drastically slow down, rendering one
of the fundamental values of a Bitcoin (speed) useless.
Bitcoin is not a superior blockchain, there are
hundreds of projects that are faster, cheaper and more valuable than Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has market dominance because it is one of the first and most topical
cryptocurrency (did you know that the price of BTC has a direct correlation to
the amount of google searches). Here are a few things that could really end
Bitcoin’s dominant era:
I) Blue chip company coming into the markets
This is more so for all cryptocurrencies, but
Bitcoin in particular. It’s not a matter of if but a matter of when a blue-chip
company such as Facebook, Amazon or Google decides to implement their own
cryptocurrency, they will dominate the market.
The consumer's trust is already with these big
companies, and they have the power and capital to influence the entire market.
Another possibility is a potential ‘world coin’
which global governments will all agree on using, this may seem unrealistic but
it is definitely not impossible and many benefits would arise from having such
a currency.
II) Quantum computing
Bitcoin is said to be Quantum resistant, on the
whitepaper it mentions that:
‘To compensate for increasing hardware speed and
varying interest in running nodes over time, the proof-of-work difficulty is
determined by a moving average targeting an average number of blocks per hour.
If they're generated too fast, the difficulty increases.’
This may seem quantum resistant but it is important
to understand that the difficulty is changed every 10 minutes and this is more
than enough time for QC to mine all of Bitcoin’s remaining coins.
The other issued that QC represents is that there
is a possibility of QC calculating people’s private keys for their BTC wallet.
I do not know the technical details of how this is done, but from what I have
read this is possible.
III) Bitcoin bubble
My last point for this section is that Bitcoin is
not being bought as a store of value or a currency by most people, for most
people Bitcoin is a speculative investment hoping to make a fortune on
something they really don’t know much about.
Once the bubble reaches its peak, and people start
panic selling, Bitcoin will inevitably crash with that. After all, Bitcoin’s
price is determined by demand vs supply.
To conclude, Bitcoin’s price is driven by demand.
With the massive publicity of Bitcoin, and the introduction of Bitcoin Futures,
this has lead to a massive increase in price.
However as an investment, I believe the scalability
issues will hinder BTC’s growth.
Ethereum
What is Ethereum?
Ethereum was created in 2015 by a man called
VitalikButerin.
Vitalik had the vision of not only having a
decentralised cryptocurrency (like Bitcoin) but also allowing decentralised
applications to be created on the Ethereumblockchain that use Smart Contracts.
The whole idea of blockchain is to remove the power
from the third parties and allow the user to control their own data.
What is a decentralised application?
“Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs
smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any
possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference.
These apps run on a custom built blockchain, an
enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that can move value around and
represent the ownership of property.
This enables developers to create markets, store
registries of debts or promises, move funds in accordance with instructions
given long in the past (like a will or a futures contract) and many other
things that have not been invented yet, all without a middle man or
counterparty risk.” - Ethereum Project
To understand this better, I’m going to give an
example of how decentralised apps and smart contracts will change the world we
live in:
I’ll use pizza as my example, because everyone can relate
to pizza!
Say you wanted to order pizza to your house, you
have to create an account, enter your banking details and give the app your
address to receive your pizza. Many people overlook the risks that are
associated with trusting a third party to handle such sensitive data. If this
companies' servers are hacked into, the hacker will have your bank details and
your address… Scary stuff.
So, you ordered a chicken BBQ pizza, which is
everyone’s favorite, and they turn up with a ham and pineapple pizza (wtf), or
worse yet they don’t turn up at all! As you have already paid for this pizza,
what do you do? The process of refunding this money, is entirely reliant on a
third party (often PayPal or your bank) and can take weeks if the refund even
happens. Placing your trust in this pizza company is again a risk that is
overlooked.
Now let’s use the same example using
Ethereum’sblockchain.
You want to buy pizza, you go onto the
decentralised app and place your order – your data is stored on the blockchain
and you give permission via a smart contract for the pizza company to view your
address.
Your order is created in a smart contract and once
the order is delivered and verified by you that it is correct, the funds are
released to the pizza company.
This may seem minor for a pizza company, but think
about more expensive goods and services that users will benefit from this
blockchain.
Here’s a few:
·A smart contract can be created to
pay a worker for every hour they work, they log their hours on the blockchain
and then after verification the funds are instantly transferred to them
·Buying goods internationally can be
tracked and verified – reducing fraud.
·Property buying can be facilitated
through the contract
·Every industry that has a contract in
place will be able to use the blockchain of Ethereum
I hope that it is now clear that the technology
behind Ethereum will have a real world use and change how business operates
entirely.
It is worth noting that Ethereum is also vastly
quicker than BTC, average block time being 15 seconds for Ethereum opposed to
10 minutes for BTC.
Ethereum is a second generation blockchain, and the
implementation of smart contracts and decentralised applications makes it a far
more valuable investment in my opinion.
Ripple.
Ripple connects banks, payment providers, digital
asset exchanges and corporates via RippleNet to provide one frictionless
experience to send money globally.
I do not invest in Ripple for the reasoning that
they sell their tokens at a discounted rate to banks and financial institutions
and also they hold a large amount of their cryptocurrency which from 2018 can
be sold.
Thanks for reading,
Devin
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