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TRON Mainnet Accounts Surpass 500k In Less Than Four Months

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Justin Sun, the CEO and owner of Tron announced that the Tron ecosystem is getting better day by day. The number of DApps on Tron Blockchain gushes, and reached 500K Mainnet Accounts Reach in just 4 months. The urge for people to create more than 500,000 accounts on Tron’s mainnet shows their sheer interest in the Tron platform. This means that the network is growing by about 100,000 accounts per month.

Tron’s blockchain project, aimed at building the infrastructure for a fully decentralized internet, activated their much-awaited virtual machine on Oct. 12th. Since its launch, the four-month-old Mainnet’s accomplishment is quite noteworthy. The recent hunch among the cryptomarket is that this new activation of the Tron Virtual Machine (TVM) might be a turning point for the blockchain platform. Indicators show that the rise in the number of Tron-based DApps, if retained, could further increase the number of users of the platform. With the TVM in action, developers can easily test their smart contracts now.

Tripling of Tron-Based DApps in More Than a Week

Recently a lot has been happening to the Tron-based DApps. The scenario shows a clear picture of them tripling in more than a week, which is an unseen picture. The “State of Tron DApps” page on the company’s site shows around 49 decentralized apps which are in the way of various stages of development, either as a concept, prototype, progress, or as beta.

Prior to October, Tron has had only 18 DApps live on the network. Whereas now, after the TVM’s launch it is raised to 49 DApps, which shows Tron’s ride to success with 31 additions in just a little over a week. If this massive creation of DApps continues, Tron will see more and more people thronging on its platform, which should increase the value of TRX.

The best part is the boost up in the number of accounts of Mainnet when it breached its 500K mark. In its Oct. 13 – 19 Tron Weekly Report states that as of Oct. 17, the company saw the accounts crossing 500,140, which reveals that its average daily transfer is around 146,000, equalling its single-day volume peaking at 440,135.

The number of accounts on the platform is significant, considering that it was launched just four months ago. Moreover, the platform posted a steady monthly growth rate of more than 100,000 new accounts per month. After Tron’s respective launches, when compared to those that of its rivals, Tron’s total number of accounts is 20% more of EOS and 13 times more than that of Ethereum.

Watching Institutions Set Their Ambush For Bitcoin

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Thinking bitcoin will not go exponentially higher is betting a $44 billion empire will fail.

For the last eight months of this crypto nuclear winter, I’ve watched this dance of the red candles on the chart and just grimly smiled.

Instead of continuing to build the $USD value of my portfolio, I’ve realized that’s not the important number. The portfolio value in bitcoin (BTC) is the key and that is still strong — this is a long war, be patient.

This was reinforced a month ago reading about Mr. Sprecher, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

He went from buying his first exchange for $1 or $1,000 — he says he doesn’t remember which. He used his house as collateral, and built that into a $44 billion empire.

I’ve read the article five times.

A lot of people talk about winning, but few get in the arena. He’s not building Bakkt because he needs more money, he’s building it because he likes the challenge — the thrill of the win.

It’s a feeling that once you’ve experienced it, almost makes the rest of life means less without it. I get it.

Fortune article on NYSE Owner — bitcoin exchange startup

I then circled November 1st on the calendar, which is when the Bakkt exchange goes live with futures contract being physically backed with BTC.

The Fortune article was a call to arms, telling the other institutions they have three months to get into position.

Once Bakkt is live, betting BTC won’t go exponentially higher is betting a $44 billion empire that owns the NYSE and has been a silent partner with Coinbase since 2015, is going to fail at launching a crypto exchange aimed at institutional clients.

Doubt it.

Think about Bakkt having been a silent partner with Coinbase since 2015.

I thought I was brave the first time I hit send on a $10,000 buy order and vaporized money from my bank account into the matrix to buy bitcoin.

But nope, turns out I wasn’t that cool, cause here’s Mr. Sprecher, just quietly in the back of Coinbase xeroxing their entire operation and building Bakkt a year ahead of me in 2015. Just absolute respect for that move.

There are patterns to everything. Ian Fleming said it first – twice is a coincidence, three times is enemy action.

I started looking for other data points, to see if they lined up and if a pattern would start to form.

I didn’t have to wait long.

Three days later on August 6th, Business Insider reported Goldman Sachs was looking at offering a custody solution for investors.

Goldman Sachs crypto custody

I immediately searched for other institutions looking to offer custody solutions and saw an article I had missed.

On July 31st, Bloomberg had written the 129 year old bank, Northern Trust, was testing proof of concept for crypto custody.

Northern Trust crypto custody

I find it hard to overstate the importance of Northern Trust coming into this asset class.

Northern Trust is a private wealth bank who has never, in 129 years, had even a whiff of impropriety. Their average private wealth client is worth $900 million. They serve 25% of the Forbes 400 wealthiest families in America.

Think about that, have $900 million in your accounts at Northern Trust? Half the clients there have more money than you.

And now they are announcing a bitcoin custody solution.

There’s just no hiding what that means. Institutions are coming, and they’re bringing trillions with them. Get set.

Northern Trust Private Investment statistics

Probably the most talked about ETF proposal in the space is the CBOE ETF. Not really going to say much about this other than the link below is a great breakdown of the proposal. It goes into detail on what makes the CBOE’s proposal vastly superior to the other offerings to date which the SEC has not approved.

CBOE ETF breakdown

On September 8th, Coinbase announced it was joining the crypto ETF arms race and seeking help from BlackRock.

To be fair, BlackRock in the past has said they have no interest in crypto, but we’re talking about a $6 trillion dollar asset manager. They aren’t going to tell anyone what they’re doing before it’s done.

For an example of scale, the entire gross domestic product produced by Germany, the powerhouse of the European Union, is 3.467 trillion (2016).

BlackRock manages almost twice that at $6.3 trillion.

Coinbase exploring ETF

On September 9th, Citigroup, one of the big four banks in the U.S. (JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup) announced it had developed an instrument it was calling a DAR (Digital Asset Receipt).

The DAR would work similar to the American Depositary Receipt (ADR) most institutions currently offer for investing in foreign markets.

Citigroup is currently one of the largest issuers of ADR’s in the world. They have a long established track record at this practice, issuing ADR’s since 1928.

As one of the big four banks in the U.S., Citigroup holds over 8% of total U.S. deposits by itself ($893 billion out of $10.7 trillion).

So essentially Citigroup is going to use a similar strategy for offering bitcoin and other digital assets to their customers in a product which will look and feel very similar to an ADR — which customers are already familiar with and has been used for the last 90 years.

Business Insider — Citigroup Digital Asset Receipts

On September 13th, Mike Novogratz called the bottom of this bear market. He took a screenshot of his Bloomberg terminal and showed the BGCI chart on twitter…don’t read the comments on his post unless you want to lose faith in humanity…People who have no idea the BGCI is proprietary to a Bloomberg terminal, which has a yearly subscription cost of $24,000 were throwing shade at Mr. Novogratz for no other reason than they were just emotionally bearish.

Most people don’t realize that Mr. Novogratz was one of the original backers of his friend from Princeton, Dan Morehead.

Mr. Morehead launched Pantera Capital in 2013, making the call to buy bitcoin at $103.

The Pantera Bitcoin Fund is up over 10,000% now.

Point being, these are data driven, very successful gentlemen who have built fortunes. So when someone of Mr. Novogratz’s stature is taking a screenshot of his Bloomberg terminal and publicly calling a bottom, that’s another data point lining up with the pattern.

Mike Novogratz calling the bottom on the 13th

Also on September 13th, Mr. Tom Lee, from Fundstrat, was speaking at the ETC Summit 2018.

I found their livestream on Youtube and watched Tom Lee’s presentation three times. It begins at 5:05:38.

Tom Lee’s callsign should be SteelRain — always on station with no emotion and accurate data on rapid fire.

He drew some very interesting comparisons against other recessions, showing the important metric was the 100% retracement of the last parabolic move up, not the timeframe it takes to retrace.

The fact that Mr. Lee and Mr. Novogratz were essentially saying the same thing, on the same day, half a world apart. Whoa, we’re danger close now.

Tom Lee’s presentation

So if you’re like me, been in the market for a couple years, great. The best thing I can think to do now is nothing. Keep getting some gains in the gym, and get out and live life. There’s a lot more to it than candles on a chart, and this is a long war.

If you bought BTC at $18k last winter, stay calm. Yeah you’ve been hurt, but you aren’t going to bleed out. November is around the corner. Be proud that you’ve waited out a longer bear market than the Baby Boomers did in 2008. You’re a veteran now.

And if you don’t own crypto yet, but see the value in it, and are waiting for a cheaper point to get in…may your wifi connection be fast, and your exchange not go offline.

You’re going to be in a crowded knife fight with everyone and their mother at $5,000 and below. Look at the PBV (Price by Volume) chart.

Just something to consider. None of this is financial advice.

I’m betting a $44 billion empire doesn’t lose. See you in 2019 — Radigan

 

Bitfinex Adds Three New Tron Pairings

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Tron was given a boost in popular cryptocurrency adoption when Justin Sun, the Founder and creator of the number 11 ranked cryptocurrency announced that Bitfinex, the popular cryptocurrency exchange, will start support three TRX pairings with the Pound Sterling [GBP] Japanese Yen [JPY] and the Euro [EUR]. The Tron official wrote on Twitter:

“Crypto exchange @bitfinex adds #JPY, #GBP and #EUR trading pairs to #TRON. #TRX $TRX.”

Bitfinex has created quite a lot of news in the cryptosphere with several traders appreciating the platform for its features and ingenuity. At the recently held Ethfinex Government Summit, Parolo Ardoino, the Chief Technology Officer of Bitfinex delivered a talk about his exchange discussing the recent products, Ethfinex and EOSFinex with the community. Here, he conveyed that Bitfinex created these products to follow an unbiased approach to avoid disputes within the developers’ community.

The updates come in the wake of a bear market that has shocked many investors. Tron supporters have openly stated that the announcements from the house of Tron have come as a sort of reprieve when a lot of the other cryptocurrencies have gone silent on the developmental front. With price movement fluctuating tumultuously, the Justin Sun led cryptocurrency has been trying hard to overtake its rival, Monero, on the cryptocurrency charts.

The community reeling after the announcement, Coin Lis, a cryptocurrency trader and blockchain enthusiast commented on Justin Sun’s Twitter announcement. She wrote:

“I knew some friends who were waiting for the EUR trading pair. They’ll be super excited! #trx #tron #crypto”

Another Twitterati, LockCrypto also put forth an opinion regarding TRX and the Bitcoin correlation movement. The comment read:

“More currency pairs / stable coin pairs means we don’t need to buy ETH/BTC anymore. go #tron level out the play field less correlation to bitcoin movement”

Justin Sun Announced $1 million reward for Roubini-Buterin Debate

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The debate between Nouriel Roubini, the economist and Vitalik Buterin, the CO-Founder of Ethereum is something that the entire cryptocurrency community is waiting for and Tron Founder Justin Sun is not far behind on the news. Justin recently announced $1 million as a reward for the winner of the debate between the two. Sun stated on Twitter:

“#TRON is happy to sponsor this debate and give 1 million USD to the winner. The result can be decided by the public vote. #TRX $TRX“

Ethereum is somewhat of a rival to Tron. When asked about the prospect of Buterin winning the debate, Justin Sun stated:

“Eh, I probably would have just donated it to @AgainstMalaria or whatever.”

The reward is not the first time that Justin Sun has taken a keen interest in the debate with earlier reports showing that Sun had suggested Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman should moderate the debate.

The entire reason for the debate lies in Nouriel Roubini’s latest attack on Ethereum as well as the applications built on it. The economist who had predicted the 2008 financial crisis had stated during multiple interviews that Ethereum is a scam and that the entire cryptocurrency market will go ust soon as it holds not feasible value. He had elucidated:

“You know, there’s a lot of people [who] talk about their DApps or their distributed apps. 75 percent of those apps are what? CryptoKitties, Ponzi schemes and other pyramid schemes, and other casino games, like Las Vegas. So, after a decade, what does Ethereum have to show us? CryptoKitties and Ponzi schemes? And that’s what they’re doing? They’re not doing anything that is of any use to anybody.”

One of Ethereum’s biggest issue which has also been admitted by italic Buterin has the scalability problem and Roubini had made sure to point out this fact. He stated:

“So, it doesn’t have any functions [it] should have: It’s not scalable, it’s not secure, it’s not decentralized. So, what is it worth for? With Ethereum, you can do twenty five transactions per second; with Visa, you can do 25,000 transactions per second.

 

China BlockChain Part 1-Winning the most Important Race in 500 Years

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Blockchain is virgin territory, a new frontier. Getting there first, exerting influence, and dominating the market matters.

England, France, Spain, and Portugal all knew this when the New World was discovered.

America knew this with global force projection after WWII, and most recently, the internet.

But like all history, the empires of the past are not the empires of the future.

For anyone that is paying attention, President Xi is standing in front of China, conducting a masterful performance of Ride of the Valkyries as he leads his country to dominating the 21st century and beyond.

He is weaving a strategic future plan in military restructuring and economic dominance on three continents with new technology for finances and society.

It is a bold plan — reviving the silk road, harnessing blockchain, and upsetting the geopolitical status quo.

Winning the blockchain race and applying the technology to their One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR) will allow China to neutralize America’s global influence.

China will reemerge as the Middle Kingdom in terms of global dominance and prestige — a time when China was the center of the world.

President Xi calls blockchain a “breakthrough” technology:

“A new generation of technology represented by artificial intelligence, quantum information, mobile communications, internet of things and blockchain is accelerating breakthrough applications.”

President Xi is pushing ahead on two fronts — geopolitical and technology.

China is unique because he can do so without being challenged politically and the Chinese are already accustomed to mobile pay, which is the same user interface blockchain technology will use.

China’s policy of a government and private sector hybrid approach to furthering Chinese interests which always supports the Chinese solution over the outside approach is well documented and expected to continue into the future.rad1 1

The Geopolitics

Why would China even want to undertake a massive modern silk road project through 69 countries, connecting 40% of global GDP?

To understand that, we have to understand a bit of history, geography, and the problem China currently sees for itself.

Stay with me, it won’t be bad. Promise.

The History

The original silk road was the dominant trade route from Europe to Asia from 200BC to 1500AD.

1700 years of trade traveled overland. It’s beautiful country. If you ever get the chance, go travel through the northern ‘Stans and see some of the ancient cities. Highly recommend it, but go early. The mountain passes close as early as October.

In the 15th century, a maritime route was found from Europe to Asia. It cost less, and was less dangerous than the overland route. Win-win.

Most trade shifted to ships and the importance of the Silk Road declined.

The Geography

Ever wondered why Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are located where they are?

Singapore and Kuala Lumpur literally sit at the intersection of maritime trade between Europe, Africa, and Asia for the last 600 years.

They are located on either end of the Strait of Malacca. The strait is 500 miles long, 1.7 miles across at the most narrow.

I’ve been through the Strait of Malacca, and at times, you could almost walk across the decks of ships, one to another, going from Indonesia on one side to Malaysia on the other and not get your feet wet. There are that many ships transiting, over 100,000 per day.

Nearly 18% of all oil produced in the world transits through the strait.

This includes eighty percent of China’s oil imports, with China the largest importer of oil in the world.

The importance of the Strait of Malacca to the world economy and to China’s economy specifically, and therefore her national security, cannot be understated.

Remember, Christopher Columbus sailed right off the map to the west to find a more direct route to Asia. In a way, the Strait of Malacca has shaped the last 600 years of geopolitics and empires, and will continue to do so.

The Problem

America was the clear winner from World War II. Its cities, manufacturing, capital markets, and infrastructure untouched by the devastation due to it’s geographical advantage of having oceans separate it from the conflict.

America capitalized on this advantage by continuing to project power through maritime force, establishing military bases and friendly relations with countries surrounding China for the last 70 years.

And there is the problem — China is surrounded. Held hostage by the Strait of Malacca and U.S. influence.

China is keenly aware that eighty percent of their oil supply has to pass through a 1.7 mile wide strait, and even the natural gas shipping routes north from the Western Australia Gorgon and Wheatstone projects must pass through waters largely controlled by the U.S. and their allies.

The first step to minimizing the risk this poses is for President Xi to continue to build bases and aircraft carriers.

He’s playing the hand he’s been dealt, and the U.S. has been dealing for 70 years.

This was the reason for the island building in the Paracel Islands, Scarborough Shoal, and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

China is building a buffer between their ports on the mainland and U.S. allies in the South China Sea to be able to guarantee keeping a shipping lane open to the Strait of Malacca and open ocean.

Both of these are not permanent solutions. The One Belt One Road Initiative is the permanent solution to the problem.

If you don’t like the game, change the rules.

Europe bypassed the Silk Road in favor of the maritime route through the Strait of Malacca in the 15th century because it was less costly and less dangerous.

What was old is new again.

China will go back to the overland route for the same reason Europe went to sea. It’s less costly and dangerous for them.

How is building an entire economic corridors of roads, railways, powerlines, pipelines for the next 30 years less costly and dangerous?

The cost they are measuring against is the total economic destruction of the country and the end of the Communist Party if 80% of their oil imports can get turned off by other countries.

That makes thirty years of construction and loans to other countries for the OBOR look like a great deal.

It’s much less dangerous to build a road and seek mutual cooperation than to continue to build aircraft carriers and compete head on against the U.S. Navy.

By reconnecting 40% of the world’s GDP along a land trade route, China is going to completely reset the geopolitical power dynamics which most everyone alive today has taken as absolute — in essence turning the clock back 500 years.

Long live the Emperor

In March, President Xi was elected to a second term with 100% of the vote. This was after lifting the presidential term, meaning he can now be President indefinitely.

Could President Xi pull a George Washington and step down after his second term in office, retiring to his farm in peace?

Maybe. We’ll see.

In the meantime, President Xi, and by extension, China has a distinct advantage in politics and long-term strategy over our leaders in the West.

They are united in their goal of winning the Blockchain race and pursuing their long term strategic goals. Completely undistracted by the politics of election cycles.

The fact that China even knows there is a race to win shows how far ahead they are than the leaders and legislators in the West.

President Xi is giving clear direction to China’s Central Bank and the country that China will win the blockchain race.

China is the largest holders of blockchain patents in the world with the People’s Bank of China submitting 41 patent applications in the last 12 months alone.

China’s State TV has said China expects blockchain to be 10x more valuable than the internet.

The China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) officially publishes their ranking of crypto and blockchain projects consisting of the top 33 projects in their view.

The CCID is under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, a state agency of the People’s Republic of China.

China’s Communist Party has even released a book titled “Blockchain — A Guide for Officials”.

Not only is the Communist Party expecting state officials to be studying the book and understand blockchain, but one of the cabinet-level ministries is working on a blockchain standardization for the tech’s development in the country.

There is no one in a western government doing anything similar to this, and at this point, the chances of catching up are slim.

To put this race into scale, the current total market capitalization for the five largest internet based stocks in the U.S. are: Facebook ($470B), Amazon ($934B), Apple ($1.05T), Netflix ($157B), and Google ($813B).

Widely referred to as the FAANG stocks with a total market cap of $3.404 trillion U.S. dollars.

When the Chinese State TV is broadcasting to the country that blockchain will be worth 10x what the internet is worth, China believes the prize money for the country who can win the blockchain race and dominate this new frontier is at least $34 trillion U.S. dollars.

China believes blockchain will be worth more than the entire U.S. Stock market which is $30 trillion.

Wait a second.

How is a Chinese Mayor running around Shenzhen with his “Blockchain Guide for Officials” and building a deep water port on the coast of Pakistan so ships don’t have to go through a strait named Malacca going to make blockchain more valuable than the entire U.S. stock market?

It comes down to two factors. Adoption and network effect.

Adoption

China is about four to five years ahead of the West in mobile pay. Everyone uses their phones. No one uses cash or credit cards.

This is mostly due to the fact that credit cards never took off. When you’re sitting in Din Tai Fung eating some of the best dumplings you ever had in your life in Beijing, you just scan the QR code and pay with your phone.

Wall Street Journal video showing how widespread and easy mobile pay is in China.

For comparison, China does $9 trillion per year in mobile pay, compared to $112 billion in the United States.

So for China, as more blockchain comes online, the user interface isn’t going to change. They are already used to scanning QR codes and paying with their phone.

Network Effect

The most common way to value network effect is through Metcalfe’s Law.

In fact, Wall Street analysts use Metcalfe’s Law to value the FAANG stocks.

Essentially Metcalfe’s Law says that for every person who is added to a network the increase in value isn’t by one person, but exponentially by the number of interactions that one person can have with others on the network.

Now, we’re talking about China using blockchain along the One Belt One Road Initiative and connecting 69 countries through economic corridors, totaling 40% of the worlds GDP with trade from three continents.

And before it even starts, China is already at $9 trillion on mobile pay.

Thinking about the network value exponential increase, I don’t think I can accurately comprehend the exponential value increase that blockchain is going to provide when multiplied by the number of people along the One Belt One Road Initiative, all using blockchain.

It would only take a bit over a 300% increase to equal the U.S. stock market, and considering bitcoin has gone up over 80,000% using the network effect in the last seven years from 2011–2018, I would consider 300% easily doable by 2049.

rad2

The Future — Shoes from Africa through Pakistan to Europe and Asia along the OBOR

A Chinese entrepreneur opens factories in eastern Africa where they make shoes for popular brands.

As a way to pre-clear customs on arrival in the deep water port of Gwadar, Pakistan, the entry point to the OBOR, as well as prove the authenticity of the shoes, a blockchain based NFC chip is installed in the shoes, and a different one on the container once inspected and sealed at the factory in Ethiopia. This helps cut down on the $400 billion per year business of counterfeiting and streamline customs and shipping.

The QR code is scanned on the container upon arrival — tracking data, import taxes all automatically captured.

The container is then loaded on a truck, leaving the port and entering onto the OBOR, in route either to Europe or to Asia.

As the truck enters the OBOR, the truck passes under a sensor which records the truck number, time, date, location, insurance and registration data as well as the container data and drivers data — all recorded to the blockchain which cannot be tampered with, altered, or destroyed.

Every time the truck passes through a new country, same thing, blockchain sensor records the information and tolls are automatically paid. If the NFC chip is tampered with, the code doesn’t work and the truck will be stopped for inspection.

Along the economic corridor, as the driver stops for fuel and food at Chinese trade alliance built facilities, all transactions are paid for through mobile pay Chinese blockchain apps developed by private companies through cooperation with the Chinese government.

The Middle Kingdom Returns

If China wins the blockchain race and is successful with implementing it within the One Belt One Road Initiative, the money Chinese companies will make across the OBOR through the network effect will be immense.

The geopolitical risk the Chinese government will mitigate for essentially pennies on the dollar by building the OBOR and bypassing the Strait of Malacca means political survival for the Communist Party while mitigating the threat posed by the U.S. Navy and allies.

The increased prosperity within China, as well as the geopolitical influence along the OBOR and throughout the world will be unlike anything seen in the last 500 years.

And going back to President Xi’s original comment,

“A new generation of technology represented by artificial intelligence, quantum information, mobile communications, internet of things and blockchain is accelerating breakthrough applications.”

It shows he is already thinking along these lines of what blockchain can accomplish as he pushes forward on the geopolitical and technological fronts to secure a better future for China.

Seeing parts of the old Silk Road was pretty cool. Maybe I’ll get a shot to ride along the 21st century version some day when China turns the clock back 500 years.

Stay frosty out there. — Radigan

 

Bitcoin Part 1: Stores of Value

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The 4,600 year old Meroe Pyramids from the Kingdom of Kush in the eastern Sahara desert, Sudan. A store of value hasn’t changed much since then in parts of Africa. Bitcoin is changing that. Picture is mine.

The unbanked is really just a polite word for the oppressed.

There is an important but overlooked difference in how a store of value is viewed from the perspective of the unbanked versus from the relative safety of a western republic.

This disparity in how a store of value is viewed will drive the value and demand of bitcoin going forward in the future as the oppressed will see the value in bitcoin — regardless of what regulatory bodies or investors decide in first world societies.

For the BILLIONS of people who are unbanked in the world, they have only another day of trying to survive to look forward to tomorrow.

Another day of trying to meet the two lowest levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for themselves and their families.

Bitcoin provides the best way to store value in case they have to flee from armed conflict in their own country, their government hyperinflates their savings away, or criminals and corrupt government officials try to steal their wealth.

Those are the measurements the oppressed use when evaluating a store of value — not whether the price dropped against the US dollar for the last eight months.

The hard reality for the unbanked and oppressed

Two trucks raced by me into oncoming traffic, the Special Police insignia of the hand and all seeing eye unmistakably emblazoned on their doors as the midnight blue 2-ton trucks careened back into the lane ahead of me.

In the shadows of the back of the truck, hard men with grim faces in blue camouflage and full riot kit held on, swaying back and forth.

Brake lights suddenly at the next intersection.

Damn it. Another riot.

Braking hard and moving to the right as a wave of blue and black camouflage started pouring out of the trucks, getting online facing the protestors who were to the left down the side street.

I was just trying to get to the grocery store and pick up a whole beef tenderloin from Hamid, the butcher at my local supermarket. Was hosting a dinner party tonight at my villa.

Dodging a riot on the way to the grocery store. Just a normal Friday in Khartoum.

It didn’t even feel out of place anymore. The surreal part was living this way just felt normal now.

Through the intersection to the left, past the police line formed up now like Spartans at Thermopylae with their shields overlapping, I glimpsed a large crowd swirling around a gas station with a line of cars stretching further than I could see, at least 300 meters, dusty from waiting for days to get gas.

Fuel shortages, rising inflation, and basic food items increasing over 100% in price overnight had resulted in injuries, deaths, and mass arrests of people as the riots and protests continued the last few months.

Political opposition leaders had started being kidnapped off the street in broad daylight by the Secret Police.

The Secret Police would tell their families to never ask questions or talk about it. If they did, their loved ones would suffer even worse.

This wasn’t the west. Or even Dubai for that matter.

Shooting protestors in the head, firing indiscriminately into an unarmed crowd of protestors, even flooding protestors with 10,000 gallons of raw sewage to disperse the crowd.

Firing 40mm tear gas grenades directly into mosques while people were praying because the Imam was speaking out against the terrible effects on the poor of the city from the 100% inflation in bread prices.

Using 2-ton police trucks to plow through protestors, like a game of human demolition derby, as they crushed protestors to disperse crowds.

All of that was done here — and the people kept protesting.

Level 1,000 kind of courage.

The protests and social media were now calling for ousting President Bashir completely.

When that happened, the regime brought an entire battalion of the hated and feared Border Guards militia into the capital — over 1,000 men in 250 brown camouflaged hilux pickups with technicals (large anti-aircraft machine guns)mounted in the bed of the trucks.

A few of the Sudanese I worked with actually left the country with their families, fleeing to Egypt, after that long convoy drove in from the desert.

army

Khartoum Special Police. When they got on line, it’s about to go down — those sticks ain’t for walking.

The Border Guards militia used to be Janjaweed, responsible for almost half a million people killed in the Darfur genocide.

How in the middle of a fuel shortage and inflation crisis could the regime still have battalions of militia fully outfitted and loyal to the regime?

With the migration crisis in recent years, the EU has given over $200 million in migration-related funds to the regime in Khartoum to help stem the flow of migrants through Sudan to Libya and then onward to Europe.

The sad and terrible truth is the corrupt regime takes those funds intended to help refugees, takes their personal cut, and funnels the remaining funds to militias like the Border Guards for additional equipment, training, and money for them to stay loyal and continue torturing, extorting, raping, killing, and selling people to Libyan slave traders.

This policy by the regime also applies to ISIS.

As long as ISIS doesn’t do anything to attract any unnecessary attention from western powers to disrupt the flow of money from the EU or bring US sanctions back, they are left alone to freely transit Sudan to Libya or Egypt because terrorism and unrest in the region is good for business in the regime.

Why?

If the Sudanese regime actually stopped those who perpetrated the violence which led to migration in the first place of the oppressed and unbanked, then the money flowing in from the EU to the regime in Khartoum to help refugees and stem the flow of migrants to the EU would stop.

By ensuring the violence continues, the regime in Sudan insures they will always receive more money from the EU to stop the violence.

This isn’t unique to Africa or the Sudan. Very similar economics of violence in the governments of Afghanistan and even in Pakistan to an extent.

Pretty sickening seeing how this works first hand, isn’t it?

This is the world the unbanked and oppressed live in every day, and the environment which shapes how they view a store of value.

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Rams guarding the temple of Amun in Naqa, one of the capital cities from the Kingdom of Kush in the 4th century BC. Take a right off the highway about an hour north of Khartoum, drive through the desert — no roads, just GPS coordinates for 40 minutes — and all of a sudden, these ruins are sitting there, in the middle of nowhere in the desert. Not another living soul out there. It’s an absolutely amazing site. Picture is mine.

4,600 Years Old and a Store of Value is the Same

Africa is amazing. From the hand carved churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia, and ruins of the Kingdom of Kush in Sudan, to the Skeleton Coast of Namibia.

Most Africans are incredibly kind people.

I had a flat tire on a dark street in Khartoum one night. Most of the street lights don’t work, so it’s usually pitch black, even in the middle of the capital.

A hilux pickup pulls up behind me shining their lights so I could see what I was doing. Turns out it was three Sudanese mechanics from the tire shop down the road. They saw me breakdown, stopped cooking their dinner, loaded up their shop jacks, and came to help.

Just a lot of good people, trying to do the best they can in pretty rough conditions under a totalitarian regime.

In Africa it is still common to use real estate and gold for a store of value.

Just like it was when the Black Pharaohs of the Kingdom of Kush set the first block in the picture above for the temple of Amun in Naqa, 400 BC.

Or as he was more commonly known in Egypt, Amun-Ra, the sun god.

Think about that.

From Pharaohs to Facebook. For 25 centuries — 2,500 years — a store of value has not changed in this part of the world.

The demand for gold is still significant on the continent, with nearly 28 metric tons of gold for jewelry in Egypt alone, and the South African Kruggerand is still one of the most popular and recognized gold bullion coins overseas.

Land is also still widely considered a store of value in Africa.

The unfinished buildings in the photo below where I’m talking to the Gulf War veterans were common throughout Khartoum.

Families would pool income for years, building houses as they could afford the construction.

The thought process behind it was the government could not inflate away construction like savings in a bank account, and soldiers or criminals couldn’t take the foundation of an unfinished house away at the barrel of a rifle like they could their car or other valuables.

Only problem, if a family had to flee armed conflict, they abandoned their life savings in their house, which now had little to no value in an unsafe conflict zone.

The oppressed firmly understand what a store of value is on a continent where inflation and corruption are real problems in every day life.

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Talking with Sudanese veterans of the first Gulf War. Prime example for bitcoin and a blockchain store of value. They lost everything leaving Iraq and the government of Sudan will not help them. The Secret Police and Riot Police are out of frame but there. I was trying to convince them to leave — I didn’t want to see old veterans getting beat by the Police cause it embarrassed the Regime to have veterans begging America for help. Really felt bad for these guys. Picture is mine.

The people who need bitcoin the most don’t care about blockchain or peer to peer digital currency.

Wait, what?

Let me explain.

Sudan, and to a larger extent, Africa, desperately needs a store of value that is safer and more portable.

One that is harder to be stolen by criminals, inflated away by the government, or confiscated by corrupt officials in times of conflict.

Bitcoin fills these needs perfectly. Better than property, gold, or US dollars.

The people who need bitcoin the most — whether that is in Sudan, Zimbabwe, or the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — spans a continent larger than the US, China, India, and most of the EU combined.

Expecting a person in one of these places that desperately needs a portable store of value to understand scarcity, proof of work mining, decentralized public ledgers, and the difference between a store of value, peer to peer digital currencies, security tokens, and utility tokens is absolutely ridiculous.

That is like expecting someone to understand the SWIFT banking network, fractional reserve banking, the treasury yield curve, and the last 70 years of geopolitical strategy which has ensured the US dollar as the world reserve currency before they trade Sudanese pounds for US dollars on the black market.

Great if they do, but most people don’t. They just know the dollar holds its value better in times of uncertainty in their country.

They know as they continue to try and just meet their families daily needs amidst chaos, or flee conflict, they stand a better chance of not being left destitute if they have US dollars.

Similarly, we are entering a time where bitcoin as an emerging asset class will start to be accepted as a store of value at face value just like the US dollar.

And just like the U.S. dollar was before it, for the people that need it most, they won’t be able to explain why the system works, they’ll just know it does work and they didn’t lose everything.

And there’ s nothing wrong with that.

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Driving at 8am through a haboob (sandstorm) blowing in from the Sahara in Khartoum. Picture is mine.

For Africa, a lot of places are 100% cash based with the US dollar being dominant — especially where cut-off from SWIFT banking relationships and they only have the black market for buying US dollars.

But technology is changing this, unleashing a Pandora’s box on corrupt governments throughout the continent as people no longer have to rely solely on US dollars through the black market, gold, or property as stores of value.

Mobile payments was the first step. Governments can no longer marginalize and oppress people by shutting them out of traditional banking infrastructure or put restrictions on assets held in their accounts.

SWIFT recently noted the impact mobile payment has in African Payments: Insights into African transaction flow.

Since 2014, SWIFT notes the percentage of Sub-Saharan Africans using mobile payments has doubled to 21%, while the amount of traditional financial accounts in Sub-Saharan Africa has not changed.

The paper also noted 200,000 households emerged from extreme poverty in Kenya after the mobile money service M-Pesa became available to them.

Why is that significant?

Sub-Saharan Africa currently has the lowest savings rate in the developing world according to the UN at 18%.

Think about it this way, for all the decades of humanitarian aid to the continent in various forms through governments and the UN, the ability for people to save their earnings, start businesses, and accumulate wealth was still the lowest in the world at 18%.

Mobile payments started from zero, and in only four year has more than doubled, now beating traditional savings in Sub-Saharan Africa at 21%.

Mobile payments was the tool the oppressed and unbanked needed to directly surpass traditional banks in the region and regain some control over their own lives. They did this in only four years.

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The Old Way — From African Payments: Insights into African transaction flow

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The New Way — From CNN

Bitcoin — Starving Corrupt Regimes of Income

In the illustrations above, it is striking that currently utilizing traditional banking infrastructure, payments from Africa to China must still go from an African bank, through a US institution, then to a Chinese bank for business transactions.

Similarly, any aid which is sent to Africa from the US, EU, or other programs must go through a government and bank in Africa.

Bitcoin and blockchain changes all that.

In the future, nothing will prevent the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner on Refugees) from registering refugees with their own cryptocurrency wallet and aid organizations sending funds directly to refugees if they desire.

No more funding being redirected by corrupt officials.

No more feeding militias or terrorist organizations, enabling the very evil which aid organizations try to stop.

Just bitcoin and blockchain starving these evil organizations from their main source of funding — the exploitation of human beings.

Sure, sounds great, who doesn’t want to save the world, but can we really expect refugees to understand how this works?

They already do.

Mobile payment in Africa is not only paving the way for adoption, but already proves the model in the free market by overtaking traditional savings through banks in only four years.

M-Pesa already serves over 32 million customers in Africa with US$1.713 billion transferred on the network in 2017.

BitPesa, using the bitcoin blockchain, is another step beyond that entirely.

Now, an African business can transfer funds from their bank account to Bitcoin in BitPesa from the Democratic Republic of Congo to pay a Chinese supplier for parts.

BitPesa then convert the bitcoin to Chinese Yuan and deposit to the supplier’s account.

In addition, the UN is already seeing evidence of Africans turning to bitcoin for savings. Referencing Zimbabwe’s inflation in 2015, the UN estimates there will be 725 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa by 2020.

32 million customers at US $1.713 billion using M-Pesa to 725 million mobile subscribers in two years.

Saying that sentence out loud is the sound of freedom and self-determination for the oppressed.

What about Bitcoin price volatility?

As a store of value for the oppressed, bitcoin’s volatility is a non-issue.

Whoa, what?

It’s true. What they really value is portability and the ability to hide in plain sight when it comes transiting with their life savings.

BTC currently having a higher return (+35.70% BTCUSD for last year) than either gold or the US dollar is just a bonus.

Bitcoin is the best solution on the planet to meet the demand of portability and hiding in plain sight.

Before bitcoin, holding their savings in US dollars or gold was as good as it got for portable wealth.

Gold and US dollars still ran the risk of being stolen at checkpoints in transit, and is hard to disguise any serious amount of life savings.

But people still risked it.

Given the choice, people always choose what gives them the most value to protect their family, even if there is a risk.

What about property?

The other option for saving wealth is pouring a foundation of a house a person couldn’t afford to finish for another four years.

Just so the corrupt government couldn’t inflate their savings away through terrible and unstable monetary policy.

Knowing full well it was entirely possible they may have to flee from an armed conflict with their family before then, leaving the unfinished house and their entire life savings behind.

Which would you prefer if you were living in this situation?

The Final Reason — BTC Still Worth More Than Local Currency

The Sudanese pound inflated over 465% in less than a year to the US dollar on the black market when I was there, going from 8:1 to 52:1 in 2018.

The price of bread literally doubled overnight one weekend, from Thursday night to Friday morning.

They lost over 85% of their purchasing power in less than year. What cost 8 Sudanese pounds now costed 52 because all imports are priced in US dollars.

Then the government started restricting bank withdrawals and publicly beating currency exchangers who were dealing in US dollars.

People withdrew what savings they could and bought US dollars, holding them in secret at home.

Knowing the daily inflation rates, where to buy US dollars on the black market, the cost of cooking gas just to be able to eat — all just daily life in Khartoum.

And Khartoum was considered nice and safe by comparison to other places on the continent.

For the oppressed in the world, an 85% drop in price on BTC is going to be inline or even much less to the hyperinflation that will be happening around them in a country which is truly in trouble.

When the economy and country is in shambles, having a private key written down somewhere on their person to a BTC wallet will be the lightest, most secure method of traveling to get to safety with their life savings available to them — all while looking like they have nothing of value to steal.

For the people that live this everyday — they know that.

The corruption and friction points in banking that the oppressed and unbanked currently have to deal with are driving bitcoin adoption as a store of value faster than in western markets where people can depend on their currency being stable, peace, and prosperity.

After 4,600 years the world finally has a better store of value for the oppressed than property, gold, or a reserve fiat currency.

The oppressed are getting theirs. I got some as well. Hope you consider getting some, too.

Next up, Bitcoin Part 2: The Not So Distant Future

Until then, I’ll be grilling in the backyard, drinking bourbon, and missing the sound of gunfire in the distance. — Radigan

 

Meet The Founder Beatzcoin

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Tron is a blockchain-based decentralised platform that aims to build a free digital entertainment system that allows easy sharing of content and provides a decentralised storage technology. Tron attempts to bridge the gap between content creators and content consumers. The Tron ecosystem is experiencing immense churn with various digital currencies being introduced in the market Both Beatzcoin and Tron work on the same share principles of secured content and providing creators a platform to showcase and leverage their talent

Beatzcoin is a front-runner in digital currencies that utilizes blockchain technology and is traded on VibraVid, a multi-chain decentralized podium.. VibraVid is a platform that taps into this space, offering a free peer to peer desktop and mobile streaming application that enables viewers to view and listen to content in the form of videos and audios. Content creators can upload, store, market, lease and sell their content to the users of this app alongside activities such as crowdfunding and sell merchandise and event tickets.Beatzcoin is a cryptocurrency which is the value of exchange on the VibraVid platform

Meet  Steven Zambron the founder of BeatzCoin

Beatzcoin, Steven wants to reinvent the global marketing platform for the digital content producers and the consumers

 Could you tell us about yourself and your position within VibraVid/Beatzcoin?

Sure. My name is Steven Zambron. I am the founder of BeatzCoin, the TRC20 (Tron Network) token for the VibraVid platform.

What inspired you to start VibraVid?

I was an aspiring rapper and then producer in my younger days. One of the greatest challenges my peers and I faced was ‘being noticed’. It is still very difficult to drive attention to your music (or Youtube™ video) without having a fair marketing budget, or spending hours a day begging for views. A lot of people with a ton of talent simply go un-noticed in this space. Once I became more aware of blockchain technology, it became apparent that the digital content industry not only needed to be tokenized but tokenized to the extent where extra incentives are put into place. Using fiat currency simply cannot achieve what we are doing.

When did you know it was time to convert the idea into reality?

I began teasing with the idea as far back as December of 2017. In early January I devoted most of any spare time I had to creating a business plan. As time went on, I reached out to a friend of mine, George Tobias, who was mining cryptocurrency at the time, and I pitched my ideas to him. I asked him if he’d help me to start putting the plan into motion. He agreed to come aboard, and we both began researching and testing ideas. In March I began reaching out to other people, as I definitely needed more help. Slowly but surely I put together a very small team, and I continued with the leadership role. By mid-April, the project had become a full-time job for me, even though I still continued to work a day job. Here we are today, after several thousands of devoted hours, our webpage and token (BeatzCoin) are alive and well!

What is Beatzcoin, and what differentiates it in the market?

BeatzCoin is a TRC20 token on the Tron (TRX) network. When using the TronScan wallet, transactions are extremely fast (usually 1-2 seconds), recorded on the Tron blockchain, and extremely cheap to process. Right now, BeatzCoin can be used in conjunction with the GoSeedit Bot to instantly send and tip BeatzCoin to Telegram™ users. This usage will be available on more platforms as time allows. What differentiates BeatzCoin from other tokens is that it is the primary token on the VibraVid social video and music sharing platform. VibraVid was taken down as there were some vulnerability discovered, and our team is working on correcting these issues, as well as adding some updates.

How will the investors benefit from investing in your project?

We do not recommend anyone to invest in BeatzCoin as our token is not any type of investment or security. Cryptocurrency presents many risks, and the market is very volatile. Anyone is welcome to join our bounty campaigns, airdrops, and giveaways. We have dedicated a whopping 6% of our total supply right now to these offers, and have frozen an additional 15% to launch more reward programs beginning 2 years from now! The VibraVid platform and the entire model of BeatzCoin are optimized for user and token holder reward. Aside from our standard campaigns, the VibraVid platform will provide users with several ways in which to earn more BeatzCoin. For example, someone may upload a video, and provide a bounty for you to view their content. VibraVid will also offer rewards in the form of contests. For example, we may announce that the video with the most views in 24 hours will receive 1,000 BeatzCoin. These are just some of the many ways we will continue to reward our community.

You started your journey from January 2018. How have the past 8 months been for you?

Like anything else in life, it has been a real roller-coaster ride. We have had many ups and downs. Several roadblocks have come our way but we’ve always managed to move forward! We’ve reached milestones that we did not see as possible. To do what we are doing takes a lot of time, dedication, and patience…and of course, money. All-in-all, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything, and we are only in the beginning…

 What are some of the learning points and challenges you have faced so far?

There is no particular order; however, I would like to note that funding and dedicated people are the 2 most difficult assets to acquire. I am no expert on all things, so I needed help. In the beginning, I had to pitch my idea to 100’s of people in order to add 1 person to the team. That was the ratio I was working with. The learning process was never much of an issue for me. The problem that usually arose was not having enough time to do things, and needing other, more knowledgeable, people to work on different areas of the project. We started with absolutely no budget. In that scenario, it becomes very difficult to convince people to work for free, however, every now and again you find the right person with the right talent, and they see the same vision. Another challenge for me was working with a completely remote team, as well as people that were not fluent in the language that I speak. Then, of course, were legal concerns. We basically restructured our entire project in order to not be considered any type of security offering.

 To what extent are you trying to innovate to stay ahead of the competition?

During the past 8-9 months we’ve discovered or seen similar projects appear. Some of our competitors are Veracity, Steemit, Vuily, among a few others. Although you may find similar projects, most of them are very fancy in appearance, have some money backing them, have spent a lot more than us on PR but when it boils down to it, none of these projects are creating what we are creating. For instance, some of these projects are using Ethereum. I respect Ethereum but it is not good for micro-payments. We, in fact, were forced to abandon the idea of using Ethereum, specifically due to this issue. I often wonder why people invest in these projects. Another thing that concerns me is that a lot of these projects are using centralized methods of hosting and storage, yet claim to be some type of revolutionary, decentralized project. We are not concerned with the performance of our token. We are testing our own blockchain but we have full confidence in the Tron network. BeatzCoin will continue to remain involved in the building of the Tron community and infrastructure, and that, in my opinion, keeps us ahead of any competition.

At the moment how do you measure your success? What are your metrics?

I don’t see myself, or our project getting comfortable anytime soon. In fact, right now is more important than ever as we push for community adoption and usage. We have set many goals, and continue to achieve them. We, in nearly all cases, meet strict deadlines. Our roadmap is right on course. That is the only measure of success that I can give you at this time.

For someone establishing their own start-up, what advice would you give them?

Gather your ideas. It is very important (and sometimes difficult) to extract the ideas from your mind and put them into words or on paper. Keep editing your ideas until they are reasonably complete. It’s a never ending process but at some point you need to leave that alone and move forward with action. Build a good team. Don’t settle for people who are not willing to give 100%. It will only cause you heartache. In the beginning, not many people will see your vision as clearly as you do. This is perfectly normal, just understand it and accept it. Have patience. Don’t let anyone tell you that it cannot be done. Find and make ways to get it done! Read, study, and observe those who have found success. See what they did…and do it! Utilize any open-source or free methods to do things. You do not need tons of money to start your project or business, though many people will try to convince you otherwise. Lastly, believe in yourself, and always learn from mistakes.

It was our great pleasure to interview Steven Zambron. We TronWeekly Journal  are very impressed with project Beatzcoin is going introduce. With thousands of applications, platforms and websites available, over 5,00,000 hours of music video content is uploaded daily from across the globe on this wonder that is the internet. Add technological advancements, better mobile data connectivity and superior streaming services to the mix, and we notice a steady shift from conventional music platforms to digital music. While this is a boon for the music industry at large, it certainly creates a difficult situation for emerging talent to gather resources to fund their content as well as be noticed in the online space among a herd of creators.. Existing platforms also focus on marketing and revenue generation as their primary motives, failing to incentivize new content creators or users who give fresh content a chance. Here’s where VibraVid and Beatzcoin come in.

The beauty of this application is that at every point a user and well as a creator has the chance to earn Beatzcoin which they can use for a wide plethora of activities on the platform. A user earns Beatzcoins by signing up on the app, participating in bounties, watching paid to view advertisements, completing daily weekly/challenges and much more. On the other hand, creators cash in when someone watches/listens to their content, allowing paid to view videos ads on their content, crowdfunding among other activities. VibraVid has effectively tapped into a gaping market gap that is certain to benefit and reward video creators, record producers, musicians, music enthusiasts and the entire industry at large. VibraVid & Beatzcoin certainly make for a fun experience for one and all!

China & Blockchain Part 2 : The World’s Most Undervalued Market

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Imagine if Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google had just gone public. You were a programmer building the platform — but you couldn’t own any shares.

That is exactly what is happening in China today.

Mr. David Li, the founder of Trinity recently explained on an AMA an interesting difference on how blockchain projects are valued between China and the West.

“For the Chinese who are working on blockchain projects, the price of the underlying project means nothing to them — since they can’t own it. They are focused solely on the tech.”

Thinking about the significance of that statement, I looked at the current daily trading volume for bitcoin to Chinese Yuan (BTCCNY).

The Chinese Yuan accounted for only 0.79% in daily trade volume to bitcoin.

Interesting.

When was the last time the Chinese public had a straight forward onramp from Yuan to bitcoin anyway?

December 2013. Almost 5 years ago.

China stopped mainstream financial institutions on the mainland from dealing with bitcoin in December 2013, when the overall market cap for all cryptocurrencies was only $15.7 billion U.S.

 

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Logarithmic chart from 2013 to Present — Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap

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Closer look at May 2013 to December 2013 market capitalization

The last time there was direct Chinese participation, the total market capitalization went up 881% in 6 months.

Since then, almost 5 years, the market has risen 1310% without the Chinese having a direct path to market participation.

That is a lot of pent up demand.

Imagine working in Shenzhen, seeing the market go up over 1300% while you are programming a blockchain project — and you can’t legally own any of it.

But that still doesn’t paint the entire picture.

The other part to remember is the difference in projects which made up the market in December 2013 at $15.7 billion compared to today, at $221 billion.

It’s a different world.

Here are the Top 25 cryptocurrencies by market cap in December 2013. I pulled this off archived pages from www.coinmarketcap.com

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Some of these projects no longer exist from five years ago.

Today is a very different picture where the projects in scale and function go well beyond the scope of most projects in the Top 25 in 2013.

In fact, just the four Chinese projects below in today’s Top 25 by market cap would have equaled 44% of the entire market capitalization of all blockchain projects in 2013.

#13 Tron — $1.4 billion

#14 NEO — $1.2 billion

#16 Binance — $1.1 billion

#19 VeChain — $719 million

With China not having a direct route to cryptocurrency markets and western institutional investors not in the Chinese blockchain space yet, these current valuations are based mostly on western individual buyers.

The next questions then are:

If China has no direct route to buy any of the projects they are currently working on, are they really even accurately valued at current prices?

Would China want their projects to be accurately valued before the Chinese had a chance to buy their own projects?

How is it possible to gauge current western institutional involvement in the Chinese blockchain space?

The impact on the value of Chinese projects when the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has their own cryptocurrency in place.

Yesterday, it was reported “Bank of Communications (BoCom) a Chinese state-owned commerical bank has issued RMB9.3 billion (US $1.3 billion) of residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) through its proprietary blockchain network, Jucai Chain.”

China is getting closer to issuing a Chinese sovereign cryptocurrency. That day is coming.

President XI is calling blockchain a breakthrough technology, the PBoC have filed for 41 blockchain patents this year, and China State Television say blockchain will be worth 10x more than the internet, estimated at $34 Trillion U.S. dollars.

The Digital Currency Research Lab (DCRL), the research wing of the People’s Bank of China, is the organization furiously filing blockchain patents.

From a report in November 2017, the DCRL said:

“ — it’s inevitable for the central bank to launch its own digital currency to upscale the existing circulation of the fiat currency.”

When that happens, we will see China reopen exchanges on the mainland.

But it won’t be a bitcoin to Chinese Yuan pair.

It will be a — for lack of a better term —a CryptoYuan, paired not just to bitcoin, but to most other Chinese blockchain projects as well.

Similar in function to tether pairings currently, but fully backed by the PBoC and stable in value to the Yuan.

Where Chinese can transfer CryptoYuan direct from their bank accounts to an exchange and buy projects through the direct pairing.

In essence, the Chinese government is signaling their intent of competing directly with stable coins like Tether and cutting out BTC completely as a reserve cryptocurrency, all while maintaining control of their own money supply.

By launching a CryptoYuan, controlled by the People’s Bank of China, this will align the interests of the government, banks, and people simultaneously.

It will give the Chinese government the taxing mechanism that they need through financial transaction transparency. They will not be relying on people to self report like what is currently happening in the West.

Think of it like a 1099 from a brokerage account. The person gets a copy for their records, as does the taxing authority for the Chinese government, but it’s on the blockchain and immutable.

Also, this will not be unique to the Chinese government. The West will eventually follow as taxation through transaction transparency is a driving factor for countries with record low, or negative interest rates as they all seek maximum tax revenues available.

It is the reason the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) has been adopted by most major economies in the world through the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to determine which country has taxing jurisdiction over assets without relying on the owner to self report.

A Chinese sovereign currency will also give the Chinese banks a secured place in the new Chinese blockchain future. The banks will be running the nodes for the blockchain, tracking the transactions from CrpytoYuan to digital assets and back in all accounts.

Notice how you never hear so much as one Chinese banker ever say a bad word about blockchain?

Compare that to the West, where every week it seems like a different banker is on CNBC espousing his personal views on why blockchain will never work and cryptocurrencies are a terrible idea.

Not in China.

The only person that occasionally speaks is the PBoC Director and when he does, all he says about blockchain is “the blockchain belongs to the public and serves the public interest.”

And he calls bitcoin “inspiring”, saying it gives “ordinary people (the) freedom to participate.”

The PBoC sets the tone for the entire financial sector in China.

The silence from the rest of the bankers in China is deafening.

They know their government is putting the pieces in place for their entire country to participate and they will play a key role. They don’t have to say anything.

A sovereign cryptocurrency will give the Chinese people a direct link to their bank accounts to buy blockchain projects.

We will see what the final product looks like when it launches, but if it is what the government is hinting at, China will actually have a more frictionless way to buy blockchain projects and cryptocurrencies than the West.

The Western Disconnect in the Way Chinese Blockchain Projects are Viewed

Global Coin Research recently wrote a fascinating article describing the difference in mindset between Chinese market participants vs western market participants.

Market participants in China know there are bad actors and fraud to watch out for in all markets, cryptocurrencies and blockchain included.

For most western investors, blockchain and cryptocurrencies are their first taste of what an unregulated market feels like.

For individual investors in the blockchain space, we willingly accept this is the digital frontier and know there is no safety out here.

Win or lose, it is completely on us.

There is no regulatory body coming to save us. No bank to call when we send funds to the wrong address on the blockchain or lose a private key.

But for institutional investors, all of that sound terrible, and being comfortable with it completely insane.

In the last two to three years we have seen institutional money start to make forays into the western blockchain space.

But it has been completely safe expeditions.

A long only bitcoin fund.

Possibly buying tokens at steep discounts before the project launches to the public.

Buying a percentage of platforms or exchanges with known entities from previous deals in traditional markets.

Why?

Think about the makeup of the investors who are in these institutional funds. The smallest Limited Partner (LP) allowed in these funds are Accredited Investors who have $1 million liquid net worth. There are different opportunities and rules when these investors hit the $5 million and $10 million mark depending on the fund.

The average age of a millionaire in the U.S. is 59 years old, almost perfectly in the middle of the baby boomer generation in America which is the massive aging population born between 1946–1964.

Talk to most baby boomers. What do they have to say about bitcoin, let alone the blockchain or other cryptocurrency projects?

How about investing in China?

If they have an opinion, far and wide, it is mostly negative on both accounts.

This mindset is what institutional Fund Managers are up against when they bring blockchain deals to their LP’s to invest in.

Chinese markets and Cryptocurrencies combine their clients worst fears.

If the millionaire baby boomer isn’t comfortable with the deal, they won’t invest. If they don’t invest, the fund doesn’t make money.

So the fund managers have stayed with the majority of western projects and traditional type venture investing in the space so far in order to close deals and keep the funds viable.

This is the greatest strategic advantage to the individual investor currently available, but will not last forever.

Eventually the fund managers will have the right connections in China to convince their baby boomer clients to invest in Chinese blockchain deals.

Just look at Global Coin Research’s twitter followers. Venture Capitalists and Institutional Investors reading the same research individual investors are — all looking for an edge in news which is not usually translated to english.

This is not by accident.

China is the only level playing field currently for western individual investors competing at the same price point as institutional investors for projects — for now.

The Dragon Awakens

There is a lot of action currently behind the scenes in the West as institutions prepare custody solutions to allow institutional money from endowments, hedge funds, state pension funds, etc. to join us brave privateers that beat them to this New World of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Bakkt even announced yesterday their first contracts for BTC in November will be a one to one ratio.

All this is bullish.

But the real news has not been announced yet.

China launching the first sovereign cryptocurrency in the world and reopens exchanges so their country can participate.

When that happens we’ll see how high this dragon can go with five years of pent up demand and the largest middle class in the world reentering the cryptocurrency market.

And this time, it will be with the full support of the Chinese government.

Combine that with institutional money eventually flowing into Chinese blockchain projects and we’ll see Chinese projects accurately valued for the first time since they launched.

We will also see if this is when the West wakes up to the fact they are losing the blockchain race.

Whether China launching the CryptoYuan and reopening exchanges is the 21st century Sputnik moment the West needs to spur them into action remains to be seen.

None of this is financial advice. I only know I cannot accurately value any Chinese projects until the PBoC Director lets China participate again.

See you there. — Radigan

Beatzcoin- A New Digital Currency You Should Reckon With

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Satoshi Nakatomo founded the Bitcoin network 2009 kick-starting what has now become one of the biggest global financial revolutions in the area of financial transactions and transfer of assets. Close to a decade later, the cryptocurrency ecosystem is experiencing immense churn with various similar digital currencies being introduced.  The newest kid on the block is Beatzcoin, a digital token that utilizes blockchain technology and is traded on VibraVid, a multi-chain, decentralized platform. This article aims to strengthen the cognizance about Beatzcoin amongst blockchain enthusiasts and potential investors, and the overall blockchain community. Let’s delve into what this newest cryptocurrency has to offer.

What are VibraVid and Beatzcoin?             

It is the need of the hour today for businesses to take their service offerings and products on the mobile platform to cater to a growing consumer pool that needs everything to be accessible in the palm of their hands. From insurance purchases to movie bookings, every service is now packaged into a convenient application. Music is no different.

Beats coin

With thousands of applications, platforms and websites available, over 5,00,000 hours of music video content is uploaded daily from across the globe on this wonder that is the internet. Add technological advancements, better mobile data connectivity and superior streaming services to the mix, and we notice a steady shift from conventional music platforms to digital music. While this is a boon for the music industry at large, it certainly creates a difficult situation for emerging talent to gather resources to fund their content as well as be noticed in the online space among a herd of creators. Added pressure is also on the content creator/artist to shoulder the mantle of promotion and marketing, thus taking their focus away from pure content creation. Existing platforms also focus on marketing and revenue generation as their primary motives, failing to incentivize new content creators or users who give fresh content a chance. Here’s where VibraVid and Beatzcoin come in.

VibraVid is a platform that taps into this space, offering a free peer to peer desktop and mobile streaming application that enables viewers to view and listen to content in the form of videos and audios. Content creators can upload, store, market, lease and sell their content to the users of this app alongside activities such as crowdfunding and sell merchandise and event tickets.

Beatzcoin is a cryptocurrency which is the value of exchange on the VibraVid platform. This ecosystem created by Beatzcoin and VibraVid provides creators and users with a means of exchange to share and purchase content. Users and creators are bestowed with Beatzcoin which they can use to purchase tickets, content and merchandise as well as promote their own content. In such a setup, the content creator is incentivized for their efforts, while the user too gains from giving new and exciting content a listen. Such a system encourages talented artists to go out there and create fresh music, while also giving them a chance to generate a fair income based on how catchy their content is.

VibraVid aims to create 3,000,000,000 Beatzcoin which can be purchased/exchanged using Tron (TRX). For the uninitiated, Tron is a blockchain-based decentralised platform that aims to build a free digital entertainment system that allows easy sharing of content and provides a distributed storage technology. Tron attempts to bridge the gap between content creators and content consumers. Both VibraVid and Tron work on the same shared principles of secured content and providing creators a platform to showcase and leverage their talent. Tronscan.org and Beatzcoin.io will be the only two platforms on which Beatzcoin can be traded.

Now that we have understood the business model of this revolutionary application, let’s understand how exactly users can earn Beatzcoin on the VibraVid platform. The beauty of this application is that at every point a user and well as a creator has the chance to earn Beatzcoin which they can use for a wide plethora of activities on the platform. A user earns Beatzcoins by signing up on the app, participating in bounties, watching paid to view advertisements, completing daily weekly/challenges and much more. On the other hand, creators cash in when someone watches/listens to their content, allowing paid to view videos ads on their content, crowdfunding among other activities. VibraVid has effectively tapped into a gaping market gap that is certain to benefit and reward video creators, record producers, musicians, music enthusiasts and the entire industry at large. VibraVid & Beatzcoin certainly make for a fun experience for one and all!

How Secure is VibraVid?

VibraVid is conceptualised around a reward structure for accessing, watching and listening to content while also allowing the creator of the content to hold the licensing control and ownership rights. Leveraging the IPFS protocol, a file system that makes it possible to distribute high volumes of data with high efficiency, VibraVid ensures that data security and sanctity is maintained. The IPFS protocol supports fast bandwidth speed by splitting large volumes of data into logical chunks for easy transmission through a pre-existing network structure. In order to nullify any possible loophole in the IPFS system, VibraVid encodes its videos with an overlay layer, making sure that either a Beatzcoin wallet or a node is required to decode it. This comprehensive framework protects the content of the creator ensuring their rights and ownership of work is upheld.

The problem of pirated content is plaguing the entire global music industry. Due to some bogus and spam links, pornographic materials too find their way into legitimate platforms. Their problems are tackled by a comprehensive watch and control system that identifies and blacklists the hash or the code of such videos rendering them unwatchable.beats

The Future of Beatzcoin

The creators of this one of a kind music platform have done their best to fashion a platform to streamline creative content and give deserved recognition and monetary benefit to talented creators. However, they plan on leaving the future of VibraVid and Beatzcoin to be decided by market dynamics and sentiment. A small percentage of the value of the transaction will be rolled back into the VibraVid platform as an operational fee, in order to fund the functioning and operating costs of the platform.

The creators aim to see VibraVid as a go-to platform for all entertainment needs as well as a space where upcoming talented creators can showcase their work without feeling the pinch of limited resources of the hassle of dealing with middlemen. The enthusiasm and involvement of creators, as well as users of this platform, will largely shape the future trajectory of Beatzcoin as a digital currency and VibraVid as a successful platform.