EXPERIMENT - Tracking Top 10 Cryptos of 2018 - Month Thirty-Four - Down -74%
See the full blog post with all the tables here.
tl;dr

I'll give the first one to find the four hidden cultural references some moons.
What's this all about? I purchased $100 of each of Top Ten Cryptos in Jan. 2018, haven't sold or traded. Did the same in 2019 and 2020. Learn more about the history and rules of the Experiments here.
October - BTC and Litecoin had a very good month and crypto as a whole did much better than traditional markets.
Overall since Jan. 2018 - Bitcoin still far ahead. And, for the first time since I started this experiment back in Jan. 2018, I'm happy to report: BITCOIN HAS BROKEN EVEN!!!
Combining all three three years, Top Ten cryptos is tied with the S&P if I'd taken a similar approach.

Month Thirty Four – Down 74%

2018 Top Ten Summary for October
After an all-red September, it’s nice to see a bit of green this month. Thanks mainly to Bitcoin, the 2018 Top Ten Portfolio finished October with modest gains overall.
But, STOP THE PRESS, what is that!??! Green in the “Total % Change” column!?!? Yes indeed: for the first time in 34 monthly updates, I’m happy to announce that BTC ended October worth more than the price I paid for it on the 31st of December, 2017. Although only up +4% overall, it’s been a long road: this small 2018 Top Ten victory is to be celebrated.

Question of the month:

In October, this global payment service announced it will support cryptocurrency buying, selling, and shopping through its platform.

A) Paypal
B) Square
C) Stripe
D) Alipay
Scroll down for the answer.

Ranking and October Winners and Losers

Rank of 2018 Portfolio - 40% of cryptos are drop outs
Not much movement this month, a bit strange for the 2018 Top Ten Portfolio. Only three cryptos shifted positions in October: NEM’s Top Twenty hopes seem to be fading fast (it dropped from #22 to #24); XLM picked up one spot (#18 to #17); and, much to the relief of long time crypto-ers with a soft spot for the silver to BTC’s gold, Litecoin was able to stop its freefall, rebounding back into the Top Ten nicely, picking up four spots (#12 to #8). Welcome back LTC.
Drop outs: After thirty-four months of this experiment 40% of the cryptos that started 2018 in the Top Ten have dropped out. NEM, Dash, IOTA, and Stellar have been replaced by Binance Coin, Tether, LINK, and most recently, DOT.
October Winners – For the second month in a row, this month’s W goes to Bitcoin, up +25% for the month. Litecoin finishes the month in second place, up 17% and climbing back into the Top Ten.
October Losers – For the second month in a row, this month’s L goes to NEM, down -16%. IOTA finished down -11%, the second worst performer of the month.
For the overly competitive nerds, below is a tally of the winners of the first 34 months of the 2018 Top Ten Crypto Index Fund Experiment. Bitcoin still has the most monthly wins (9) and Cardano in second place with 6 monthly wins. With another poor performance in October, NEM now has 8 monthly losses.
Every crypto has at least one monthly win and Bitcoin is unique as the only cryptocurrency that hasn’t lost a month yet since January 2018.
Ws and Ls - One coin to rule them all

Overall update – BTC far ahead and breaks even, ETH in distant second place. Dash in last place.

So here we are: point break even. On the 31st of December, 2017, I bought $100 worth of BTC (0.008) at $13,170. Nearly three years later that same 0.008 is worth $13,665. Although only 4%, it’s a symbolic victory and one that’s been a long time coming. The initial investment of $100 thirty-three months ago is now worth about $83. A distant second place, Ethereum is down -45% since January 2018.
At this point in the 2018 Top Ten Experiment, Dash is at the bottom. It has lost -93%. The initial $100 invested in Dash 34 months ago is now worth $6.52.
The 2018 Portfolio welcomed LTC back Top Ten in October. September 2020 was the first time since I started the experiment back in January 2018 that Litecoin had fallen out of the Top Ten.

Total Market Cap for the entire cryptocurrency sector:

Total market cap - back over the $400B mark for the first time in over 2.5 years
The crypto market gained about $50B in finished October over the psychologically important $400B mark, a level we haven’t seen since the end of April 2018.

Bitcoin dominance:

BitDom - growing
After a few months of dipping, BitDom shot back up to 63.1% in October. A big move, but for context, it was up over 68% earlier in 2020.
For even more context: since the beginning of the experiment, the range of Bitcoin dominance has been quite wide: we saw a high of 70% BitDom in September 2019 and a low of 33% BitDom in February 2018.

Overall return on $1,000 investment since January 1st, 2018:

2018 Top Ten ROI
The 2018 Top Ten Portfolio gained about $25 bucks in October. Despite BTC breaking even, the portfolio overall is still struggling: if I cashed out today, the $1000 initial investment would return about $264, down -74% from January 2018.
Down -74% sounds bad (and it is), but the overall direction lately has been encouraging and a nice break from the negative eighties. Here’s a look at the ROI over the life of the experiment, month by month, for some context:

2018 Top Ten Monthly ROI - Red, red, red
The absolute bottom was -88% back in January 2019.
So the Top Ten Cryptos of 2018 are down -76%. What about the 2019 and 2020 Top Tens? Let’s take a look:

2019 Top Ten Experiment: up +66% (total value $1,660)
2020 Top Ten Experiment: up +61% (total value $1,613)

So overall? Taking the three portfolios together, here’s the bottom bottom bottom line:
After a $3000 investment in the 2018, 2019, and 2020 Top Ten Cryptocurrencies, my combined portfolios are worth $‭3,537‬ ($264+ $1,660 +$1,613).
That’s up about +18% for the three combined portfolios, compared to +11% last month.
Here’s a table to help visualize:
Combined 2018, 2019, 2020 ROI
That’s a +18% (actually +17.9%) gain by investing $1k on whichever cryptos happened to be in the Top Ten on January 1st for three straight years.
But surely you’d do better if you went all in on one crypto, right?
Depends on your choice. Let’s take a look:
Three year club: BTC and ETH tied
Only five cryptos have started in the Top Ten for all three years: BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, and LTC. Knowing what we know now, which one would have been best to go all in on?
As of this month, it’s basically a tie between BTC and ETH. Both are up +121%, (although BTC is technically $21 ahead of ETH).
So: with $3,000 USD, dropped in $1k chunks on January 1st three times in a row since New Year’s Day 2018, you would be up +121%, by going all in on either BTC or ETH.
The worst choice? At this point in the experiment, that would be XRP, down -32%.

Comparison to S&P 500:

I’m also tracking the S&P 500 as part of the experiment to have a comparison point with other popular investments options. The S&P 500 Index continued its fall from an all time high in August. It ended October up +22% since January 2018.

Monthly S&P since January 2018
The initial $1k investment into crypto on January 1st, 2018 would have been worth about $1220 had it been redirected to the S&P.
But what if I took the same invest-$1,000-on-January-1st-of-each-year approach with the S&P 500 that I’ve been documenting through the Top Ten Crypto Experiments? Here are the numbers:

$1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2018 = $1220 today
$1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2019 = $1300 today
$1000 investment in S&P 500 on January 1st, 2020 = $1010 today

Taken together, here’s the bottom bottom bottom line for a similar approach with the S&P:
After three $1,000 investments into an S&P 500 index fund in January 2018, 2019, and 2020, my portfolio would be worth $3,530.
That is up +17.6% since January 2018. Compared to a +17.9% gain of the combined Top Ten Crypto Experiment Portfolios. You can compare against five individual coins (BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, and LTC) by using the table above if you want.
Gentlemen and lady (hello lady, I see you back there) we have a tie.
Well, not quite a tie, crypto is up .3% so crypto gets the win:
Three year S&P vs. Top Ten Crypto Experiments Combined ROI
That’s seven monthly victories for the S&P vs. three monthly victories for crypto. The largest gap so far was a 22% difference in favor of the S&P in June.

Conclusion:

October saw a bit of divergence between crypto and the S&P: crypto up, S&P down. That separation is nice to see when it often seems that crypto moves in tandem with traditional markets. Two more months left in the year. What more will 2020 throw at us? And how will crypto and traditional markets respond?
Thanks for reading and for supporting the experiment. I hope you’ve found it helpful. I continue to be committed to seeing this process through and reporting along the way. Feel free to reach out with any questions and stay tuned for progress reports. Keep an eye out for my parallel projects where I repeat the experiment twice, purchasing another $1000 ($100 each) of two new sets of Top Ten cryptos as of January 1st, 2019 then again on January 1st, 2020.

And the Answer is…

A) Paypal
Paypal announced in October that it will allow customers to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Customers will also be able to pay with crypto at 26 million merchants on its network starting in early 2021.

So, I have been told that one if the best ways Nano will get adoption and visibility is when Bitcoins fees start to creep back to $50 average or even higher and show an ineffective transaction network. People will then start to look into cheaper and faster networks and Nano will be high on that list.
However, I dont know if it will be that easy. My two big concerns are exchanges and search results.
1) Most new comers to crypto will use exchanges like Coinbase or Paypal. When they see issues with Bitcoin their first place to look for another coin will be those same exchanges and therefore they will find coins like BCH, Ripple, Stellar, Ehtereum, Litecoin, ect which will all have lower fees and times than Bitcoin. Buying Nano on Kraken or Binance.Us is not easiest experience for a new comer and the volume there is not great either.
2) If someone actually looks for a better coin using google they will only find Nano if the google "feeless cryptocurrency," for this search Nano is in the top results. However, if they google "fast cryptocurrency" or "cheap to send crypto" they got a bunch of results that don't refer to Nano

For us who use Decentralized Finance (DeFi) as a common term, we know it represents an enormous shift in how we transact with one another: borrowing money, exchanging currencies, how we view insurance, etc. While total assets involved in DeFi still seem to be increasing right now, there are various factors that will prevent us from growing further.
DeFi’s largest barriers for adoption
Interoperability — Right now Ethereum gas fees seem like they are always increasing and ETH 2.0 may still be 6 months or more away. We need the ability to make DeFi more accessible to individuals who can’t afford high gas prices per transaction and start including native blockchain assets that are stranded on other platforms.
Trust — Unfortunately our biggest issue is still trust. While none of us in crypto expect to know the identity of the other party, many of us just send funds to people we don’t know for vague promises of more wealth. In fact, the biggest type of fraud is still the “giveaway scam” which asks offer to send something back — but its only an offer, there is no guarantee. This is totally unsustainable.
What about doing business outside of crypto?
Ultimately, DeFi doesn’t keep going unless we create methods for non-crypto native businesses to integrate. While the community might approve sending crypto to each other without a safety in place, this will never work for 99% of online marketplaces.
So we need:

DeFi options on lower cost platforms
Trading across blockchains
Safer Transactions
More flexibility for peer to peer transactions
Easier methods for online marketplaces to integrate and use crypto

This is why we created Bondly.

https://preview.redd.it/5gs8v5ce1hu51.png?width=1400&format=png&auto=webp&s=fade2f7576626022460b7882f379552d44b678c7
Bondly is a brainchild of over 3 years of working in fintech digital escrow payments + love for native DeFi. Adding our cumulative 13 years of traditional financial services, 6 years of eCommerce marketing, 4 years of Ethereum blockchain development, we think this will be one of the most important next steps in DeFi.

What is Bondly?

Bondly is a trusted, transparent and portable swap protocol designed to make you into a marketplace.
Our family of trust-enabling, DeFi products are designed to be a part of your everyday buying and selling activities, giving you piece of mind for your next swap or online purchase.

BONDSWAP (BSWAP)

Similar to Binance OTC Trading Portal but directly on-chain and can be sent via any chat app using different blockchains
Wallet to Wallet trustless Over the Counter (OTC) trades that are performed by signing a smart contract. Completely portable smart link can be sent via a chat app or on your favorite social media. It will first support all ERC-20 tokens and NFT (Ethereum) then eventually
With BSWAP you can:

Sell a large order of a low liquidity token with no risk of slippage
Become your own NFT marketplace by minting the token, setting your own price, then post to your social media for your audience to buy
Buy assets using Debit/Credit card (using our third party partner onramp)
Send smart link in Telegram to someone you know or your favorite group

BOND DEX

Similar to Mooniswap but includes rewards token provided to Liquidity Providers on top of fee share
Interoperable Decentralized Exchange (DEX) thats easy to use and blockchain agnostic. Requires liquidity provider (LP) participants to pool assets for a portion of transaction fees along with rewards APY rewards. Our pricing engine will compare major cross chain swap options and will let you know the best one to use (even if its not us). Validation is done directly within your Web3 browser (with Metamask) or polkadot.js based Native Wallet.
With BOND DEX you can:

Trade native assets on Polkadot with USDC on Ethereum
Get recommendations on the cheapest bridge transaction path
Create your own asset pairs that otherwise might not exist

BOND PROTECT (BPROTECT)

Similar to Paypal/AliPay Express Buyer Protection combined with Escrow.com with a simple UX like Zapper.fi or Zircon
This is our most revolutionary product that we feel will have the largest impact to the eCommerce market.
PROTECT is decentralized escrow and buyer protection for customers of crypto friendly marketplaces.

Designed to replace all site specific crypto escrow products with an easy to use API and completely smart contract driven product. Marketplaces may still be in a ‘validator’ role for the marketplace transaction but now they don’t have direct access to funds. This mitigates misappropriation by the marketplace along with exit scamming
By participating in the Bondly network, marketplace vendors can represent themselves as BPROTECT ready and show their on-chain transaction history and successful Bondly enabled deals
BPROTECT will have a similar UX to Zapper.Fi that will pull this vendors on chain activity and history into one place across ethereum and our native substrate chain so you can see their status and history
Functions as a ‘Buyer Protection’ similar to most major marketplaces, where customers are protected by collateral within Bondly
First customers will be marketplaces that sell digital goods like Domain Names and In-Game items and that support crypto payments already. Existing domain name credentials and ownership will be wrapped in an NFT and swapped for requested crypto directly
Requires that the marketplace itself stakes Bondly collateral as well as each individual marketplace vendor
COMPLETELY UNDERCUTS the whole ‘fake review’ industry which is prominently used to inflate value on sites like Amazon.com

With BPROTECT you can

Give more trust to your buyers that you will provide the purchased asset in a timely fashion
As a buyer you can request sellers to use this method so you have more trust
Sell an asset via OTC that you do not have yet (e.g. waiting for vesting) by staking collateral in the Bondly network
Set up recurring payments from individuals to vendors that can deduct from your account every month, similar to a Netflix subscription completely crypto enabled

How does BOND PROTECT work?

For individual OTC Trades:

Seller stakes collateral and ensures the buyer will receive asset by a specified date or with a specific condition
If agreement is violated, collateral is forfeited and transferred to the buyer

For Marketplace Vendors:

Vendors stake collateral (earning staking rewards for doing so)
Should a vendor violate a sale condition (e.g. not deliver a good on time), BOND collateral is provided to buyers as compensation
Each sale is recorded on-chain for transparency
Vendors who provide extended positive service with a long term history are rewarded through our staking/LP rewards program

https://preview.redd.it/3t8a39rh1hu51.png?width=737&format=png&auto=webp&s=6c9e1f41cc862859bbee1e263f740bbe6a106057

Bonding with Polkadot

As our ‘sibling’ projects Darwinia and Bifrost have realized, Polkadot and using Substrate represents a phenomenal step forward in interoperability.
It offers:

Total flexibility for building a cross asset non-custodial token bridge
Seamless integration of our partners/peer bridges between infrastructure
Built in network security
Efficient token standard indexing for every type of asset in every type of blockchain

We don’t have Digital Money without Bitcoin; We don’t have Smart Contracts and DeFi without Ethereum; We don’t have true interoperability without Polkadot and Substrate.
In a future article we will talk more about our Kusama testnet release.

Whats next for BONDLY?

BONDSWAP for Ethereum, the first formal product release, will be available soon (so hold off on your OTC transaction until then). This will include support for the Bondly staking program. Detailed roadmaps for the other products will be announced soon!
In the meantime we will be making additional articles (but not limited to) the following topics:

Our first BPROTECT marketplace customers
The BONDLY Liquidity Marketplace
Partnership Announcements
Team Details

Please join our community and sign up for the alpha! We are so excited to share more with you soon!
Web: https://www.bondly.finance/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BondlyFinance
Telegram: t.me/bondlyfinance

This is a long post, but please try to read it all and select the most suitable one for you. When you see any sites with good payout and good potential, feel free to create a post. Also when you know site that is scam, please create a post to alert everyone as soon as possible.

There're 4 main and common types of task you will encounter when using beermoney sites. You can use all the sites or just pick the most suitable type and site to work with. Using more than one site is recommended, as the number of tasks on one site is not high enough, and the tasks will not appear continuously.

I. MICRO-TASK (or Crowdsourcing task)

The task varies from article assessment, information collection, search-query classification/answer relevance, taking or collecting photo/video, to object identification,... The number of tasks will increase when you complete more tasks.
Pros:
- The number of tasks is higher and more stable than other types of beermoney task.
- The payout is appropriate to your time and effort. You can even make stable income with them.
Cons:
- Sometimes you will need to pass the training test to access the task.
- Your work may not be accepted if it does not meet the guideline.
- It can be a little hard in the beginning, there're also not many tasks for you, but BE PATIENT, because they haven't been able to fully assess your ability yet.
1-Toloka Yandex:
This is one of my favorite micro-task sites, and is the first on the list when I make beermoney site suggestion.
The tasks are mainly in English and Russian. They also have tasks in your mother language too, depend on your setting and location. Don't worry about the language, as you can easily have it to be translated with translate extension (like Google Translate) or with any translation site. The task is easy enough to understand.
The minimum withdrawal is $0.02 if you request to withdrawal once a week, and it will be $1 if more than once a week. You can withdraw the money to PayPal, Payoneer, Skrill or Papara. But to be able to withdraw with PayPal, you will need a verified PayPal account.
Earnings with Toloka
Here are registration links: ref-link and no-ref
2-Clickworker:
One of the most popular micro-task sites, you can find many recommendations and good reputation about them. But to make the most if it, you will need to unlock UHRS, as describe here.
You definitely shouldn't miss Clickworker and UHRS. Their payout rate is higher than Toloka, however it usually takes a month for your earning to become payable. Depend on your location and language, you can earn a great amount of money here, the highest I've earned in 1 day is $35. Be careful that you'll be considered spam if you complete the task too fast
You can receive payment to PayPal account with the minimum of €5. You can choose other payment methods too, like SEPA transfers and Transferwise.
(I'll update payment proof when receiving one - still need some days for the earning to become payable T_T)
No need to say anymore, here are the links: ref-link and no-ref
3-Remotasks
You will need to take part in training (which is quite hard and time-consuming) and pass the test to be able to access the tasks here. The tasks are categorization, text highlighting, image annotation, semantic segmentation,... and well-known Lidar Annotation and Segmentation.
Here are registration links: ref-link and no-ref

NOTE FOR MICRO-TASK:

It's highly recommended to use all those sites, and maybe other sites if you want, because the tasks are not shown continuously.
Make sure to fully understand the guideline, as you will not be credited if you work fails to meet the requirement, which will waste your time and effort.
If you find any task that has low credit but requires a lot of time and effort, don't do it. If requester can still find worker with such low pay, they will continue to do so. It's not worth your time, just going to other tasks or going to other sites to see if there're any available tasks for you.

II. OFFER WALL TASK

Another way to earn beermoney online is to complete Offer wall tasks. You will be asked to install app on your smartphone, sign up, play game and reach determined level, or watching video,.... Doing survey can also be listed here, but it will be shown in separate section.
There're many offer walls for you to choose, with different payout level. Usually each beermoney site will list many offer walls, one offer can appear in more than one site/wall, so make sure to surf around and compare the credit to find the best and highest payout wall/site for that offer.
Pros:
- Easy to do
- Can complete offer many times if you have different kinds of phone (mostly Android and iOS), or using another phone as the tasks are listed on many offer walls.
- Can earn money while playing and relaxing, as mostly the offered apps are games. Some apps only requires you to install and open, make it really quick to have some beermoney.
Cons:
- The payout is not very high. Especially when that offer is going through many walls and sites to reach you.
- Some offers take much time to complete.
- The number of offers is not high enough to do daily.
1-RewardXP
RewardXP has surpassed GG2U to become the highest payout site. They have leveling system, the higher level you reach, the more offer walls you can access and the more benefit you can get.
With the minimum of $5, they provide a variety of withdrawal methods for you to choose, like PayPal, Amazon, Steam,...
Withdraw with $5 minimum from RewardXP
You definitely should try this site. Here are your registration links: ref-link and no-ref. Registration with referral link, you will be given a 5000XP (~$0.5) bonus.
2-GG2U:
This is also my favorite site. Their paying rate is one of the highest in the market ~~(if you find any other site which is higher, feel free to make a suggestion :D~~ THE HIGHEST ONE NOW is RewardXP, see above). Aside from installing and registering app, they also have many survey walls for you.
The most attractive part is that they will give you $1 bonus right after signing up, and after 5 withdrawal requests, you will have a chance to earn up to $7 bonus. With the bonus program, it's hard to say which is better, RewardXP or GG2U.
You can withdraw money to your PayPal account or Coinbase (crypto wallet), with the minimum of $7.
Earning with GG2U
Here are your links: ref-link and no-ref
3-Cointiply
One of the most popular sites, with great community.
They will pay you with cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Doge. You will have many chances to earn coins, by doing offer walls task, rolling the faucet every 1 hour, testing your luck with multiplier or by activating in their packed chat room.
You can also earn some coins by clicking Paid-to-click ads. Most of the time, those ads are from Cointiply user with their referral link embedded, so if you register sites when viewing those ads, they will earn some commission. You can try this strategy too :D
With their mobile app, it will be much easier to do mobile offers. Make sure to check your email and mobile app to get the user-limited Promotion Codes regularly.
Registration links: ref-link and no-ref
4-Swagbucks
Sometimes you can earn money by spending less. Swagbucks offers a big number of sites where you can receive cash back when you shop online. If you shop online a lot, it's worth to take a look
Here are registration link for shopping: ref-link-shopping and no-ref-shopping
Beside the cash back program, Swagbucks also provides offer wall, however the paying rate is not as high as site 1 and 2 above. Anyway, if you want to try, here are your registration links: ref-link and no-ref
5-EarnCrypto
If you're into doing offer walls task and earning crypto currency, try this site too.
Their paying rate is quite lower than above sites, but they have Data entry task, which is daily. By ranking high on their daily leader board, you will be rewarded with a great amount of coins (can even be higher than your earning from doing the data entry task itself :D).
There are many kinds of crypto currency for you to select.
Just take a look if you have much free time and have nothing else to do: ref-link and no-ref

NOTE FOR OFFER WALL TASK:

Every offerwall has a place to track your activity history, like what offer you clicked, what offer you completed and did you receive credit or not. Every time you're about to do an offer, after entering that offer (usually when you click an offer, a small panel about what offer is appears, there will be a button name 'continue' or 'go to offer', after you click that button, you're entering the offer), make sure that offer appears in your history tab of that offer wall. This will enable you to request support in case you complete the offer and have not received credit yet. If it does not appear in the history list, you will not be credited for that offer, so try to click it again.
To find the history tab, after entering offer wall, you will need to find a button named 'My coin', 'My history', 'Support', or button with question mark,... That button should be easy to be found.
Try to surf around to find the offer wall and site having the highest paying rate for the offer, as the same offer will appear in many offer walls and sites.
When you're about to start to do an offer of installing app (especially game), try to read the comment in appstore/playstore to see whether the offer's requirements can be easily to fulfill or not. For example, the requirements are: 1. install game, 2. open it, 3. reach level 30; and you find some comment about cannot reach level 25, or it takes months to reach level 29, then skip that offer, it's not worth the try.

III. PAY TO SEARCH

You can earn nearly passive income from this type of task. They will give you some query, you will search with that query, entering determined site, leaving that site opened for couple of minutes.
Pros:
- It's super easy to do.
- While leaving the site open, you can do any other thing you want, like doing some micro-tasks.
- The paying rate is quite good, especially when you don't need to do much.
Cons:
- The number of queries is not very high.
1-SerpClix
In order to receive more queries to search, make sure to leave the site open and allow the notification.
Even though SerpClix recommends you to interact with the website, it's not necessary because SerpClix will automatically navigate to sub page of that page. Another suggestion here is to install adblock extension, because SerpClix will ban you if you click on any ads on the page, so blocking them beforehand is a good move.
Earning from SerpClix
Here are your registration links: ref-link and no-ref

IV. SURVEY

Probably all offer walls have some kind of surveys there, some surveys are only available through offer walls, some have their own sites. By using their own sites will not guarantee that you will have higher payout though.
Make sure to be honest when doing surveys, despite the fact that you will sometime be disqualified from the survey. There are many reasons why you are disqualified, like because your job is not suitable, your demography is not their target, your answer is not persistent,...
BE CAREFUL, they will keep track of you, even if you clear your cookie, so being dishonest can lead you to be banned from their sites. Again, BE HONEST, and there will be suitable surveys for you.
There will be two types of survey for you: the first one is filling form and selecting answer from their suggestion, the second one is to talk with them directly or via Video call apps. The second one has much much higher earning but the requirement is also higher too.
Pros:
- Easy to do, just being honest
- High payout, especially with the second type of surveys.
- Some survey only need 5 minutes to complete with a high reward.
Cons:
- Some survey can take about 30 minutes to complete, so make sure that you have enough free time.
- You will be disqualified if your information is not suitable to their survey's target.
1-SurveyTime
One of the best sites out there, my favorite one. They will instantly send you $1 or $0.5 (depend on the survey) to your PayPal or Coinbase account when you complete the survey, so no minimum required to withdrawal. The survey you will do here is the first type, filling in the form and selecting answer.
Instant payment from SurveyTime
You can register with SurveyTime through some offer walls, as they will give you some more coins when you complete the survey, but make sure to check their conditions.
Make sure to turn on Browser notification and Email notification so that you don't miss any survey.
Registration links: no-ref
2-Respondent
You will need a microphone and/or webcam (built-in or external) as the survey in Respondent is conducted via video calls, phone calls, in-person discussions. Of course, you will receive a huge reward for doing surveys here, from $5 up-to $1000. This's a great deal, one successful survey can get you more credit than doing hundreds of micro-tasks. Don't miss this site.
They will recommend suitable survey for you, but if you want to view all available survey, make sure to uncheck the 'Recommended' option in Filter panel.
Here're your registration links: ref-link and no-ref

NOTE FOR SURVEY:

Sometimes, they will provide the must-select answer in the question to test if your attention. Make sure to read the question carefully. For example, the question is "Do you agree that 1 + 1 = 2? Select option [I do not agree] in the answer", if you select [I agree], you fail.
BE CAREFUL - BE HONEST
When you're doing the first type survey (filling form, selecting answer), be careful not to install any app, or download anything, or upload your social data file when asked. In that case, just contact survey site support and report it.
It's better to use different survey sites to maximum the number of surveys you receive.

Last word, BE PATIENT - earning online can be a little hard in the beginning.

Feel free to share your experience when using beermoney sites (and your referral link too :D) or ask question about any beermoney sites by creating new post. Also, creating new post when you know that any site is a scam or becomes scam.

P.S 1: In case you need a Crypto wallet, you can use Coinbase, registration links: ref-link and no-ref, or Binance ref-link and no-ref. You can read here for the comparison between Coibase and Binance
P.S 2: You can add some email addresses to PayPal account, so you can use many email address to register to beermoney sites if you want
P.S 3: If you're confident with your English, and have a computer, microphone and webcam, you can try Usertesting site, you will visit a website that requires you to test, talk about your experience of using that site
Here is the link: no-ref

This post will show you the best ways to buy litecoins using many different payment methods and exchanges for each method.
Before you start, make sure you have a good litecoin wallet to store your LTC. NEVER store your litecoins on a crypto exchange.

Popular Exchanges

eToro

Start trading fast; high limits
Easy way for newcomers to get bitcoins
Your capital is at risk.

Coinbase

High liquidity and buying limits
Easy way for newcomers to get bitcoins
“Instant Buy” option available with debit card

Coinmama

Works in almost all countries
Highest limits for buying bitcoins with a credit card
Reliable and trusted broker

Buy Litecoin with Credit Card or Debit Card

Let’s dive into some of the exchanges supporting Litecoin credit card purchases.
These exchanges are our favorite ways to buy.

Coinbase

Coinbase is the easiest way to buy litecoins with a credit card.
Coinbase is available in the United States, Canada, Europe, UK, Singapore, and Australia.
The fees will come out to 3.99% per purchase.
Here is a good video that can help walk you through the process of buying on Coinbase, although it’s fairly easy.

Coinmama

Coinmama recently added the ability to buy litecoin directly on the platform. Users from nearly any country in the world can use Coinmama to buy litecoins.
Coinmama has some of the highest limits among credit card exchanges.

BitPanda

BitPanda is based in Austria and is a crypto brokerage service. You can buy using a credit card from most European countries.

CEX.io

CEX.io is based in the UK and is one of the oldest crypto exchanges online.
CEX.io supports litecoin and its users from nearly anywhere in the world can buy litecoin with credit card on the platform.

Buy Litecoin with Bank Account or Bank Transfer

Coinbase

Coinbase is the easiest way to buy litecoins with a bank account or transfer.
Coinbase, like is is for credit cards, is available in the United States, Canada, Europe, UK, Singapore, and Australia.
Coinbase is one of primary exchanges used to buy Litecoins.
Americans can use ACH transfer (5–7 days wait), and Europeans can use SEPA transfer (1–3 days wait).
The fees will come out to 1.49% per purchase.

BitPanda

BitPanda is based in Austria and is a crypto brokerage service. You can buy using SEPA transfer from most European countries. You can also use SOFORT, NETELLER, or GiroPay.

CEX.io

CEX.io also supports litecoin buys via bank account. This is via wire transfer for US citizens, SEPA for Europe, and SWIFT for the rest of the globe.

Binance

Binance is now one of the largest if not the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. It supports bank and card purchases of Litecoin as well as Litecoin trading pairs with Bitcoin and Etehreum.

Get a Litecoin Wallet

Before we move onto other options:
Never store your litecoins on an exchange!
Always withdrawal your litecoin to an offline cryptocurrency wallet like the Ledger Nano S or any other wallet that you control.
The Ledger Nano S and TREZOR are the best options for secure storage.

Other Methods to Buy Litecoin

If you don’t have a card or want to avoid the high fees, you can use the following methods to buy Litecoin as well.
Find out which one works best for you.

Buy Litecoin with PayPal

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to buy Litecoin with PayPal. Other sites will tell you that cex allows for this, but that is no longer the case.
You can, however, now use eToro to buy Litecoin, unless you live in the United States.
If you live in the US, the only way to buy Litecoin with Paypal is to buy Bitcoin using paypal, and then use the Bitcoins to buy Litecoin. You can easily buy Bitcoin using Paypal on Local Bitcoins. Once you have Bitcoin, you can use an exchange like Coinbase Pro to swap the Bitcoin for Litecoin.

Buy Litecoin with Cash

There is no good way to buy litecoins with cash. LocalBitcoins is the most popular way to buy bitcoins with cash, and it does not have Litecoin support. Other popular cash to Bitcoin exchanges like BitQuick and Wall of Coins also do not support LTC. So you will have to first buy bitcoins with cash then exchange them for LTC using the method described below.
The same goes for Bitcoin ATMs. Most do not support Litecoin. So if you want to buy litecoins at a Bitcoin ATM you first have to buy bitcoins and then trade the BTC for litecoins.

Buy Litecoin with Bitcoin

If you already have Bitcoins then it is VERY simple to convert some of your BTC to litecoins.
You just need to find an exchange with the LTC/BTC pair, which is most exchanges since LTC/BTC is a very popular pair to trade.

Buy Litecoin with Skrill

BitPanda, mentioned above, also accepts Skrill payments for LTC. The fees will vary and are simply included in your buy price.

Cryptmixer

Cryptmixer is probably the fastest way to convert BTC to Litecoin. You just enter the amount of LTC you want to buy, and give them a LTC address. Then they will tell you how much BTC to send to their address. Once your BTC is sent, you will have LTC delivered to your wallet very shortly after.

Buy Litecoin with Ethereum

Ethereum has experienced a massive price rise. Nearly a year ago it was $10, and now at over $500, many want to move some of their ETH gains into other coins like Litecoin.
Litecoin has very good liquidity, and is very popular among traders especially in China.
So this guide is going to show you how to buy litecoins with Ethereum. We will show some of the best exchanges you can use, and the pros and cons of using different types of exchanges over the other.

Cryptmixer

Cryptmixer is one of the most unique exchanges, and also one of the fastest ways to convert your ETH to LTC.
With Cryptmixer you do not even need to store your money with the exchange, meaning you are at very little risk of getting your funds stolen.
With Cryptmixer you simply specify the amount of LTC you want to buy, and specific the address to where your litecoins should be sent and within 30 minutes you will have LTC delivered to your wallet.

Poloniex

Poloniex is the world’s largest altcoin exchange. However, there is a huge downside to using Poloniex to convert your ETH to LTC:
Poloniex does not have a LTC/ETH market, meaning you have to first trade your ETH to BTC, and then trade your BTC for LTC.
While this method works, you will have to make multiple trades and also pay fees twice.

ShapeShift

Shapeshift is basically the same as Cryptmixer, and was actually the first company to come up with the concept of an exchange that does not hold your own funds.

Frequently Asked Questions About Buying Litecoin

Many of you may still have lots of questions about how to buy Litecoin.
Odds are we have answered almost any question you could think of below.
We will aim to answer many of the most common questions relating to buying Litecoin.

Why are there limited options to buying Litecoin using other altcoins?

The issue in all crypto markets is liquidity. As the space gets bigger, the liquidity also gets better. But as of now, the only VERY liquid cryptocurrency is Bitcoin. So exchanging two altcoins between each other is often harder than if BTC was involved on one side of the trade.

How much is a Litecoin worth?

Like all currencies, the value of Litecoin changes every second. The value of Litecoin also depends on the country you are in and the exchange you are trading on. You can find the most up to date price on Coinbase.

How do I buy Ripple (XRP) with Litecoin?

The best way to buy Ripple using Litecoin is to either use a non KYC exchange like Cryptmixer or start an account on Binance or Coinbase Pro and sell your Litecoin for Ripple. Look for LTC/XRP trading pairs, and make your trade.

How long does Litecoin take to confirm?

Litecoin blocks are added ever 2 and a half minutes. That means you should get one confirmation every two and a half minutes. This can vary if it takes miners longer to discover a block, but the difficulty of the finding a block should change proportionate to the hashing power on the network so that a block gets added approximately every 2.5 minutes.
If you are trying to send money to a merchant, they may require more than one confirmation before they send you products. If you are depositing on an exchange, they may also require three or more confirmations before they credit your account.

How many Litoshis make one Litecoin?

one hundred million (100,000,000) Litoshis make one (1) Litecoin.

Where do I store Litecoin?

The best place to store litecoin is on a hardware wallet. You can find the best one for you on our page dedicated to hardware wallets.

When is the Litecoin halving?

The expected date of the next Litecoin block reward halving is August 7th, 2023.

Why can litecoin take so long to buy?

Litecoin can take long to buy because the legacy banking system is very slow. If you are buying with another cryptocurrency, you will see how fast it is to buy!
Bank transfer in the USA, for example, take about 5 days to complete. So any purchase of Litecoin made with a US bank transfer will take a minimum of 5 days.

How do I buy Litecoin with Paypal?

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to buy Litcoin with PayPal. Other sites will tell you that cex allows for this, but that is no longer the case.
You can, however, now use eToro to buy Litcoineum, unless you live in the United States.
If you live in the US, the only way to buy Litcoin with Paypal is to buy Bitcoin using paypal, and then use the Bitcoins to buy Litcoin. You can easily buy Bitcoin using Paypal on Local Bitcoins. Once you have Bitcoin, you can use an exchange like Cryptmixer to swap the Bitcoin for Litcoin.

Can you buy partial litecoins?

Yes, litecoin, like Bitcoin, is divisible to many decimal places so you can buy 0.1 LTC, 0.001 LTC, etc.

Can you sell litecoin?

Yes, you can sell LTC on most of the exchanges mentioned above. The fees, speed, and privacy is the same in most cases.

Can anyone buy litecoins?

Anyone is free to buy litecoins, as long as you find an exchange that supports your country. Most cryptocurrency wallets do not require ID to sign up so you can always make a wallet and get paid in litecoin, too.

Which payment method is best to use?

For speed, credit card will likely be fastest. For larger amounts, bank transfer is best. For privacy, it’s best to buy bitcoins with cash and then trade for litecoins using Cryptmixer or Shapeshift.

Is it better to mine or buy litecoins?

If you have cheap electricity, it might be worth it to mine litecoins. If you have solar power or just want to mine for fun then it could be worth it. Otherwise, it’s probably better just to buy.
Mining is constantly changing and small changes in Litecoin price or electricity can greatly affect your profitability.

What should I do with my litecoins once I buy?

You should immediately move your litecoins into a secure wallet. You should never leave your litecoins on an exchange. There have been countless hacks in cryptocurrency since Bitcoin was created in 2009. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost money. So buy your litecoins, and then instantly send them into a wallet you control so you are not at risk of losing money to a hack or scam.

Hello humans,
I've been trading on binance for a while and have some profits to show. My issue is that I live in Canada and I cannot sell directly to my bank in fiat. Now, I expect some of my currencies will see major growth in the coming year and I want to be able to execute a quick deposit to my bank when I think my coins have hit their peak.
In order to sell my coins on binance I first have to convert to ETH or BTC and send to my coinbase wallet. From there I can sell to fiat in using PayPal (up to $3000 per transaction, which is low and I'll have to execute multiple transactions just to liquidate all of my crypto). I've withdrew some small "tester" sums to analyze this process, and it works. The issue is that the process takes a long time and there can be catastrophic market fluctuations while I am waiting for transactions to clear.
So I guess my question to experienced investors in Canada is:
If bitcoin rallies 400%(for example) and you want to cash out before it crashes, what is your process for getting the funds as quickly as possible to avoid losses?
Ps. I am using the terminologies here to the best of my knowledge but let me know if the syntax is inadequate for this query.
Thanks again!

For months I've been searching and learning on how to invest in the stock market, I have even used many simulations and it seems that I've been doing good, so I moved to the next step, actually making an account and do the thingy. But apparently, not being able to trade in the in the stock market was just another con to be added to the endless cons of being in/from Iraq. So I turned my face to crypto currency, because, it's "decentralised" and "open for everyone", but for another whole month I came to realise that crypto-related corporation don't differ much from governments, because to this moment, I am still not able to transfer money from my credit card into crypto currency on any wallet/exchange. Yes, if you're from anywhere other than the "do they have internet there?" countries, there are alot of ways to get and exchange crypto with no KYC regulations needed, but they don't work for me, because at some point in the procedure, I'll need to apply for KYC, manly to make payment-services accounts, as such as PayPal (which also don't support Iraq). I did find one and I think it's the only way to BUY crypto and cycle it through exchanges with no need for KYC, which is by paying with gift cards to a P2P website, which then will send you bitcoin to your wallet let's on Binance. But then the problem is how to get the money out of the cycle, because I need to finish KYC in order to withdraw to my credit card, and neither can I exchange them with gift cards because in order to be a merchandiser (seller) on P2P exchanges, I would need to finish KYC.
So, is there any actual way for someone in my situation to get into the crypto world?

Pssst! Hey you. Scroll down for commentary!
Important/Notable/Highlights:

Special Mentions:

You haven't had enough news? Here is some more:

Speculation:

You made it! :)
First up, SORRY! This has been a late post, I have my reasons don't question them (if you must know I'll be posting in the discord - one time only haha). Secondly, I am sure you can agree with me when I say "Wow!" What an incredible week it has been. Last week I thought it was going to take a couple more weeks for more moving price action when it had only taken a few days which has seen Bitcoin reach and pass the $10,000 region. We have also seen the total Market cap for cryptocurrencies increase from about 280B to over 300B (308B at time of writing) within just a few days. A huge injection of liquidity, about 40B, into the market and just to name a few of the best rises in the top 20 (on Coinmarketcap.com), the price of ETH BTC ADA have given good performances/positive responses (With this I will start adding screenshots at the end of each week for timestamp purposes).
This may be a combination from Binance, Mastercard, Paypal, Grayscale investments, VISA AND the DEFI sector. Let me explain... Last week we read about Binance integrating with the company Swipe (SXP) to issue there own debit card expanding the use and reach of cryptocurrency to 31 countries within Europe. ^Binance's Q2 scheduled token burn of $60.5 Million, this figure correlates with its exchange, margin and futures trading platforms where approximately 20% of profits get burned to increase the price of BNB token (careful as the price has been steady after the burn).
This week we find out Mastercard's expansion into the Cryptosphere as they expand and integrate with the Wirex team to issue a Mastercard-backed Bitcoin debit card, thus further extending the reach of cryptocurrency availability internationally.
"The cryptocurrency market continues to mature and Mastercard is driving it forward, creating safe and secure experiences for consumers and businesses in today’s digital economy " "...Our work with Wirex and the wider crypto ecosystem is accelerating innovation and empowering consumers with more choice in the way they pay"
Mastercard is also reaching out to other emerging cryptocurrency firms to apply to become principal members [Partners] with Mastercard as they have relaxed their digital assets program and look to expand into the Digital Assets and Blockchain environment.
Paypals expression of interest in cryptocurrency facilitiation may bear fruits as it is said Paypal has partnered up with stablecoin operator Paxos (who is already in partnership with Revolut in the US) to facilitate trading through a cryptocurrency brokerage which will enable other firms to integrate cryptocurrency trading functionalities with them. In my opinion this looks much more promising than the Libra association they pulled out from last October as regulations.
Grayscale Investments clears regulatory hurdle as they have been given the green light for its Bitcoin Cash Trust (BCHG) and Litecoin Trust (LTCN) to be quoted in over-the-counter (OTC) markets by US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
“The Trusts are open-ended trusts sponsored by Grayscale and are intended to enable exposure to the price movement of the Trusts’ underlying assets through a traditional investment vehicle, avoiding the challenges of buying, storing, and safekeeping digital Bitcoin Cash or Litecoin directly.”
^More green lights for Cryptocurrency in the US as regulators allow banks to provide cryptocurrency custody services (which may go further than just custody services). A little bit strange as it seems unnecessary and undermines one of the key factors and uses of cryptocurrency which is to be in complete control of your own finances... On another outlook this may be bullish as it allows US banks to provide banking services directly to lawful cryptocurrency businesses and show support for Bitcoin.
Visa shows support stating they have a roadmap for their further expansion into the Crypto sphere. Already working with Crypto platform Coinbase and Fold they have stated they recognise the role of digital assets in the future of money. To be frank, it appears to be focused on stable coins, cost effectiveness and transaction speeds. However they are expanding their support for crypto assets.
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, DeFI! Our very own growing section in crypto. Just like the 2017 ICO boom we are seeing exorbitant growth and FOMO into the Decentralised Finance sector (WBTC, Stablecoins, Yield farming, DEXs etc). The amount of active addresses on Ethereum has doubled but with the FOMO on their network have sky rocketed their fees! Large use-cases of stable coins such as USDT ($6B in circulation using ERC-20 standard), DAI, TUSD, and PAX. $114M Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) on their network acts as a fluid side chain for Bitcoin and DEX trade volume has touched $1.6B this month. With all this action happening on Ethereum I saw the 24HR volume surpass BTC briefly on Worldcoinindex.com
In other news, Bitcoin has been set as a new precedent in a US federal court in a case against Larry Dean Harmon, the operator of an underground trading platform Helix. Bitcoin has now legally been ruled as a form of money.
“After examination of the relevant statutes, case law, and other sources, the Court concludes that bitcoin is money under the MTA and that Helix, as described in the indictment, was an `unlicensed money transmitting business´ under applicable federal law.”
Quick news in China/Asia as floods threaten miners and the most dominant ASIC Bitcoin mining rig manufacturer Bitmain loses 10,000 Antminers worth millions alledgedly goes missing or "illegally transfered" with ongoing leadership dispute between cofounders.
Last but not least, Cardano (ADA) upgrade Shelley is ready to launch! Hardfork is initiated as final countdown clock is switched on. At time of writing the point of no return has been reached, stress tests done and confirmation Hardfork is coming 29/07 The Shelley Mainnet upgrade is a step toward fast, capable and decentralised crypto that can serve billions of people. With the Shelley Mainnet is ADA staking rewards and pools! Here is a chance for us Gravychainers to set up a small pool of our own. Small percentage of profits going into the development of the community, and you keep the rest!
If you read all of my ramblings thanks heaps! I appreciate it! I have added an extra piece of reading called speculation. Most you can speculate on by just reading the headline some others have more depth to them.
Another post next week for a weekly round up! Where do you think the market is going? What is in your portfolio? Let us know in the Gravychain Discord Channel
See you soon!

DISCORD LINK: https://discord.gg/zxXXyuJ

🍕 Bring some virtual pizza to share 🍕
Come have a chat, stimulate a discussion, ask a question or share some knowledge. We are all friendly crypto enthusiasts up for a chat, supportive and want to help each other with knowledge and investments!
Big thanks to our Telegram and My Crypto HQ for the constant news updates!

The Gravychain Collective: https://t.me/gravychain
My Crypto HQ: https://t.me/My_Crypto_HQ

P.S.
Dr Seuss collectables on the blockchain HECK YEAH! and Bitcoin enters NASCAR, remember when Doge did this? it was like when Doge was trending on TikTok.
... Oh yeah did I also mention Steve Wozniak is suing Youtube, Google over rampant Bitcoin scams. Wait, what? Sydney based law firm JPB Liberty is suing Google, Facebook and Twitter for up to $300B. Just another day in the Cryptosphere.

I have a client since December who has been offering to pay in bitcoins, I opted for PayPal always because I have never used bitcoins and don't know much about it. In March, client again insisted to pay in Bitcoins and just within few days Bitcoin crashed by 60%. If I had accepted the payment and failed to withdraw it quickly, I would have lost 60% of income I believe.
Client is again offering to pay me in Bitcoins, suggesting it is really easy to withdraw from binance. I am considering it as we will work together for 3-4 months. Is there any benefit in getting paid in Bitcoins? Do your clients pay more when paying in Bitcoins instead of USD or INR? I have read that Bitcoin is legal in India but is it treated same as our currency when it comes to Income Tax or there are any special rules?

Until one understands the basics of this tech, they won’t be able to grasp or appreciate the impact it has on our digital bank, Genesis Block.
https://reddit.com/link/ho4bif/video/n0euarkifu951/player
This is the second post of Crypto-Powered — a new series that examines what it means for Genesis Block to be a digital bank that’s powered by crypto, blockchain, and decentralized protocols.
---
Our previous post set the stage for this series. We discussed the state of consumer finance and how the success of today’s high-flying fintech unicorns will be short-lived as long as they’re building on legacy finance — a weak foundation that is ripe for massive disruption.
Instead, the future of consumer finance belongs to those who are deeply familiar with blockchain tech & decentralized protocols, build on it as the foundation, and know how to take it to the world. Like Genesis Block.
Today we begin our journey down the crypto rabbit hole. This post will be an important introduction for those still learning about Bitcoin, Ethereum, or DeFi (Decentralized Finance). This post (and the next few) will go into greater detail about how this technology gives Genesis Block an edge, a superpower, and an unfair advantage. Let’s dive in…
https://preview.redd.it/1ugdxoqjfu951.jpg?width=650&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=36edde1079c3cff5f6b15b8cd30e6c436626d5d8

Bitcoin: The First Cryptocurrency

There are plenty of online resources to learn about Bitcoin (Coinbase, Binance, Gemini, Naval, Alex Gladstein, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon). I don’t wanna spend a lot of time on that here, but let’s do a quick overview for those still getting ramped up.
Cryptocurrency is the most popular use-case of blockchain technology today. And Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be invented.

Bitcoin is the most decentralized of all crypto assets today — no government, company, or third party can control or censor it.

Bitcoin has two primary features (as do most other cryptocurrencies):

Send Value You can send value to anyone, anywhere in the world. Nobody can intercept, delay or stop it — not even governments or financial institutions. Unlike with traditional money transfers or bank wires, there are no layers of middlemen. This results in a process that is much more cost-efficient. Some popular use-cases include remittances and cross-border payments.
Store Value With nothing but a smartphone, you can become your own bank and store your own funds. Nobody can seize your assets. The funds are digital and stored on a blockchain. Your money no longer needs to be stored at a bank, in a vault, or under your mattress. I covered a few inspiring use-cases in a previous post. They include banking the unbanked, protecting assets from government seizure, mitigating the risk of a bank run, and protection against hyperinflation (like what recently happened in Venezuela).

The fact that there are so few things one can do with Bitcoin is one of its greatest strengths.

Its design is simple, elegant, and focused. It has been 10+ years since Satoshi’s white paper and no one has been able to crack or hack the Bitcoin network. With a market cap of $170B, there is plenty of incentive to try.
https://preview.redd.it/bizndfpkfu951.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=456c53b798248e60456a65835a33c69b2fe8daf0

Public Awareness

A few negative moments in Bitcoin’s history include the collapse of Mt. Gox — which resulted in hundreds of millions of customer funds being stolen — as well as Bitcoin’s role in dark markets like Silk Road — where Bitcoin arguably found its initial userbase.
However, like most breakthrough technology, Bitcoin is neither good nor bad. It’s neutral. People can use it for good or they can use it for evil. Thankfully, it’s being used less and less for illicit activity. Criminals are starting to understand that transactions on a blockchain are public and traceable — it’s exactly the type of system they usually try to avoid. And it’s true, at this point “a lot more” crimes are actually committed with fiat than crypto.
As a result, the perception of bitcoin and cryptocurrency has been changing over the years to a more positive light.
Bitcoin has even started to enter the world of media & entertainment. It’s been mentioned in Hollywood films like Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse and in songs from major artists like Eminem. It’s been mentioned in countless TV shows like Billions, The Simpsons, Big Bang Theory, Gray’s Anatomy, Family Guy, and more.
As covid19 has ravaged economies and central banks have been printing money, Bitcoin has caught the attention of many legendary Wall Street investors like Paul Tudor Jones, saying that Bitcoin is a great bet against inflation (reminding him of Gold in the 1970s).
Cash App already lets their 25M users buy Bitcoin. It’s rumored that PayPal and Venmo will soon let their 325M users start buying Bitcoin. Bitcoin is by far the most dominant cryptocurrency and is showing no signs of slowing down. For more than a decade it has delivered on its core use-cases — being able to send or store value.

At this point, Bitcoin has very much entered the zeitgeist of modern pop culture — at least in the West.

https://preview.redd.it/dnuwbw8mfu951.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f1f135e3effee4574b5167901b80ced2c972bda

Ethereum: Programmable Money

When Ethereum launched in 2015, it opened up a world of new possibilities and use-cases for crypto. With Ethereum Smart Contracts (i.e. applications), this exciting new digital money (cryptocurrency) became a lot less dumb. Developers could now build applications that go beyond the simple use-cases of “send value” & “store value.” They could program cryptocurrency to have rules, behavior, and logic to respond to different inputs. And always enforced by code. Additional reading on Ethereum from Linda Xie or Vitalik Buterin.

Because these applications are built on blockchain technology (Ethereum), they preserve many of the same characteristics as Bitcoin: no one can stop, censor or shut down these apps because they are decentralized.

One of the first major use-cases on Ethereum was the ability to mint and create your own token, your own cryptocurrency. Many companies used this as a way to fundraise from the public. This led to the 2017 ICO bubble (Initial Coin Offerings). Some tokens — and the apps/networks they powered — were fascinating and innovative. Most tokens were pointless. And many tokens were outright scams. Additional token reading from Fred Ehrsam, Balaji, and Naval.
https://reddit.com/link/ho4bif/video/b5b1jh9ofu951/player

Digital Gold Rush

Just as tokens grew in popularity in 2017–2018, so did online marketplaces where these tokens could be bought, sold, and traded. This was a fledgling asset class — the merchants selling picks, axes, and shovels were finally starting to emerge.

I had a front-row seat — both as an investor and token creator. This was the Wild West with all the frontier drama & scandal that you’d expect.

Binance — now the world’s largest crypto exchange —was launched during this time. They along with many others (especially from Asia) made it really easy for speculators, traders, and degenerate gamblers to participate in these markets. Similar to other financial markets, the goal was straightforward: buy low and sell high.
https://preview.redd.it/tytsu5jnfu951.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe3425b7e4a71fa953b953f0c7f6eaff6504a0d1
That period left an embarrassing stain on our industry that we’ve still been trying to recover from. It was a period rampant with market manipulation, pump-and-dumps, and scams. To some extent, the crypto industry still suffers from that today, but it’s nothing compared to what it was then.

While the potential of getting filthy rich brought a lot of fly-by-nighters and charlatans into the industry, it also brought a lot of innovators, entrepreneurs, and builders.

The launch and growth of Ethereum has been an incredible technological breakthrough. As with past tech breakthroughs, it has led to a wave of innovation, experimentation, and development. The creativity around tokens, smart contracts, and decentralized applications has been fascinating to witness. Now a few years later, the fruits of those labors are starting to be realized.

DeFi: Decentralized Finance

So as a reminder, tokens are cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies can carry value. And value is a lot like money. Because tokens are natively integrated with Ethereum, it’s been natural for developers to build applications related to financial services — things like lending, borrowing, saving, investing, payments, and insurance. In the last few years, there has been a groundswell of developer momentum building in this area of financial protocols. This segment of the industry is known as DeFi (Decentralized Finance).
https://preview.redd.it/f0sjzqspfu951.png?width=461&format=png&auto=webp&s=8e0a31bf29250fc624918fbd8514b008762f379e
In Q2 of 2020, 97% of all Ethereum activity was DeFi-related. Total DeFi transaction volume has reached $11.5B. The current value locked inside DeFi protocols is approaching $2 Billion (double from a month ago). DeFi’s meteoric growth cannot be ignored.
Most of that growth can be attributed to exciting protocols like Compound, Maker, Synthetix, Balancer, Aave, dYdX, and Uniswap. These DeFi protocols and the financial services they offer are quickly becoming some of the most popular use-cases for blockchain technology today.
https://preview.redd.it/wn3phnkqfu951.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=02f56caa6b94aa59eadd6e368ef9346ba10c7611
This impressive growth in DeFi certainly hasn’t come without growing pains. Unlike with Bitcoin, there are near-infinite applications one can develop on Ethereum. Sometimes bugs (or typos) can slip through code reviews, testing, and audits — resulting in loss of funds.
Our next post will go much deeper on DeFi.

Wrap Up

I know that for the hardcore crypto people, what we covered today is nothing new. But for those who are still getting up to speed, welcome! I hope this was helpful and that it fuels your interest to learn more.
Until you understand the basics of this technology, you won’t be able to fully appreciate the impact that it has on our new digital bank, Genesis Block. You won’t be able to understand the implications, how it relates, or how it helps.
After today’s post, some of you probably have a lot more questions. What are specific examples or use-cases of DeFi? Why does it need to be on a blockchain? What benefits does it bring to Genesis Block and our users?
In upcoming posts, we answer these questions. Today’s post was just Level 1. It set the foundation for where we’re headed next: even deeper down the crypto rabbit hole.
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Other Ways to Consume Today's Episode:

Read on Medium: https://medium.com/genesisblock/crypto-powered-understanding-bitcoin-ethereum-and-defi-f1433487eaff
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pTDdI0Jkqw4
Listen on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/genesisblock/9-crypto-powered-understanding-bitcoin-ethereum-and-defi
Listen via Podcast (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc): https://anchor.fm/genesis-block/episodes/9-Crypto-Powered---Understanding-Bitcoin--Ethereum--and-DeFi-eggfjs

We have a lot more content coming. Be sure to follow our channels: https://genesisblock.com/follow/
Have you already downloaded the app? We're Genesis Block, a new digital bank that's powered by crypto & decentralized protocols. The app is live in the App Store (iOS & Android). Get the link to download at https://genesisblock.com/download

Let's talk about some of Nano's biggest issues. I also made a video about this topic, available here: https://youtu.be/d9yb9ifurbg.
00:12 Spam
Issues

Nano has 0 transaction fees, which could make it more vulnerable to spam.
Proof-of-Work (PoW) can be precomputed, which could allow bad actors to dump millions of blocks (transactions) on the network at once.
ASICs could be created to make precomputing PoW trivial for spam attacks.
Current node software and hardware cannot handle thousands of TPS (low-end nodes fall behind at even 50 TPS).

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

Proof-of-Work is required for all transactions, which acts as a fee (costs electricity and time).
PoW takes a non-trivial amount of time, so precomputing PoW takes hours or days to generate enough traffic to actually affect the network (>150 TPS) for even a short period of time.
Nano nodes don't rebroadcast invalid transactions.
Dynamic Proof-of-Work allows legitimate users to have their transactions prioritized over spam by automatically increasing their PoW slightly if the network is congested.
As network scalability improves, more and more pre-computed PoW must be done to actually impact the network.
There is no single-blockchain that all transactions must be added to. Transactions are processed asynchronously, meaning that real user transactions can be processed separately from spam.
Creating an ASIC (none currently exist for Nano) costs millions of dollars, and is typically created to increase mining rewards (which Nano doesn't have). Why would someone make an ASIC just to attack Nano? Nano could also change the PoW algorithm to make ASICs useless. Memory-hard PoW is already being evaluated.
Remember that even just 50 TPS (which Nano can comfortably do) is over 4 million transactions per day. PayPal had almost 100 million users before it was doing ~5 million transactions per day in 2011

01:58 Privacy
Issues

Nano has no privacy. It is pseudonymous (like Bitcoin), not anonymous.

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues & Outstanding Issues*

Second layer solutions like mixers can help, but some argue that isn't enough privacy.
The current protocol design + the computational overhead of privacy does not allow Nano to implement first layer privacy without compromising it's other features (fast, feeless, and scalable transactions).

02:56 Decentralization
Issues

Nano is currently not as decentralized as it could be. ~25% of the voting weight is held by Binance.
Users must choose representatives, and users don't always choose the best ones (or never choose).

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

Currently 4 unrelated parties (who all have a verifiable interest in keeping the network running) would have to work together to attack the network
Unlike Bitcoin, there is no mining or fees in Nano. This means that there is not a strong incentive for emergent centralization from profit maximization and economies of scale. We've seen this firsthand, as Nano's decentralization has increased over time.
Nano representative percentages are not that far off from Bitcoin mining pool percentages.
In Nano, voting weight can be remotely re-delegated to anyone at any time. This differs from Bitcoin, where consensus is controlled by miners and requires significant hardware investment.
The cost of a 51% attack scales with the market cap of Nano.

06:49 Marketing & adoption
Issues

The best technology doesn't always win. If no one knows about or uses Nano, it will die.

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

I would argue that the best technology typically does win, but it needs to be best in every way (price, speed, accessbility, etc). Nano is currently in a good place if you agree with that argument.
Bitcoin started small, and didn't spend money on marketing. It takes time to build a community.
The developers have said they will market more once the protocol is where they want it to be (v20 or v21?).
Community marketing initiatives have started to form organically (e.g. Twitter campaigns, YouTube ads, etc).
Marketing and adoption is a very difficult problem to solve, especially when you don't have first mover advantage or consistent cashflow.

08:07 Small developer fund
Issues

The developer fund only has 3 million NANO left (~$4MM), what happens after that?

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

The goal for Nano is to be an Internet RFC like TCP/IP or SMTP - development naturally slows down when the protocol is in a good place.
Nano development is completely open source, so anyone can participate. Multiple developers are now familiar with the Nano protocol.
Businesses and whales that benefit from Nano (exchanges, remittances, merchant services, etc) are incentivized to keep the protocol developed and running.
The developer fund was only ~5% of the supply - compare that to some of the other major cryptocurrencies.

10:08 Node incentives
Issues

There are no transaction fees, why would people run nodes to keep the network running?

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

The cost of consensus is so low in Nano that the benefits of the network itself are the incentive: decentralized money with 0 transaction fees that can be sent anywhere in the world nearly instantly. Similar to TCP/IP, email servers, and http servers. Just like Bitcoin full nodes.
Paying $50-$100 a month for a high-end node is a lot cheaper for merchants than paying 1-3% in total sales.
Businesses and whales that benefit from Nano (exchanges, remittances, merchant services, etc) are incentivized to keep the protocol developed and running.

11:58 No smart contracts
Issues

Nano doesn't support smart contracts.

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

Nano's sole goal is to be the most efficient peer-to-peer value transfer protocol possible. Adding smart contracts makes keeping Nano feeless, fast, and decentralized much more difficult.
Other solutions (e.g. Ethereum) exist for creating and enforcing smart contracts.
Code can still interact with Nano, but not on the first layer in a decentralized matter.
Real world smart contract adoption and usage is pretty limited at the moment, but that might not always be the case.

13:20 Price stability
Issues

Why would anyone accept or spend Nano if the price fluctuates so much?
Why wouldn't people just use a stablecoin version of Nano for sending and receiving money?

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

With good fiat gateways (stable, low fees, etc), you can always buy back the fiat equivalent of what you've spent.
The hope is that with enough adoption, people and businesses will eventually skip the fiat conversion and use Nano directly.
Because Nano is so fast, volatility is less of an issue. Transactions are confirmed in <10 seconds, and prices change less in that timeframe (vs 10 minutes to hours for Bitcoin).
Stablecoins reintroduce trust. Stable against what? Who controls the supply, and how do you get people to adopt them? What happens if the assets they're stable against fail? Nano is pure supply and demand.
With worldwide adoption, the market capitalization of Nano would be in the trillions. If that happens, even millions of dollars won't move the price significantly.

15:06 Deflation
Issues

Nano's current supply == max supply. Why would people spend Nano today if it could be worth more tomorrow?
What happens to principal representatives and voting weight as private keys are lost? How do you know keys are lost?

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

Nano is extremely divisible. 1 NANO is 10³⁰ raw. Since there are no transaction fees, smaller and smaller amounts of Nano could be used to transact, even if the market cap reaches trillions.
People will always buy things they need (food, housing, etc).
I'm not sure what the plan is to adjust for lost keys. Probably requires more discussion.

Long-term Scalability
Issue

Current node software and hardware cannot handle thousands of TPS (low-end nodes fall behind at even 50 TPS).
The more representatives that exist, the more vote traffic is required (network bandwidth).
Low-end nodes currently slow down the network significantly. Principal representatives waste their resources constantly bootstrapping these weak nodes during network saturation.

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

Even as is, Nano can comfortably handle 50 TPS average - which is roughly the amount of transactions per day PayPal was doing in 2011 with nearly 100 million users.
Network bandwidth increases 50% a year.
There are some discussions of prioritizing bootstrapping by vote weight to limit the impact of weak nodes.
Since Nano uses an account balance system, pruning could drastically reduce storage requirements. You only need current state to keep the network running, not the full transaction history.
In the future, vote stapling could drastically reduce bandwidth usage by collecting all representative signatures up front and then only sharing that single aggregate signature.
Nano has no artificial protocol-based limits (e.g. block sizes or block times). It scales with hardware.

Obviously there is still a lot of work to be done in some areas, but overall I think Nano is a good place. For people that aren't Nano fans, what are your biggest concerns?

They offer payouts from PayPal all the way to crypto currencies included Bitcoin(BTC); Ethereum(Eth); Litecoin(Ltc); Bitcoin Cash(BCH) and even Paysafecards and more.....
The Payout also includes Opskins and CS:GO Shop
The min withdraw is 1000 points (0,10$) for BCH and LTC
1000 Point (0,10$) For Opskins and CS:GO Shop
1000 Points (0,10$) for Ethereum
1000 Points (0,10$) for Bitcoin
Aprox. 60.000 Points (6,00$) for the first Paysafecard
and a lot more !
But for example, you can convert your BCH in any other Crypto Currencie if needed for example on Binance or OKEX.
You earn points very fast. I would recommend to do the Final Fantasy XV offer on Adgate at the start
(The Citadel Level 10 for less time and less reward, the Power 100k for more time and more reward)
(Advice:Upgrade your Citadel to 7 and upgrade all your baracks also to 7 have like 10 farms 9 stone generators, 5 metal generators , and one energy generator for fastes success all on level 7.
If you watch in the "Upgrade your Hero" Event is also Op, so don't use hero xp when there is no event. If you have something from the event like 250 Points you will get an bonus (Limit is 60, but with 250 your ranked higher)
and then you can upgrade your walls with the Fire walls (4x faster then normal walls) witch also gives you over 24000 Power(~25%) .Then only train troops ( siege machine)
and you will have 100k in under 5 days if you are lazy.
Other offers are also insane good

A very good feature is that you can mine wit hthis website for points. Like WTF free points for your Pc running :o OMG

Referral link https://www.idle-empire.com?r=nz3rkp
Non Referral : www.idle-empire.com/
Payment proof(s) https://imgur.com/a/FByksjQ

Some of you might recall recall our initial facepalm failed launch about 3 months ago (post-mortem here). Well, we're back--this time with an audit and some new features. This version of DAIHard should should die a little harder this time ;)

The Audit

After shopping around a bit in the auditor space, we decided to go with Adam Dossa--the very same Adam Dossa that actually found our launch vulnerability and responsibly disclosed it to us! You can see his report here. By the way, Adam has been a gem: friendly, professional, timely, and flexible. Definitely keep him in mind if you need an audit!

(Re)Introducing DAIHard

Following is an updated version of our original launch post. If you've already read that, you might want to skip to the heading What's New in v0.9.2. Or you can go straight to the app or go to our info site for more info!
Here is a legitimate concern most of us are familiar with:

To enter or exit the crypto economy, we rely on centralized exchanges such as Coinbase, which track their users, impose limits, and are tightly coupled to their jurisdiction and its banking system. And for all we know, any day now regulations could start tightening these controls further (*we've actually seen some of this play out in the two months since our first launch post). In light of this, can we say in any meaningful sense that crypto is anonymous, limtiless, borderless, immune to regulation, and (most importantly) unstoppable?

To really address this concern, we need a completely decentralized gateway between fiat and crypto: something that extends the benefits of crypto to the very act of moving between the old and new economies. But the design of such a platform is far from obvious.
(Localethereum comes close, but as discussed under Unkillable, it doesn't quite cut it. And Bisq is decentralized, but has significant UX hurdles.)
We believe we've found a solution. We are proud to present:

DAIHard v0.9.2 - Almost Definitely Not Broken This Time

If you want to jump right in, we recommend first watching our latest usage demo (7 min), then diving in and giving it a shot with a small amount of Dai. (Try it on Kovan first if mainnet is too scary!)
DAIHard extends many of the promises of crypto (borderless, anonymous, limitless, unstoppable) into the exchange mechanism itself, allowing anyone, anywhere to bypass centralized exchanges and the control they impose.
More concretely, DAIHard is a platform, run on smart contracts, for forming one-off crypto/fiat exchanges with other users, in which:

The method of fiat transfer is open-ended, but agreed upon up-front (for example: bank transfer, cash handoff, transfer of online credit, cash drop...).
You and the counterparty can communicate via end-to-end encrypted chat to coordinate the fiat transfer (i.e. communicate bank account number or reveal a cash drop location).
Crucially, in the last phase, the Seller can choose to burn the Dai instead of releasing it to the Buyer (but he can't get it back). This credible threat of burn is what makes the platform reliable in the absence of a centralized group of arbitrators or moderators. For more on this see the DAIHard Game Theory medium article (10 min read).

Again, our latest usage demo (7 min) shows this process in action.

Two drawbacks

You Need either xDai, or both Dai and Ether, to Use The Tool (At Least For Now)

If you want to buy Dai on DAIHard, you must already have Dai--1/3 of the amount you want to purchase--to put up as a burnable deposit. For example, if you only have 10 Dai now, you can only commit to buying 30 Dai, and must complete that trade before using the newly bought Dai to open up a bigger offer (for up to 120 Dai that time).
Most tragically of course, this means that if you don't already have some crypto, you can't use this tool to get crypto--this is why we avoid calling DAIHard an onramp specifically. This comes from the fact that both parties must have "skin in the game" for the game theory to work, and a smart contract can only threaten to burn crypto.
We have some ideas on how to address this drawback in the not-too-distant future, which we'll write about soon. For now it's time to launch this thing and get some users!

Dangerous and Scary To Use

In rare cases, a user may have to burn Dai and face a loss on the entire trade amount. The necessity of this ever-present risk is explained in detail in DAIHard Game Theory.
However, a cautious, rational user can gather information (possibly via our [subreddit](daihard)!) about how people have used the tool, successfully and unsuccessfully. They can then create a buy or sell offer with wisely chosen settings based on what has worked for others. Other cautious, rational users can find this offer and commit to the trade if they dare. We expect the vast majority of committed trades should involve rational, cautious users, and should therefore resolve happily.
Still, inevitably there will be sloppy trades that result in burns. As the tool is used, we'll be keeping a close eye on the frequency of burns and keeping you guys updated (perhaps via a "System Status" utility similar to the one found on MakerDao's explorer). In the end, though, we expect the risk in using DAIHard to be comparable to the risk of using any exchange or DNM: ever-present but low enough for the platform to be useful as whole.
So, while DAIHard will never shut down and can't perform an exit scam, the bad news is it's not risk-free. Users will have to approach DAIhard with the same level of caution they would with any new exchange (albeit for different reasons and with a different approach).
So what's the good news?

The Good News

While these drawbacks are significant, they enable some remarkable features that no other crypto/fiat exchange mechanism can boast.

Unkillable

(Correction: Bisq seems to have a decentralized arbitration system)
We are aware of no other crypto/fiat exchange platform that is truly unkillable. ~~Bisq and~~ localethereum comes close, but ~~both~~ localethereum relies on centralized processes of arbitration. This means their fraud-and-scam-prevention system can be sued, jailed, or otherwise harrassed--and if that part stops working, it doesn't matter how decentralized the rest of the system was.
DAIHard, in contrast, gives the users the power to police and punish each other, via the aforementioned credible threat of burn. This is simple game theory, and the rules of this game are etched permanently into the DAIHard Factory and Trade contract code: impervious to litigation, regulation, and political pressure.
This Factory contract has no owner and no suicide or pause code. It cannot be stopped by us or anyone else.
Like Toastycoin, this thing was immortal the moment it was deployed (even more immortal than RadarRelay, for example, which does rely on an ownership role). Both DAIHard and Toastycoin (and probably whatever we build next) will last for as long as a single Ethereum node continues mining, and it will remain easy to use as long as someone can find the HTML/JS front-end and a web3 wallet.
(The HTML/JS front-end (built in Elm, by the way, with the lovely elm-ethereum!) is currently hosted on Github pages, which is centralized--but even if Github takes down the page and deletes the code, it's a minor step to get the page hosted on IPFS, something that is on our near-term roadmap in any case)

No KYC, No Limits

It's smart contracts all the way down, so DAIHard never asks any nosy questions--if you have Metamask or some other web3 wallet installed and set up, with some ETH and Dai (or just xDai), you can immediately open or commit to a trade. You don't even need a username!
(In fact, we're so inclusive, even machines are allowed--no CAPTCHA here!)
You're limited only by the collateral you put up, so if you have 10,000 Dai you could open up a buy offer for 30,000 Dai (or a sell offer for 10,000 Dai) right now.
We do reccommend trying the tool out first with a small amount of Dai... But we're not your mom! Do what you want!

Borderless

It simply doesn't matter where you are, because DAIHard doesn't need to interface with any particular jurisdiction or payment system to work. DIAHard works by incentivizing people (or robots?) to navigate the particular real-world hurdles of bank transfers, cash drops, or other fiat transfer methods. These incentives work whether you're in America, Zimbabwe, or the Atlantic; they work whether the fiat is USD, EUR, ZAR, seashells, or Rai Stones; and they work whether your counterparty is a human, an organization, a script, or a particularly intelligent dog with Internet access.

Any Fiat Type, and Highly Customizeable

Here are some examples of the types of trades you might create or find on DAIHard.

Sell 5 xDai for $5 USD, sent via TransferWise.
Sell 200 Dai for $180 USD, granted they bring the cash to you by tomorrow afternoon in Central Park, NYC.
Buy 20 Dai with a $30 gift card for Amazon AWS that you were never going to use.
Sell 20 Dai in exchange for a $20 Steam game.
While in Vietnam, sell 200 Dai to someone for €180 anytime in the next two weeks, provided they deposit it into your German bank account.
While in Germany, sell 20 Dai to someone in exchange for them refilling your pre-paid Vietnamese phone plan.
Buy 30 Dai for 8,000 ZWD, which you deliver anonymously by cash drop in Hume Park, Bulawayo, sometime within the next month. (If there's one place that could use unstoppable access to crypto, it's Zimbabwe, and you don't need to take our word for it.)
Buy 500 Dai for $550 via PayPal, but wait 3 weeks for before the Dai is released (so the paypal transaction can't be reversed).

As the DAIHard community grows, users will doubtless find much more creative ways to use the system, and we will discover together which types of trades are reliable and which are more risky. Because users can set their own prices and phase timeout settings, we expect the risky trades to charge a premium or have longer time windows, while the reliable ones rapidly multiply at close to a 1:1 price ratio, with quick turnaround times.

Extensible (with profit) by Third Parties

Not satisfied with our interface? Do you have some nifty idea for how to display and organize user reputation? Or maybe some idea for how trades could be chained togeher? Maybe you'd like to design a notification system for DAIHard? Maybe you just want a different color scheme!
Well, you won't need our permission to do any of this. Any tool that watches the same Factory contract will share the pool of trades, regardless of which tool actually creates the trade. This means we don't even have to fight over network effects!
And if you look closely at our fee structure, you might notice that only half of the 1% DAIHard fee is "hardcoded" into the Factory contract. The other half is set and charged by our interface. What does this mean for you? If you go out and make a better interface, you can essentially replace half of our 1% fee with your own fee--it's up to you whether it's smaller or larger than the replaced 0.5%.
The reason for this is to explicitly welcome other developers to extend what we've built. For as long as our team is the only one improving the platform, a threat to us is a threat to future upgrades. But if others begin extending the DAIHard platform too, then DAIHard will not only be unstoppable as it is today, but also grow unstoppably.

(For Real This Time) This Is a Big Fucking Deal

DAIHard is a turning point in crypto and a breakthrough in decentralized markets, and is an irreversible augmentation of the Ethereum platform.
What we've built is a gateway to crypto completely devoid of centralized components--rendering entry and exit to crypto unkillable, flexible, borderless, and private. Centralized exchanges, and the control they impose, can now be bypassed by anyone with Dai and a web3 wallet.

What's New in v0.9.2

There have been many changes made since our first failed launch, but there are two rather important ones: xDai support and reputation tools.

xDai support

DAIHard is now operational on xDai, a sidechain whose native token (xDai) is pegged to the Dai (and therefore $1). Add the xDai network to your Metamask (or just install Nifty Wallet), then switch to the xDai network in your wallet, to try it out. xDai has some pretty incredible benefits, compared to vanilla Ethereum:

Price: On xDai, a single DAIHard trade costs on the order of $0.01 to run start-to-finish, rather than the accumulated $2.40 (with the best-case-scenario 1gwei gas price) you'll spend on vanilla Ethereum.
Speed: Trade actions mine much faster, and don't require ERC20 'approve' transactions, making the whole process way snappier.
Gas priced in xDai: the main benefit here is that you only need one token (xDai) rather than two (Dai and Eth). Also, it's just nice having the gas cost expressed in (essentially) USD!

Reputation tools

We now have a few reputation tools. First, on any open trade, there is a widget showing the number of releases, aborts, and burns the given address has been involved in as that role (buyer or seller). Clicking on this expands the widget to show more detailed information, and also provides a link to a page that lists each trade this user has been or is involved in.

What's next?

We have tons of ideas on how to improve the product--too many, in fact, to commit to any before we get a good chunk of user feedback. Here are some of our favorite ideas:

Near-Term, Smaller Features

Lots of usability improvements.
A "System Status" utility similar to the one found on MakerDao's explorer).
Marketplace / My Trades rework.
A "QuickTrade" page, offering Trade Templates as an alternative to the current Create Offer page.

Big Exciting Features

Bootstrapping people with no DAI via other mechanisms and community outreach.
Partial commits to trades. eg. Place a 10,000 DAI trade and allow it to be picked up in blocks larger than 500 DAI at a time.
More chains, get this thing working on Bitcoin via Rootstock, on Ethereum Classic and Binance Chain.

Stay Informed!

A lot of the above features will be prioritized more clearly as we get user feedback, and we will be posting fairly frequent updates and articles on our info site. If you don't want to miss anything, note the subscribe widget and sign up!

Hello,
recently I tried buying bitcoin from a cryptocurrency exchange called coinoco. The exchange claimed that I could buy bitcoin without any kyc verification. Needless to say that this "exchange" is a fraud and they scammed me. I ended up getting my money back, but the experience made me want to actually create a crypto exchange that does not require ID. I have ID and I am registered with binance and coinbase, but I just wanted to see if there was any exchange that does not require it in 2020 and sadly their isn't. When I say there are no exchange that don't require kyc, I mean that there are no exchanges that accepts credit/debit cards with no kyc. Localbitcoin and similar services sell bitcoin for too high of a price, you can't really use your debit card directly. You can use like PayPal, but more sellers want you to be KYC with PayPal so what's the difference.

My vision is to create a crypto exchange where people all over the world can buy bitcoin using their debit cards and they will not need to send me their ID. I know why KYC is a thing, it's because of international KYC and AML laws. I think I found a way around this. So for my exchange project I am working on users will need to submit a selfie of themselves doing a particular pose. Once the selfie is taken I will verify your account and you can buy bitcoin, eth, xrp or any crypto I list. Once you make the purchase I will than ship the crypto to your house. By this I mean, I will write on a piece of paper the steps you need to take to receive your crypto. I am thinking about using binance as a service, buying 500 BNB tokens to lower my fees and buying the cryptos off of binance and just creating other exchange accounts where I can send the crypto to that exchange account. Once the crypto is on that exchange account I will write down the username and pw of that account on a piece of paper and ship it to the person and he will than have access to his crypto.

Why do I need to ship it? Shipping would relieve me of the KYC and AML laws, this is why I won't need your proof of address or ID (It will also help with chargeback claims). The shipping, using USPS, should take no more than 1- 3 days since it's just a piece of paper in an envelope.

I know there are a lot of people world wide without ID or bank accounts (This is why I may also do a variety of payment methods like western union, cam pay, etc.) so I believe my service would be useful to them. I was wondering what you guys opinion on this is. I am also scared that their might be any legal issues.

Let's talk about some of Nano's biggest issues. I also made a video about this topic, available here: https://youtu.be/d9yb9ifurbg.
00:12 Spam
Issues

Nano has 0 transaction fees, which could make it more vulnerable to spam.
Proof-of-Work (PoW) can be precomputed, which could allow bad actors to dump millions of blocks (transactions) on the network at once.
ASICs could be created to make precomputing PoW trivial for spam attacks.
Current node software and hardware cannot handle thousands of TPS (low-end nodes fall behind at even 50 TPS).

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

Proof-of-Work is required for all transactions, which acts as a fee (costs electricity and time).
PoW takes a non-trivial amount of time, so precomputing PoW takes hours or days to generate enough traffic to actually affect the network (>50 TPS?) for a period of time.
Nano nodes don't rebroadcast invalid transactions.
Dynamic Proof-of-Work allows legitimate users to have their transactions prioritized by automatically increasing their PoW slightly over spam.
As network scalability improves, more and more pre-computed PoW must be done to actually impact the network.
There is no single-blockchain that all transactions must be added to. Transactions are processed asynchronously, meaning that real user transactions can be processed separately from spam.
Creating an ASIC (none currently exist for Nano) costs millions of dollars, and is typically created to increase mining rewards (which Nano doesn't have). Why would someone make an ASIC just to attack Nano? Nano could also change the PoW algorithm to make ASICs useless. Memory-hard PoW is already being evaluated.

01:58 Privacy
Issues

Nano has no privacy. It is pseudonymous (like Bitcoin), not anonymous.

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues & Outstanding Issues*

Second layer solutions like mixers can help, but some argue that isn't enough privacy.
The current protocol design + the computational overhead of privacy does not allow Nano to implement first layer privacy without compromising it's other features (fast, feeless, and scalable transactions).

02:56 Decentralization
Issues

Nano is currently not as decentralized as it could be. ~25% of the voting weight is held by Binance.
Users must choose representatives, and users don't always choose the best ones (or never choose).

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

Currently 4 unrelated parties (who all have a verifiable interest in keeping the network running) would have to work together to attack the network
Unlike Bitcoin, there is no mining or fees in Nano. This means that there is not a strong incentive for emergent centralization from profit maximization and economies of scale. We've seen this firsthand, as Nano's decentralization has increased over time.
Nano representative percentages are not that far off from Bitcoin mining pool percentages.
In Nano, voting weight can be remotely re-delegated to anyone at any time. This differs from Bitcoin, where consensus is controlled by miners and requires significant hardware investment.
The cost of a 51% attack scales with the market cap of Nano.

06:49 Marketing & adoption
Issues

The best technology doesn't always win. If no one knows about or uses Nano, it will die.

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

I would argue that the best technology typically does win, but it needs to be best in every way (price, speed, accessbility, etc). Nano is currently in a good place if you agree with that argument.
Bitcoin started small, and didn't spend money on marketing. It takes time to build a community.
The developers have said they will market more once the protocol is where they want it to be (v20 or v21?).
Community marketing initiatives have started to form organically (e.g. Twitter campaigns, YouTube ads, etc).
Marketing and adoption is a very difficult problem to solve, especially when you don't have first mover advantage or consistent cashflow.

08:07 Small developer fund
Issues

The developer fund only has 3 million NANO left (~$4MM), what happens after that?

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

The goal for Nano is to be an Internet RFC like TCP/IP or SMTP - development naturally slows down when the protocol is in a good place.
Nano development is completely open source, so anyone can participate. Multiple developers are now familiar with the Nano protocol.
Businesses and whales that benefit from Nano (exchanges, remittances, merchant services, etc) are incentivized to keep the protocol developed and running.
The developer fund was only ~5% of the supply - compare that to some of the other major cryptocurrencies.

10:08 Node incentives
Issues

There are no transaction fees, why would people run nodes to keep the network running?

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

The cost of consensus is so low in Nano that the benefits of the network itself are the incentive: decentralized money with 0 transaction fees that can be sent anywhere in the world nearly instantly.
Paying $50-$100 a month for a high-end node is a lot cheaper for merchants than paying 1-3% in total sales.
Businesses and whales that benefit from Nano (exchanges, remittances, merchant services, etc) are incentivized to keep the protocol developed and running.

11:58 No smart contracts
Issues

Nano doesn't support smart contracts.

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

Nano's sole goal is to be the most efficient peer-to-peer value transfer protocol possible. Adding smart contracts makes keeping Nano feeless, fast, and decentralized much more difficult.
Other solutions (e.g. Ethereum) exist for creating and enforcing smart contracts.
Code can still interact with Nano, but not on the first layer in a decentralized matter.
Real world smart contract adoption and usage is pretty limited at the moment, but that might not always be the case.

13:20 Price stability
Issues

Why would anyone accept or spend Nano if the price fluctuates so much?
Why wouldn't people just use a stablecoin version of Nano for sending and receiving money?

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

With good fiat gateways (stable, low fees, etc), you can always buy back the fiat equivalent of what you've spent.
The hope is that with enough adoption, people and businesses will eventually skip the fiat conversion and use Nano directly.
Because Nano is so fast, volatility is less of an issue. Transactions are confirmed in <10 seconds, and prices change less in that timeframe (vs 10 minutes to hours for Bitcoin).
Stablecoins reintroduce trust. Stable against what? Who controls the supply, and how do you get people to adopt them? What happens if the assets they're stable against fail? Nano is pure supply and demand.
With worldwide adoption, the market capitalization of Nano would be in the trillions. If that happens, even millions of dollars won't move the price significantly.

15:06 Deflation
Issues

Nano's current supply == max supply. Why would people spend Nano today if it could be worth more tomorrow?
What happens to principal representatives and voting weight as private keys are lost? How do you know keys are lost?

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

Nano is extremely divisible. 1 NANO is 10³⁰ raw. Since there are no transaction fees, smaller and smaller amounts of Nano could be used to transact, even if the market cap reaches trillions.
People will always buy things they need (food, housing, etc).
I'm not sure what the plan is to adjust for lost keys. Probably requires more discussion.

Long-term Scalability
Issue

Current node software and hardware cannot handle thousands of TPS (low-end nodes fall behind at even 50 TPS).
The more representatives that exist, the more vote traffic is required (network bandwidth).
Low-end nodes currently slow down the network significantly. Principal representatives waste their resources constantly bootstrapping these weak nodes during network saturation.

Potential Mitigations & Outstanding Issues

Even as is, Nano can comfortably handle 50 TPS average - which is roughly the amount of transactions per day PayPal was doing in 2011 with nearly 100 million users.
Network bandwidth increases 50% a year.
There are some discussions of prioritizing bootstrapping by vote weight to limit the impact of weak nodes.
Since Nano uses an account balance system, pruning could drastically reduce storage requirements. You only need current state to keep the network running, not the full transaction history.
In the future, vote stapling could drastically reduce bandwidth usage by collecting all representative signatures up front and then only sharing that single aggregate signature.
Nano has no artificial protocol-based limits (e.g. block sizes or block times). It scales with hardware.

I am putting together my investment portfolio for 2018 and made a complete summary of the current Top 100. Interestingly, I noticed that all coins can be categorized into 12 markets. Which markets do you think will play the biggest role in the coming year?
Here is a complete overview of all coins in an excel sheet including name, market, TPS, risk profile, time since launch (negative numbers mean that they are launching that many months in the future) and market cap. You can also sort by all of these fields of course. Coins written in bold are the strongest contenders within their market either due to having the best technology or having a small market cap and still excellent technology and potential. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1s8PHcNvvjuy848q18py_CGcu8elRGQAUIf86EYh4QZo/edit#gid=0
The 12 markets are

Currency 13 coins
Platform 25 coins
Ecosystem 9 coins
Privacy 10 coins
Currency Exchange Tool 8 coins
Gaming & Gambling 5 coins
Misc 15 coins
Social Network 4 coins
Fee Token 3 coins
Decentralized Data Storage 4 coins
Cloud Computing 3 coins
Stable Coin 2 coins

Before we look at the individual markets, we need to take a look of the overall market and its biggest issue scalability first:
Cryptocurrencies aim to be a decentralized currency that can be used worldwide. Its goal is to replace dollar, Euro, Yen, all FIAT currencies worldwide. The coin that will achieve that will be worth several trillion dollars.
Bitcoin can only process 7 transactions per second (TPS). In order to replace all FIAT, it would need to perform at at least VISA levels, which usually processes around 3,000 TPS, up to 25,000 TPS during peak times and a maximum of 64,000 TPS. That means that this cryptocurrency would need to be able to perform at least several thousand TPS. However, a ground breaking technology should not look at current technology to set a goal for its use, i.e. estimating the number of emails sent in 1990 based on the number of faxes sent wasn’t a good estimate.
For that reason, 10,000 TPS is the absolute baseline for a cryptocurrency that wants to replace FIAT. This brings me to IOTA, which wants to connect all 80 billion IoT devices that are expected to exist by 2025, which constantly communicate with each other, creating 80 billion or more transactions per second. This is the benchmark that cryptocurrencies should be aiming for. Currently, 8 billion devices are connected to the Internet.
With its Lightning network recently launched, Bitcoin is realistically looking at 50,000 possible soon. Other notable cryptocurrencies besides IOTA and Bitcoin are Nano with 7,000 TPS already tested, Dash with several billion TPS possible with Masternodes, Neo, LISK and RHOC with 100,000 TPS by 2020, Ripple with 50,000 TPS, Ethereum with 10,000 with Sharding.
However, it needs to be said that scalability usually goes at the cost of decentralization and security. So, it needs to be seen, which of these technologies can prove itself resilient and performant.
Without further ado, here are the coins of the first market

Market 1 - Currency:

Bitcoin: 1st generation blockchain with currently bad scalability currently, though the implementation of the Lightning Network looks promising and could alleviate most scalability concerns, scalability and high energy use.
Ripple: Centralized currency that might become very successful due to tight involvement with banks and cross-border payments for financial institutions; banks and companies like Western Union and Moneygram (who they are currently working with) as customers customers. However, it seems they are aiming for more decentralization now.https://ripple.com/dev-blog/decentralization-strategy-update/. Has high TPS due to Proof of Correctness algorithm.
Bitcoin Cash: Bitcoin fork with the difference of having an 8 times bigger block size, making it 8 times more scalable than Bitcoin currently. Further block size increases are planned. Only significant difference is bigger block size while big blocks lead to further problems that don't seem to do well beyond a few thousand TPS. Opponents to a block size argue that increasing the block size limit is unimaginative, offers only temporary relief, and damages decentralization by increasing costs of participation. In order to preserve decentralization, system requirements to participate should be kept low. To understand this, consider an extreme example: very big blocks (1GB+) would require data center level resources to validate the blockchain. This would preclude all but the wealthiest individuals from participating.Community seems more open than Bitcoin's though.
Litecoin : Little brother of Bitcoin. Bitcoin fork with different mining algorithm but not much else.Copies everything that Bitcoin does pretty much. Lack of real innovation.
Dash: Dash (Digital Cash) is a fork of Bitcoin and focuses on user ease. It has very fast transactions within seconds, low fees and uses Proof of Service from Masternodes for consensus. They are currently building a system called Evolution which will allow users to send money using usernames and merchants will find it easy to integrate Dash using the API. You could say Dash is trying to be a PayPal of cryptocurrencies. Currently, cryptocurrencies must choose between decentralization, speed, scalability and can pick only 2. With Masternodes, Dash picked speed and scalability at some cost of decentralization, since with Masternodes the voting power is shifted towards Masternodes, which are run by Dash users who own the most Dash.
IOTA: 3rd generation blockchain called Tangle, which has a high scalability, no fees and instant transactions. IOTA aims to be the connective layer between all 80 billion IOT devices that are expected to be connected to the Internet in 2025, possibly creating 80 billion transactions per second or 800 billion TPS, who knows. However, it needs to be seen if the Tangle can keep up with this scalability and iron out its security issues that have not yet been completely resolved.
Nano: 3rd generation blockchain called Block Lattice with high scalability, no fees and instant transactions. Unlike IOTA, Nano only wants to be a payment processor and nothing else, for now at least. With Nano, every user has their own blockchain and has to perform a small amount of computing for each transaction, which makes Nano perform at 300 TPS with no problems and 7,000 TPS have also been tested successfully. Very promising 3rd gen technology and strong focus on only being the fastest currency without trying to be everything.
Decred: As mining operations have grown, Bitcoin’s decision-making process has become more centralized, with the largest mining companies holding large amounts of power over the Bitcoin improvement process. Decred focuses heavily on decentralization with their PoW Pos hybrid governance system to become what Bitcoin was set out to be. They will soon implement the Lightning Network to scale up. While there do not seem to be more differences to Bitcoin besides the novel hybrid consensus algorithm, which Ethereum, Aeternity and Bitcoin Atom are also implementing, the welcoming and positive Decred community and professoinal team add another level of potential to the coin.
Aeternity: We’ve seen recently, that it’s difficult to scale the execution of smart contracts on the blockchain. Crypto Kitties is a great example. Something as simple as creating and trading unique assets on Ethereum bogged the network down when transaction volume soared. Ethereum and Zilliqa address this problem with Sharding. Aeternity focuses on increasing the scalability of smart contracts and dapps by moving smart contracts off-chain. Instead of running on the blockchain, smart contracts on Aeternity run in private state channels between the parties involved in the contracts. State channels are lines of communication between parties in a smart contract. They don’t touch the blockchain unless they need to for adjudication or transfer of value. Because they’re off-chain, state channel contracts can operate much more efficiently. They don’t need to pay the network for every time they compute and can also operate with greater privacy. An important aspect of smart contract and dapp development is access to outside data sources. This could mean checking the weather in London, score of a football game, or price of gold. Oracles provide access to data hosted outside the blockchain. In many blockchain projects, oracles represent a security risk and potential point of failure, since they tend to be singular, centralized data streams. Aeternity proposes decentralizing oracles with their oracle machine. Doing so would make outside data immutable and unchangeable once it reaches Aeternity’s blockchain. Of course, the data source could still be hacked, so Aeternity implements a prediction market where users can bet on the accuracy and honesty of incoming data from various oracles.It also uses prediction markets for various voting and verification purposes within the platform. Aeternity’s network runs on on a hybrid of proof of work and proof of stake. Founded by a long-time crypto-enthusiast and early colleague of Vitalik Buterin, Yanislav Malahov. Promising concept though not product yet
Bitcoin Atom: Atomic Swaps and hybrid consenus. This looks like the only Bitcoin clone that actually is looking to innovate next to Bitcoin Cash.
Dogecoin: Litecoin fork, fantastic community, though lagging behind a bit in technology.
Bitcoin Gold: A bit better security than bitcoin through ASIC resistant algorithm, but that's it. Not that interesting.
Digibyte: Digibyte's PoS blockchain is spread over a 100,000+ servers, phones, computers, and nodes across the globe, aiming for the ultimate level of decentralization. DigiByte rebalances the load between the five mining algorithms by adjusting the difficulty of each so one algorithm doesn’t become dominant. The algorithm's asymmetric difficulty has gained notoriety and been deployed in many other blockchains.DigiByte’s adoption over the past four years has been slow. It’s still a relatively obscure currency compared its competitors. The DigiByte website offers a lot of great marketing copy and buzzwords. However, there’s not much technical information about what they have planned for the future. You could say Digibyte is like Bitcoin, but with shorter blocktimes and a multi-algorithm. However, that's not really a difference big enough to truly set themselves apart from Bitcoin, since these technologies could be implemented by any blockchain without much difficulty. Their decentralization is probably their strongest asset, however, this also change quickly if the currency takes off and big miners decide to go into Digibyte.
Bitcoin Diamond Asic resistant Bitcoin and Copycat

Market 2 - Platform

Most of the cryptos here have smart contracts and allow dapps (Decentralized apps) to be build on their platform and to use their token as an exchange of value between dapp services.

Ethereum: 2nd generation blockchain that allows the use of smart contracts. Bad scalability currently, though this concern could be alleviated by the soon to be implemented Lightning Network aka Plasma and its Sharding concept.
EOS: Promising technology that wants to be able do everything, from smart contracts like Ethereum, scalability similar to Nano with 1000 tx/second + near instant transactions and zero fees, to also wanting to be a platform for dapps. However, EOS doesn't have a product yet and everything is just promises still. Highly overvalued right now. However, there are lots of red flags, have dumped $500 million Ether over the last 2 months and possibly bought back EOS to increase the size of their ICO, which has been going on for over a year and has raised several billion dollars. All in all, their market cap is way too high for that and not even having a product.
Cardano: Similar to Ethereum/EOS, however, only promises made with no delivery yet, highly overrated right now. Interesting concept though. Market cap way too high for not even having a product. Somewhat promising technology.
VeChain: Singapore-based project that’s building a business enterprise platform and inventory tracking system. Examples are verifying genuine luxury goods and food supply chains. Has one of the strongest communities in the crypto world. Most hyped token of all, with merit though.
Neo: Neo is a platform, similar to Eth, but more extensive, allowing dapps and smart contracts, but with a different smart contract gas system, consensus mechanism (PoS vs. dBfT), governance model, fixed vs unfixed supply, expensive contracts vs nearly free contracts, different ideologies for real world adoption. There are currently only 9 nodes, each of which are being run by a company/entity hand selected by the NEO council (most of which are located in china) and are under contract. This means that although the locations of the nodes may differ, ultimately the neo council can bring them down due to their legal contracts. In fact this has been done in the past when the neo council was moving 50 million neo that had been locked up. Also dbft (or neo's implmentation of it) has failed underload causing network outages during major icos. The first step in decentralization is that the NEO Counsel will select trusted nodes (Universities, business partners, etc.) and slowly become less centralized that way. The final step in decentralization will be allowing NEO holders to vote for new nodes, similar to a DPoS system (ARK/EOS/LISK). NEO has a regulation/government friendly ideology. Finally they are trying to work undewith the Chinese government in regards to regulations. If for some reason they wanted it shut down, they could just shut it down.
Stellar: PoS system, similar goals as Ripple, but more of a platform than only a currency. 80% of Stellar are owned by Stellar.org still, making the currency centralized.
Ethereum classic: Original Ethereum that decided not to fork after a hack. The Ethereum that we know is its fork. Uninteresing, because it has a lot of less resources than Ethereum now and a lot less community support.
Ziliqa: Zilliqa is building a new way of sharding. 2400 tpx already tested, 10,000 tps soon possible by being linearly scalable with the number of nodes. That means, the more nodes, the faster the network gets. They are looking at implementing privacy as well.
QTUM: Enables Smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain. Useful.
Icon: Korean ethereum. Decentralized application platform that's building communities in partnership with banks, insurance providers, hospitals, and universities. Focused on ID verification and payments. No big differentiators to the other 20 Ethereums, except that is has a product. That is a plus. Maybe cheap alternative to Ethereum.
LISK: Lisk's difference to other BaaS is that side chains are independent to the main chain and have to have their own nodes. Similar to neo whole allows dapps to deploy their blockchain to. However, Lisk is currently somewhat centralized with a small group of members owning more than 50% of the delegated positions. Lisk plans to change the consensus algorithm for that reason in the near future.
Rchain: Similar to Ethereum with smart contract, though much more scalable at an expected 40,000 TPS and possible 100,000 TPS. Not launched yet. No product launched yet, though promising technology. Not overvalued, probably at the right price right now.
ARDR: Similar to Lisk. Ardor is a public blockchain platform that will allow people to utilize the blockchain technology of Nxt through the use of child chains. A child chain, which is a ‘light’ blockchain that can be customized to a certain extent, is designed to allow easy self-deploy for your own blockchain. Nxt claims that users will "not need to worry" about security, as that part is now handled by the main chain (Ardor). This is the chief innovation of Ardor. Ardor was evolved from NXT by the same company. NEM started as a NXT clone.
Ontology: Similar to Neo. Interesting coin
Bytom: Bytom is an interactive protocol of multiple byte assets. Heterogeneous byte-assets (indigenous digital currency, digital assets) that operate in different forms on the Bytom Blockchain and atomic assets (warrants, securities, dividends, bonds, intelligence information, forecasting information and other information that exist in the physical world) can be registered, exchanged, gambled and engaged in other more complicated and contract-based interoperations via Bytom.
Nxt: Similar to Lisk
Stratis: Different to LISK, Stratis will allow businesses and organizations to create their own blockchain according to their own needs, but secured on the parent Stratis chain. Stratis’s simple interface will allow organizations to quickly and easily deploy and/or test blockchain functionality of the Ethereum, BitShares, BitCoin, Lisk and Stratis environements.
Status: Status provides access to all of Ethereum’s decentralized applications (dapps) through an app on your smartphone. It opens the door to mass adoption of Ethereum dapps by targeting the fastest growing computer segment in the world – smartphone users.16. Ark: Fork of Lisk that focuses on a smaller feature set. Ark wallets can only vote for one delegate at a time which forces delegates to compete against each other and makes cartel formations incredibly hard, if not impossible.
Neblio: Similar to Neo, but 30x smaller market cap.
NEM: Is similar to Neo No marketing team, very high market cap for little clarilty what they do.
Bancor: Bancor is a Decentralized Liquidity Network that allows you to hold any Ethereum token and convert it to any other token in the network, with no counter party, at an automatically calculated price, using a simple web wallet.
Dragonchain: The Purpose of DragonChain is to help companies quickly and easily incorporate blockchain into their business applications. Many companies might be interested in making this transition because of the benefits associated with serving clients over a blockchain – increased efficiency and security for transactions, a reduction of costs from eliminating potential fraud and scams, etc.
Skycoin: Transactions with zero fees that take apparently two seconds, unlimited transaction rate, no need for miners and block rewards, low power usage, all of the usual cryptocurrency technical vulnerabilities fixed, a consensus mechanism superior to anything that exists, resistant to all conceivable threats (government censorship, community infighting, cybenucleaconventional warfare, etc). Skycoin has their own consensus algorithm known as Obelisk written and published academically by an early developer of Ethereum. Obelisk is a non-energy intensive consensus algorithm based on a concept called ‘web of trust dynamics’ which is completely different to PoW, PoS, and their derivatives. Skywire, the flagship application of Skycoin, has the ambitious goal of decentralizing the internet at the hardware level and is about to begin the testnet in April. However, this is just one of the many facets of the Skycoin ecosystem. Skywire will not only provide decentralized bandwidth but also storage and computation, completing the holy trinity of commodities essential for the new internet. Skycion a smear campaign launched against it, though they seem legit and reliable. Thus, they are probably undervalued.

Market 3 - Ecosystem

The 3rd market with 11 coins is comprised of ecosystem coins, which aim to strengthen the ease of use within the crypto space through decentralized exchanges, open standards for apps and more

Nebulas: Similar to how Google indexes webpages Nebulas will index blockchain projects, smart contracts & data using the Nebulas rank algorithm that sifts & sorts the data. Developers rewarded NAS to develop & deploy on NAS chain. Nebulas calls this developer incentive protocol – basically rewards are issued based on how often dapp/contract etc. is used, the more the better the rewards and Proof of devotion. Works like DPoS except the best, most economically incentivised developers (Bookkeeppers) get the forging spots. Ensuring brains stay with the project (Cross between PoI & PoS). 2,400 TPS+, DAG used to solve the inter-transaction dependencies in the PEE (Parallel Execution Environment) feature, first crypto Wallet that supports the Lightening Network.
Waves: Decentralized exchange and crowdfunding platform. Let’s companies and projects to issue and manage their own digital coin tokens to raise money.
Salt: Leveraging blockchain assets to secure cash loands. Plans to offer cash loans in traditional currencies, backed by your cryptocurrency assets. Allows lenders worldwide to skip credit checks for easier access to affordable loans.
CHAINLINK: ChainLink is a decentralized oracle service, the first of its kind. Oracles are defined as an ‘agent’ that finds and verifies real-world occurrences and submits this information to a blockchain to be used in smart contracts.With ChainLink, smart contract users can use the network’s oracles to retrieve data from off-chain application program interfaces (APIs), data pools, and other resources and integrate them into the blockchain and smart contracts. Basically, ChainLink takes information that is external to blockchain applications and puts it on-chain. The difference to Aeternity is that Chainlink deploys the smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain while Aeternity has its own chain.
WTC: Combines blockchain with IoT to create a management system for supply chains Interesting
Ethos unifyies all cryptos. Ethos is building a multi-cryptocurrency phone wallet. The team is also building an investment diversification tool and a social network
Aion: Aion is the token that pays for services on the Aeternity platform.
USDT: is no cryptocurrency really, but a replacement for dollar for trading After months of asking for proof of dollar backing, still no response from Tether.

Market 4 - Privacy

The 4th market are privacy coins. As you might know, Bitcoin is not anonymous. If the IRS or any other party asks an exchange who is the identity behind a specific Bitcoin address, they know who you are and can track back almost all of the Bitcoin transactions you have ever made and all your account balances. Privacy coins aim to prevent exactly that through address fungability, which changes addresses constantly, IP obfuscation and more. There are 2 types of privacy coins, one with completely privacy and one with optional privacy. Optional Privacy coins like Dash and Nav have the advantage of more user friendliness over completely privacy coins such as Monero and Enigma.

Monero: Currently most popular privacy coin, though with a very high market cap. Since their privacy is all on chain, all prior transactions would be deanonymized if their protocol is ever cracked. This requires a quantum computing attack though. PIVX is better in that regard.
Zcash: A decentralized and open-source cryptocurrency that hide the sender, recipient, and value of transactions. Offers users the option to make transactions public later for auditing. Decent privacy coin, though no default privacy
Verge: Calls itself privacy coin without providing private transactions, multiple problems over the last weeks has a toxic community, and way too much hype for what they have.
Bytecoin: First privacy-focused cryptocurrency with anonymous transactions. Bytecoin’s code was later adapted to create Monero, the more well-known anonymous cryptocurrency. Has several scam accusations, 80% pre-mine, bad devs, bad tech
Bitcoin Private: A merge fork of Bitcoin and Zclassic with Zclassic being a fork of Zcash with the difference of a lack of a founders fee required to mine a valid block. This promotes a fair distribution, preventing centralized coin ownership and control. Bitcoin private offers the optional ability to keep the sender, receiver, and amount private in a given transaction. However, this is already offered by several good privacy coins (Monero, PIVX) and Bitcoin private doesn't offer much more beyond this.
Komodo: The Komodo blockchain platform uses Komodo’s open-source cryptocurrency for doing transparent, anonymous, private, and fungible transactions. They are then made ultra-secure using Bitcoin’s blockchain via a Delayed Proof of Work (dPoW) protocol and decentralized crowdfunding (ICO) platform to remove middlemen from project funding. Offers services for startups to create and manage their own Blockchains.
PIVX: As a fork of Dash, PIVX uses an advanced implementation of the Zerocoin protocol to provide it’s privacy. This is a form of zeroknowledge proofs, which allow users to spend ‘Zerocoins’ that have no link back to them. Unlike Zcash u have denominations in PIVX, so they can’t track users by their payment amount being equal to the amount of ‘minted’ coins, because everyone uses the same denominations. PIVX is also implementing Bulletproofs, just like Monero, and this will take care of arguably the biggest weakness of zeroknowledge protocols: the trusted setup.
Zcoin: PoW cryptocurrency. Private financial transactions, enabled by the Zerocoin Protocol. Zcoin is the first full implementation of the Zerocoin Protocol, which allows users to have complete privacy via Zero-Knowledge cryptographic proofs.
Enigma: Monero is to Bitcoin what enigma is to Ethereum. Enigma is for making the data used in smart contracts private. More of a platform for dapps than a currency like Monero. Very promising.
Navcoin: Like bitcoin but with added privacy and pos and 1,170 tps, but only because of very short 30 second block times. Though, privacy is optional, but aims to be more user friendly than Monero. However, doesn't really decide if it wants to be a privacy coin or not. Same as Zcash.Strong technology, non-shady team.
Tenx: Raised 80 million, offers cryptocurrency-linked credit cards that let you spend virtual money in real life. Developing a series of payment platforms to make spending cryptocurrency easier. However, the question is if full privacy coins will be hindered in growth through government regulations and optional privacy coins will become more successful through ease of use and no regulatory hindrance.

Market 5 - Currency Exchange Tool

Due to the sheer number of different cryptocurrencies, exchanging one currency for the other it still cumbersome. Further, merchants don’t want to deal with overcluttered options of accepting cryptocurrencies. This is where exchange tool like Req come in, which allow easy and simple exchange of currencies.

Cryptonex: Fiat and currency exchange between various blockchain services, similar to REQ.
QASH: Qash is used to fuel its liquid platform which will be an exchange that will distribute their liquidity pool. Its product, the Worldbook is a multi-exchange order book that matches crypto to crypto, and crypto to fiat and the reverse across all currencies. E.g., someone is selling Bitcoin is USD on exchange1 not owned by Quoine and someone is buying Bitcoin in EURO on exchange 2 not owned by Quoine. If the forex conversions and crypto conversions match then the trade will go through and the Worldbook will match it, it'll make the sale and the purchase on either exchange and each user will get what they wanted, which means exchanges with lower liquidity if they join the Worldbook will be able to fill orders and take trade fees they otherwise would miss out on.They turned it on to test it a few months ago for an hour or so and their exchange was the top exchange in the world by 4x volume for the day because all Worldbook trades ran through it. Binance wants BNB to be used on their one exchange. Qash wants their QASH token embedded in all of their partners. More info here https://www.reddit.com/CryptoCurrency/comments/8a8lnwhich_are_your_top_5_favourite_coins_out_of_the/dwyjcbb/?context=3
Kyber: network Exchange between cryptocurrencies, similar to REQ. Features automatic coin conversions for payments. Also offers payment tools for developers and a cryptocurrency wallet.
Achain: Building a boundless blockchain world like Req .
Req: Exchange between cryptocurrencies.
Bitshares: Exchange between cryptocurrencies. Noteworthy are the 1.5 second average block times and throughput potential of 100,000 transactions per second with currently 2,400 TPS having been proven. However, bitshares had several Scam accusations in the past.
Loopring: A protocol that will enable higher liquidity between exchanges and personal wallets.
ZRX: Open standard for dapps. Open, permissionless protocol allowing for ERC20 tokens to be traded on the Ethereum blockchain. In 0x protocol, orders are transported off-chain, massively reducing gas costs and eliminating blockchain bloat. Relayers help broadcast orders and collect a fee each time they facilitate a trade. Anyone can build a relayer.

Market 6 - Gaming

With an industry size of $108B worldwide, Gaming is one of the largest markets in the world. For sure, cryptocurrencies will want to have a share of that pie.

Storm: Mobile game currency on a platform with 9 million players.
Fun: A platform for casino operators to host trustless, provably-fair gambling through the use of smart contracts, as well as creating their own implementation of state channels for scalability.
Electroneum: Mobile game currency They have lots of technical problems, such as several 51% attacks
Wax: Marketplace to trade in-game items

Market 7 - Misc

There are various markets being tapped right now. They are all summed up under misc.

OMG: Omise is designed to enable financial services for people without bank accounts. It works worldwide and with both traditional money and cryptocurrencies.
Power ledger: Australian blockchain-based cryptocurrency and energy trading platform that allows for decentralized selling and buying of renewable energy. Unique market and rather untapped market in the crypto space.
Populous: A platform that connects business owners and invoice buyers without middlemen. Invoice sellers get cash flow to fund their business and invoice buyers earn interest. Similar to OMG, small market.
Monacoin: The first Japanese cryptocurrency. Focused on micro-transactions and based on a popular internet meme of a type-written cat. This makes it similar to Dogecoin. Very niche, tiny market.
Revain: Legitimizing reviews via the blockchain. Interesting concept, though market not as big.
Augur: Platform to forecast and make wagers on the outcome of real-world events (AKA decentralized predictions). Uses predictions for a “wisdom of the crowd” search engine. Not launched yet.
Substratum: Revolutionzing hosting industry via per request billing as a decentralized internet hosting system. Uses a global network of private computers to create the free and open internet of the future. Participants earn cryptocurrency. Interesting concept.
Veritaseum: Is supposed to be a peer to peer gateway, though it looks like very much like a scam.
TRON: Tronix is looking to capitalize on ownership of internet data to content creators. However, they plagiarized their white paper, which is a no go. They apologized, so it needs to be seen how they will conduct themselves in the future. Extremely high market cap for not having a product, nor proof of concept.
Syscoin: A cryptocurrency with a decentralized marketplace that lets people buy and sell products directly without third parties. Trying to remove middlemen like eBay and Amazon.
Hshare: Most likely scam because of no code changes, most likely pump and dump scheme, dead community.
BAT: An Ethereum-based token that can be exchanged between content creators, users, and advertisers. Decentralized ad-network that pays based on engagement and attention.
Dent: Decentralizeed exchange of mobile data, enabling mobile data to be marketed, purchased or distributed, so that users can quickly buy or sell data from any user to another one.
Ncash: End to end encrypted Identification system for retailers to better serve their customers .
Factom Secure record-keeping system that allows companies to store their data directly on the Blockchain. The goal is to make records more transparent and trustworthy .

Market 8 - Social network

Web 2.0 is still going strong and Web 3.0 is not going to ignore it. There are several gaming tokens already out there and a few with decent traction already, such as Steem, which is Reddit with voting through money is a very interesting one.

Mithril: As users create content via social media, they will be rewarded for their contribution, the better the contribution, the more they will earn
Steem: Like Reddit, but voting with money. Already launched product and Alexa rank 1,000 Thumbs up.
Rdd: Reddcoin makes the process of sending and receiving money fun and rewarding for everyone. Reddcoin is dedicated to one thing – tipping on social networks as a way to bring cryptocurrency awareness and experience to the general public.
Kin: Token for the platform Kik. Kik has a massive user base of 400 million people. Replacing paying with FIAT with paying with KIN might get this token to mass adoption very quickly.

Market 9 - Fee token

Popular exchanges realized that they can make a few billion dollars more by launching their own token. Owning these tokens gives you a reduction of trading fees. Very handy and BNB (Binance Coin) has been one of the most resilient tokens, which have withstood most market drops over the last weeks and was among the very few coins that could show growth.

BNB: Fee token for Binance
Gas: Not a Fee token for an exchange, but it is a dividend paid out on Neo and a currency that can be used to purchase services for dapps.
Kucoin: Fee token for Kucoin

Market 10 - Decentralized Data Storage

Currently, data storage happens with large companies or data centers that are prone to failure or losing data. Decentralized data storage makes loss of data almost impossible by distributing your files to numerous clients that hold tiny pieces of your data. Remember Torrents? Torrents use a peer-to-peer network. It is similar to that. Many users maintain copies of the same file, when someone wants a copy of that file, they send a request to the peer-to-peer network., users who have the file, known as seeds, send fragments of the file to the requester., he requester receives many fragments from many different seeds, and the torrent software recompiles these fragments to form the original file.

Gbyte: Byteball data is stored and ordered using directed acyclic graph (DAG) rather than blockchain. This allows all users to secure each other's data by referencing earlier data units created by other users, and also removes scalability limits common for blockchains, such as blocksize issue.
Siacoin: Siacoin is decentralized storage platform. Distributes encrypted files to thousands of private users who get paid for renting out their disk space. Anybody with siacoins can rent storage from hosts on Sia. This is accomplish via "smart" storage contracts stored on the Sia blockchain. The smart contract provides a payment to the host only after the host has kept the file for a given amount of time. If the host loses the file, the host does not get paid.
Maidsafecoin: MaidSafe stands for Massive Array of Internet Disks, Secure Access for Everyone.Instead of working with data centers and servers that are common today and are vulnerable to data theft and monitoring, SAFE’s network uses advanced P2P technology to bring together the spare computing capacity of all SAFE users and create a global network. You can think of SAFE as a crowd-sourced internet. All data and applications reside in this network. It’s an autonomous network that automatically sets prices and distributes data and rents out hard drive disk space with a Blockchain-based storage solutions.When you upload a file to the network, such as a photo, it will be broken into pieces, hashed, and encrypted. The data is then randomly distributed across the network. Redundant copies of the data are created as well so that if someone storing your file turns off their computer, you will still have access to your data. And don’t worry, even with pieces of your data on other people’s computers, they won’t be able to read them. You can earn MadeSafeCoins by participating in storing data pieces from the network on your computer and thus earning a Proof of Resource.
Storj: Storj aims to become a cloud storage platform that can’t be censored or monitored, or have downtime. Your files are encrypted, shredded into little pieces called 'shards', and stored in a decentralized network of computers around the globe. No one but you has a complete copy of your file, not even in an encrypted form.

Market 11 - Cloud computing

Obviously, renting computing power, one of the biggest emerging markets as of recent years, e.g. AWS and Digital Ocean, is also a service, which can be bought and managed via the blockchain.

Golem: Allows easy use of Supercomputer in exchange for tokens. People worldwide can rent out their computers to the network and get paid for that service with Golem tokens.
Elf: Allows easy use of Cloud computing in exchange for tokens.

Market 12 - Stablecoin

Last but not least, there are 2 stablecoins that have established themselves within the market. A stable coin is a coin that wants to be independent of the volatility of the crypto markets. This has worked out pretty well for Maker and DGD, accomplished through a carefully diversified currency fund and backing each token by 1g or real gold respectively. DO NOT CONFUSE DGD AND MAKER with their STABLE COINS DGX and DAI. DGD and MAKER are volatile, because they are the companies of DGX and DAI. DGX and DAI are the stable coins.

DGD: Platform of the Stablecoin DGX. Every DGX coin is backed by 1g of gold and make use proof of asset consensus.
Maker: Platform of the Stablecoin DAI that doesn't vary much in price through widespread and smart diversification of assets.

EDIT: Added a risk factor from 0 to 10. The baseline is 2 for any crypto. Significant scandals, mishaps, shady practices, questionable technology, increase the risk factor. Not having a product yet automatically means a risk factor of 6. Strong adoption and thus strong scrutiny or positive community lower the risk factor.
EDIT2: Added a subjective potential factor from 0 to 10, where its overall potential and a small or big market cap is factored in. Bitcoin with lots of potential only gets a 9, because of its massive market cap, because if Bitcoin goes 10x, smaller coins go 100x, PIVX gets a 10 for being as good as Monero while carrying a 10x smaller market cap, which would make PIVX go 100x if Monero goes 10x.

What's the easiest way to get money from PayPal to Binance ...

I bought $1k of the Top 10 Cryptos on January 1st, 2018 (Oct Update - Month 34)

Month Thirty Four – Down 74%

Question of the month:

In October, this global payment service announced it will support cryptocurrency buying, selling, and shopping through its platform.

Ranking and October Winners and Losers

Overall update – BTC far ahead and breaks even, ETH in distant second place. Dash in last place.

Total Market Cap for the entire cryptocurrency sector:

Bitcoin dominance:

Overall return on $1,000 investment since January 1st, 2018:

Comparison to S&P 500:

Conclusion:

And the Answer is…

Concerns about Nano's position when Bitcoin fees begin to sky rocket

Introducing Bondly…

What is Bondly?

BONDSWAP (BSWAP)

BOND DEX

BOND PROTECT (BPROTECT)

How does BOND PROTECT work?

Bonding with Polkadot

Whats next for BONDLY?

Common sites with HIGHEST payout and STABLE income << 04/10/2020 >>

I. MICRO-TASK (or Crowdsourcing task)

II. OFFER WALL TASK

III. PAY TO SEARCH

IV. SURVEY

How to purchase and exchange your litecoin! (longer read)

Popular Exchanges

Buy Litecoin with Credit Card or Debit Card

Coinbase

Coinmama

BitPanda

CEX.io

Buy Litecoin with Bank Account or Bank Transfer

Coinbase

BitPanda

CEX.io

Binance

Get a Litecoin Wallet

Other Methods to Buy Litecoin

Buy Litecoin with PayPal

Buy Litecoin with Cash

Buy Litecoin with Bitcoin

Buy Litecoin with Skrill

Cryptmixer

Buy Litecoin with Ethereum

Cryptmixer

Poloniex

ShapeShift

Frequently Asked Questions About Buying Litecoin

Why are there limited options to buying Litecoin using other altcoins?

How much is a Litecoin worth?

How do I buy Ripple (XRP) with Litecoin?

How long does Litecoin take to confirm?

How many Litoshis make one Litecoin?

Where do I store Litecoin?

When is the Litecoin halving?

Why can litecoin take so long to buy?

How do I buy Litecoin with Paypal?

Can you buy partial litecoins?

Can you sell litecoin?

Can anyone buy litecoins?

Which payment method is best to use?

Is it better to mine or buy litecoins?

What should I do with my litecoins once I buy?

Selling to CAD

Is there any ACTUAL procedure from A to Z that let you buy/sell Bitcoin with no KYC?

Round up of Cryptocurrency News #3 Week 20/07 - 26/07

Freelancers, do you accept payments in Bitcoins?

Crypto-Powered: Understanding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and DeFi

Bitcoin: The First Cryptocurrency

Public Awareness

Ethereum: Programmable Money

Digital Gold Rush

DeFi: Decentralized Finance

Wrap Up

Let's discuss some of the issues with Nano

Idle-Empire the site comparable to Swagbucks

Re-Launching The Borderless, Unkillable Crypto-Fiat Gateway, DAIHard. Enter or Exit Crypto via Any Fiat and Any Payment Method, Anywhere in the World, Without KYC. All you need is a little Dai.