There is no regulator, so they are just trying to prevent themselves from being potentially exploited

Coinbase has been a shit show recently, even if they somehow prove that they're clean as a whistle then it still demonstrates remarkable lack of judgement.

Anyway here's a quick guide I threw up on how to keep your coins secure. Let me know what you think!

Lester, one other question if you don't mind. What's your thoughts on alt coins that are trying to solve different issues? I.e. Storage - siacoin, storj and maidsafecoin. Digital advertising I.e BAT. Off chain - raidenetwork. Gaming tokens - Wax and enjin and so on?

Its like the wild west at present, so many ideas, so many teams trying to introduce their own protocols and blockchains or even child blockchains. It's crazy. Mass adoption is key and I can't see many making it. I wonder if crypto kittens is a sign that mass adoption will happen in a way that we least expect, I.e. through gaming?

Lester is fierceedge.com your site?

Useful read - thanks!

You have my most common typo in there tho, I think.  "they are now invulnerable" -> "they are not invulnerable"?!

WorKid wrote:

40% of bitcoin is owned by 1,000 individuals.

Or so I read on the Internet.

The %age of bitcoin in circulation owned by the same number of individuals is probably even higher, given that satoshi probably has tens of thousands and will probably never move any. Fact is about a dozen people can cause a crash any time they want, the people who have other interests now.

Dinostar77 wrote:

Lester, one other question if you don't mind. What's your thoughts on alt coins that are trying to solve different issues? I.e. Storage - siacoin, storj and maidsafecoin. Digital advertising I.e BAT. Off chain - raidenetwork. Gaming tokens - Wax and enjin and so on? Its like the wild west at present, so many ideas, so many teams trying to introduce their own protocols and blockchains or even child blockchains. It's crazy. Mass adoption is key and I can't see many making it. I wonder if crypto kittens is a sign that mass adoption will happen in a way that we least expect, I.e. through gaming?

I'm only familiar with Siacoin and using them as an example I find it difficult to see how democratised storage can work better than Drive, Dropbox etc. Storage is pretty cheap if not free. I think with Siacoin, if you want to pimp out your storage you have to be able to offer a terrific amount of memory for a high 90% uptime which is understandable. Also If I recall Siacoin tanked themselves bigtime by saying they had a massive announcement which created massive hype and then they revealed a product which was pretty unrelated to what they did and what their customers wanted.

Digital advertising. My brothers actually an advertising exec so I'm going o talk this through with him over the holidays when we get together. Seems interesting and one to look out for but I don't fully understand the concept behind it. I get it that the potential customer receives the ad revenue rather than the platform which is a win:win but people are shitheads and going to find a way to game the system.

Offchain. TBH I haven't had time to look into these systems yet but I've now got two weeks off so there's a ton of reading to be had.

Gaming tokens. I had my eye on Wax but kind of lost interest. Then I saw TRON and this looks like it could be a better proposition although it's not an exclusive gaming token. High risk, high rewards.

You're right there will be a ton of coins falling because they're shit or don't have the right marketing but look at where there's competition and working prototypes. Competition is healthy and usually signals a need in the market place. A lot of people shit themselves and try to shout down other coins and only focus on what they've bought in on. What they forget is that this is a global market place and there's for sure going to be room for good propositions, it won't be a winner takes all marketplace. Well, not for a while.

There's a few coins which will reach the end of their testing/trial phase in 2018 so look out for blockchains focusing on logistics and energy.

LesterUnlimited wrote:

acemuzzy wrote:

Useful read - thanks! You have my most common typo in there tho, I think.  "they are now invulnerable" -> "they are not invulnerable"?!

Fixed thanks! Where did you find the hyperlink BTW that went to blogs/easter-egg/www.bitaddress.org

In the paper wallet section I think

Thanks Lister - looks very helpful, I have stuck it on pocket for reading latter

https://hackernoon.com/ten-years-in-nobody-has-come-up-with-a-use-case-for-blockchain-ee98c180100

Excellent read. I've been questioning stuff as well wondering if I'm missing the bigger picture and this guy has summed it up.

Dinostar77 wrote:

Imho I think a long term portfolio should have the following: 1) currency i.e. Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash or Litecoin. 2) privacy currency i.e. Monero, Zcash, Pivx. 3) platforms i.e. Etherium, Neo, Qtum. 4) utility (fintech) i.e. Ripple, Stellar lumens, Omisego. Anyway that's my own opinion, but that's what I working towards for the long term holds. A coin or two in each category.

Definitely this but the Utilities would probably need sub categories. It's so difficult trying to stay on top of all the coins and understanding them. I think when you're looking at the Utility coins especially, you have to try and understand the industry, question why do they need a blockchain and most importantly what the shit does their token do? Another thing people often miss is, why do they need a public blockchain? Why can't the players just replicate a start-up blockchain and use it in house? They'll have all the contacts, experience etc in place, all they need to do is make sure that they can make their existing practices faster and cheaper - it doesn't have to be the very best available.

Lester wrote:

So give it time. Around 2002 I was getting written warnings for attaching small video clips on email and now no-one thinks twice about streaming HD movies with surround sound on demand.

That was more about content than server capacity

cockbeard wrote:

Lester wrote:

So give it time. Around 2002 I was getting written warnings for attaching small video clips on email and now no-one thinks twice about streaming HD movies with surround sound on demand.

That was more about content than server capacity

cockbeard wrote:

My thing about crypto currency right now is I've seen it being discussed on front page bbc links, and more tellingly my afcb forum. This makes me think getting in now is likely far too late

Although it's becoming more mainstream, adoption is far far from mainstream. Blockchain is here to stay but where and how it will be in future remains to be seen. Very loosely, you're looking at email becoming the first application for the internet. The potential is far from being realised.

Just for reference the money I put I I'm expecting to lock down the majority of it in cryptocurrency for the next 5 - 10 years.

There's a small amount I'm playing around with for short term gains and day trading but I'm fully expecting to lose all of that 'cus I'm a n00b at trading!

i don't think they can because at launch the tokens are worthless. If they placed a fictional redeemable value on the token, thereby devaluing the company then the shareholders would have a right to ask. However the nature of blockchain is that the token is recompense for work done, so it's up to the management of the company to make sure that the work done adds value to the company, and value that exceeds the rewards given to the worker. It might help to think of it in the same way as an employee