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      "author": "cryptobdschool",
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      "body": "When I need to swap any cryptocurrency I used ChangeNOW. It swaps crypto very fast & free Custody. You can check out here for more details: https://changenow.io/",
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      "author": "steemitboard",
      "permlink": "steemitboard-notify-knowtheblock-20190520t021142000z",
      "title": "",
      "body": "Congratulations @knowtheblock! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@knowtheblock/birthday2.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@knowtheblock) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](http://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=knowtheblock)_</sub>\n\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "title": " ",
      "body": "Resteemed your article.  This article was resteemed because you are part of the New Steemians project. You can learn more about it here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@gaman/new-steemians-project-launch",
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      "parent_permlink": "ethereum",
      "author": "knowtheblock",
      "permlink": "platform-exposure-risk-the-biggest-risk-in-distributed-ledger-technology",
      "title": "Platform Exposure Risk - the biggest risk in distributed ledger technology",
      "body": "One of the largest risks in the blockchain space is that of platform exposure. To simplify things first let’s briefly mention there are three main blockchain protocols in the market.\n\nFirst is crypto currency - that are standalone tokens that sit on a blockchain to be used as a mode of payment/ exchange. Examples are Bitcoin, Litecoin, ZCash and Dash\nPlatforms - these are usually made for contracts, which enable other companies to build out decentralised DAP’s upon. Examples are Ethereum, EOS, NEO, Stellar Lumen \nDecentralized Application Protocols (DAPs) are those blockchains/ tokens that sit on top of a platform - all ER20 tokens means DAPs made on the Ethereum blockchain fall into this however there are other DAPs being built on many other platforms \nThere are also private blockchain protocols that also fall into each of the above category’s however many of these will never be seen by the public but still may have exposure if they are built 'on top' of a DLT protocol.\n\nGiven the above, one HUGE risk is platform exposure. One of the primary tenants of blockchain technology is that the security is ‘un-hackable’. We have seen cases of DAPs that have been hacked - mainly due to coding issues, (the DOW) however we have not seen a major platform vulnerability yet. Unlike those who said the titanic would never sink we certainly feel this is a when, not if, situation. With so many companies starting to build out their platforms to compete with the current market leaders the pace of development is at breakneck speed. The rise of the ICO craze has supercharged this and companies are racing to not only launch tokens, but also to meet incredible timelines for deployment. Rushing and greed are always early indicators of pending disaster.   A clear example of a little stumble recently was the screaming halt of EOS.  Although it was not a hacking flaw exposing the technology, it was still an update which bought the entire blockchain to a halt.\n\nA hack of a major platform could potentially cause a cascading effect on all DAPs using the protocol. In the case of the leading platforms this could affect hundreds or even thousands of projects on their chains!\n\nThis brings to light the issue of recourse as a consumer. One of the key limitations of the blockchain is that unlike centralized and controlled systems, due to the decentralized nature of blockchain technology, when things go bad, the consumer is really hung out to dry. We already know there are many ‘bad actors’ in the blockchain space and the level of trust that the general crypto market is affording almost all of the platform projects is incredible. Simply put, as most of the projects are built by communities in an open source methodology, it would only take one programmer to sneak past other watchful eyes, a back door that could be used to hack a token once it hits a significant market cap. Even if the hack was to cause network disturbances, so a short position could be taken by the hacker to profit from the resulting fear, the problem is significant for the space.\n\nIt is clear and understandable then, why Vitalik Buterin, the Ethereum figurehead, sends sends occasional messages that request calmness in the market. That difficult to implement changes to the underlying protocol to address the much needed scalability issues and blockchain speed, need to be well though out, meticulously developed, thoroughly tested. If a major hack to any top 20 token did occur, we could see a correction in this market like never before. We need to take note, we are not talking about hacks that have occurred in the past such as Mt Gox or the Korean exchange more recently, nor are we talking about blatant Ponzi schemes such as the recent BitConnect drama, we are talking about something much more fundamental and potentially damaging to the overall market.\n\nLet us know your thoughts by commenting below. We are not technical advisors so please contribute if you know how this risk is being controlled and mitigated by leading projects.",
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      "body": "I’m on eToro and it’s true what you say about never owning private keys. They keep saying that they’re going to introduce wallets, but it’s just happened. On the other hand, it is regulated by the FSA, unlike other rogue platforms, such as Plus500 and it’s the quickest way to open up a trade, without going through coinbase and then an exchange. I tend to by in blocks of 10, 100, or 1000, so that I don’t have to close all my position at once.",
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      "body": "Fascinating Article, great read and I agree. Interesting times we live in indeed.",
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      "author": "knowtheblock",
      "permlink": "is-society-ready-for-freedom-of-speech",
      "title": "Is society ready for freedom of speech?",
      "body": "One of the largest tenants of the American constitution is the right to freedom of speech. This universal right spans much wider than America, as the tenant is stipulated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, that:\n*“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontier”*\n\nHowever, over the past years, we have seen pressure on major social media companies from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to simply outright ban and remove various individuals and channels. The burning question is what will be the ramifications blockchain technology on fringe movements and cults as well as bad political actors to be given a ‘voice’.\n![imagesShouting.jpeg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVEFbRXAgEXLAhCt2emBr7hUMUad4fSqFTX9XQkxV2qiR/imagesShouting.jpeg)\n\nLet’s start by taking on perhaps the biggest ‘unplanned’ and ‘unforeseen’ political events of our lifetime which was Donald Trump winning the US election.   It has been said that over an above the timely messages to middle-class America Trump skillfully crafted, Russia worked concurrently behind the scenes buying millions in Facebook advertising to promote more radical views that reached to the heart of many libertarians and middle America. It is hard to pinpoint how this additional spend influenced the outcome but it is clear there was certainly an impact that snowballed into a hostile undercurrent and eventual win for Trump. This political spend has absolutely blown up Silicon Valley and hit hard at Facebook and it’s founder Mark Zuckerberg for not being responsible around who can advertise and spread messages, good or bad on this platform. \n\n![DT.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQ8eiuRWnCN5k6rdBPZcNtu9qabuhoKWSZNXkRkdFYd9W/DT.jpg)\n\nSocial media is not alone in the conversation of freedom of speech as a political tool, in fact, the propaganda theory as coined by Edward S Herman and Noam Chomsky suggests, *“the way in which news is structured (e.g. through advertising, the concentration of media ownership, government sourcing) creates an inherent conflict of interest that acts as propaganda for undemocratic forces”.*\n\nA different situation has been the removal of the social agitator Milo Yiannopoulos on the Twitter platform. Needless to say, Milo certainly has several viewpoints that by many are uncomfortable and some would consider wrong. Over time his commentary around fragile subjects such as being gay and feminism eventually has lead to Twitter removing him from the site in a complete ban. But is it right or virtuous? Where are the limits of uncomfortably around nonconformist viewpoints?\n![miloyiannopoulos.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmUaA9d5idRyhYoaNZq7XGpsfM8BU8ZKSWUTrYydfDj2mL/miloyiannopoulos.jpg)\n\nThe above two cases are examples of where freedom of speech or expression has been restricted in the country that prides itself on being one of the least restricted in the world! But do not forget the many nations around the world that live under much stronger oppressive conditions. From political oppression as in China and religious oppression through many Arab nations. A clear drastic ramification of this in recent times were the attacks in France against the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo. In this specific case, fringe radical moments took action against contributors of the publicationofr inflammatory and offensive, graphic cartoons lampooning religious figures such as the Prophet Muhammad. This is a clear case of where freedoms of speech slip over into bloodletting and actual crime.\n\nThe opening of pandora’s box may simply be a blockchain away!\n\nSteemit is one of the first platforms offering such a decentralized service whereby there are no rules or controls. No matter your viewpoint, on this decentralized network you can propagate and postulate whatever ideals and ideas you may have without restriction or seemingly repercussion. The BIG unanswered question will be **can our society handle such openness and freedom!?’ **History would suggest it is highly unlikely.\n\nBig questions have not been addressed or even explored yet in this space. How will countries contain the messaging and general discourse on subjects they obviously may not want to have ‘opened’. Further, will these platforms cause unintended flow-on issues by allowing fringe or radicalized groups to congregate and build momentum or ‘steam’ as its commonly referred.\n\nWe can see both huge positive and negative effects that will eventuate from this technology. As with most blockchain projects, we are yet to see even midterm effects of these systems.",
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      "title": "How blockchain developments are permiating the news cycles",
      "body": "There is a saying, all news is good news. With respect to the current wave of blockchain technology, this could not be truer.\n\nIn early 2016, it was hard to find commentary on the blockchain space. Still, a very fringe movement, Bitcoin had seen several major rises and falls and with the Ethereum DAO hack, the idea this technology could be anything more than a gimmick was starting to feel like the reality. However, something changed. With the attack of the DAO and its small coverage in mass media, the larger market was introduced to the idea of smart contracts for the first time. No longer was Bitcoin a sole blockchain in the forest, trying to become a ‘new currency’, Ethereum opened peoples minds and captured their imagination. \n\n![180_degree_forrest_panorama_by_wodenphoto-d4a7pxb.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWw2pvKj7SW3cSkbecoaGdQoi4byaeqRGjyLCD1FQREuK/180_degree_forrest_panorama_by_wodenphoto-d4a7pxb.jpg)\n\nThe question that was being asked is; 'what technology, company, service or protocol could benefit from a trust-less, decentralized protocol?' For many, this was the moment of inspiration, the moment where it was clear to see entire industries that serve no other purpose than being an un-necessary middleman could potentially transform into beautiful elegant systems. As of by magic independent channels started appearing across social media landscapes. Fueled by a common interest to learn more, make mistakes and be part of this movement, this wave of additional attention shone a much brighter light on the market for the first time. Perhaps as a consequence of this viral spreading of information or just simply by fate itself the crypto market started its bull run that would make bankers take notice, Governments sit up and look and many, many early investors very wealthy.\n\nThrough 2017 it was clear to see the blockchain market hit a hard to ignore status. There are always two very easy things to write about in mainstream media\n- When a lot of money in an industry has been made\n- When there has been a huge loss or a scandal\n\nNeedless to say, blockchain is a content creators best friend. From story’s of the 10,000 bitcoin pizza purchase (valued in 2017 at many millions given the price rise) through to young teenagers who found misplaced hard drives and are now instant millionaires. Every day something new about blockchain was jumping out and being consumed at an amazing rate. This exposure continued to draw more eyes, hears, hearts and minds. The media explosion lead to an investment moonshot. Initial coin offerings went from a weekly event to multiples of new projects starting to implement daily. Unregulated this lead to Mum and Pop speculators jumping into the market as an opportunity to be the next Bitcoin Millionaire.\n\n![Coinmarketcap.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcW9Y3icBLE54cNDCgLiabwJ9Nabm9qdC6rZo9LuSPWBE/Coinmarketcap.png)\n\nIt has been clear that the energy of the space has remained high. Companies, individuals and media are all incentivized to keep creating content and awareness for this movement. Even major broadcasters from CNBC, CNN, ABC, BBC, RT and others have put resources and attention into discussing the current happenings within the space, covering major events and partnerships. It is clear to see that crypto and blockchain technologies are now an embedded story within the current news cycle. Every day there is re-enforcement that this will be a life-changing technology for society. Trust continues to grow in the market and even early nay-sayers such and Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan are becoming converts and taking the market seriously.\n\nIt’s only early 2018 but the signals are looking strong. Government actions and an overall cooling of the market has made discussion on blockchain projects more about the technologies themselves rather than the ups and downs of the market cycles or headline events. This looks to be like it’s a good thing, as there is a cooling of speculation specifically through January and February and with loads of projects looking to ‘go-live’ with consumer-ready projects through 2018 there will be plenty of good news to discuss in the months to come!",
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      "author": "knowtheblock",
      "permlink": "colliding-ideologies-governments-centralised-military-style-management-and-open-disruptive-blockchain-technologies",
      "title": "Colliding Ideologies - Governments centralised military style management and open, disruptive blockchain technologies",
      "body": "Since the year 2000 the largest shift in society has been around the fact that society and its leadership models have fundamentally changed. Due to the advent of the internet and accessibility of individuals to market and have a voice, ‘tribes’ are forming fast around new ideas.  We no longer are lead by those placed in power, rather than by those who take it. To quote Seth Godin, “Skills and attitude are essential, authority is not. In fact, authority can get in the way.”\n\nSpecifically to nations that fundamentally function in an authoritarian process, the coming years of blockchain implementation pose both huge opportunities and risks to the status-quo.  Prior to the 2008 banking crisis and the now famous Bitcoin Whitepaper, although there was an ability to develop and grow an autonomous group or collective, there has always been a hard cap on the ability of ‘the group’ to step outside the incumbent system due to the nature of money creation and distribution. As famously one said; “give me control of a nations money supply and I care not who makes its laws.” - Amschel Rothschild. \n![Amschel_Rothschild.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYUTUF7vGRzkKzp7vRm8dAEoGEJ7crsEq4Af9gLe7DSk9/Amschel_Rothschild.jpg)\n\n\n\nBlockchain technology is the leaver to strip this power. As a free market system in the truest form of the term, cryptocurrencies and blockchain contract protocols are emerging at an astounding rate. Many of these platforms and tokens are:\n- Decentralized in both distribution and ownership\n- Trust-less systems in that execution is transparent and immutable\n\nSo there has become a glaring risk for governments around the world. Not only do citizens now have an outlet to organize and spread a message, everyday people now have the ability to essentially remove themselves from the system. Of  course Governments of the world could institute draconian laws and rules to prevent its citizens from participating, however this will simply be an acknowledgment of all of the reasons why individuals what to participate in this new paradigm in the first place! Of course, nothing will hold down a great idea and as with all other virtuous movements in history from the abolishment of slavery to equal gender rights, this pivotal and highly emotional transition will play out in a supercharged fashion. The polarization of agenda is clear.\n![slavery.jpeg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmT6dgpGdRf7hNi17Z5eEvYMcyjBFF5tSqocVe5SLi472x/slavery.jpeg)\n\nThere is an opportunity and upside for existing governments and already we are seeing this being played out quickly, below the un-informed noses of the general masses. Perhaps the most ‘bullish’ nations, specifically Japan, have already seen the writing on the wall with their own fiscal easing programs, making Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, legal tender. This was a huge jump start on other governments of the world, placing it in the strongest position should a fundamental shift take place. \n![bullmarket.jpeg](https://steemitimages.com/DQma7FPVYmZLRnUL2qEggzr2Y3FhfpkaNuAkJ3MxSJhwzAq/bullmarket.jpeg)\n\nSingapore is embracing controllable aspects of blockchain technology. This is being done as a first mover response to promote the message, ‘this is an amazing opportunity. Given the risks t, e government will guide the people into it’. America in contrast seems to be having more of a split stance. Not being able to control the much wider media and social narrative, USA has mixed messages, from the positive SEC meeting and outcome in February, to more hand slapping and threat making on personal taxation for speculators and rouge ICO offerings. China and other nations have so-far been the most heavy handed, implementing rolling bans and blocks on aspects of the technology such as ICO’s, exchanges and mining operators.\n\nAt this infant stage is is still a huge guess as to how this technology will evolve and permeate our society at large. There are commentators who liken this space to ‘tulip mania’ as the current working use cases of blockchain technology are very small and the prediction makers are betting this ‘fake’ technology will never get lift off. Conversely, the slow creep of blockchain technology and its underlying principles certainly could re-shape the world as we know it. Perhaps even decentralizing governments and its systems. The next chapter in the blockchain revolution a very exciting time.",
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      "permlink": "re-knowtheblock-the-day-that-i-loved-going-to-the-bank-it-s-the-end-of-an-era-ratm-20180119t170826863z",
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      "body": "Hi @knowtheblock!\nNice to meet you! We are currently trying to create a Steemit community for fellow Singaporeans. \nInspired by what other countries had done (teamaustralia, teammalaysia, etc), a community will help Singapore Steemians to grow together. We can share ideas, collaborate efforts and learn from each other. \nIf you are interested, feel free to join this newly created Facebook group and unite together! https://www.facebook.com/groups/steemsingapore/\nHope to see you participate in this community! #teamsingapore",
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      "permlink": "the-day-that-i-loved-going-to-the-bank-it-s-the-end-of-an-era-ratm",
      "title": "The day that I LOVED going to the bank. It’s the 'end of an era' - RATM",
      "body": "In this last week, there have been two occasions where I have had to make trips to the bank to see a physical teller. Both times I was beaming from ear-to-ear and I’ll tell you why.\n\n![smily face.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmaHPuVM58cs5vqNXvyEwWYpvTvWYWv71W6twJuokV5rTX/smily%20face.png)\n\n\n\nHaving now been involved in the blockchain and crypto community space for over 3 years I am starting to become accustomed to **NOT WAITING.** There are no signatures, no muppets to ask for verification. It is simply me, my keyboard and digital wallets. I don’t have to ask to be given permission to set any of these things up and sure as shit don’t have to sit for hours in a queue waiting for nonsense.\n\nSo it dawned on me, in the very near future once we move past some technical UI and UX designs and the average ‘joe’ can login with a standardized decentralized verification _(like Civic)_ then the world is going to move very fast in the direction of a **Bankless society.**\n\nSimply put:\n-  It’s faster\n-  Easier\n-  Cheaper\n-  More secure (as long as you take personal responsibility)\n-  Uncontrollable and unstoppable!\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K626gMvu2ds\n\nFurther, what banks don't seem to realize yet, is that you don't need to interact with a person.  That's right, the systems are better than any teller will ever be!    \n\nSo it's not about the banks trying to play catchup with _Ripple_ and any other myriad of blockchain-centralized projects, rather it's about a complete paradigm shift.     It's about a people-less process - **NO QUESTIONS ASKED**\n\nYou won’t understand until you get going and have been in the market for 6 months or more. But let me warn you, heading into a bank and waiting like a child to ask permission to do something with **YOUR MONEY** is going to feel as strange as jumping in a horse and cart or heading into a shop to buy your favourite CD or DVD.\n\nFrom friends I know in the banking industry, for the most part, they are as clueless as Kodak and the wave is well on the way.",
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      "author": "knowtheblock",
      "permlink": "we-called-it-on-boarding-of-multinational-mass-brands-starts-now",
      "title": "We called it! On-boarding of multinational mass brands starts NOW.",
      "body": "![facebook.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcVbsxSxwfn4rkNcooCQP86FzpSvJbeWXApM1PDNhQ21Q/facebook.png)\n\nOver the course of 2017 many multinational corporations have been working behind the scenes to enter the blockchain space and race. But so far most of the companies have been working on systems and protocols that underpin internal business functions and are not directly in the public’s face.\n\n**FACEBOOK** just announced it will be accepting blockchain technology in 2018.\n\nToday will mark the start of the sea-change and paradigm shift for the mass market in blockchain adoption and ?sage. **NO LONGER** will it be referred to as a scam ‘thing’ that is only used by criminals and terrorists. Today is the day the world has been put on notice that blockchain has fundamental characteristics and benefits that are going to absolutely change the game!\n\n![amazon logo.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcSQTX5XjNPTbUUnwEQQw3CAKjFZh1ZEXfK7ZXVZx517x/amazon%20logo.png)\n\nKnowtheblock called this all the way through 2017. Read our posts on Game Theory and the blockchain adoption and other articles that refer to major companies such as Facebook, Google, Amazon and others who are going to use the technology sooner or later.   https://www.facebook.com/knowtheblock/posts/516412582091690\n\nIt seems the day has come and we are all on-board the train.\n\nSo what does today’s announcement mean?   To put it simply, blockchain has now been **validated!**\n\nFacebook has not specified which tokens it may onboard or how they may deploy the technology.   But one thing is for sure, major companies do not accidentally make comments like this. The plan is set and strategy in place. Now we will wait to see what rolls out over the coming months.",
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      "author": "knowtheblock",
      "permlink": "wait-did-i-miss-the-blockchain-bitcoin-investment-opportunity",
      "title": "WAIT! Did I miss the blockchain/ bitcoin investment opportunity?",
      "body": "![stopthe horses.jpeg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmU3sLfeEyiR6bMEh4pddweWsV8eX6xDDRfcPNVJc4Yg1a/stopthe%20horses.jpeg)\n\n2017 was a spectacular year for all things blockchain. Since early Jan there has been an overall prolific rise of tokens and cryptocurrencies as the world starts to understand the power of the decentralized ledger technology.\n\nWe are often asked is _\"did I miss the **‘bitcoin’** investment opportunity?\"_\n\nAlthough no one can give you a definitive answer, and it is never sound advice to suggest that you enter at the ‘top of the market’, we feel this technology has really only just been discovered by the mass public and 2018 will be the year we start to see:\n1.  Massive adoption\n2.  Utilization - specifically of smart contracts and protocols that underly things we do, such as SWIFT interbank transfers and shipping industries monitoring products\n\nSo although we are currently at an all-time high, we are quite certain the blockchain is still massively undervalued.\n\nThis year we are projecting a market rise once again. It’s hard to place actual figures but we are anticipating a total crypto-market cap a low of $3 trillion and a high of $30 trillion. So to be conservative, in 2018 we are looking at many of the top token values increasing by **AT LEAST** a further 300%. \n\nThere are several driving forces why we feel that the blockchain market cap will reach these unprecedented levels and these have been covered in several of our prior articles however to recap:\n1.  This is a global phenomenon. Counties, businesses and people all around the world are onboarding into blockchain and decentralized technology\n2.  Banks and reserve banks, funds are all looking to use aspects of the technology internally and also try to develop their own out of FEAR of becoming redundant and replaced.  Further given the upside in 2017, many are now entering the market to hedge and capture crypto market gains\n3.  There are so many industries whereby the main premise of blockchains being, faster, cheaper and more secure are going to topple\n4.  Governments also need to protect their currencies and will need to participate soon in order to have some control \n\nOf course, not all tokens/ coins are made equal.\n\nWith the advent of initial coin offerings (ICO’s) this year, the blockchain space really became the wild west of speculative investments. Thousands of projects have listed and sold tokens in ICOs. Driven mainly by fear of missing out (FOMO), hundreds of millions of dollars have now entered the market into projects that have:\n-  No product\n-  Sometimes - No team\n-  And in the worst cases simply scams\n\nAs this is a totally unregulated space nothing can be done about these rouge ICO’s. Just like it is individuals responsibility to maintain and control their private keys for personal wallets, the same is true for ICO investing. Due diligence needs to be conducted by individuals and personal responsibility must be taken. For many, this may be too much to ask. Having been mollycoddled by their governments for decades, it may be a very hard landing for those who cannot analyze and think independently.\n\nOverall the major tokens now look to be pretty entrenched and still gaining momentum in the upward direction.\n\nSo if you are looking and thinking did I miss this investment opportunity, we say, absolutely not! It’s really still only just beginning.",
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      "title": "Decentralized maximalism and blockchain purists - the Ripple run and debate",
      "body": "Over the last week, we have seen yet another cryptocurrency and blockchain company crush the market and make one of the most noteworthy moves in 2017. That token was Ripple.  The recent events have really polarized the blockchain market. Let’s address the underlying factors causing the divide and what it means to be in and out of the Ripple move.\n\n![Ripple logo.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmbDHzBXx5b2UQ3bVGaGQGWXPG6jGo7m2k1YinrvYaAVRy/Ripple%20logo.png)\n\nAs we reviewed in a recent article, one of the underlying philosophies driving forward the blockchain revolution is decentralization. That is, for many blockchain protocols (started by Bitcoin) should be:\n1. Not owned by anyone - rather owned by the ‘token holders’\n2. Certainly not controlled by a company\n\nWhat we have seen the emergence and in the case of Ripple, companies that are using tokens that are not linked directly to the companies ownership rather, issued and traded upon the companies ability to uses them as a utility. In essence, they will hold value but not in the true sense of what decentralized blockchain technologies usually do.\n\nGiven this contrast, we have seen chatter on Ripple rise.\n\nIt is clear to see that the tighter blockchain community put on a ‘brave face’ and congratulate Ripple on its success to 2nd in the global market ranks, however on the other side, feel slighted and let down that the community is not staying true to the maximalist values that a ‘true’ blockchain should be independent, decentralized and community controlled.\n\nAs for the mainstream media, it has been very interesting to see how much positive spin has been behind Ripple and its functionally. It is clear to see leavers of power being pulled as this company has huge backing by market leading VC firms with close connections in several other major markets and companies. The disparity of positive to negative coverage is clear.\n\nThe truth of the matter is that centralized or decentralized in the case of Ripple vs any other token that is trying to achieve the same or close to similar functionality, is that this is a **COMPETITION!** The service that will WIN, will be the one that that can meet the needs and wants of its consumer base.\n\nIn the case of the existing banking industry perhaps a company, such as Ripple, was required in order to transverse the complex and political regulatory environment. In the specific case of replacing a system such as SWIFT the Ripple token and protocol was the best solution and this is why Ripple has had such a prolific rise and win.\n\nDoes this mean all blockchains are likely to fall into line and follow this trend?\n\nThis is a two-part answer.\n\nFirstly not all legacy technologies are so well guarded and protected like the banking sector is.  In fact, most blockchain technologies will find it relatively easy to come in and provide a better offering from the outset than current systems.\n\nSecondly, if you are a purist and believe in the decentralized movement and premise, moving one antiquated system to another centralized controlled token will only be a short-term fix and fad. The wider game and what the Ripple team should be asking themselves is  _“how long will it take for the average consumer and mass market to move away from banks as a service and starts becoming their own bank\"_.    Rather than waiting for a central authority to allow you to move money, people can simply move if fast, cheap and security themselves.  The question is not _\"if coins such as bitcoin, or litecoin will offer the competitive solution?\"._ **Rather it will be when!**",
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      "title": "Show me my tokens! On-boarding issues preventing mass adoption of cryptocurrencies",
      "body": "As we now draw into the final week of 2017 we reflect on what an amazing break-out year it has been for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Against the backdrop of mainstream media’s negative commentary on the space, investing/ speculation is now at all-time highs. But we have seen nothing yet!\n\nOne of the huge challenges with the market is on-boarding. Essentially there are only two ways you can participate in crypto investing, both with positive and negative elements.  \n-  Buying actual tokens and controlling your private keys in wallets, hardware wallets or paper wallets\n-  Buying into the market on exchanges or via third-party providers and having slow, with no access to your tokens\n\nSo what are the channels, pros and cons?\n\nRight now trying to enter the blockchain market can be very challenging depending on what country you are in. As we understand in the US many of the restrictions are lower and you may connect your bank or credit cards directly to exchanges, however for the majority of nations around the world an on-ramp is needed and other than several third party providers (which may be risky to work through) Coinbase is one of the few options that people have to get into the market.\n![coinbase.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTrrc9GswTtKELE6RSMRUFDMG7yNxqnXMyaZJbAneDN5o/coinbase.png) \n\nCoinbase has been running for a number of years and over time has attracted market-leading developers and investment. Attached to the Coinbase ‘wallet’ is the GDax exchange. \nHere are some things you should know about Coinbase:\n-  Setting up an account is not so easy. It may take up to 3 weeks to get verified!\n-  Initially, you were only able to buy bitcoin to enter. Ethereum was then added and subsequently at time or writing Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash can also be directly bought \n-  Something many investors/ speculators have disliked about this platform is the restrictions on how much you can purchase. Weekly limits are pre-set at $50 ONLY and it takes some time and work to get this up. \n-  Fortunately for Coinbase you do have full control over tokens. Once in the market, you can send your tokens to other wallets or exchanges to trade. Also, you can use services like ShapeShift and Changelly  I.e Bitcoin to NXT\n\n![Changelly logo.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmaGpxgdGRVxUE2PHNEGpTCqHC9v62SHLjxwtBAsTxsDU7/Changelly%20logo.jpg)\n\nSo you can see if Coinbase is the primary mechanism for the world to enter the crypto market these restrictions have really been holding things up. Perhaps this has been a good thing! Can you imagine the market volatility if mass adoption was un-tethered? The current ‘bubble’ could have easily become 3-10x bigger with much larger run-ups and even bigger pops and corrections. It is simply hard to imagine. \n\nThe second market that has fewer restrictions but its own set of challenges has been trading platforms.\n\n![Etoro.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXkZH63YitXQvN9Et1M2vpBRf74okrg86hkshyp4FsY3D/Etoro.png)\n\nEToro is a common platform that I have heard people using. They have un-restricted buying limits, however, there are two MAJOR issues:\n-  You never own your private keys or in other words you actually never really own anything \n-  It seems that when you sell, you must sell your entire positions. It cannot be done piece by piece.\n\nThe final HUGE issue right now that I always hear sideline commentators chat about is ‘how do you even get your cash out?’\n\nAgain from listening to US-based investors it seems that bank links are already in place. So getting into and out of tokens to fiat is as simple as setting up a ‘sell’ order. But once again the US is only a small fragment of the overall market. In Singapore, I have not yet found an easy, straight-forward solution to exit positions back into SGD. The question is how long will it be before banks jump on the opportunity and offer this as a service to clients?\n\nWe are looking forward to a huge 2018. Obviously, with so much cash now in the blockchain space, developers are hugely incentivized to solve all of these current issues. Given this, we feel that within another 12 months you will see many platforms emerging that will compete directly with Coinbase and also the barriers entering and exiting the market will continue to decrease. These changes should lead to much more market liquidity and over time should assist to stabilize the current market movements.\n\nHave a great New Years Eve celebration and we will see you on the flip-side",
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      "permlink": "the-idealogical-clash-of-government-issued-centralized-tokens-vs-bitcoin-and-the-wider-open-blockchain",
      "title": "The Idealogical Clash of Government issued Centralized Tokens vs Bitcoin and the wider open blockchain",
      "body": "In order to understand the main clashes, it is first important to understand a little bit of money history and some of its core principles below. _(If your keen to read about the full history of the USD follow this link)_\nhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_dollar\n\n![cashstack.jpeg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZD7SDgWq7yWc1Yj4PZiEY5HPU8dw9wxrQbv4RuiosZFo/cashstack.jpeg)\n\nPoint to point:\n -  Throughout history, money has always been ‘issued’ by one-or-more central controlling figures but certainly, this has been a very closed group. In today’s age we know these points at federal reserve banks and also Royal Mint in the case of Britain money has evolved over time. In modern time money was either a tangible asset like gold or silver or was backed, 1:1 by gold and/or silver.\n-  Over time the ‘gold standard’ was replaced by the fiat system, whereby, currencies around the world are not backed by any tangible asset. Rather they are held up by momentum and the citizens belief that it holds value. It the sole discretion of nations and their associated federal reserves to increase the money supply via printing additional money.\n\nThe centralized nature of the money supply has not been without its issues. Here is a quick list of when nations money supply has gone bad:\n1. Zimbabwe experienced hyper inflation in the 90’s as the federal reserve of Zimbabwe inflated the money supply to the point of causing runaway hyper inflation\n2. Many counties in the world have more recently experienced major currency crisis, perhaps the most notable was Iceland that was initially caused by deregulation in their banking system that made the country exposed to forgiven debt, and eventually flowed over into causing a financial collapse in the Iceland market\n\nThese are just a couple of examples but in no way isolated instances. In fact, we have seen over the past 300 year history of modern money that almost all currencies have defaulted and that governments have ‘changed the rules’ repeatedly about what money is, how it’s created and how the banking system can interplay with it. \n\nSo why do we still need governments and banks in the system?\n\nUp to this point banks and governments have had to remain as the intermediaries to assist nations and the World issue and control money because the technology protocols did not exist. Think of it like mail delivery, prior to the internet and email, we simply had to send post, on paper, via the postal office. However, with the advent of technology ‘letters’ are becoming more and more redundant over time as the world continues to trust and adopt digital movement of information, communication and documents.\n\nSo this leads well into understanding a little about tokens and blockchains, such as; Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and others. How these are fundamentally a new paradigm in the financial industry.\n\nSatoshi Nakamoto white paper of the bitcoin blockchain solved one very important problem, which is called the double spend. This is when you send cash to another person, what stops you from trying to send the same cash several times and have them all validated. Said in another way, historically we have needed the service of banks because we needed an intermediary to facilitate this specific function of ensuring a payment is made, received, confirmed and both ledgers are updated both on the senders and receivers accounts. Boiled down, what it actually has come down to is trust. Banks needed to be in place as you cannot trust other people.\n\nBlockchains have solved this specific problem, meaning we now can have a trustless system which has 100% efficacy. No banks required.\n\nSo now we come to the initial question of the ideological debate of governments issuing ‘centralized tokens’. From the above we can draw some conclusions:\n-  Banks and centralization is no longer necessary due to technological advancements \n-  Centralizing the worlds money supply into these few ‘power hubs’ is not full proof. It has been changed and manipulated by all nations over time and in many instances has failed as well\n\nMost of the leading blockchain technologies are:\n-  Entirely decentralized, owned by no-one other than its participants \n-  Capped as far as the issuance and ongoing new money creation and supply is concerned\n- Immutable and unchangeable. There is no decision making, blockchains are code that once set in place require the developers consensus to change (which is what democracy should be all about!)\n\nFrom an ideological standpoint, for those who already understand the blockchain technology, there is NO benefit to a government trying to create a ‘national token’. In fact, rather than gaining here are the things people will be loosing if they choose to buy-in and adopt a nationalized token:\ncontrol will remain with a centralized group\nanyone who buys into this idea, will be agreeing blockchain technology is superior but wants to stay attached to a national system \n\nThink of it this way - why would you use an email system that is created by the old postal service (who have no idea about how to build and run email software's - but you trust them no not loose your mail) rather than working with specialized IT companies who already have amazing software in place! The choice would be totally irrational, based upon fear of change. Furthermore, we have already have seen how this played out in the maker, and IT companies won. \n\nAnother glaring alarm is governments not allowing participation in blockchain. Recently China shut downs its exchanges and Russia is on a similar trajectory. The question that needs to be asked is ‘why would governments need to block citizens from using the decentralized technologies that exist and are working well, for their own centralized system?’\nThe answer is clear in that they are afraid that once people jump onboard decentralized blockchains it will be impossible to move them back to a government controlled system, blockchain driven or otherwise.",
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      "title": "",
      "body": "Why do you feel that the Nxt blockchain will become worthless?   \n\nFrom what I can see it will be used similarly to Ethereum or EOS as an alternative platform.   Given we already understand how platforms are used, in the case of Android and Apple, as well as micro platforms that allow API's for interconnection, I strongly feel in the next 1-3 years you will see much more interconnections between various blockchains to maximize each of their unique characteristics.",
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      "author": "knowtheblock",
      "permlink": "hard-stats-on-the-global-nature-of-blockchain-crypto-usage-and-facts-you-should-know",
      "title": "Hard stats on the global nature of blockchain/ crypto usage and FACTS you should know!",
      "body": "One of the core tenants that underpin the support and growth of bitcoin and now subsequently blockchain technology is in its decentralized nature. We are so used to being caught in a monetary system which is country based _(excluding zones such as the Euro)_ it is hard to bend our heads around an idea that is technology has no borders, and in such lies it’s strength.\n\nIf you are keen to stay up to date with Bitcoin volume by country, statistical facts are lied out clearly on Coin Dance https://coin.dance/volume/localbitcoins\n\nThe clearest things that you notice from the outset is that:\n- The market it global and well diversified\n- Major volume and adoption is coming from counties that you may not otherwise anticipate - notable counties include Venezuela, Argentina, Hungary and Nigeria! \n- Adoption is growing across all charts. This is further confirmation that this system is bigger than the usual forces that stop good ideas, namely; localized media, country to country politics and national laws.\n\n![NigeriaBitcoin.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmUzNcPjMtLhf3qXNGsxwAZWqnVD2EdFKwaetz2njih9en/NigeriaBitcoin.png)\n\n\nAnother very interesting chart is the **legality/ illegality** of bitcoin/ blockchain country to country. This table is an up to date list of how governments are lining up in this market.\nhttps://coin.dance/poli\n\nAs is clearly outlined in the table is the vast majority of governments in the world are either, supportive or neutral to the market. Enabling their citizens to onboard and freely participate in blockchain technologies.\n\n![LegalitybyCountry.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVtDDjioYPtMtpc3xXUWVSPW5ujcvLhdMu6HH2h5npTY1/LegalitybyCountry.png)\n\nThe cross boarder diversity is also an interesting phenomenon when it comes to the question that is often asked ‘what is backing bitcoin/ the blockchain? Simply put, bitcoin and blockchain technology is backed by actual currency.\n\n**Not just one - MANY!** \n\nSo the risk is spread. This is not to mention the tangible assets such as gold, energy and other commodities that backs various specific tokens concurrently.\n\nAs we dig further into the Coin Dance website we also tap into more interesting facts.  This graph which overviews bitcoin community participation by age is also telling.  Historically the 'holy grail' for consumer companies has always been _tapping_ the youth market.   It is clear to see that Bitcoin is certainly cracking this code with over 45% of interest in the space coming from the age group of 24-34 year olds.   Unfortunately this graph does not show actual investment figures and we would assert that there would be more invested in by older age groups than perhaps the younger market on a % basis.\n\n![BitcoinbyAge.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmc99N2zxtaGf9hE3gECYJeeNBYpMp5kYuRRAb23HPpkwK/BitcoinbyAge.png)\n\n\nIn summary we are excited to be part of this global adoption. This monetary and cryptographic system shows many characteristics similar to the internet. Blockchain tech does not discriminate between borders, people’s, religions or races. It it impervious to politicians and existing controlling mechanisms. \n\nIt is of the people, for the people and controlled by the people - the closest thing to a true democracy existing in our time and age.",
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      "author": "biophil",
      "permlink": "re-knowtheblock-nxt-and-why-the-28th-of-december-is-an-important-date-the-run-up-is-certainly-on-the-way-20171225t002854872z",
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      "body": "An important consideration is that after the snapshot on the 28th, Nxt itself will almost certainly become worthless.",
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