Bitcoin is making headlines daily in the financial media. Even today CNBC has the headline: Bitcoin Tops $8,700 To A Record High. Cryptocurrency hedge funds are enthusiastically forecasting bitcoin price to go above $10K by the end of this year which is jut 34 days away. Yesterday CNBC had this article: Bitcoin Main Rival Ethereum Hits A Fresh Record High. Ethereum is now trading at a high of $425 and has risen more than 3900% since the start of this year. Today the market capitalization of Ether is more than $40 Billion. The billionaire investor Mike Novogratz is saying that Ether will hit $500 by the end of this year. You see since the financial crash of 2008, people all over the world have lost trust in the financial institutions and most have turned towards these cryptocurrencies in droves. Below are the figures that show how the four top cryptocurrencies performed during 2017.
- Bitcoin rose 485% from 1st January 2017 to 30 October 2017
- Ethereum rose 3900% from 1st January 2017 to 30 October 2017
- Ripple rose 4353% from 1st January 2017 to 30 October 2017
- Litecoin rose 1433% from 1st January 2017 to 30 October 2017
This means that if you had invested $250 investment in each cryptocurrency on January 1, 2017, it would have grown to $25,427 by October 2017. This is something incredible. There are difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum. The most fundamental difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum is that only 20 million Bitcoins can be mined by the end of this century before the cutoff date. This has been programmed into the basic architecture of this crypocurrency and there is a lot of controversy in the Bitcoin community how to change that. Ethereum does not has this problem. You see this year Ethereum rose by 3900% while Bitcoin rose by only a small 485%. We have a brand new Crypto Course that will teach you everything that you need to know on how to invest in cryptocurrencies safely. Just click on the link and watch the introductory course. This course has been developed by the top notch people in the field and take you by hand and show you what are blockchains and how these cryptocurrencies work and how you should invest in them.
As I was saying cryptocurrencies are the new investing frontier. If you have been trading forex, then you should know the basics of investing. Cryptocurrencies are the next most lucrative field that you should not miss. There were people in the beginning who brushed aside cryptocurrencies as a short term passing fad. But Bitcoin and Ethereum have proven the critics wrong. There is so much global investment going on in these cryptocurrencies that you simply cannot write them off. Bitcoin has gone mainstream with many banks and retail chains now accepting it as a form of payment.
But you need to understand the technology behind these cryptocurrencies before you can become a successful cryptocurrency investor. This course will teach you the basics of blockchains. Blockchains are the heart of these cryptocurrencies. Blockchains is being hailed as the biggest technological innovation of this decade that has the potential to turning the financial industry upside down. So what is a block chain? Blockchain basically is a peer to peer softwre network that uses cryptography to transfer data anywhere in the world. Peer to peer means the software is not hosted in one place but is distributed across the world over thousands and thousands of computers. If you download the software, your computer will also become part of the peer to peer software network.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum use this blockchain technology. In essence Bitcoin and Ethereum are open source Blockchain Networks that allow you to create accounts and transfer Bitcoin or Ethereum from one account to another. Blockchain are something like the mesh networks or what you call the Local Area Networks (LANs). You can make transactions with only those computers that have the software installed on them. In Ethereum you can write a smart contract between two parties. So you can well imagine how much interesting these cryptocurrencies are. Blockchain technology has a great potential. Lot of research is being done right now on how to use this technology in the health sector and the financial sector.
Behind the scene everything depends on cryptography. As long as cryptography is strong, hackers cannot breakin the ledgers and steal the bitcoins. But this keeps on happening from time to time. Remember the Mt Gox saga a few years back that crashed the bitcoin. With the advent of quantum computing, it is being said present cryptographic algorithms will become obsolete. Quantum computing has the potential to break the RSA algorithm. Till then you are safe. You should know these facts before you invest heavily in these cryptocurrencies.
These are interesting times. Technology is advancing ahead at a fast pace. Cryptocurrencies are posting a major challenge to the traditional currencies that are being controlled and regulated by state institutions primarily the state banks. Federal Reserve controls and regulates the US Dollar. Bitcoin and Ethereum are outside the control and regulation of the central banks. How things work out int the future, only future can tell. As said few years back serious investors like Warren Buffet had poor comments about cryptocurrencies. But now everyone has changed their thinking and it seems a great technological change is about to sweep across the banking sector. When it comes to Ethereum you will benefit if you know how to code and program as Ethereum allows you to program the blockchain. Bitcoin does not has this feature. You never know in the coming decades what can happen. Can these cryptocurrencies challenge the established currencies like US Dollar, British Pound, Japanese Yen, Australian Dollar etc, is an open question. But this is the time to profit from cryptocurrencies. If you wait too long, chances are you will miss the gravy train. So don’t hesitate to take a look at the Crypto course and watch the introductory course. It might help you make a good investment decision.
Most cryptocurrency critics say that bitcoin is not backed by anything and it is highly volatile. The same holds true for most fiat currencies. Fiat currencies also aren’t backed by anything else as well. Fiat currencies however have something. Fiat currencies are held by those who pay taxes and hold government bonds. Cryptocurrencies have been classified as a commodity and not as a currency by the Federal Reserve as it has all the characteristics of a commodity. Bitcoin ticker symbol is BTC. Ethereum or Ether is denoted by ticker symbol ETH. In the long run, I believe the Ethereum model will win and Bitcoin will ultimately lose the battle for the top most cryptocurrency.