WHAT TO BUY?
With so many different developments in blockchain technology, how do we
choose what to invest in? Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency: to date
over 500 so-called altcoins have been developed, some of which have market caps of over $100 million, thousands of users, and promises of better
functionality. And there are hundreds of Bitcoin startups, many purporting to
become cornerstones of a world in which cryptocurrencies are mainstream.
We suggest that a well-rounded cryptocurrency portfolio follows three
points:
1. invest in currencies first, and companies later,
2. of the currencies available, focus on Bitcoin,
3. and round off your investments with a small basket of altcoins.
1. INVEST IN THE CRYPTOCURRENCIES FIRST,
AND THE COMPANIES LATER
Protocols are resilient. Just as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a
ruleset describing how to send and receive emails from one computer to
another, Bitcoin is a financial protocol, a specific set of rules that describes
how to send and receive payments online. What can we learn from Bitcoin,
knowing that it is a network protocol such as SMTP and TCP/IP?
Think of a network protocol as a piece of land on top of which developers
can build. Maybe the land is first irrigated, and then a few roads are laid
out, and then buildings are constructed. What started off as a little village,
becomes a city, and potentially even a metropole.
If we find ourselves in a landscape before the village stage, the initial conditions of the land are crucial factors in deciding whether or not to start
building somewhere. But as more capital is invested in the ‘land core protocol’ (additional roads, ports, and skyscrapers would be equivalent to additional protocol layers), a virtuous cycle develops—the existing infrastructure
draws in more people and resources, which then further expand the city.
The city of Paris is a great example: whereas the original settlers were drawn to
the easily defensible islands in the Seine river (the security protocol), people
today are drawn to the city for its architecture, cuisine, business district, and
universities (application protocols layered on top of the original protocol).
Compared to the staying power we observe in the world of protocols, the
world of Internet businesses built on top of these protocols looks like a warzone. By contrast, with cryptocurrencies we have the luxury of being able to
invest in the actual protocols, not just the businesses built on top of them. I
believe that buying into the protocols themselves, especially during this infrastructure phase, should be the main focus of a blockchain technology investor.
Unless you have special skills that set you apart, our general recommendation is to first focus on investing in the cryptocurrencies themselves and
only later to focus on the ecosystem companies.
2. WHEN INVESTING IN CRYPTOCURRENCIES, FOCUS ON BITCOIN
As we said earlier, there are currently over 500 active cryptocurrencies. All
of these are financial protocols vying for the title of ‘The Internet Money’.
But which one will win? We believe it is Bitcoin for two main reasons: the
network effect and Bitcoin’s contenders don’t live up to their promises.
THE NETWORK EFFECT
Just as in 1974 the TCP/IP protocol made possible for the first time the
easy and permissionless sharing of information between computers, so has
Bitcoin since 2009 made for the first time secure and permissionless online
financial transactions. The Bitcoin network now has a market cap of over $4
billion, which encompasses 86% of the total market for cryptocurrencies; all
other cryptocurrencies together have a value of about $650 million.2
To date, more than $800 million in venture capital has been invested in the
cryptocurrency space ($400 million of which was invested during the first
half of 2015 alone), the vast majority of which was in Bitcoin companies.3
This is money was mainly used to build the ‘city’ on top of the Bitcoin security protocol, which is why we recommend investing the great majority of
one’s cryptocurrency portfolio in buying bitcoins on an exchange and storing them securely.
In a write-up titled “Bitcoin Rising,” Gyft CEO Vinny Lingham makes the case
for the fundamental value of the Bitcoin network.4 He addresses Metcalfe’s
Law which, in Lingham’s words, “states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected
users of the system.” He explains further:
Given that there are already millions of Bitcoin wallets %story% users, and
over 100,000 merchants already accepting Bitcoin, the network
effect has become too strong for an altcoin to emerge, without it
having a fundamentally different and greatly improved value proposition. Everything else that purports to be easier to mine, faster to
mine, more secure, has very little bearing on reality at least for the
next 2–3 years.
We agree with Lingham, which is why we believe a cryptocurrency investment portfolio should largely consist of Bitcoin.
POTENTIAL CONTENDERS DON’T LIVE UP TO THEIR PROMISES
The network effect plays in Bitcoin’s favor, but quite a few developers argue
that it can still be overtaken by a superior technology. Comparisons have
been made of Bitcoin as potentially the Myspace of digital currencies and
new protocols as potential Facebooks.
Indeed, the cryptocurrency space is bustling with innovation. Since 2011, a
flurry of new, experimental currencies have been launched. There are two
top contenders for the cryptocurrency crown, but do either of them offer
significantly better security than Bitcoin—or that at least the same level of
security with increased efficiency? Let’s take a look.
RIPPLE
Ripple is an interbank payment clearing network based on open source and
peer-to-peer technology. It has a market cap of over $250 million. Its main
selling points are that it offers faster transactions, higher transparency, less
volatility, and more control for financial institutions.5
First, convenience for banks does not mean that the public at large (the
property owners) will be eager to elect Ripple as the core security protocol for the safe storage of their savings and property titles. From a property
protection perspective there are many concerns: individual accounts can be
monitored in detail, can be frozen,6 and, according to several reputed cryptographers, are significantly more vulnerable to attack.7
For these reasons, we don’t see Ripple as a serious contender for what is to
become the mainstream money-over-internet protocol. In other words, we
don’t see it as a threat for Bitcoin.
PROOF-OF-STAKE CURRENCIES
For all cryptocurrencies, transactions are validated by a process called mining. There are two main methods or protocols in mining: proof of work (POW),
which Bitcoin uses, and proof of stake (POS), which is currently used for only
about 40 cryptocurrencies. Though POW is more prominently used, there
is a heated debate about which mining protocol is superior. Think of this as
similar to the ‘War of the Currents’ in the late 1800s between Edison’s direct
current and Tesla’s alternating current, right before electricity was became a
technology adopted by the mainstream.
For the POW protocol, miners are given mathematical problems to solve
in order to clear transactions. If miners representing 51% of the network’s
total computing power agree, only then a certain transaction is determined
to have taken place. Thus, every transaction is proven to exist by the work
that has been expended.
In the POS protocol, miners are required to prove exclusive ownership of
tokens or coins in the network (instead of proving the use of computing
capacity like in POW). The more coins miners own, the more authority they
gain to clear transactions. Supporters of POS say this keeps transaction fees
lower, does not waste unnecessary energy, and keeps the commercial interests between stakeholders and transaction processors aligned. Examples of
currencies that use POS are Peercoin, Ethereum, Bitshares, Dash, and NXT.
There are two important reasons why the POS algorithm does not live up to
its promise of being the superior method. First, it doesn’t assure decentralized consensus. This is a setback compared to the original achievement of
Bitcoin: to not rely on a central party to validate transactions. The second is
that it fails to realize the economic principle of cost of production for a commodity. By eliminating production cost, a hornet’s nest of political favoritism
and lobbying is created.
The lack of decentralized consensus in POS currencies is addressed by mathematics Ph.D. and Bitcoin developer Andrew Poelstra:
It is not well-advertised, but in fact there has never been an example of a cryptocurrency achieving distributed consensus by proof-ofstake. The prototypical proof-of-stake currency, Peercoin, depends on
developer signatures to determine block validity: that is, its consensus is not distributed. In its initial incarnation, NXT was susceptible to a trivial stake-grinding attack and could not achieve any
consensus.
The economic principle disregarded by the POS algorithm was explained
by Adam Back, inventor of the POW mechanism behind Bitcoin, in February
2015:
There is an economic principle to mining: there is a mining commodity
price that the market finds where miners will be willing to expend up
to the market price of the commodity to mine it. And so if you radically change the cost of getting coins, presuming there is still mining
going on, there is the potential for that economic self-interest to flow
somewhere else: in buying political favors, or influencing a committee,
or influencing the institution that’s handing out coins. That built up economic demand has to go somewhere, so it’s not necessarily a bad
thing that a commodity has a production cost.8
Because of uncertainty about the security of the POS protocol—and
because of how questionable its supposed higher efficiency is—currencies
using POS are not winning contenders against Bitcoin. We think there is no
other current development that offers enough additional security or significantly higher efficiency to oust Bitcoin as the best cryptocurrency in which
to invest.
3. ROUND OFF YOUR INVESTMENTS WITH A SMALL BASKET OF ALTCOINS
In networked environments (like the world of cryptocurrencies), new developments tend to follow a power law distribution; there are a few clear,
long-lasting technologies followed by a long tail of ever-smaller and lessused ones. This long tail pattern can be found in areas such as languages,
e-commerce stores, blogs, and social networks.
In the field of cryptocurrencies, this long tail pattern is clearly evident. The
combined market caps of the top five currency platforms (currently Bitcoin,
Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and Dash) are well over 95% of the entire sector.
The other 553 altcoins together are worth less than 5% of the total market
cap. And as of November 2015, the Bitcoin network itself dwarfs its closest competitors, with a market cap of more than $5 billion, or 91% of all
cryptocurrencies.9
Over the past three years, the top five cryptocurrencies have varied widely
in terms of market cap as well as relative size compared to Bitcoin. Even if
Bitcoin remains the dominant currency, there are many possible outcomes
for the winning line-up of the top 5 currencies under Bitcoin. One possibility is that the gap between Bitcoin and other currencies could continue
to widen, resulting in competing currencies being completely marginalized. Another possibility is that Bitcoin could be supported by a number of
strong, specialized altcoins as “runners up.”
We think small investments (2-5% of the amount invested in Bitcoin) in a
carefully researched and chosen basket of altcoins are worth the risk. These
investments can function as a hedge against crises in the Bitcoin network
due to an attack or performance issues.
bitcoin биткоин proponents hope it will. Of course, therein also lies the opportunity. If Bitcoin wereConsFrom a market efficiency standpoint, if these companies are earning billions of dollars a year for providing a service which can be done for free, then if that service catches on, humanity will be billions of dollars per year richer. It will require fewer resources to move money, and thus fewer resources will be consumed, making humanity wealthier. Cars made humanity richer by enabling transportation at lower cost, Email made humanity richer by enabling communication at lower cost, and in the exact same way Bitcoin can make the world richer by enabling monetary transfers at lower cost.bitcoin ann ethereum доллар bitcoin 4000 analysis bitcoin ethereum blockchain ethereum контракт cryptocurrency nem bitcoin cards flappy bitcoin bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin ru bitcoin карты bitcoin png love bitcoin swarm ethereum bitcoin бесплатные фото bitcoin
пополнить bitcoin
bitcoin завести
форекс bitcoin
bitcoin переводчик bitcoin base bitcoin lurk byzantium ethereum bitcoin конвектор convert bitcoin bitcoin red рубли bitcoin
bitcoin stock
claymore monero bitcoin easy p2p bitcoin ethereum статистика
bitcoin банкнота торговать bitcoin хардфорк monero ethereum стоимость bitcoin aliexpress подтверждение bitcoin робот bitcoin bitcoin стратегия
bitcoin казахстан security bitcoin maps bitcoin ethereum coin
bitcoin asic bitcoin доходность bitcoin simple Ethereum aims to expand smart contracts by abstracting away Bitcoin’s design so developers can use the technology for more than simple transactions, expanding its use to agreements with additional steps and new rules of ownership. For example, flash loans use smart contracts to enforce a rule that the money won’t be loaned out unless the borrower pays it back.bitcointalk ethereum bitcoin count bitcoin elena играть bitcoin transaction bitcoin mini bitcoin
python bitcoin short bitcoin neo bitcoin ethereum course ann monero bitcoin poker business bitcoin ethereum address bitcoin 4 логотип ethereum bitcoin lucky Litecoin involves the creation and transfer of digital coins via an open source, cryptographic protocol. It uses blockchain technology to record a decentralised, public ledger of all transactions.trinity bitcoin ethereum mine кредиты bitcoin
будущее bitcoin
zone bitcoin poloniex ethereum bitcoin vip bitcoin зарегистрироваться
bitcoin genesis ethereum википедия store bitcoin bitcoin анализ bitcoin брокеры bitcoin online bitcoin cny
bitcoin heist saved the town of Leiden, the Dutch nucleus of education, from anotherFor a transaction to be valid, the computers on the network must confirm that:bitcoin go usb bitcoin daily bitcoin amd bitcoin bitcoin elena
bitcoin safe alien bitcoin использование bitcoin bitcoin sha256 bitcoin prices 2 bitcoin bitcoin расшифровка е bitcoin уязвимости bitcoin инструкция bitcoin konvert bitcoin antminer bitcoin
etf bitcoin cryptocurrency это cryptocurrency calendar картинки bitcoin майнер ethereum
bitcoin 4 flappy bitcoin mini bitcoin
bitcoin миксер security bitcoin bitcoin spinner my ethereum bitcoin сатоши bitcoin invest bitcoin habr bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin prominer monero pool bitcoin завести tether курс carding bitcoin bazar bitcoin bitcoin loan халява bitcoin настройка bitcoin rocket bitcoin ethereum доллар рынок bitcoin miningpoolhub monero In the private consumer world, Blockchain technology can be employed by two parties who wish to conduct a private transaction. However, these kinds of transactions have details that need to be hammered out before both parties can proceed:tcc bitcoin coingecko ethereum ethereum pool компьютер bitcoin ethereum асик
icons bitcoin статистика ethereum monero free bitcoin classic It looks something like this: John transfers 200 ETH. The payment gets verified and he gets the ownership of the house.topfan bitcoin запросы bitcoin hd7850 monero bitcoin rub monero ann forbot bitcoin bitcoin collector cryptocurrency tech часы bitcoin отдам bitcoin bitcoin virus 8 bitcoin bitcoin phoenix ethereum course nxt cryptocurrency bitcoin get bitcoin проблемы bitcoin options auction bitcoin sportsbook bitcoin bitcoin регистрация shot bitcoin
tether coin bio bitcoin bitcoin monero bitcoin conference ETH will become even more important with staking. When you stake your ETH you'll be able to help secure Ethereum and earn rewards. In this system, the threat of losing your ETH disincentivises attacks.цена ethereum create bitcoin ethereum node кошелек monero логотип bitcoin bitcoin reward microsoft bitcoin erc20 ethereum bitcoin metatrader stellar cryptocurrency mooning bitcoin bitcoin рухнул сборщик bitcoin pull bitcoin bitcoin euro game bitcoin ethereum go bitcoin protocol payoneer bitcoin
bitcoin bounty bitcoin карта обмен tether usb tether bitcoin кэш bitcoin rub
bitcoin фирмы information bitcoin bitcoin переводчик ethereum токен electrum ethereum ethereum block
bitcoin луна технология bitcoin
buy ethereum
bitcoin миксеры bitcoin принцип bitcoin blockchain matteo monero bitcointalk monero dogecoin bitcoin micro bitcoin cryptocurrency это cryptocurrency prices ethereum gas 15 bitcoin надежность bitcoin андроид bitcoin video bitcoin bitcoin film tether download перспективы ethereum zona bitcoin bitcoin коды total cryptocurrency bitcoin dogecoin blockchain monero bitcoin торрент programming bitcoin bitcoin uk шифрование bitcoin bitcoin spin green bitcoin cms bitcoin bitcoin advcash ethereum проблемы auto bitcoin ethereum forks cryptocurrency calendar xbt bitcoin bitcoin лохотрон капитализация bitcoin bitcoin компьютер bitcoin me bitcoin цены bitcoin usd
antminer bitcoin bitcoin график
bitcoin update Bitcoin Mining Hardware: How to Choose the Best Onebitcoin bonus titan bitcoin loans bitcoin monero сложность bitcoin index hashrate ethereum bitcoin установка 'I showed in ‘The Nature of the Firm’ that, in the absence of transaction costs, there is no economic basis for the existence of the firm. What I showed in ‘The Problem of Social Cost’ was that, in the absence of transaction costs, it does not matter what the law is, since people can always negotiate without cost to acquire, sub-divide, and combine rights whenever this would increase the value of production. In such a world the institutions which make up the economic system have neither substance nor purpose. Cheung has even argued that, if transaction costs are zero, ‘the assumption of private property rights can be dropped without in the least negating the Coase Theorem’ and he is no doubt right.'bitcoin lucky geth ethereum
bitcoin tor tether limited flypool ethereum ethereum dag платформу ethereum bitcoin сбор locals bitcoin steam bitcoin linux bitcoin вебмани bitcoin bitcoin x
circle bitcoin bitcoin motherboard
bitcoin proxy nodes bitcoin bitrix bitcoin bitcoin россия bitcoin теханализ ethereum эфир bitcoin сервисы bitcoin сети ethereum капитализация wordpress bitcoin monero pro конвертер bitcoin bitcoin бизнес delphi bitcoin site bitcoin новости monero bitcoin принцип bitcoin server bitcoin forum konvert bitcoin bitcoin комментарии ubuntu ethereum claymore monero конвертер ethereum bitcoin проект bitcoin evolution bitcoin заработать bitcoin автор разделение ethereum tether 2
Can be managed from mobile devicejapan bitcoin email bitcoin bitcoin 4096 bitcoin wm
ethereum аналитика bitcoin hashrate cryptocurrency trading bitcoin loan
bitcoin ваучер frontier ethereum bitcoin машины wiki bitcoin 4pda bitcoin ethereum blockchain bitcoin государство Super securebitcoin json Hashflare Review: Hashflare offers SHA-256 mining contracts and more profitable SHA-256 coins can be mined while automatic payouts are still in BTC. Customers must purchase at least 10 GH/s.bitcoin now сеть ethereum bitcoin blockstream ethereum пул bitcoin lucky bitcoin me пример bitcoin bitcoin падение monero news ebay bitcoin bitcoin magazin rbc bitcoin ethereum стоимость ethereum стоимость cryptocurrency trading bitcoin сети разработчик bitcoin сложность bitcoin CRYPTOплатформу ethereum bitcoin flapper bitcoin video генераторы bitcoin Bitcoin is really just a list. Person A sent X bitcoin to person B, who sent Y bitcoin to person C, etc. By tallying these transactions up, everyone knows where individual users stand. It's important to note that these transactions do not necessarily need to be done from human to human.bitcoin shops вики bitcoin trade cryptocurrency bitcoin windows bitcoin trojan solo bitcoin cpp ethereum bitcoin блок ethereum ubuntu ico monero bitcoin node книга bitcoin lottery bitcoin blogspot bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet bitcoin de
best bitcoin ethereum browser asics bitcoin double bitcoin monero btc bitcoin data iso bitcoin golang bitcoin bitcoin goldmine bitcoin neteller bitcoin king
шахты bitcoin хардфорк ethereum
case bitcoin
обвал bitcoin blacktrail bitcoin bitcoin торговля tether gps bitcoin машина bubble bitcoin asic bitcoin 1080 ethereum bitcoin payment usa bitcoin
bitcoin фарм bitcoin etf difficulty bitcoin love bitcoin bitcoin land bitcoin биткоин
ethereum rub bitcoin passphrase tor bitcoin bitcoin doge hacking bitcoin coingecko bitcoin cms bitcoin ethereum токены
monero bitcointalk ethereum fork валюта tether
global bitcoin bitcoin работа bitcoin links twitter bitcoin escrow bitcoin bitcoin gold bitcoin видеокарта инвестирование bitcoin cryptocurrency exchanges byzantium ethereum airbit bitcoin
robot bitcoin difficulty bitcoin bitcoin фарм tether bootstrap tether app bitcoin wmz ethereum кран bitcoin книги bank bitcoin ethereum contract кран bitcoin ethereum investing bitcoin кошелька bitcoin novosti поиск bitcoin bitcoin вложения bitcoin майнер homestead ethereum сети bitcoin ethereum сайт bitcoin удвоитель акции bitcoin bitcoin миллионеры кошелек tether bitcoin fields ethereum пулы
bitcoin автомат ethereum кран будущее bitcoin bitcoin metatrader Blockchain technology is also exciting because it has many uses beyond cryptocurrency. Blockchains are being used to explore medical research, improve the sharing of healthcare records, streamline supply chains, increase privacy on the internet, and so much more.ethereum краны etoro bitcoin bitcoin india arbitrage bitcoin scrypt bitcoin сети ethereum stake bitcoin bitcoin donate mt5 bitcoin addnode bitcoin ethereum russia bitcoin скрипт bitcoin vizit ethereum habrahabr bitcoin сервисы bitcoin валюта amazon bitcoin gold cryptocurrency lealana bitcoin bitcoin котировка продажа bitcoin ethereum forum ethereum логотип cryptocurrency law bitcoin source ethereum complexity bitcoin etf кошелька ethereum pizza bitcoin bitcointalk monero api bitcoin dao ethereum bitcoin проект lucky bitcoin bitrix bitcoin кран ethereum зарабатывать bitcoin bitcoin hyip ethereum transactions bitcoin адреса coingecko bitcoin кошелек ethereum market bitcoin tether gps теханализ bitcoin blogspot bitcoin stealer bitcoin обменник monero новости monero bitcoin donate sec bitcoin кошелька ethereum
обмен monero bitcoin софт bitcoin anonymous bitcoin vpn bitcoin wm ethereum продам up bitcoin bitcoin 99 bitcoin рубли bitcoin bloomberg мониторинг bitcoin rise cryptocurrency ethereum mist kraken bitcoin l bitcoin bitcoin технология ethereum news bitcoin сервера bitcoin блок ethereum mining Another advantage of Monero over bitcoin is fungibility. This means that two units of a currency can be mutually substituted with no difference between them. While two $1 bills are equal in value, they are not fungible, as each carries a unique serial number. In contrast, two one-ounce gold bars of the same grade are fungible, as both have the same value and don’t carry any distinguishing features. Using this analogy, a bitcoin is the $1 bill, while a Monero is that piece of gold.4анонимность bitcoin
Transaction Details: Details of all the transactions that need to occur.If, for example, a protocol is changed in a way that tightens the rules, that implements a cosmetic change or that adds a function that does not affect the structure in any way, then new version blocks will be accepted by old version nodes. Not the other way around, though: the newer, 'tighter' version would reject old version blocks.production cryptocurrency bitcoin будущее бесплатные bitcoin ethereum купить bitcoin suisse bitcoin dark ethereum перспективы ethereum erc20 alliance bitcoin ethereum blockchain bitcoin puzzle ecdsa bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость покер bitcoin
биржи ethereum golden bitcoin playstation bitcoin ninjatrader bitcoin скрипты bitcoin bitcoin путин bitcoin config bitcoin вложить bitcoin игры bitcoin cgminer bitcoin accelerator bitcoin block ethereum продать блокчейна ethereum bitcoin кредит txid bitcoin circle bitcoin bitcoin расчет bitcoin 99 заработать monero icons bitcoin bitcoin карты
bitcoin traffic bitcoin brokers ethereum btc майнинг monero bitcoin клиент bitcoin фарминг рост bitcoin
bitcoin фермы теханализ bitcoin bitcoin таблица explorer ethereum bitcoin сигналы But most important, cryptocurrencies use blockchain, which is a set of records that are placed into a container known as a block. These transactions are kept public and in chronological order.bitcoin word Cold storage is a way of holding cryptocurrency tokens offline.bitcoin конверт
bitcoin trust
fpga bitcoin supernova ethereum bitcoin compromised mainer bitcoin
адрес bitcoin bag bitcoin client bitcoin surf bitcoin
bitcoin moneypolo payza bitcoin 123 bitcoin bank bitcoin bitcoin flapper bus bitcoin bitcoin проверить bitcoin установка bitcoin зарегистрировать up bitcoin little bitcoin bitcoin экспресс block bitcoin
продам bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin cryptocurrency rates bitcoin hype покер bitcoin ecdsa bitcoin monero майнинг статистика ethereum cryptocurrency bitcoin p2pool ethereum
продам bitcoin
click bitcoin bitcoin tm
продам bitcoin ethereum contracts why cryptocurrency bitcoin украина bitcoin блоки cryptocurrency forum ethereum статистика
bitcoin халява qiwi bitcoin добыча bitcoin bitcoin links
half bitcoin продам ethereum bitcoin google rus bitcoin блоки bitcoin bitcoin super bitcoin 20 bitcoin орг ethereum прогноз
grayscale bitcoin киа bitcoin криптовалюты ethereum ethereum alliance ethereum torrent bitcoin github ethereum platform polkadot store datadir bitcoin bonus ethereum торрент bitcoin For more on blockchain technology, check out our 'Blockchain Explained' guide.In Bitcoin these non-mainchain blocks are called orphans or orphaned blocks and they do not form part of the main chain in any way and are never referenced again by any subsequent blocks.hosting bitcoin майнинга bitcoin