Tag: Crypto

Safe Assets for Crypto Cowboys and Girls – Episode 191

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The Story: Secure investments to lock up crypto gains

Many people invested in cryptocurrencies are first-time investors, and seeing swings of 10% or 20% a day has created risk-tolerant beasts with intestines of pure tempered steel, willing to gamble on the latest ICO with the chance of 1000% gains. Some of them did indeed find those gains, but they don’t necessarily know how to hold onto them. If they get caught up in the hype of a crypto bubble without having locked up their gains, they might eventually see their net worth dwindling down to a percentage of its former glory. So, once you get the gains, how do you keep them?

Here are three investment vehicles that you might consider, which can significantly reduce the risk in your portfoilio:

1. Precious metals

Gold and silver have been used as money for thousands of years, because of their utility as a stable store of value. It’s likely that these precious metals will keep up with inflation, and it’s possible that they may even outpace it. The precious metals markets are flooded with gold and silver certificates, which are often sold without any real metal backing. That means that the prices might be much lower than if it reflected only the physical metal supply.

2. ETFs

“ETF” stands for “exchange traded fund”. ETFs are basically baskets of shares or bonds, sometimes encompassing an entire stockmarket or bond market. They tend to have very low fees compared to mutual funds, as low as 0.04%, and many of the best ones outperform actively managed mutual funds. That means you get a better return a a lower price. Some of them pay dividends, quarterly or even monthly, which is a great way to start building a passive income.

3. Insured peer-to-peer lending

Peer-to-peer lending can be risky, because you’re probably lending small amounts to each borrower, and in the case of default, it’s unlikely to be profitable to chase up each individual. However, some platforms will offer insurance to lenders, so even if the borrower defaults, your money is safe.

In this episode, Kurt runs through these investment vehicles with much lower risk profiles than crypto, explaining how you can use crypto gains to put yourself in a better position for your long-term goals. Join me on another wealth-creating, wealth-preserving episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

Disclaimer: I’m not telling you what to do with your money; I don’t know what you should do with your money. All I’m doing is presenting some of my own decision-making processes.

The Eps:

Bitcoin Boom Bust – The Crypto Market Cycle – Episode 189

Crypto Crash January 2018 – Episode 188

The Links:

Money: Master the Game – Tony Robbins

Unshakeable: Your financial freedom playbook – Tony Robbins

JP Morgan’s imaginary silver hoard explained

Gold and silver streamers offer a conservative way to invest in metals

World silver demand

ETFs to buy in February 2018

SPHD ETF report

Safe investments to lock up crypto gains

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Don’t Get Goxxed – Bitfinex, Bittrex & Coinbase

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The Story: Stay safe from counterparty risk

A lot of money is flowing into the digital currency market, and certain exchanges such as Bitfinex, Bittrex and Coinbase are having a hard time keeping up with all the orders.

Bitfinex has quickly implemented deposit fees for deposits under $1,000, and withdrawal minimums of $250 or more. They’ve also increased the confirmations required for deposits, for example, Dash deposits now require 9 confirmations instead of 6, and sometimes even when the 9 confirmations are reached, the funds are still not available. Withdrawals can now take 24 hours to process – a long time to sit and sweat wondering if your money will ever come out.

Perhaps these are just symptoms of a market expanding, with infrastructure not fit to deal with increasing demand. However, it’s possible that they’re indications of greater problems. When it comes to money, it doesn’t hurt to be careful.

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Bitcoin’s Path To Ruin – Episode 185

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The Story: Is Bitcoin destined for failure?

If you got into Bitcoin early, it was probably because you saw the long-term potential of a platform that could disrupt the banking and central banking industries, holding governments accountable and limiting their power. You were probably a starry-eyed idealist who believed that real change was possible, by changing the systems that we all use, and hopefully, those stars have not yet left your eyes. If you got in more recently, you might hold the somewhat less principled position of “We’re all getting rich off this Internet nerd money!”

If you’re the second kind of speculator, you might fold as soon as times get tough, your position torn out easily like the shallow roots of a clover. If you’re the first kind, you might persist even when things are looking bad, because you knew that you had very good reasons to enter the market in the beginning.

Conditions have changed for Bitcoin, with high transaction fees from $1-$3, which rule out the microtransactions, small transactions and use for developing nations which idealists once believed made it unique. According to Mike Hearn, the Bitcoin developer who quit in January 2016, there are people on the team who don’t believe in the fanciful visions of its creator, and never saw it as anything more than a potential platform for large settlements. Hearn declared the experiment over, a statement that was easy to overlook for many, considering how often Bitcoin has been pronounced lost.

The team remains prudent and risk-averse, which makes sense for a multi-billion dollar project, but it also means the programmers on the team who are excellent are not free to innovate, which makes Hearn’s departure seem much more sensible in retrospect. With transactions that can take hours and fees 100x its competitors, the project is already years behind. In today’s world where invention and innovation are common, playing it safe can be a death sentence.

In this episode, Kurt presents the case that the Bitcoin experiment is on the path to ruin, likely being sustained by all the points in its favour, such as brand recognition and network effect, but eventually falling further into inutility, and likely causing misery for many. Join me on this value-investing tail of hope, disillusionment and suspense in the next episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Infiltrators: Bitcoin paranoid – Episode 162

The Links:

The resolution of the Bitcoin experiment – Mike Hearn

Video format wars – Wikipedia

I looked into SegWit, and here’s what I saw – Nathan Hourt a.k.a. Modprobe

Dilbert comic – Catching up

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

The Dash Digital Cash D.R.E.A.M. – Kurt Robinson Raps

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Every couple of years we look at our bank accounts and realise that our money buys less than it did. We work so hard for our money, and yet it seems difficult to get ahead. Why? It’s not by accident. The monetary system is structured that way. Central banks continue to print money, and bankers get rich, but as the currency supply increases, the value of our dollars decrease.

What’s the solution? Many people thought that Bitcoin could free us from this mess. The promise of decentralised currency – not controlled by any central authority, but instead governed by algorithms, using cryptography – could mean the end to central banks. Yet, it seems like Bitcoin hasn’t yet lived up to that dream. We can’t spend Bitcoin at the corner store, we can’t tip in it, and if we tell our bank manager that we have some bitcoins as collateral for a loan, he’ll probably laugh. And, as transaction fees go higher and higher, it seems less and less likely that Bitcoin will ever live up to our highest expectations. It seems that Bitcoin might not be anything more than Internet nerd money.

Dash is based on Bitcoin, but has certain other features which might just make it live up to those expectations. It allows the stakeholders to form a consensus to make decisions about where the project is going, and it has a focus on user experience. If the team manage to create virtual money which is stable, accepted, and so easy that your grandma could use it – could Dash be the currency of our dreams?

Here’s a rap song which explores those concepts.

To download the track, right click here and press “Save as“.

Lyrics

Dash rules everything around me
D.R.E.A.M. get the money, digital cash y’all

I grew up where half dollars have 12 sides
Queen’s head on the front, roo & emu behind
But instead of gaining value the Aussie lost it
So I wondered what could have possibly caused it
In the minds of politicians corruption’s forming
Abusing the system of inflation we’re born in
To make an honest livin’ you work, it takes time
But central banks just print their money – that ain’t right
Now I’m living in Mexico, collecting the pesos
stash a little silver case the bank goes broke
Once upon a time a peso was “buen dinero”
1990 it got away & they dropped “tres ceros”
Your man Trump – I don’t believe in him
Puppet Peña Nieto – you can see the strings
Politicians criminals thieves & kings
See your money float away like leaves in the wind

Dash rules everything around me
D.R.E.A.M. get the money, digital cash y’all
Dash rules everything around me
D.R.E.A.M. get the money, digital cash y’all

I guess I wondered ’bout a way out the struggle
Starvin children dotcom housin’ bubble
The system’s rigged, the dollar has to topple
That’s when I heard the name Satoshi Nakamoto
Stranger emerged to the world to give it code
& change it forever through digital gold
He’s still vanished, with the code it could manage
To give us an exit from the whims of banksters
And as it rose, nouveau riche control the cheese
A new breed of millionaires promoting peace
But as the years passed we found we had a problem
This nerdy tech wasn’t ready for mass adoption
Some still suspect the government payroll
Agents provocateurs COINTELPRO paid trolls
Thought Bitcoin’d save us from one thing we wanted it
Instead fell victim to the same thing – politics

Dash rules everything around me
D.R.E.A.M. get the money, digital cash y’all
Dash rules everything around me
D.R.E.A.M. get the money, digital cash y’all

You’re never gonna get, outta debt
When every cent you’ve met is borrowed from the Fed
They’ve got you in an awkward position
But the dream’s still alive, I can see it in my vision
They arrested Von Nothaus, stealing his ingots
they got charlie shrem for laundering digits
They snapped up Ross saying he sells dope
They arrested so many, but you can’t arrest hope
The goal is to create a system so resilient
It evolves whenever it’s fisted out of commission
The dream is to cast off these banker’s shackles
That have been for centuries on our hands & ankles
The dream is this, whatever cards you dealt
Whoever you are, can find a path to wealth
They’ll get lines blurred, nothing’s what it seems
No matter what occurs, don’t give up the dream

Dash Rules Everything Around Me – D.R.E.A.M.
Get the money – digital cash y’all
Dash Rules Everything Around Me – D.R.E.A.M.
Get the money – digital cash y’all
Dash Rules Everything Around Me – D.R.E.A.M.
Get the money – forget the dollar bills y’all
Dash Rules Everything Around Me – D.R.E.A.M.
Get the money – forget the dollar bills y’all

Bitcoin vs Dash – Security & Bitcoin as blue chip

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An interesting argument people make for the long-term viability of Bitcoin is this: It’s fine to use Dash for fast transactions and private transactions, buying cups of coffee or whatever… but for big transactions people don’t need fast confirmations, and so they will probably continue to use Bitcoin for certain large, cryptocurrency clearing-house transactions. My question is always, okay, they don’t need fast confirmations, but they don’t really gain anything by having slow confirmations. So why are people going to continue to use Bitcoin?

The forthcoming answer is security. It’s true, Bitcoin has been around longer, has had more tests, and so the network is more secure. However, having a secure network resistant to hacking is actually only one part of security. Another part is, how many people have lost thousands or millions of dollars over the years due to negligence or malicious actors? A lot.

If you have to be a tech nerd to secure your Bitcoins, that means it’s actually not secure, and it’s definitely not ready for mass adoption.

The other thing is, if you’re trying to defend Bitcoin compared to Dash, you’re fighting a retreating battle. Sure it does privacy, speed, user experience and adaptation to a changing market better than Bitcoin, but other than that, what does it do? If Dash has the incentives in place to improve in all these areas, then surely it has the potential to improve in security as well. After all, security is one of the most important parts of user experience. If your coins are constantly getting stolen or the network is going down, that gives the worst possible user experience.

Steemit’s New Economic Paradigm

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An introduction to Steemit

I (Kurt) have been posting on the new social media platform, Steemit, for more than a month, and it seems to be promising for several reasons.

One of the most obvious is that, people can get money on there, which means that many starving artists and writers finally have a platform where they can quickly monetise their content, without having to know too much about website design, sales or marketing.

A deeper point – one which will most likely drive the more constant growth of the platform – is that the system is structured to incentivise helpful, constructive interactions. The system is designed to encourage people to be cool. That’s no small feat. I’ve thought in the past, that if someone really wants to change the world, they have to change the incentives, and that exactly what is what the creators of this site have done.

Since joining, I’ve had to stop myself a few times on other social networks, thinking “Is this the way I would phrase this if I were writing on Steemit? Can I find a way to be softer, more compassionate, more inclusive?” Of course, some people persist in unconstructive feedback, even despite themselves, but the signal-to-noise ratio on the site is still extremely impressive.

In this video, I give an introduction to why this new platform is interesting and may be the way of the future, and I read out an article which I published on the platform, which many people enjoyed, talking about what makes the site and its associated currency, Steem, valuable, and the reasons it may well succeed in the long run.

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

Here’s my original article, and here is the article I mentioned by Leah “Stellabella” Stephens.

To download the audio, right click here, and press “Save as”.