Cryptocurrency How to Invest For Fun and Profit 2018

Executive Briefings On Blockchain, Digital Money, 30 Cryptocurrencies, Investment Strategies

Mark Rabkin

• Publisher: Mark Rabkin
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780999765814
• Edition: 2018
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Finance

Our lives are becoming more and more digital everyday. This is true for money as much as anything else.

In 2017, cryptocurrencies have moved from something a small-dedicated group of people paid attention to into a much larger public view. As with any new society changing technological advance there are investment opportunities that can and will make a fortune. There are also even more ways to lose any money invested just as in “.com” boom of the late 1990s.

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve said “[Virtual Currencies] may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.” While Warren Buffett, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway said “Stay away from it. It’s a mirage, basically.” Whose right? Actually, both.

There will be dominant winners like Amazon, Facebook and Google in the internet space in the cryptocurrency market. There will also be many more eToys, Pets.com and webVan’s – companies that raised hundreds of millions of dollars during the late 1990s and went bust within a few years.

This book provides a broad view of the cryptocurrency market that includes Bitcoin and goes far beyond it. What most people don’t realize is there are three sectors in the cryptocurrency market today. The three sectors are 1) cryptocurrency as currency; 2) platforms that enable software developers to build app like functionality in purpose built cryptocurrencies; 3) purpose built cryptocurrencies meant to better address the needs of business or consumer use cases better then traditional currencies do today.

This book provides the history, vocabulary, and essential information you need to understand the 30+ leading cryptocurrencies today. In addition, the investment strategies that the smartest investors in the world use are described and how they can be applied to the cryptocurrency market today.

In other words, massive opportunities and massive risks exist in investing in cryptocurrencies. Read and tread carefully. Ensure you and yours invest wisely. Remember the only constant in the world is change.

IV - The Cryptocurrencies

I have spent hundreds of hours researching cryptocurrencies. This book was developed as a way of taking notes and organizing my research. I am providing it to others to save them the time and effort it took me to get up to speed when doing due diligence and research as to whether or not cryptocurrencies are something to have as part of a portfolio.

This next section provides an executive briefing on 30 cryptocurrencies. Please use the information I have provided so far as well as the rest of the information and ideas as a starting point for doing your own research and making your own independent decisions that are right for you.

Each cryptocurrency briefing in this book lists at the top:

• Currency Name
• The Founder(s) – Who founded this project? In some cases, the founders are anonymous.
• Symbol – The symbol under which the currency trades
• Category – Currency or Application designating a focus on being a currency or being an application. An application could be a platform, which others build on, or it could be a decentralized application designed to provide value for a specific market or problem.
• When Founded – Generally listed as month and year. Exact dates are usually not available.
• When Coin Released – Initial Coin Offerings may happen over several months. The precise date of the beginning of any offering is not always available.
• Application – If the category was listed as currency then this is currency. If the category was listed as application then this tries to summarize the focus of the application that may be purpose-focused or a platform.
• Mining – Identifies whether or not mining is part of the crypto currency’s platform ecosystem.
• Cryptographic Algorithm – All cryptocurrencies are based on a cryptographic algorithm this lists the one in use today.
• Consensus Protocol – All blockchain-based or blockchain style-like cryptocurrencies use one kind of consensus protocol or another to make decisions. In this section “D- Proof of Stake” stands for Delegated Proof of Stake. PoS and PoW are abbreviations for Proof of Stake and Proof of Work respectively.

The second section then lists the following.

• Purpose - Why was this currency created?
• Pros – A list of positives about this currency from an investing perspective.
• Cons – A list of negatives about this currency from an investing perspective.

The third section is made-up of hyperlinks where you can get more information about the cryptocurrency in question.

• Website – The web address of the central site for this currency.
• Interview – A link to a video interview with one of the leaders of the currency project. Not available for all cryptocurrencies.
• White Paper – A link to the white paper or documentation that was the basis on which this cryptocurrency was created. Not available for all cryptocurrencies.

The currencies for which briefings are provided in this section are listed in alphabetical order. In general, the currencies listed are among the thirty-five highest in market capitalization. There are a few cryptocurrencies that fall into this category that are not listed because the risk factors for them look significantly higher than normal even for cryptocurrencies.

The briefings provided focus as much as possible on the business drivers ...

Table of contents

• I - A Brief History of Money
• II - The Vocabulary of Cryptocurrencies
• III - The Investment Thesis for Cryptocurrencies
• IV - The Cryptocurrencies
• V - Investment Strategies for Cryptocurrencies
• Cryptocurrency Glossary
• Final Thoughts