You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments. It all started with the release of the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper however that will probably go over the head of most readers so we recommend the following videos for a good starting point for understanding how bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:
Some other great resources include Lopp.net, the Princeton crypto series and James D'Angelo's Bitcoin 101 Blackboard series. Some excellent writing on Bitcoin's value proposition and future can be found at the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. Some Bitcoin statistics can be found here and here. Developer resources can be found here. Peer-reviewed research papers can be found here. Potential upcoming protocol improvements and scaling resources here and here. The number of times Bitcoin was declared dead by the media can be found here (LOL!)
Key properties of Bitcoin
Limited Supply - There will only ever be 21,000,000 bitcoins created and they are issued in a predictable fashion, you can view the inflation schedule here. Once they are all issued Bitcoin will be truly deflationary. The halving countdown can be found here.
Open source - Bitcoin code is fully auditable. You can read the source code yourself here.
Accountable - The public ledger is transparent, all transactions are seen by everyone.
Decentralized - Bitcoin is globally distributed across thousands of nodes with no single point of failure and as such can't be shut down similar to how Bittorrent works. You can even run a node on a Raspberry Pi.
Censorship resistant - No one can prevent you from interacting with the bitcoin network and no one can censor, alter or block transactions that they disagree with, see Operation Chokepoint.
Push system - There are no chargebacks in bitcoin because only the person who owns the address where the bitcoins reside has the authority to move them.
Low fee scaling - On chain transaction fees depend on network demand and how much priority you wish to assign to the transaction. Most wallets calculate on chain fees automatically but you can view current fees here and mempool activity here. On chain fees may rise occasionally due to network demand, however instant micropayments that do not require confirmations are happening via the Lightning Network, a second layer scaling solution currently rolling out on the Bitcoin mainnet.
Borderless - No country can stop it from going in/out, even in areas currently unserved by traditional banking as the ledger is globally distributed.
Trustless - Bitcoin solved the Byzantine's Generals Problem which means nobody needs to trust anybody for it to work.
Secure - Encrypted cryptographically and can’t be brute forced or confiscated with proper key management such as hardware wallets.
Programmable - Individual units of bitcoin can be programmed to transfer based on certain criteria being met
Nearly instant - From a few seconds to a few minutes depending on need for confirmations. Transactions are irreversible after one or more confirmations.
Portable - Bitcoins are digital so they are easier to move than cash or gold. They can even be transported by simply memorizing a string of words for wallet recovery (while cool this method is generally not recommended due to potential for insecure key generation by inexperienced users. Hardware wallets are the preferred method for new users due to ease of use and additional security).
Scalable - While the protocol is still being optimized for increased transaction capacity, blockchains do not scale very well, so most transaction volume is expected to occur on Layer 2 networks built on top of Bitcoin.
Divisible - Each bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals, which means you don't have to worry about buying an entire bitcoin.
Bitcoin.org and BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin (even just a few dollars worth) and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular resources are below, also check out the bitcoinity exchange resources for a larger list of options for purchases.
Here is a listing of local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin use Bitwage. Note: Bitcoins are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Preev is a useful site that that shows how much various denominations of bitcoin are worth in different currencies. Alternatively you can just Google "1 bitcoin in (your local currency)".
Securing your bitcoins
With bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoins OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold the bitcoins for you.
If you prefer to "Be your own bank" and have direct control over your coins without having to use a trusted third party, then you will need to create your own wallet and keep it secure. If you want easy and secure storage without having to learn computer security best practices, then a hardware wallet such as the Trezor, Ledger or ColdCard is recommended. Alternatively there are many software wallet options to choose from here depending on your use case.
If you prefer to let third party "Bitcoin banks" manage your coins, try Gemini but be aware you may not be in control of your private keys in which case you would have to ask permission to access your funds and be exposed to third party risk.
Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email! 2FA requires a second confirmation code to access your account making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes.
As mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, which by definition means there is no official website or Twitter handle or spokesperson or CEO. However, all money attracts thieves. This combination unfortunately results in scammers running official sounding names or pretending to be an authority on YouTube or social media. Many scammers throughout the years have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. Websites like bitcoin(dot)com and the btc subreddit are active scams. Almost all altcoins (shitcoins) are marketed heavily with big promises but are really just designed to separate you from your bitcoin. So be careful: any resource, including all linked in this document, may in the future turn evil. Don't trust, verify. Also as they say in our community "Not your keys, not your coins".
Where can I spend bitcoins?
Check out spendabit or bitcoin directory for millions of merchant options. Also you can spend bitcoin anywhere visa is accepted with bitcoin debit cards such as the CashApp card. Some other useful site are listed below.
Gift cards for hundreds of retailers including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;
1-3% savings over credit cards or PayPal.
No chargebacks (final settlement in 10 minutes as opposed to 3+ months).
Accept business from a global customer base.
Increased privacy.
Convert 100% of the sale to the currency of your choice for deposit to your account, or choose to keep a percentage of the sale in bitcoin if you wish to begin accumulating it.
If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;
Mining bitcoins can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read more here. Still have mining questions? The crew at /BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out. If you want to contribute to the bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions you can run a full node using this setup guide. If you would prefer to keep it simple there are several good options. You can view the global node distribution here.
Earning bitcoins
Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoins by being paid to do a job.
You can also earn bitcoins by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoins for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoins.
Bitcoin-Related Projects
The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the bitcoin space.
One Bitcoin is quite large (hundreds of £/$/€) so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:
Unit
Symbol
Value
Info
bitcoin
BTC
1 bitcoin
one bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis
millibitcoin
mBTC
1,000 per bitcoin
used as default unit in recent Electrum wallet releases
bit
bit
1,000,000 per bitcoin
colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin (μBTC)
satoshi
sat
100,000,000 per bitcoin
smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor
For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10000 for one Bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:
0.001 BTC
1 mBTC
1,000 bits
100k sats
For more information check out the Bitcoin units wiki. Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit. Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval. Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!
Investment Thesis: Why investing in POW.TO (Power Corporation of Canada) now is an investment in a future high market cap Wealthsimple IPO
I have seen some posts here wondering about the wisdom of investing in Wealthsimple's parent company, Power Corporation of Canada (POW.TO). I decided to look more into this, decided to post my investment thesis and research on why I, long-term, I have a very bullish view on Wealthsimple (and by extension POW.TO), and why I think this is equal to being an early stage investor in a Wealthsimple IPO.
Ownership: Power Corporation of Canada (POW.TO) (83.2% ownership)
AssetsUnderMangement: $5.4 billion, as of June 30, 2020 (4.9 billion in June 30, 2019)
Current Products
Wealthsimple Invest (ETF Roboadvisor service), WS was one of the first-movers in this space in Canada and offered robo-advising as part of its initial product in 2015. WS claims to have largest digital investing presence in Canada (70% of the market) (reference).
Wealthsimple Cash, a savings account service
Wealthsimple Trade, a commission free trading app where users can buy and sell ~8,000 stocks and ETFs
Wealthsimple Crypto, a commission free cryptocurrency trading app, currently in beta
SimpleTax.ca, a free tax-return service used by ~1 million Canadians per year, acquired in late 2019
Investment Rounds
WS has had many successful rounds of funding and a vote of confidence from both its parent POW.TO and other multinationals investing in fintech.
Last year WS received a $100 million dollar investment led by Allianz X, the start up investor arm of German financial services giant Allianz
WS has had 7 total investing rounds, totalling $266.9 million (reference)
Growth
WS has been extremely aggressive in targeting growth areas. Wealthsimple’s CEO Mike Katchen has said he wants to position the company as a “full-stack” financial services company. Here are some of their current expansion areas:
UK and USA Expansion - in 2017, they started offering similar investing services in the UK and the US (reference and reference).
Socially Responsible ETFs - WS recently partnered with Mackenzie Investment to offer socially responsible ETFs with a social and environmental focus. Although probably not something that older investors care about, this is particularly important for younger investors who want to make sure their investments are socially responsible
Cryptocurrency - WS is currently testing a beta service of their cryptocurrency app, and offering fee-free cryptocurrency trading, similar to Wealthsimple Trade. Whatever your views of cryptocurrency (I'm of the view that I can in some cases be part of a portfolio to hedge against risk), it's here to stay. Earlier this month, WS was the first company in Canada to register with the Ontario Securities Exchange Commission (reference). My sense is that crypto will face increasing regulations and scrutiny in the coming years, which will be a good thing for WS which is a step ahead of the game (reference). Even Google is starting to look into relaxing its restraints on crypto (reference).
Other full-stack services - WS has been mum on what other services they might offer, but insurance, mortgages, and chequing accounts could be other areas of disruption. (Reference)
People
WS is run by young guys who have big ambitions and plans for the company. Sometimes there are CEOs with the intangibles that can really drive a company's growth, and from what I can glean, I think the company has a lot of potential here in terms of vision by its leaders. You can read more about the founders here
Michael Katchen, CEO, Background: Led product and marketing at a start up called 1000memories, a Y Combinator startup later acquired by Ancestry.com. Worked for McKinsey & Company.
Brett Huneycutt, COO, Rhodes Scholar... not much else I know about the guy
Quote sfrom CEO: Michael Katchen On being laughed out of the boardroom when he proposed his idea for Wealthsimple:
Within the last month, Wealthsimple has also opened an office in London. Katchen said a push into the European market is “possible” as its “ambitions are global,” but right now the Canadian and U.S. markets are “a lot to chew.” It is a far cry from the company’s early days: Katchen said he was “laughed out of the boardroom” for laying out a global vision for Wealthsimple at a time when they had just $1.9-million in funding and 20 users***.***“It’s a very personal mission of mine since I moved back from California, to inspire more Canadian companies to think big and to think internationally about the businesses that they’re building,” he said. (reference)
On Wealthsimple's growth in the next 10-15 years:
Wealthsimple has more than $5 billion in assets under management and 175,000 customers in Canada, the U.S. and U.K. He sees that reaching $1 trillion 15 years. “We’re just getting started,” he said. “Our plans are to get to millions of clients in the next five years.” (reference)
Brand Value and Design
Out of all the financial services company in Canada, WS probably has the most cohesive and smart design concept across its platforms and products. I see the value in Wealthsimple in not just the assets they have under management, but also the value of the brand itself. I mean, what kind of financial services company makes a blog post about their branding colour scheme and font choices? Also see: Wealthsimple’s advertisement earlier this year capturing 4 million views on Youtube. There also seems to be very strong brand awareness and brand loyalty amongst its users. I think a lot of users find WS refreshing as a financial services company because they cut through the "bullshit" and legalese, and try to simply things for the consumer. They also have their own in house team of designers and creative directors to do branding, design, and advertising, and this kind of vertical integration is generally unheard of in the financial services industry (reference).
Potential IPO?
Interestingly, the CEO’s ultimate goal is to take the company public. Therefore, I see an investment in POW.TO as being an early stage pre-IPO investor in WS (reference).
The goal is to get Wealthsimple to the size and scale to go public, something that Katchen said he’s “obsessed with.” While admitting that an IPO was still a few years down the road, Katchen already has a target of $20 billion in assets under administration (AUA) as the tipping point (the company recently announced $4.3 billion in AUA as of Q1 2019) (reference)
Future Potential
Ultimately, my sense is that a spun-out Wealthsimple IPO eventually be worth a lot, perhaps even more than POW.TO at some point. Obviously the company is losing money right now, and no where even close to an IPO, and there are still many chances that this company could flop. The best analogy that I can think of is when Yahoo bought an early stake in Alibaba (BABA) back in the early 2000s, and there came a point where their stake in BABA was worth more than Yahoo’s core business. I think an investment in POW.TO now is an early investment in WS before it goes public. (reference)
Risks
Expansion problems. In the UK, they reported significant losses and despite increasing users. (reference). The US is also an especially competitive space with lots of similar competitors.
The robo-advising, fintech space is highly competitive now, and the Big Five Banks and other investment/trading companies could easily start offering low-cost or commission free trading
Competitors such as Robinhood could also expand into the Canadian market and take out a huge chunk of WS's userbase
The X Factor
What I find particularly compelling about WS is they have aggressively positioned themselves to be a disruptor in the Canadian financial services industry. This is an area that has traditionally been thought to be a firewall for the Big Five Banks. There is also a generational gap in investing approaches, knowledge, and strategy, and I think WS has positioned itself nicely with first-time investors. My sense is that COVID-19 has also captured a huge amount of young adults with its trading app in the last few months, who will continue to use Wealthsimple products in the future. The average age of its user is around 34. As younger individuals are more comfortable with moving away traditional banking products, I think Wealthsimple’s product offering offers significant advantages over its competitors.
Power Corp is a Good Home
Currently POW.TO is trading at $26.30, down from its 52-week high of $35.15. I see an investment in POW.TO now as fairly low risk, and while WS grows, and there is also the added benefit of a high dividend stock. One of the most confusing things I found about Power Corp was its confusing corporate structure where there were two stocks, Power Financial Corp, and Power Corp of Canada. Fortunately, in Dec 2019, they simplified and consolidated the stocks, which also simplifies the holding structure of WS. I currently see POW.TO has a good stock to hold as well if you're a dividend holder, with a dividend of 6.86%. Also, POW.TO is patient enough to bide its time and let its investment in WS grow, unlike a VC that might want to sell it quick. For example, the reason why WS went with POW.TO instead of the traditional VC route is explained here:
Katchen has directly addressed the question of why he did not go the traditional VC route recently, saying: If you are a business that requires perhaps decades to achieve the vision you have, well, if you’re not going to be able to generate the kind of returns that venture needs is they will force you to sell yourself, they will force you to go public before you’re ready, or they will just forget about you because you’re going to be a write off. And so Katchen essentially flipped Wealthsimple to Power Financial. Power is well known as a conservative, patient, long-term investor. (https://opmwars.substack.com/p/the-wealthsimple-founders-before)
My belief is there is a huge unrecognized potential in POW.TO's massive ownership stake in WS that will be realized maybe 5-10 years down the road. I didn't really dive into the financials of POW.TO in relation to WS's performance, because the earnings reports do no actually say much about WS. I'm aware of the main criticisms that POW.TO is a mature company and dividend stock that has been trading sideways for many years, and the fact that WS is currently not a profitable company. I am not a professional investor, and this is just my amateur research, so I certainly welcome any comments/criticism of this thesis that people on this subreddit might have! (Please be gentle on me!).
I have so many questions about crypto taxes in Canada.. It's my first year in the country (6 months in) and when I was trading I didn't realize the country had such complex rules about crypto taxes, and then I realized every single transaction or trade I've made is a taxable event. So come 2021 when I need to file taxes, what do I do? Do I use an app like Koinly and pay $99 a year to automate the process? Because I've already unknowingly made up to 200 transactions across different exchanges which are going to be hard to track and I'm sure a 45 year old accountant isn't going to go through my Cardano and Tezos transactions. If I've made a capital loss I'm assuming I don't have to pay anything right? but what if I've invested in some ICO on an exchange that's not even public yet and the coin itself isn't' publicly traded yet, meaning apps like Koinly wouldn't even recognize it to be able to access and record the transaction, then what? What if I sent it straight from an unknown exchange to a hardware wallet in another country. Who would know? And finally how do I differentiate what is a capital gain tax and what is 'regular trading' tax, because yes I've done trading as opposed to just buying Bitcoin and holding it, because in some cases for unpopular coins you need to buy BTC first and then trade it for the other coin. That's 4 transactions already, so does it not qualify as capital gains just because some exchanges have certain coins and some don't? In the US if you hold an asset for over a year then it's a long term investment, but why are rules so obscure in Canada? Even the CRA website says its a 'case by case' situation, feels like it only makes room for them to audit you how they see fit. What is the best way to make sure I'm doing things the right way and protecting myself? because all my research and from whatever is on the government website, it all points to grey areas. I'm fine with paying taxes, but I don't want to overpay because of a wrong assessment or interpretation, or because an app couldn't recognize a certain transaction, and definitely don't want to be audited because of something that has not enough clarity around it.
I'm kinda ok with MCO -> CRO Swap; a indepth personal view
EDIT: this post https://www.reddit.com/Crypto_com/comments/i2yhuz/open_letter_to_kris_from_one_of_cdcs_biggest/ from u/CryptoMines expresses my sentiments and concerns better than I could ever put into words myself. I'd say read his/her post instead. Very long post ahead, but TL;DR, I actually see this swap as a positive change, despite fearing for what it may do to my portofolio, and having mixed feelings about its consequences on CDC reputation.Before I start, for the sake of context and bias, here's my personal situation as a CDC user:
I'm just a average Joe, with a 500 MCO Jade card. I bough 50 MCO at 5,22€ in September 2019 and staked for Ruby, then bough 440 MCO at 2.47€ in March 2020 and upgraded to Jade. The total amount of MCO I own is currently 515, and everything above the 500 stake is cashback rewards.
I bought MCO exclusively for the card and bonus Earn interest benefits, and had no plans to unstake my MCO. Now with the swap, definetly won't unstake.
The MCO -> CRO conversion rates increased the fiat value of my MCO in about 1000€.
I own a decent amount of CRO, wich I bought at ~0,031€ in March 2020.
The country where I live is crypto friendly and completely crypto-tax free; I only have to pay income tax if I deposit a certain threshold of fiat in my bank.
Take all these factors into account as possible (if not major) influencers or bias on my opinions; both the emotional and economical ones. Call me a fool or a devil's advocate if you want, but keep your torches and pitchforks down. As we say here on Reddit: "Remember the human".----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like all of you, I woke up to find this anouncement, wich came right the #[email protected] out of nowere, and gives you little to no options. Good or bad, this announcement arrived as basicly a "comply or die" choice. Emotionally, this came as both terrifying and disgusting; but rationally, I cannot blame CDC for it. Because wether we like it or not, CDC is a centralized company, and the MCO tokens were never a stock or legally binding contract; something wich pretty much every crypto company or ICO warns in their T&C and risk warnings. Not to mention the mostly unregulated status of the cryptocurrency and. I'll call this "dishonest" any day, but I cannot see it as a "scammy" since I can't see how they broke any rules or terms. A scammer would take your money/assets away, but CDC is offering you to swap it for another asset wich you can sell right away if you want. And at current price, it is still worth more or less as much fiat as MCO cost at the 5 $/€ wich was more or less the comunity standard used for calculating the card prices. And by that, I mean that the fiat value of 50/500/5000 MCO (as CRO) is actually not far from the 250/2500/25'000 $/€ that the comunity commonly used as standard when calculating the ROI and (under)valuation of MCO. So CDC is at least trying to give us the option to get (some) our money back, and not at a unfair rate. If you happened to buy MCO at a price higher than this, I can't see how that's CDC's fault, just as I don't see anyone blaming Bitcoin or Altcoins for getting them stuck at the top of the 2017 bubble burst. I read many posts in this reddit calling this a "backstab" and "betrayal" of early investors and for the people who "believed in MCO". Emotionally, I share your sentiment.But after thinking it for a while, I'd say this was actually very rewarding for early investors and long term MCO supporters. As CDC clearly sates in the swap rules; nobody is going to lose their card tier or MCO stake benefits (at least not yet), and your stake DOES NOT unstake automatically after 180 days. Actually, so far they never did unstake automatically, you had to manually unstake yourself. With this in mind, everyone who already got their cards, or at least staked MCO to reserve one, basicly got them 3-5 times cheaper than future users; and IMHO, now the $/€ price of cards feels more fair and sustainable compared to their benefits.So in a sense, everyone who supported and believed on the MCO for its utility (i.e. the card and app benefits) has been greatly rewarded with perks that they get to keep, but are now out of reach for a lot of people.Likewise, the people who believed and invested in CRO (for whatever reason), have also been rewarded, as their CRO tokens now have more utility. So either the price of CRO crashes down to around 0.05 $/€, or the people who bought MCO/CRO early or cheap are now massively benefited. But then again, so is everyone who bought or mined Bitcoin in its early days, or invested in Bitcoin at crucial points of its history... how is that unfair? Some people bought Ethereum at 1'400 $ on a mix of hopes/promises that it would continue to rise; it didn't. And even today with DeFi and ETH 2.0 ever closer, it is still far from that price. And I know what some of you are thinking: "The cards aren't avaiable in my country yet, that's why I didn't buy/stake."Well, they weren't avaiable in my country either when I staked 50 MCO. Heck, the cards weren't avaiable in anyones country when MCO started, but many people still bought it and staked it. That's exacly what "early adopter", "long supporter" and "believing in MCO" means. On the other hand, the people who invested on MCO as a speculative asset and decided to HODL and hoard MCO, hoping for its price to moon and then sell MCO at big profit, had their dreams mercilessly crushed by this swap... and good lord, I feel their pain.But this is also where I'll commit the sin of being judgemental, because IMHO, speculating on MCO never made any sense to me; MCO was a utility token, not a value token, so it should not (and could not) ever be worth more than the value of its utility. That's basicly how stablecoins and PAXG are able to stay stable; because nobody will pay more/less than the value of the asset/service they represent. Tough now that I'm looking at the new card stake tiers in CRO, I have to give credit to the MCO hodlers I just now criticised; maybe you were right all along. Unless the price of CRO crashes or corrects, I wich case, I un-rest my case. One thing I'll agree with everyone tough, is that I fell that CDC just suckerpunched it's comunity. Because even if we have no vote on its decisions (wich again, we aren't necessarily entitled to, since they are a privante and centralized business) they should/could have warned that this was in their plans well in advance; if anything to allow those who wouldn't like it to exit this train calmly. Also the CRO stake duration reset. The mandatory reset of your CRO stake for taking advantage of the early swap bonus feels like another gut-punch. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that we got emotional feelings out of the way, here's my sentiment about how this will affect the overall CDC ecossystem. One common criticism of the sustainability of MCO was that its supply cap could never allow a large number of cards to be issued, and how could CDC keep paying the cashbacks and rebates. On the oposite corner, one of the major criticisms of the sustainability of CRO, was it's ridiculously huge supply cap and inflation caused by the gradual un-freezing and release of more CRO into the system. But now that MCO and CRO became one, it might just have made both issues more sustainable. Now the huge supply cap of CRO makes more sense, as it allows a much larger number of future users to stake for cards (at higher costs, but still). And because most card cashback is small parcels, this large supply also ensures that CDC can keep paying said cashbacks for a long time; especially since it can be semi-renewable trough the trading fees we pay in CRO. Before this, the MCO you got as cashback had no use, other than selling it for fiat or speculate on its price. But CRO can be used, at the very least, to receive a discount on trading fees. And everytime you pay trading fees in CRO or spend CRO on a Syndicate event, some of that CRO goes back to CDC, wich they can use to keep paying the cahsback/rebates. And keep in mind, the technicalities of CRO can be changed, as well as the perks and utilities it can be used for. So even if this current model doesn't fix everything (wich it probably doesn't) it can still be changed to patch problems or expand its use. Another obvious potentially positive outcome of this, is that now CDC only has to focus on 1 token, so it makes it easier to manage and drive its value. People complained that CDC was neglecting MCO over promoting CRO, but now they can focus on both services (cards/exchange) at the same time. Sure, this might not bring much advantage to the common customer, but its probably a major resource saver and optimizer at corporate levels; wich in the long term ultimately benefits its customers. Much like Ethereum is undergoing major changes to ensure its scalability, the crypto companies themselves also have to change to acommodate the growing number of users, especially as the cryptomarket and DeFi are growing and becoming more competitive. Business strategies that were once successfull became obsolete, and exchanges that once held near-monopolies had to adjust to rising competitors. There is no reason why CDC shouldn't keep up with this, or at least try to. Point is, the financial markets, crypto or otherwise, are not a status quo haven. And when something is wrong, something has to be changed, even if it costs. The very rise of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, wich is why we are here in the first place, is a perfect example of this, as it experiments and provides alternatives to legacy/traditional products and technologies. Was this the best solution to its current problems? Is this what will protect us as customers from a potentially unsustainable business model? I have no idea. This change ripped me too from my previous more or less relaxed status quo (the safety of the value of the CRO I bough for cheap), along with CRO late investors wich now probably fear for the devaluation of their CRO. To say nothing of the blow this represents for my trust (and I believe everyone elses trust) on CDC and its public relations. It's not what CDC did, it's how they did it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wether you actually bothered to read all I wrote or just skip everything (can't blame you), I'm eager to hear your opinions and whatever criticisms on my opinions you may have. If you just want to vent at me, you are welcome too; now you can raise your pitchforks and torches.
My guide to start working online. After doing this for three years, I am on track to make $40,000 this year from it.
I have posted something very similar here a few times, and it usually gets a good amount of attention. I apologize if you have seen it before, but some people haven't and they could use the money. In 2018 I made about 15k from this guide (give or take a few sites). In 2019 it was closer to 25k. This year I am on track to make 40k. I also want to preface this by saying that this post has refs in it. Some are mine, some are random Redditors, and some don't have one. If that upsets you for some reason, click the link, delete the stuff after .com and submit again and that will take care of it.
Top deals for September 2020
Swagbucks $10-$35 Hulu deal Right now SB has another deal where you get credits to sign up to Hulu with the $5.99 plan. It may only be $20 or it may be $35 when you check as they seem to change it day to day. Since this deal has new terms, the credits might be paid out immediately or after 32 days. The credits can be used for Amazon GC or PayPal credit (both take a few days to get processed). Not only that, but you can get a $25 Amazon GC for $22 worth of points, so you can make even more. You can cancel the subscription after 8 days, but no sooner so you don't lose the points. So, five minutes of work for the equivalent of $16-$29 and a free month of Hulu. $50 from SoFi for opening an account and direct depositing This one will require you to have $500 that you can direct deposit. SoFi Money is a savings account, fee-free, 2% APY annual; so typical bank account. This deal will require you to use your SSN, link a bank account, and do a soft pull with Experian to complete. You just need to create a SoFi Money account through the link, deposit $500 twice to the account, and wait for a few days. After the deposit clears (1-2 business days), SoFi will instantly give you $50 bonus. After you get the $50 bonus you can pull out all money and close the account or keep using it. Another $50 from SoFi but for stocks After you get the $50 sign up bonus from SoFi Money, flip it through this link and fund the invest account. Since I (and you now) already had an account, it literally took under 5 minutes to set up and fund the account. Either way you do it, SoFi will give you an additional $50 in free stock of your choice. Keep it and hope it grows, or sell it for the quick $50 profit. $50 from Chime for opening an account and depositing $200 Pretty much the same exact set up as SoFi. This one will require you to have $200 that you can do without for a few days. You just need to create the Chime account through the link, deposit $200 to the account, and wait for a few days. It says direct deposit only, but this tested and worded with just connecting a bank account and doing the deposit. After the deposit clears (1-2 business days), Chime will instantly give you $50 bonus. After you get the $50 bonus you have to wait until your new debit card arrives and is activated before you can move the money out. $50 from eToro This is a crypto trading account. The same deal as the other ones. Fund the account using the ref link and get $50. The wait time on this one is usually around 7 business days. $10-$120 in crypto for watching videos and answering quiz questions $10 from Coinbase if you buy / sell $100 or more worth of crypto This is a crypto trading account. The link takes you to the account signup screen. After you create the account visit coinbase.com/trade and initiate a buy or sell (in case you transferred crypto into Coinbase from another account) of $100 USD or more (or 100 USD equivalent of your domestic currency) within 180 days of opening and you will receive a $10 bonus (or local equivalent). Orders can take up to 4 business days to complete. Pretty much just watch and answer videos for varying types of crypto. The crypto you earn will get deposited into the wallet you create, which can then be cashed out into USD. Depending on the day, you can earn up to $120 if all free tokens are available. $10-$40 for signing up with OhmConnect A great website if you have one of a few utility companies in California, Texas, or Toronto. OhmConnect supports PGE, SCE, SDGE, Smart Meter Texas, and Toronto Hydro. You essentially just connect your utility account, and earn points. You earn $10 after signing up and getting to a status level of Silver (took me like 10 minutes). $10 more if you connect a smart device like NEST. Several hundred for test driving cars Pretty easy. Click the link, go through the dealerships, get your code, test drive a car, and get paid. I did this last year and I was in and out on my lunch break. These offers come and go all year, so check frequently. UNCLAIMED/ABANDONED PROPERTY States return millions of dollars worth of unclaimed property a year. Unclaimed property typically consists of unclaimed money in accounts that have sat dormant for more than a year. Every state has its own abandoned property site but a good place to start is MissingMoney.com. It’s very simple to search there. If anything comes up, continue the search/filing on your states gov website. Example: California’s is https://ucpi.sco.ca.gov/UCP/Default.aspx. Just cashed a check for $35 from an account I closed years ago. The following are ref links that I am putting in for a random Redditor or two, just to spread goodwill and try to give back to all of you. I get nothing from these and will be doing this for one or two random people every month. PM me if you want your ref link featured here. The Redditor for September is u/moongains PERKSY From Moon: Perksy is a survey app with nice payouts and a fun vibe. I’ve made about $50 on the app with little effort.
Ok. Back to the main post content.
Hey everyone. This is an all-inclusive write-up compiling all of my past posts on how I am making upwards of $1,000 a month through the use of beermoney sites. Beermoney is, according to Urban Dictionary, "Extra money for non-essential payments, available for spending on luxuries, hobbies, or a fresh pint of your favorite draft." I use this definition, because this is (in most cases) not intended to be a primary source of income. This is a way to supplement what you already have. There is no way to know what you will make any given month, so do not count on it. My worst month I only made around $500 and my best I made over $2,000. You can also check out my post on using apps to save money and earn cash back. As I have stated in my other posts, this is not a definitive list of everything a person can do online by any means and refs are included. Do your own research on the subs I list, use Google, ask other people, and find what works for you. What I talk about works well for me, my family, and my schedule. Below I will include time requirements to make this money, provide a quick recap of the revenue streams that I have found to work, and provide payment proof for what I can. I personally invest anywhere from 20 to 30 hours a week doing these sites, on top of my day job. Some days I will make $20 all day, and others I will make over $200. I prefer this, as opposed to a second job, because I can pay partial attention to a laptop and 'clock-out' when I want to focus on family or Netflix. This works better for my temperament and preferences. Tech required: A working laptop, a cellphone (in some cases), an internet connection, and a fairly good amount of patience to learn. If you are in a position where these tools are not available, you can also do many of these from a library. I put all of this info into an e-book, plus a TON of other stuff that was either written by me, or compiled from others (with their permission). Here is a link to it. If you tried even half of the stuff in the book, you would make your money back in less than a day. The dollar amounts next to each site are what I made in 2018. 2019 and 2020 were considerably more, but I have been too lazy to update all of these. Anyway, on to the revenue streams: SwagBucks ($775) Surveys – Majority of countries– This is more of a catch-all for stuff to do when you want to make and save money. You can do surveys, play games, and watch videos to earn points. You can also get cash back from using SB to visit and buy from different stores. You get paid in points which can be used to purchase gift cards or sent directly to PayPal. Each point is the equivalent of $0.01. Usually, SB will have deals where you can get certain gift cards for less. For example, a $20 Amazon gift card for 1800 SB points. The payout can be slow, but if you don’t mind running ads in the background, using a plug-in to save money while you shop, or killing time playing a game, SwagBucks can be a great way to earn $20 a month. Mturk ($3,142): Small tasks and surveys - US mainly. Confirmed also in Canada, Europe, & Aus. - This is by far the one I spent the most time on and has been the best earner. This site lets humans perform small tasks that robots still cannot do well. It is owned by Amazon. Downside is there are slim pickings on weekends and when colleges are out on vacation. I typically stick to surveys, but once in a while do batch jobs which there are more of. You have to wait a week for your first payout, which will go to an Amazon payment account. You can the get payouts one time per day after that. Approval for mturk can sometimes be a pain in the ass, almost impossible if you are not from the US, but is definitely worth it in my opinion if you can get approved. Secret shopper US and Secret shopper UK ($485): In-person store evaluation - US and UK only - These links will take you directly to a sign-up page. US version populates with my ref code. Feel free to delete it before signing up, if you want. You will be taken to the app store where you can download the actual app on your phone. Essentially, you go to stores near you that are identified in the app and take pictures or videos of specific items. I like this one because I have the ability to make a few extra bucks if I am already out shopping. The pay for this one averages about $15/hr. Note: I have not tried the UK version, but it was recommended by another Redditor. Usertesting ($800): Website evaluation - US & maybe select others - This site allows you to review new websites and apps. The pay is usually $10 per recorded test lasting 10-15 minutes. Sometimes the pay is more, but never less. I average a few tests a week. Some weeks I will get a dozen tests, other weeks nothing. This one is great to practice your feedback skills, which open up a lot of other doors. Pay is through PayPal, one week (to the minute) after the test is complete. Redbubble ([$305]: T-shirt creation - Worldwide - After getting rejected by merch by Amazon, I came here. You design and publish t-shirts, phone cases, and about 20 other mixed products, with each sell netting you a few bucks. They are based in Australia, and do pay-outs once a month on the 15th via PayPal. You do all of the uploading and just wait for people to find it with keywords or searches. Great if you are artistic or know how to use any creative software. Prolific.ac ($3,500): Based in the UK, this used to be one of my favorites because they pay in Great British Pound (GBP) which is the equivalent to 1.25x the USD. Prolific is similar to Mturk (listed earlier) in that all you do is fill out surveys. Pay is better than Mturk, but the availability of surveys is not as great. In fact, I personally haven't seen a survey in months, but see others get them often. The initial questionnaire you have to fill out is a bit long taking me about 20 minutes, but ensures you qualify for every survey they show you and will never get disqualified for not meeting the demographic. You have to hit £5 before you can cash out, but you get this after a few days of watching for surveys. Leave it open in a tab and check it throughout the day. I wish I could do this one all day because the pay rocks, but I only see a few a day. They pay out in PayPal anytime you request it and have a balance of over £5. Ebay ($190): Selling goods - Worldwide - Not much explanation needed here. You buy stuff in-person low, and sell online high. Here is a $2.99 beginner's guide dedicated to flipping that covers absolutely everything you need to know (also mine). PlaytestCloud ($190): Video game testing - Many countries - This is just simple game testing. It is super fun, very quick, and you get to test new games before anyone else. They send you tests for different listed devices, you download the game file, and they record your screen and voice. The only issue I have with this one is that you are only able to test 3-4 games per month, at $9-$11 each. Paid almost immediately after each test via PayPal. UsabilityHub ($15): App testing - Many countries - This one lets the user take quick one or two minute surveys on your opinion of an app screen. They pay for this averages to about $.10 a minute, so it is nothing spectacular. Just leave it open in another tab and take a quick survey when you hear a new one come available. UserInterviews ($50): Studies - US & maybe select others - Similar to Respondent, but with less approval when filling out the demographics for each study. Product Testing ($1,500): Mainly US & some UK/CA - There are places online that will pay you to leave positive/negative reviews for companies or purchase products. This is actually a big business model in China and other S.E.A. countries. Personally, I already know that Amazon reviews, Yelp, BBB, and everything in the middle are at least half fake reviews; so I may as well monetize on it. If this is something that sounds interesting, here is more info. Reddit subs($2,300): It is super simple to use Reddit as more than a social media tool or news website. Knowing the right subs to subscribe to, and what to look for, can help you make a few extra hundred bucks a month. There are a ton that you can find small or medium jobs on, but I am only going to outline the top four that have worked for me. /slavelabour: This sub is normally dedicated to doing cheap jobs for people, at cheap rates. I have both had things done for me here, as well as completed a lot of tasks. It may seem daunting at first, with people offering $2 to write an essay (seriously though.. no homework here), but there are gems to be found. Two of my best jobs have been creating meal plans for $60, and finding the name of a book for $80. Cancel that. SL is now power mods that block the decent work and only allow the trash jobs. No longer worth the time. I only leave it up as people ask about it when I don't. /signupsforpay: Since slave labour does not allow paying people to sign up for websites, this is where to go to make a few bucks with signups. From connecting your gas and electric information, to signing up with Acorns, I have probably made a grand total of $100 here. Nothing overly special, but $100 is $100. /giftcardexchange: This is one of my favorites, because you can buy and sell all of those gift cards you have/want. Have a $20 gift card from a family member that you will never use? Sell it here for 80-90%. Want to buy Amazon gift cards for less than face value? Get 'em here. I do a lot of buying on Amazon, so this sub has easily saved me hundreds over the course of using it. Caution: Trade carefully. I know this is a lot of info and a bunch of it is repetitive from my last post, but I wanted to provide as much info as possible for the compiled post. Hope it helps!
Update (8/3): Thanks to all the teams who submitted a proposal. We appreciate the work you put in, and we have begun reviewing the submissions. If we have follow-up questions, we will post them as comments on the submission posts. Thank you. *** Submissions will be organized in a collection alongside this post. We welcome the community to leave questions and comments on the proposals. To submit your proposal: Please make a separate post in Ethereum with your submission. Then either tag u/jarins and u/EvanVanNess in a comment (not in the post body), or send us a PM with the link to your post. Once we are notified, we will get it added to the collection. (If your post gets removed by moderator bots, do not resubmit. We will approve it when adding to the collection) While we prefer proposals to be public, if there is information you need to share privately, please send it to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). *** tl;dr: Do you believe your Ethereum scaling technology can handle Reddit's scale? It's time to let the Ethereum community hear about it. Send your demo by July 31, 2020. This is your chance to earn some fame but, to be clear, there is no prize if your solution is chosen or modified to meet Reddit’s needs. Our lawyer made us write this. https://preview.redd.it/q7hhi6lzlp551.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=cdb26cbbe59e26f4fc73da5740da1308e2a87579
The Goal
In conjunction with the Ethereum Foundation, Reddit is inviting Ethereum scaling projects to show the community how your scaling solution can be used to bring Community Points to mainnet. Our goal is to find a solution that will support hundreds of thousands of Community Points users on mainnet today, and can eventually scale to all of Reddit (430 million monthly users). We’ve evaluated some of the most promising scaling solutions, and have learned a few things:
There are plenty of awesome projects that we don't know about yet. We seem to learn about a promising new scaling solution every day.
Most existing scaling solutions focus on the exchange use case, which favors optimizing for transfers. Many of these designs don't take into consideration the costs of obtaining tokens or entering the scaling system, which can be significant. Community Points distributions have cost an order of magnitude more gas than all other operations combined, primarily due to on-chain storage costs associated with onboarding new users.
It's unclear how to determine the best solution. There is a lot of code, a lot of documentation, and a lot of hype out there. But there are very few objective real-world reviews or comparisons of various products/implementations.
We need the Ethereum community's help to figure this out.
Do you have a scaling project that meets the criteria below? If so, share your demo by July 31, 2020. Please note that all demos need to simulate Community Points usage for 100,000 users. We also invite all scaling experts in the Ethereum community to comment on any demos submitted to enable a better understanding of the trade-offs and compromises between different solutions. We will review the demos and plan to share any updates by September. While we don’t expect any novel scaling projects, we hope that you, the Ethereum scaling expert, can show us how to scale Community Points. Demos should include:
A live proof of concept showing hundreds of thousands of transactions
Source code (for on & off-chain components as well tooling used for the PoC). The source code does not have to be shared publicly, but if Reddit decides to use a particular solution it will need to be shared with Reddit at some point
Documentation
How it works & scales
Cost estimates (on-chain and off-chain)
How to run it
Architecture
APIs (on chain & off)
Known issues or tradeoffs
Summary of cost & resource information for both on-chain & off-chain components used in the PoC, as well as cost & resource estimates for further scaling. If your PoC is not on mainnet, make note of any mainnet caveats (such as congestion issues).
Requirements
Scaling. This PoC should scale to the numbers below with minimal costs (both on & off-chain). There should also be a clear path to supporting hundreds of millions of users.
Over a 5 day period, your scaling PoC should be able to handle:
100,000 point claims (minting & distributing points)
25,000 subscriptions
75,000 one-off points burning
100,000 transfers
Decentralization. Solutions should not depend on any single third-party provider.
We prefer solutions that do not depend on specific entities such as Reddit or another provider, and solutions with no single point of control or failure in off-chain components, but recognize there are numerous trade-offs to consider
Usability. Scaling solutions should have a simple end user experience.
Users shouldn't have to maintain any extra state/proofs, regularly monitor activity, keep track of extra keys, or sign anything other than their normal transactions
Transactions complete in a reasonable amount of time (seconds or minutes, not hours or days)
Free to use for end users (no gas fees, or fixed/minimal fees that Reddit can pay on their behalf)
Bonus points:
Users should be able to view their balances & transactions via a blockchain explorer-style interface
Exiting is fast & simple
Interoperability. Compatibility with third party apps (wallets/contracts/etc) is necessary.
Scaling solutions should be extensible and allow third parties to build on top of it
APIs should be well documented and stable
Documentation should be clear and complete
Third-party permissionless integrations should be possible & straightforward
Simple is better. Learning an uncommon or proprietary language should not be necessary. Advanced knowledge of mathematics, cryptography, or L2 scaling should not be required. Compatibility with common utilities & toolchains is expected.
Bonus Points: Show us how it works. Do you have an idea for a cool new use case for Community Points? Build it!
Security. Users have full ownership & control of their points.
Balances and transactions cannot be forged, manipulated, or blocked by Reddit or anyone else
Users should own their points and be able to get on-chain ERC20 tokens without permission from anyone else
Points should be recoverable to on-chain ERC20 tokens even if all third-parties involved go offline
A public, third-party review attesting to the soundness of the design should be available
Bonus points:
Public, third-party implementation review available or in progress
Compatibility with HSMs & hardware wallets
Other Considerations
Minting/distributing tokens is not performed by Reddit directly [1]
One off point burning, as well as recurring, non-interactive point burning (for subreddit memberships [2]) should be possible and scalable
Fully open-source solutions are strongly preferred
[1] In the current implementation, Reddit provides signed data for claims, but does not submit the actual claim transaction for the user (the user does that themselves). Note that smart contracts are considered independent of Reddit provided there is a path to decentralizing control over them. [2] Subreddit memberships are currently implemented as a contract acting as an ERC777-style operator that can burn points on a monthly basis, but we are open to changing that implementation.
Community Points Overview
To help you get started, this is an overview of how Community Points work today and some stats on how it's used. We are open to changing most implementation details, provided the basic requirements (above) are met.
Usage stats over the past month
Number of Community Points holders: ~17,500 Number of transfers: ~20,000 (reference: reddit.dappradar.com) Number of subreddit memberships: ~800
Token supply is controlled by distribution rounds managed in the Distributions contract and triggered by Reddit. For each round (occurring ~monthly), Reddit submits a proposal for points distribution to a subreddit for approval. Once approved, Reddit issues signed claims for individual users according to the agreed upon points distribution. These claims can be redeemed on-chain. Claims are obtained from Reddit, and submitted to the Distributions contract, which validates the claim and calls the Subreddit Points contract to mint points. https://preview.redd.it/lunpaj18mp551.png?width=1120&format=png&auto=webp&s=da31db1db07cfe4f327692a7398772019b8eb7bd
Memberships
Subreddit memberships are obtained by burning points via the Subscriptions contract. Redditors can optionally configure their membership to be renewable on a monthly basis without additional interaction. The Subscriptions contract is granted permission to burn points by being configured as an ERC777-style default operator in the Subreddit Points contract. https://preview.redd.it/bqnvt50amp551.png?width=1120&format=png&auto=webp&s=812f46a0308aea370908eb73ca93abac810e58ba *** We'll be watching this thread and answering questions. Looking forward to what comes out of this!
Why I’m Doubling Down on $COM With My XAMP/TOB Profits
I was fortunate enough to get in early on XAMP developer Bill Drummond’s new project, Token of Babble (TOB), and I’m putting my profits into COM - a community-based project which I believe will 4x from here in the short term, and possibly 20x in the long term. I know you're skeptical but to understand why I'm so confident, here’s some background on Bill’s launch: Upon launch, Bill’s new project Token of Babble (TOB), generated over $7 million USD of trading volume on Uniswap and the price rose from $0.6 to $14 in just a matter of hours. It was one of the most epic launches in crypto history, and the people who got in early were able to make life-changing money in less than 24 hours. The success of TOB suggests a few interesting things about the current bull-cycle we’re in:
We really are in full-on alt season. Tiny projects are achieving 10-100x in just a short amount of time.
People do trust projects led by devs who are anonymous as long as they are transparent and know what they’re doing. Website graphics don’t matter anymore and everyone knows a fancy website can still mean scam.
Coins with tokenomics designed to create FOMO will inevitably pump (more on this in a bit)
So that’s exactly why I’m buying this current COM dip ($0.5) and waiting for at least a 4x to $2 before even thinking about selling. Why? Because
COM’s tokenomics are similar to TOB in that they’re both deflationary. Every transaction burns 1% of the token, making the total supply smaller and the tokens more valuable over time.
COM is a community-first project where the trueVALUE comes from the community, not the programming talent of the devs. What makes COM special is it's a community-driven project that weeds out bad actors in the space, while rewarding good behavior. The community is governed by the COM token which inherently increases in value over time, rather than decrease in value with an inflationary supply like most tokens. So does this mean exactly?
If you buy and hold COM, your tokens become more valuable over time because the total COM supply decreases. This means you own a bigger % of the marketcap.
Now, this may not seem like a big deal since most people will ever own less than 1% of the market cap. But imagine when the new money from ETH & LINK buyers continue flowing down into alts (like the Dave Portnoy boys). And of a sudden COM is a 10 million+ market cap coin. It’s happened with lots of tiny cap alts in the ’15 and ’17 cycles, and it will happen again (that’s why they’re called cycles). A lot of investors and traders are ignoring COM because it’s not a sexy hyped-up DeFi Ponzi-coin at the moment. But what they miss is the fact that you also have a passionate, unified community with full transparency and doing all they can to grow the hell out of this project. Just check out their telegram chat if you don’t believe me. When you join, instead of moonbois posting Pepe memes or people fudding and trolling, you’ll see a group of people engaged in productive discussion about how to grow the community. You see people taking their own initiative to spread the word about COM. And you’ll even see members warning others about scams while helping out the newer guys. It’s really refreshing to see this as opposed the usual fudders, trolls and moonbois posting ridiculous gifs and memes (although that stuff can be fun too at times). So TLDR; I’m extremely bullish on COM because of the strong community, transparent dev and leadership team, and low market cap (only $350k with deflationary supply, and zero whales …shhhhh). I think as more money comes into Uniswap (the Uni trade volume surpassed COINBAISE a few days ago), COM is going to pop another 4-5x in the short term. *COM stats:\* - Total supply: ~950K - Circulating supply: ~700k - Current Mcap: $350k COM Roadmap
New website will be live late august (check their TG for a preview)
Twitter and FB content starting this week
Paid ads starting next week
Official whitepaper live late august
Defi partners announce in beginning of Sept once negotiations are complete
Staking dApp launching mid Sept
Learn more about COM: http://communitytoken.network/ P.S. The current website is the original COM website. After the project launched, community members decided it needed rebranding and have already drafted a new version set to launch in 2 weeks. Within that same week, it grew from 200 to now 700 telegram members, got listed on Coingecko, and secured DeFi partnerships, all while the price and marketcap grew. As always, DYOR, but as you can hopefully tell, I’ve done mine and COM looks one of the best low-cap bets right now.
Fantom (FTM) will be the next possible 1 billion+ marketcap. I am well aware that many members of the crypto community consider Fantom a scam but please don't sleep on this one. Here's why: Fantom offers a DAG-based blockchain protocol for instant transactions and infinite scalability at near zero costs. Fantom is the first fully decentralized layer 1 solution with an aBFT consensus model called lachesis. https://fantom.foundation/lachesis-consensus-algorithm/ Fantoms Opera chain, released in December 2019 is capable of 3k tps with a finality between 1 and 2 seconds with transaction costs way below 1 cent. It is secured via proof of stake. The tps are currently limited by the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM). Fantom is developing its own VM which will solve the bottleneck and expand the tps beyond 20k tps. Opera Chain will be used by the Afghan Government to track drugs to prevent them from counterfeiting. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lukefitzpatrick/2020/07/06/fantoms-blockchain-tech-is-being-trialed-in-afghanistan-to-solve-a-surprising-world-health-organization-who-problem/amp/ Opera Chain has full smart contract support in solidity and thus existing dAPPS can easily ported from the Ethereum Blockchain within minutes. https://fantom.foundation/what-is-fantom-opera/ Fantom is building the first fully functioning DeFi suite outside of the Ethereum ecosystem with lending, borrowing and synthetic trading with over 170 assets on Opera chain and almost zero fees with near instant transaction settlements. https://fantom.foundation/defi/ They are continuosly adding different tokens to the ecosystem, which can be used as collateral to mint the stablecoin fUSD which can be used to trade synthetic assets. Already announced supported tokens are: Ethereum Classic (ETC), Okex Token (OKB), Ontology (ONT) and Tokoin (TOKO) and of course Fantoms own token FTM. This is the chance for all existing tokens to get their share in DeFi and brings a lot of awareness for Fantom in the different communities. See announcements here: https://fantom.foundation/blog/ FTM is also the only government token of the Opera chain. They recently used the token to let the community vote for the staking model which will be changed in a few weeks due to that vote which cuts the inflation rate significantly. Look here for more info: https://fantom.foundation/fluid-staking-a-staking-proposal/ More than 75% of the total supply are already minted and almost 70% are being staked and therefore off the exchanges already. One of the best things: The founder of Yearn Finance (YFI) Andre Cronje has been involved in the project for more than 2 years and is still the lead technical advisor. This guy actively was involved in building the consensus + DeFi module. The DeFi stack called Fantom Finance is expected to launch anytime in the coming weeks. Don't miss out in this one. It has a current marketcap of just 40 million. Therefore FTM is still trading below ICO price! Website: https://fantom.foundation/ Team: https://fantom.foundation/about/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FantomFDN?s=09https://twitter.com/FantomFinance?s=09 Coingecko: https://www.coingecko.com/de/munze/fantom Telegram: https://t.me/FantomTrading Traded on big exchanges like Binance, Kucoin, etc.
Recap of yesterday's VIMworld AMA with John Dempsey, Founding Director of 8Hours Foundation, Creator of PlayTable
Courtesy of Phosphor🇳🇱, on telegram who collected this all into one easily copyable text wall. Q: Good Morning John, can you please breakdown the VIM minting process? EHrTs used/burned? A: Yep, when we mint a VIM, we charge the publisher in EHrTs for the minting process. We'll burn a small % of EHrTs per VIM minted, and charge the rest as a fee of the publisher. The cost for minting is up to the deals we negotiate with our brands Q: Hey John! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with the community today. Based on everything in store for VIMWorld, one could reasonably expect VIMs and EHrTs to become very valuable in the near future. With the goal of achieving mainstream adoption from people who aren’t normally involved in crypto or digital assets, this presents some entry barriers regarding important subjects such as wallet and digital asset security. Has the team looked into ways of offering VIMWorld users access to a more extensive means of securing their digital collectibles in something like a “VIM Vault”? More specifically, is the team aware of Safe Haven, another VeChain ecosystem project, and would you consider teaming up with them to develop some security solutions for these digital collectibles? I could see S-Tier VIMs needing this security the most. Thank you in advance A: Yep, that's a great question! I am aware of SHA's team and their capabilities, we're also working on an easy-to-use and secure way for non-crypto people to be able to "bank" their S-Tiers with us Q: Hello John! When new batch of playtables😁😁👍 A: Hehe, we're expecting new units soon. We have to test these ones in our office before we send them out to customers and we'll slowly ramp up our distribution again throughout Q4 this year. These new units should have a little 'refresh' along with them Q: Do you plan an European distribution point for delivering the Playtable? A: Yep! Q: What brands will be available for early release on friday? A: We have our own original IP we'll be releasing. That'll be all I can say today. GrOwl, Armstrong, and Magesssica.. We have our own release schedule for brands to onboard their VIMs into VIMworld, we're not going to be doing them all at once Q: A lot of people here have speculated on the maximum number of S-Tiers possible based on if the current supply of EHrT was completely locked up in VIMs. Assuming that more and more EHrT will be locked up over time, what mechanisms are in place to allow for more, or is there truly going to be a cap? A: We'll have to evaluate the supply/demand situation for our S-Tier VIMs as we strike more brand deals and monitor the situation to ensure we're doing the best for our community and our hodlers. Q: Will we be able to rename our vims, or are they minted with a birth name A: We do want everyone to be able to customize their VIM and feel like it's truly theirs. It's a feature we are seeing if we can plan into future VIMworld releases Q: John, what part of VIMworld are you most excited about? A: I've been talking with many, many more people about VIMs and they're all super excited when I explain the concept to them. I'm feeling their excitement for this brand new medium for artists to express themselves and I can't wait for them to be able to create their own VIMs and start participating in our ecosystem. Q: Beside feeding vims is there anymore interactions with vims on friday's launch? A: Viewing, feeding, buying, and transferring are the core features we aim to flesh out. These core features are the pillars for our growth plans going forward and everything else we build stems off of them. It's the first step to getting bigger brands onboard, and being able to visualize their IP on vimworld.com Q: What’s your favorite milktea John 😂 A: There's a great Boba Guys in SF 🤣 Q: John, can you elaborate more about the VIMdispenser? A: The VIMdispenser is the main way for people to buy more VIMs. It's basically a conveyor belt where you can access the VIMs as we load more (like a vending machine). We'll be loading them with all sorts of different VIMs and seeing if we can add rewards / hidden bonuses to the dispensing mechanics Q: John are there any extra benefits for instant upgrades? A: Being at the front of the line can be extremely beneficial if there is a limited amount of S-Tiers for our VIMpool distributions Q: Hi John! Just want to know are you planning to distribute ehrts in more platforms not just Bitrue? As you can see, the supplies are so limited sometimes, making people hesitated. Thank you very much! A: there will be ways that ehrts can get into as many people's hands as possible. For now, we have an awesome community of early adopters who can access the VIMworld with the ehrts they already had, and it will be a pretty big headstart Q: Will viewing be in 2d, 3d or both? A: have to wait to find out... 😏 Q: Since there is a partnership with for example ToyBox to eventually be able to print figurines, is there a way to obtain NFC/RFID to be able to attach to a figurine or will it use a standard which can be loaded through a device (say playtable for example). I would love to be able to create or design my own custom figurines, attach a VIM and maybe even sell them on a marketplace in the future.. ? A: Yes, we provide our partners with NFC stickers and are working on ways that VIMs are easier to mint/create for user creations Q: John, will each Tier have there own benefit concerning games interaction? A: Yep! The way we are designing VIMArena is that each Tier will have its own discrete benefit... stay tuned on how Q: Are you able to share any future IP at this time? A: We want to carefully craft our partnered VIMs to make sure their Intellectual Property fits in with the style and culture we're putting into the VIMworld. VIMs are a truly unique medium of art + lore + personality and often brands are adapting their works to share with us Q: One question is if you feed a vim for few days and then you cant wait and do an instant upgrade what happens to the Ehrt that are already in the vim from daily feeding? A: the ehrts from daily feeding will stay in there, they are truly yours. Only the additional cost from instant upgrading goes to the foundation, the rest gets staked into your VIM Q: Hi John, will all of our Vims have different names? A: they'll each have their own stories / personalities / adventures that they go on. It starts with a UID assigned to each one, and then we're growing from there. Naming, individual lore, user-generated content, etc are all being carefully thought out and designed so to best serve our community Q: If i feed the vim lets say, 3 times 11000ehrt and the last 2 days i forget to do it, will i lose the 33000 ehrt from previous days? A: haha, no you aren't required to feed your VIM everyday, they don't technically "starve". You will always own the tokens that you feed into your VIM Q: One question is if you feed a vim for few days and then you cant wait and do an instant upgrade what happens to the Ehrt that are already in the vim from daily feeding? A: the ehrts from daily feeding will stay in there, they are truly yours. Only the additional cost from instant upgrading goes to the foundation, the rest gets staked into your VIM (John later replies to this answer with: "part of the foundations proceeds from instant upgrades goes into the VIMpool rewards for S-Tiers") Q: John, what was the main reason to build on the Vechainthor network? A: VeChain is really the only network if you are planning to have legitimate business cases. Too many things to cover now, but it's the best--architected blockchain out there.. Q: Will there be any advantage to having your vim staked for a longer period of time, accruing higher rewards and incentives as you go? A: Generally your high-level VIMs will accrue their rewards over time. S-Tiers are the best, and give access to VIMpool rewards Q: Will there be some sort of gallery where you can show off your (personalized) VIMs to the world? For the collectors out there (and a way to have interactions with someone's collection, e.g liking, commenting and the sorts)? A: your VIMventory is your main home for viewing your VIMs. We're super excited to be creating better and better ways to share with other people and communities Q: Hi John! I am pretty curious that how 8hours own Ip vim interact with other Ip vim? For example, in a battle arena, how Armstrong can fight with another brand’s IP? A: We have 2 types of games on the platform, generic-type games that allow any VIM in (just as you described), and games that are locked into the brands that they represent. VIMArena is in the pipeline as a generic-type game where we mix/match different universes and allow them to interact *Q: John, the EHRTs to feed the VIM, are they gone or does it make your VIM more valuable in case I want to sell it at a certain time? * A: For example: instant upgrade is much more expensive but when I know the EHRT is not "gone" it might be interesting to instant upgrade It makes the VIM more valuable, and you'll be able to withdraw EHrTs from your VIM in the future. Instant upgrades have a small fee for the immediate aspect, which can allow you to seize timely rewards and benefits Q: Hi John, Is there a limit on how much VIMS an vechain adress could own? A: nope! Q: Are there any plans to include some kind of fitness app within the vimworld as such, ie much like Pokemon go players can hatch eggs based on movement etc? A way to encourage people to stay active and healthy, especially in a time like now A: Haha, that's a great idea.. Q: Is playtable and vimworld IP secured in in major markets (ie US, EU and China)? A: Yep, our legal team makes sure we lock down exclusivity rights for what we want to capture. it's VIMworld"global" afterall, hehe Q: Cats or dogs John ????? A: GrOwls Q: Maybe it’s an idea to get a EHRT address where we can donate EHrT so that sick kids in a hospital or something like that have a nice time and can play and use it with a Playtable A: Yes, I quite like that idea, actually. Our S-Tier system is designed in a way to allow something like that for great causes that our community wants to support Q: Curious too if vims will be released in a limited supply making certain vims more valuable? Or is it just the treasures that go with them making them unique? A: VIMs are released in Series, which have random distributions to it. Think of it like trading card games and characters each have their own rarity involved. Treasures can also help signify rarity, but it's not the main way Q: can i just buy the s-teer without upgrading? A: Not for now, we want to make S-Tiers earned, not really given. Only on rare incidents do we consider S-Tier prizes. If someone else wants to do the work of feeding their VIM over time and then sell it to you, that's the way you buy S-Tier without going through the trouble yourself Q: So If i got 1......001, that isnt rare but just a creation ID? A: Correct, that's the creation ID. if you really did have 1......001 though, that's the very first Armstrong one in existence. First few numbers / rare numbers are rare in their own right IMO Q: Would we be able to set our own price when selling an S tier? A: if it's a P2P transfer, sure
http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/06/26/2054143/0/en/SHAREHOLDER-ALERT-Block-Leviton-LLP-Investigating-Ideanomics-Inc-for-Possible-Securities-Laws-Violations-Investors-Who-Lost-Money-Should-Contact-the-Firm.html Ideanomics is now being investigated for possible securities fraud. Can't say I didn't try to warn you guys. The report I made is very similar in its criticisms of the company. There was also an article written about the company being a scam all the way back in February. https://www.choresearch.com/2020/02/19/ideanomics-idex-is-almost-borderline-fraud-making-it-a-compelling-short-for-bears/ This has nothing to do with these people being paid to publish this material or to benefit their short position. If you have ever read an IDEX 10-K report you would have seen all of the signs. There isn't even any info online about the majority of the businesses they claim to have made deals or partnerships with. http://app.quotemedia.com/data/downloadFiling?webmasterId=101533&ref=114881292&type=HTML&formType=10-K&dateFiled=2020-03-16&cik=0000837852&CK=837852&symbol=0000837852&companyName=Ideanomics%2C+Inc. They literally say in their last 10-k: " Although the Company may attempt to raise funds by issuing debt or equity instruments, in the future additional financing may not be available to the Company on terms acceptable to the Company or at all or such resources may not be received in a timely manner. If the Company is unable to raise additional capital when required or on acceptable terms, the Company may be required to scale back or to discontinue certain operations, scale back or discontinue the development of new business lines, reduce headcount, sell assets, file for bankruptcy, reorganize, merge with another entity, or cease operations. " That is what a business in distress sounds like. Then we look at the finances and find their debt to be $249M. They have never had a year with positive cash flow. They paid $40M for 51% of Treeletrik. Valuing the company's assets at $26M and paying the remaining $14M in goodwill. Reading further we see: "Tree Technologies had not commenced operations as of the acquisition date, therefore pro forma results as if the acquisition had occurred as of January 1, 2018, and related information, are not presented. " They have $23M in goodwill on the balance sheet under assets. Goodwill is the premium/extra amount spent on acquiring a business. That is an outrageous amount for the types of businesses they bought, especially considering the biggest purchase was for a company that was not even operating when they bought it. They paid so much because they have the rights to build an EV plant on land. That is literally all they have. No operations, buildings, workforce, pipeline. Just land use rights. They spent $40M on a company that has not even begun operating yet?! LOL Then look for all the mentions of transactions with "affiliates" of Dr. Wu or other directors. Sketchy. $61M loss on crypto coins. They had $260M in revenue through their oil trading business and made a gross profit of $26,000. Of course they lost money elsewhere and posted a net loss on the year, but why on earth would any decent company get rid of any business that is doing $200M+ in revenue? That is the most important part of any business since margins can be tweaked. The $260M in oil revenue was also attributed to business affiliates of a director. Their consumer electronics business brought in $40M in revenue and $40M in GROSS PROFIT and they also got rid of that business to focus on EVs? These guys don't know WTF they are doing. They got rid of the only two business that have ever had any potential. All the signs were there. This is why it is not beneficial to be so emotional in your trading. IDEX was just the flavor of the month. These penny stocks are for trading, not investing. You will get burned investing on hype I guarantee we will see another stock emerge as the next best thing and when people start talking about how it is a long term investment, that is the time to short it. Please read through the 10-k and see for yourself if they are an investment worthy company. I hope you guys decide to cut your losses instead of holding bags back to $0.50
Updated list of Global Beermoney opportunities (+180!) - June 2020
Updated list of Global Beermoney opportunities (+180!) - June 2020
Introduction
The current, and now previous, Beermoney Global list started nearly 5 years ago. It’s been updated and has grown over all that time, but it also became a hassle to keep current. It was time to build a new list from scratch based on my experience in the Beermoney world over all these years and all the contributions all of you have been making in this sub. The lists consist of opportunities that are available in at least one country that is not the US. This means there are sites which only work in Canada or the UK. There’s sites which are open to the whole world, but this does not mean everyone can really earn something on it. It’s all still very demographic and therefore location dependent. This list should give you a starting point to try out and find what works for you. I’m not using everything myself as I prefer to focus on a few, so not all are tested by me. They are found in this sub, other subreddits and other resources where people claim to have success. I’ve chosen the format of a simple table with the bare minimum of information to keep things clean. It includes a link, how you earn, personal payment proof if available and sign-up bonus codes if applicable. Some of these bonuses are also one-time use codes specifically made for this sub! For the ones I don’t have payment proof (yet) feel free to provide some as a comment or via modmail so others know it’s legit. I am working on detailed instructions for each method that I personally use which will include things like cashout minimum, cashout options, tips & tricks,... For now I’ve split things up based on the type of earning like passive or mobile. Because of this there’s sometimes an overlap as some are both passive and on mobile or both earning crypto and a GPT (Get Paid To) website. The lists are obviously not complete so I invite you to keep posting new ones in the sub, as a comment to this post, or in modmail. Especially if you have sites or apps which work for one single specific country I can start building a list, just like I did for The Netherlands and Belgium. If you recognize things which are in fact scams or not worth it let me know as well.
Beermoney opportunities
Get Paid To (Surveys, tasks, offers, videos, clicking links, play games, searching)
For The Netherlands there are a few very good options next to a bunch of ‘spaarprogramma’s. There ‘spaarprogramma’s are all the same where you receive and click a bunch of e-mails, advertisements, banners,... I advise you to create a separate e-mail address or use a good filter in your inbox as you will be spammed to death. I believe they can be a nice piece of beermoney but they take quite the effort.
The one-time sign-up bonus programs are still to be found here. If you find a new one let me know so I can create the post to keep all the ref links together.
Saving money
Although it’s not really about making money online, it’s still nice to save some money as well when shopping online.
Welcome all newcomers! Here's something important you should know. The crypto space is full of scams and here is how to spot one.
I know that this may seem obvious to most of you here, but I'd just like to make a PSA for all of the newcomers here. The crypto space and even the general online investing space these days is full of scams. So now that you know that, here's how to spot one:
They offer you guaranteed % returns on your investment. Anyone advertising guaranteed % returns on your investment is a scammer. Almost every time without fail. The higher the rates, the more likely they are to be a scam. If they are offering anything more than 5% per year without acknowledging that it is a high risk investment is most likely a scam.
They make you lock up your funds for a set period of time. This is a very common part of Ponzi schemes. It is done so that new investors cannot withdraw their funds for a long time. This means that their money can be used to pay off the first few investors which came before them and they can only withdraw their funds after the set period of time. The scammers then use this lockup time to attract new investors, allowing them to pay off the previous investors. This cycle repeats until the scheme runs out of new investors to pay off the old ones.
The way they make their money isn’t made clear or is hidden behind a general explanation such as “an advanced trading algorithm” (see BitConnect’s “trading bot”.)
As a general rule, the more a website or developers talks about the price of a crypto asset or the returns it will earn you, the higher the likelihood of it being a scam. This is just a general rule though since many legitimate projects just go all out when it comes to marketing, probably just to pump their own bags.
Nobody will trade for you. Many people say they will trade for you or you should add them on What’sApp to join their “trading program”. Nobody who is actually a good trader will do this. Good traders don’t share their secrets and they don’t make money fast enough or consistently enough to offer their services to other people even if they wanted to. Usually these types of scammers will get you to send them your money “for them to trade with” and as soon as they get your money they will disappear.
Their website just seems off. This is where an eye for detail is important. For the infamous BitConnect Ponzi scheme, they only let you trade their “cryptocurrency” on their own website’s exchange. That never made sense to me (this is of course not to say that just because you can buy a coin on a legitimate DEX like Uniswap means it isn’t a scam. For example, HEX is definitely a very clever, detailed Ponzi scheme with a token you can buy on Uniswap, but it is nonetheless scam to line the pockets of its asshat of a founder). Another example of this is what appears to be a Ponzi scheme which a Reddit user PM’d me asking me if it was legitimate (I believe the user is younger than most users here and is new to the crypto space so it is very understandable and I’m glad he asked me first). The website is www . backingfx . com (I don’t want to directly link a scam website here, but you can fix the link and see it for yourself if you are curious). This site promises 50%+ per day on your investment which they make by “trading” and you have to lock up your funds for at least two weeks. They have a fancy looking website but other things just seem off like their generic statement about “working with big companies” and no more details. Also, their about us section is sounds like it was translated and not written by a native English speaker as it says: Backingfx platform is at your service with its user-friendly features, secure infrastructure and applications that make a difference. Nobody would say it like that. It would normally be something like The BackingFX team is here to help you, not the platform itself is “at your service”. Finally, they also contradict themselves by having their offices listed as a generic Manhattan invesment office building yet their website says they are based in the UK! Everything wrong about this site could be a post of its own but that’s not what this post is about.
They are doing a "giveaway" where you deposit crypto into their wallets and they say they will send you more crypto back. This is the oldest crypto scam in the book and people still fall for it. If someone wants you to send them your crypto for any reason, they probably intend on stealing your crypto since crypto transactions are basically irreversible.
Anyway, there are more telltale signs to look out for which you can find outlined in many articles on the internet if you search something like “how to spot a scam or Ponzi scheme”. I have outlined the main ones above so you should be armed well enough to spot one in the future. Finally, I’m sure some of you may now be suspicious of ETH 2.0 staking as it will likely yield you 3-10% annually and you have to lock up your ETH. However, there important differences between the details of ETH 2.0 staking and scams offering guaranteed returns. First, there are detailed technical reasons for having to lock up ETH for ETH 2.0 staking. This is because building a bridge between ETH 1 and ETH 2.0 is a lot of extra work and adds many more attack vectors so having to lock up funds is the only option. Unlike a Ponzi though, when you will finally be able to move your ETH again will happen at the same time when phase 1.5 or phase 2 goes live whereas a Ponzi would be a set period of time from when you deposited your funds so when you get access to your funds again will be different for different users. This way, the Ponzi does its best to ensure that there is time for new users to pay you back. ETH 2.0 on the other hand doesn’t need to do this so anyone can lock up their ETH whenever and they day they will be able to move it again will be when the functionality for transactions will be added to ETH 2.0. Also, ETH staking offers you a yield on your Ether, not a guaranteed yield in dollars. This is an important distinction to make as it means that the returns in dollars are not guaranteed. Finally, with ETH 2.0, your returns themselves aren’t guaranteed since you could get slashed if you act maliciously on the network or if your staking node is offline a lot. Anyway, stay safe out there and remember, if things seem too good to be true, they probably are.
Cryptocurrency investors, traders and hodlers all want to know what are the best crypto portfolio trackers to use? Let's review the top 16 crypto asset management apps of 2020 to try for keeping ... Prime XBT belongs to the apps to buy cryptocurrency, and they are an interesting alternative to Coinbase. However, users should make sure to test the app, the wallet app, and the portfolio functionalities, before funding the app. What to Look for in a Crypto App Real Time Data. In trading, it is never a good idea being late to the party. Best Mobile Crypto Trading App. Listed below are some of the best mobile crypto trading apps from renowned crypto brokers and exchanges: Plus500; Plus500 is a very popular broker for cryptocurrency trading. The platform has a mobile app for Android, iOS, and Windows operating systems. Many cryptocurrency exchanges have their mobile app for crypto trading on the go. We have listed 5 reliable and best mobile apps for crypto trading for Bitcoin. People all around the world are eager to know about all the popular exchanges that are only offered on an official mobile application for trading purpose. Despite all the bumps along the way, cryptocurrencies have been steadily on the rise in popularity globally – and for all good reasons too! As a result, an increasingly large number of first-time investors are flocking into the crypto-space and are always on the lookout for the best cryptocurrency trading apps and platforms that stand out in the market.
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